Musical Release Revitalizes Classic Swedish Fairy-tale by Elsa Beskow

The classic children's story-telling and illustrations, Peter in Blueberry Land, or Puttes äventyr i Blåbärsskogen, by Swedish author Elsa Beskow (1874-1953) originally released in 1901 is put to music with sixteen songs and four instrumental interludes by composer and pianist Mika Pohjola.

A small child, Peter, is wandering in the forest looking for blueberries and lingonberries for his mother, but he cannot find a single one. Suddenly he feels a light tap, and a magical adventure with blueberry father, seven blueberry boys, lingonberry mother and her daughters begins.

This musical edition features vocals and a choir by Johanna Grüssner, accompanied by an ensemble somewhere in the no man's land of classical composition and jazz improvisation, featuring the recorder, baroque oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, violin, piano, bass and drums. All illustrations and Swedish lyrics by Elsa Beskow.

Peter in Blueberry Land is a creative production made entirely in the fertile musical environment and scene of Stockholm, Sweden. Pohjola has previously lived and worked in New York where he released several children's albums with Scandinavian themes, Tove Jansson's Moomin Voices songbook being the most notable one. Recently, Pohjola also released a revamped version of songs by Swedish songwriter Alice Tegnér on Nu ska vi sjunga.