Coco Chatru Quartet's 'Lost Christmas' is our 4th encounter with the group led by Håkan Trygger so we thought it was about time we had a chat about the new album, Ballin' The Jack Orchestra and "raising your jazz spirits with not the obvious seasonal fayre"!
Linus Kåse (alto sax): When I saw John’s artwork »En syn – Tiden« (»A Vision – The Time« I knew instantly that the trilogy had to culminate in a Christmas album.
Daniel Kåse (drums/vibe): When we got deeper into the Coco Chatru project, new things were made clear to us.
HT: Yes, while thinking about Christmas song to record, we found new information about Coco Chatru.
CM: When we heard the rumours that Coco Chatru had starred in a Christmas movie, it was made clear that Linus was right all along. We had to do a Christmas album.
YATM: How the new record evolve from the previous two albums?
DK: The trilogy of albums fit together musically through the sound, familiar style…
CM: … the way we play. Even though we’ve broadened the palette of sound by adding more instruments on the later records.
LK: Sleighbells!
HT: No Christmas music is possible without sleighbells.
DK: The music on the first two albums evolved when we played them on gigs.
HT: We also have more music, several recorded songs that did not fit into the albums musically and thematically. So the trilogy is not a finished project.
LK: Rather it is the beginning.
HT: The first trilogy in the Coco Chatru Saga.
DK: Yes. More albums are coming!
CM: … We have also produced music with CCQ for other projects; for example, we have done concerts together with poets and actors.
LK: Yes, we then added synthesizers and electronic devises. Big beats.
YATM: Ok. What do we need to know about a Swedish Christmas traditions that we don't know about (especially related to the track titles)?
DK: We couldn’t record traditional Christmas music, not with this band. Even if we all like the Christmas Classics, both the jazz Christmas classics and the Swedish traditional music.
LK: There are lots of Swedish traditional Christmas songs.
HT: Several of them are drinking songs, like Hej tomtegubbar slå I glasen (»Hello Tomte Jubbas / Gnome-lads, raise your glasses«).
DK: Or songs that people used to sing and play while they danced around the Christmas Tree. Like Räven raskar över isen (»The Fox rushes over the ice«). Several of these songs are also sung at Midsommar, Midsummer’s Eve, in Sweden.
LK: Yes and we eat the same food at Christmas and at Midsummer parties. The song »Coco raskar över isen« on Lost Christmas is a playful shoutout to Räven raskar, combining folk rythms and melodies with jazz.
HT: And your songs, Linus, »Gästerna kommer« and »Prosten«…
LK: What about them?
HT: I think you said you were inspired by Ingmar Bergman, and his big scenes with dramatic dark undertones?
LK: Did I say that? … yes they have a sinister intent.
DK: Regarding Christmas, the word for Christmas in Swedish is »Jul«. A very old word going back to medieval heathen ages.
HT: Yes, probably Jul was originally used for heathen midwinter celebrations, »midvinterblotet«, the sacrifice-party of winter.
LK: And also Jultomten – Father Christmas or the Christmas Gnome – has a special form in Sweden. He appears on the 24th of December, suddenly knocking on the door…
DK: Pounding on the door.
LK: Yes, very loud. And giving presents to the kids.
CM: And before Jultomten, back in the old days, it was Julbocken (the Christmas-Goat) who pounded on the door.
HT: Julbocken!
DK: But Julbocken, I think, did not give presents to the kids. Rather it was some sort of public mischief…
LK: Yes, a Carnival! Julbockens karneval.
YATM: Any future gigs/radio appearances lined up?
DK: We have a series of gigs in the Stockholm area in December.
LK: Promoting 'Lost Christmas'.
CM: And we’re doing a Christmas show on a theatre in Södermalm, Stockholm, called Ö2scenkonst, together with an actor portraying Coco Chatru as the teller of horror stories.
HT: We are presently booking gigs for 2026. We would really love to come and play in England, Gerry!
YATM: We'll certainly be looking forward to that but is there anything else about the band/you that you want to tell us?
DK: More music is coming. And more albums!
HT: We are also planning for a major film music project in cooperation with a movie theatre in Stockholm. The plan is that we are going to compose and perform music to Frits Lang’s classic Metropolis, during late fall 2026.
LK: We will continue to record new music and perform live, further exploring the adventures of Coco Chatru.
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