L’Invisible is an album by Christer Bothén, accompanied by vibraphonist and drummer Kjell Nordeson and bassist Kansan Zetterberg. It features two expansive improvisational pieces, “L’Invisible – Partie 1” and “L’Invisible – Partie 2.” The album was recorded by Daniel Bengtson at Studio Rymden in March 2024 and released on April 4, 2025, by Thanatosis.

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In this superb album, experimentation, improvisation, and free jazz are experienced as if in a dream, half-asleep. The rough is transformed into something soft, the raw into something gentle, and brutality is dulled into a world of delicacy.

Here, one dreams the music. Like when we go to bed too tired but must stay awake, we find ourselves in that in-between state where we believe we are thinking with all our abilities, but logic is no longer there, and the laws of the world have disappeared. These moments are marvelous in their possibilities and inspirations, since logic is no longer present.

We are in that state, or possibly in the dream of the Bothén 3, between vanished reality and complete illusion, but where everything seems so clear and essential, like the evidence of each note, in a dream as it could have been, but in a dream that evaporates with each note.

Is this a representation of how Christer Bothén imagines and conceives his music at night, as he falls asleep, the ideas that come to him, he imagines, he brings to life in his mind? Perhaps.

But what is certain is that this album, this magnificent music, carries within it the entire sum of the creative forces of the artists who brought it into the world. This invisible element, which makes possible the reveries mentioned earlier, as well as the applause that will come when you listen to it, was surely at the heart of Christer Bothén’s thoughts.

For him, the invisible (l’Invisible) is, first and foremost, music itself. Christer Bothén explains that music: “[…] is the most spiritual art, but it’s invisible, you cannot see it. You have sheet music, but that’s not the music.”

And Bothén goes further, explaining that the invisible is also what happens between people, what allows them to connect, be together, play together, improvise together. The invisible here is the bond that is invented, drawn, and created between people, so incomprehensible and yet so essential to all relationships, imperceptible and yet so present.

The invisible in this album is also the prayer that lies within it. A silent and hidden prayer, but very present, assures Christer Bothén. It is there to wish the world to live in peace, in harmony, in this invisible, but so necessary, union.

We could also add that the invisible can be physical, like the room where the album release party was being held: invisible from the outside, someone must speak, explain, and help you enter what seems not to exist, but which nevertheless conceals the extraordinary.

Or the people themselves. Everything about a person exists: experience, life, what has been accomplished and what remains to be done. But if no one speaks, explains, or helps others understand, each person will remain invisible, and you could encounter Christer Bothén, Sara Lundén, or Linnéa Talp without truly seeing them.

The invisible is this album that, until you start listening to it, will be there without ever being there for you, filled with all its wonders but unable to convey them to you. But everything is there; it is up to you to enjoy this Invisible.

Discover next: Jazz in Sweden

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L’Invisible

Christer Bothén: bass clarinet, inside piano; Kansan Zetterberg: bass; Kjell Nordeson: vibraphone, drums

Tracklisting:

• L’Invisible – Partie 1 (17:11)
• L’Invisible – Partie 2 (19:54)

L’Invisible was released on April 4, 2025 // Thanatosis, Catalogue No.THT38