Tonbruket
Dan Berglund was born in May 1963 and spent his childhood and youth in a small village in Sweden called Pilgrimstad near Östersund. He grew up in a very musical family and was soon introduced to very different styles of music including Swedish folk music, pop and rock. At the age of ten he started playing guitar and electric bass in rock bands – strongly influenced by artists like Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.

In the course of his professional music education at the Birka Folkhögskola in Östersund, Dan Berglund switched to double bass. He played in the local state-run orchestra, which led to extensive touring and first TV-engagements.

In 1990 Dan got tired of playing with the orchestra and wanted to improve his musical skills, so he moved to Stockholm, registered with the Royal Music University and immediately got to know all of the capital’s great musicians – among them the singer Lina Nyberg. It was during one of the tours with Lina Nyberg that Dan Berglund met pianist Esbjörn Svensson for the first time. Esbjörn had composed several of the songs that Lina sang during her set and one day he asked Dan whether he would like to join the Esbjörn Svensson Trio.

The breakthrough for the band came after 7 long years with the albums “From Gagarin’s Point of View”, “Good Morning Susie Soho” and “Strange Place for Snow” and tours outside of Sweden. Finally e.s.t. - as they had named themselves in the meantime to document the collective group character of their collaboration - was playing worldwide to an ever-growing audience. They were selling six-digit figures per album release, winning lots of awards and were heralded as the “Trio of the Decade” (London Times) and re-inventors of jazz.

One of the keys to the band’s success probably was: the different influences in their musical backgrounds, that all of them brought - equally-weighted - to the table, and melted into a unique band sound and concept. Dan Berglund was legendary for his deep and full “Mingus-like” bass tone and his “Jimi Hendricks-like” solos, using all sorts of effects to make the double bass sound like screaming electric guitars. This has made him the sensation in many of e.s.t.´s concerts.

Esbjörn Svensson’s untimely death in the summer of 2008 put an end to Europe’s most successful jazz outfit. Dan at first resiled from all musical activities, trying to cope with this huge loss, but then he hooked up with some of his musical friends from the pre-e.s.t. era and during lots of sessions in rehearsal rooms found the joy and happiness in the creation of music again: “e.s.t. is part of my history, it influences my music making and composing right now. I was in it, it was in me and it will always be with me – just like my hard-rock history has always been part of me”.

His new partners are Johan Lindstroem on guitar, who he had met during his time at the “Per Texas Johansson” band, Martin Hederos from the pop-band “The Soundtracks of our Live” on piano, and Andreas Werliin on drums. For their new band and debut-album DAN BERGLUND’S TONBRUKET they have composed, arranged and produced all songs together.