Album review: Tonbruket, Nubiam Swimtrip (Act)

After their pianist and principal composer Esbjorn Svensson died in 2008, the remaining members of e.s.t. (Esbjorn Svensson Trio, geddit?), drummer Magnus Ostrom and bassist Dan Berglund, decided they could not continue without him and formed their own separate projects.

Neither has set the world alight. With the recent release of Ostrom’s second album and now the third from Berglund’s Tonbruket, it’s clearer than ever that Svensson was the genius in the family. Recorded at Abbey Road’s Studio 2, a setting that inevitably recalls Pink Floyd, an obvious influence, Nubium Swimtrip is noodly muso-fusion that never really gets beyond provisional riffs and textures. It’s amiable enough, but apart from the odd stoner groove, nothing happens.