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Jonas and IA on the cover of Swedish Fuzz magazine!


The long-awaited Art Metal album, featuring Jonas Hellborg, Selvaganesh, the Johansson brothers and IA Eklundh, was released September 18th through Bardo Records. (See the Art Metal MySpace page for distributors)

Combining Selvaganesh's South Indian rhythm structures with Hellborg's frantic, groovy bass, IA's beefy riffs and vivid leads, Jens Johansson's virtuoso fingers and Anders Johansson's heavy beats this is something you have never heard before. Plain and simple: it's Art Metal. Don't miss.

Tracklist:

1. Muthucutpor (Hellborg/Selvaganesh/Eklundh)
2. Manirambha (Hellborg/Selvaganesh/Eklundh)
3. Nataraja (Hellborg/Selvaganesh)
4. Solitude (Hellborg/Selvaganesh)
5. The Three Princes of Serendip (Hellborg/Selvaganesh)
6. Round Metal Hat (Hellborg/Selvaganesh/Eklundh)
7. Vyakhyan - kar (Hellborg)
8. Art Metal (Hellborg/Selvaganesh/Eklundh)

Welcome to www.hellborggroup.com - Jonas Hellborg's Art Metal. Here you will find news, tour dates and things related to the band. Hope you like it!

Check out the tune Escape from New Morning, Paris, France. (featuring Zoltan Csörsz on drums). Thanks to FX for shooting the gig.

See the tune Leal Souvenir from Mumbai on video here (featuring Niclas Campagnol on drums).

Thank you to everyone showing up for our show in Amstelveen, Holland, the Agora Stage in Frankfurt, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Stuttgart, Wetzlar, Nancy, Schöndorf and elsewhere we have made Swedish noise.

Read a review of the Amstelveen gig at Abstract Logix.

Jonas Hellborg's music is as unique as his personal philosophies. The Swedish bass virtuoso and composer refuses to be bound by the rules of convention. Rejecting the typical notions of creativity and improvisation, Hellborg views himself as conduit of the earthly forces and realities that surround him. The myriad of innovative musical journeys he has embarked on serve as a testament to that outlook.

Hellborg first hit the jazz scene in the early '80s. He quickly made a name for himself with his innovative bass playing that incorporates chordal, percussive and melodic approaches. After releasing a couple of solo albums, he was recruited to take part in Mahavishnu, an updated version of guitarist John McLaughlin's pioneering '70s fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra. During Mahavishnu's existence from 1983 to 1988, Hellborg also worked with McLaughlin in a variety of duo and trio formats featuring drummers Billy Cobham and Trilok Gurtu.

During the early '90s, Hellborg collaborated with Bill Laswell on several recordings, including The Word, a solo effort featuring drummer Tony Williams and a string quartet. The pair also worked together on Material's boundary-breaking Hallucination Engine, Ginger Baker's thunderous Middle Passage, and two experimental funk releases by Deadline titled Dissident and Down by Law.

Most indicative of his eclectic musical range are Hellborg's recordings on his own labels, Bardo and Day Eight Records. The labels comprise the bulk of his solo output and find him immersed in a multitude of acoustic and electric environments. Solo bass releases, duo efforts with frame drummer Glen Velez, and trios featuring the likes of drummers Michael Shrieve and Apt. Q-258, and guitarists Buckethead and Shawn Lane are just a few of the labels' highlights. Lane, a highly influential player and composer in his own right, served as one of Hellborg's longest-standing collaborators before his untimely death in September 2003 due to lung disease.

Since the late '90s, one of Hellborg's key interests has been exploring a unique hybrid of jazz and South Indian classical music. "My interest in Indian music goes back to my teenage years of being a hippie," explains Hellborg. "In the late '60s and early '70s, everyone from the Beatles to the Mahavishnu Orchestra were into Indian music. Through working with John McLaughlin, I started meeting all these great Indian people. The first thing about Indian music that's quite apparent for a Westerner is its rhythmic complexity. That was my initial attraction and fascination-the method, teaching, composing and understanding of rhythms. What also really struck me was the melodic aspect of the music, as well as the intricacies, ornamentation and variations."

Hellborg's first Indian-flavored disc, 1999's Zenhouse, was a beautiful and largely serene effort that offered his personal take on the raga form. Hellborg's next project, 2000's Good People in Times of Evil, represented a significant leap forward in his approach towards Indian music. Along with Lane, the record featured celebrated Indian percussion master V. Selvaganesh, the son of Vikku Vinayakram, an original member of Shakti. The results were stunning. The album's singularly inventive and exhilarating musical dialogues cemented Hellborg's reputation as one of modern music's most original and intriguing voices. The album also laid the groundwork for the equally impressive follow-up record, Icon, released in 2003. For that project, Hellborg invited Selvaganesh's brothers, vocalist V. Umamahesh and percussionist V. Umashankar, to take part. The quintet showcased an even more seamless integration between Western and Indian influences. With its dazzling group interplay, moments of spontaneous drama and graceful, ethereal passages, Icon represents the best of what is possible within Indian fusion.


“Faster than Malmsteen,smoother than Michael Lee Firkins and, dammit, better than Vai - this is undoubtedly the future of this style of guitar playing". Hailing from Sweden, Eklundh first began playing guitar at age 13, finding inspiration in the work of musical nonconformists, Frank Zappa and KISS. His love of 'left of the dial' mavericks profoundly impacted his own artistic direction. "I'm not a musical snob. My record collection is one big mess of gypsy jazz, Zappa, KISS, Miles Davis, and Slayer among many others. Zappa and KISS were my main guys and are still inspiring to me. They were unconventional with what they did and were in many ways opposites of each other, hi-fi, low-fi. Zappa was all about the humor, the enormous skills, and the complexity of his music while KISS was just a sledge-hammer and I love both. That duplicity of sounds, approaches and philosophy has heavily influenced how I write and record music."

Besides his solo work, which includes 1999's Freak Guitar, and numerous sonic explorations with his group, Freak Kitchen, Eklundh's innovative guitar work has been heard on such records as Guitar Odyssey-A Tribute To Yngwie Malmsteen and Warmth in the Wilderness-A Tribute To Jason Becker. He's also created several guitar instructional DVDs including "Hyper Freak Exercise" and "Super Virtuosity." After forming the group Frozen Eyes and recording a strange self-titled album in 1988 (Bums records) Eklundh moved to Copenhagen to join Danish band Fate. In 1991 Fate released "Scratch ´n Sniff" (EMI) and Eklundh was hailed as "The guitar player of the 90's" in Japanese magazines. After getting a thorough insight to the darker realms of the showbiz-industry, Eklundh decided it was time to move on. He formed Freak Kitchen in 1992.

Eklundh frequently travels around the planet holding seminars in his strange playing style.

Today, Eklundh is considered one of the most innovative and ground breaking guitar players around with a fast growing global following from fellow "guitar nerds" to simply true music freaks. Eklundh’s minimalist, home-brewed, and stripped down approach to the guitar has surprised record buyers and journalists around the world. There are simply no signs of expensive guitar effects or processors involved in his playing, despite the "outlandish" sounds one hears.