As Hallandsposten informs, Per Gessle and Tommie Haglund write music together. Tommie Haglund represents classical music, he has composed chamber music, works for orchestra and for choir. For the song the guys cooperated on, Per has written the lyrics and Tommie has composed the music. The title is Making Something Out Of Nothing and it’s about getting older and looking back on your life and the choices you made.
Once it’s possible to organize events again, the song will be on the repertoire of the Tommie Haglund Festival. Due to Covid-19, it will happen only in spring 2022. Founders of the festival are producer Anders Wilhelmsson and Joachim Gustafsson, conductor and artistic manager. Lars Nordin is involved in marketing and design.
That Mr. G came into the picture was because both he and Tommie felt that they wanted to try something new. Haglund says he and Per lived in parallel universes musically, but they have the same bottom. Lars says it’s fun that both Tommie and Per live in Halmstad, they were born three days apart, Per on January 12, 1959 and Tommie on 15th January the same year and they have both made an incomparable international career in their respective genres.
The first text Per sent didn’t really fit Tommie’s music, but Mr. G sent another almost immediately and that one just flowed into Tommie’s music, as he says.
There will be an album recording together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm and it’s already decided that Emmi Christensson will sing the song both on the album and at the festival in 2022. Lars informs Hallandsposten that she has a fantastic voice and has, among other things, played the lead role in The Phantom of the Opera in London. Her relation to Halmstad is that she attended the high school there.
After Per listened to the song, he sent an SMS to Tommie telling that he thinks it sounds fantastic. You travel in time and sometimes end up in old black and white 40’s movies, sometimes in a Bacharach romance, but usually in Tommie’s own wonderful musical rainbow. Per thinks it’s a feast for the brain and heart, Hallandsposten writes.
Photo by Lars Nordin
Update on 8th August 2021: As Tommie Haglund informs, Making Something Out Of Nothing will be recorded on 1st September 2021 with Emmi Christensson soprano and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Joachim Gustafsson. It will premiere live at the Tommie Haglund Festival on 23rd April 2022 in Halmstad with the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra.
Update on 1st September 2021: Hallandsposten informs that ”Making Something Out Of Nothing”, a song by Per Gessle (text) and classical musician Tommie Haglund (music) is being recorded today with Emmi Christensson soprano (who is very excited about the recording and says it’s a very beautiful and emotional piece) and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Joachim Gustafsson (music director of Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra). It will be played live at the Tommie Haglund Festival, 21-24 April 2022 in Halmstad. The song will be released on vinyl with Emmi singing on side A and an instrumental version on side B. It’s out for the festival. Tommie tells that the piece will premiere in March next year internationally in Bogotá, Colombia, by the city symphony orchestra. Many suppose that it will then be Colombian world star Shakira who will sing.