Sven Wunder – Warmer Air

Find “Warmer Air” by Sven Wunder on plusfm, taken from the album “Daybreak“.

Composer : Joel Nils Danell
Label : Piano Piano
© 2025 Piano Piano

The opening pair of songs on Swedish musicians and composer Sven Wunder’s fifth full-length album—”Setting Off” and “Misty Shore”—work in tandem to build from flute-led ambience to fully realized, bass-driven grooves to create a powerful representation of a sunrise. It’s not often a record perfectly captures one of nature’s most beautiful moments, much less leaves listeners in awe in the process. Daybreak accomplishes that in its first five minutes.

Daybreak represents a day in the life of the sun. The title track continues the morning fulfillment with a breezing, sweeping string procession backed by simple yet momentous guitar and flute riffs and an up-front bassline that borders on funk. It’s a mug of coffee at a chilly campsite or a dive into a deep, refreshing pool for a top-of-the-day workout.

The flute, deftly played by Per “Texas” Johansson, has a more important role on Daybreak than on any of Wunder’s earlier records. Fittingly, too, because the instrument provides balance as the music transitions from morning to midday on “Still Moorings” and for the terrific sway of “Scenic Byway.”

Wunder, né Joel Nils Danell, brings along an assemblage of musicians to create the day. Erik Arvinder conducts the Stockholm Studio Orchestra’s strings, providing lilt and moving the record to wondrous heights as the sun climbs to its peak on “Resting Place” and “Warmer Air.” The strings also lift “Turning Tides” as the sun descends.

Heliocentrics co-founder and drummer Malcolm Catto contributes brilliant beats, which are joined by Mattias Ståhl’s marimba (he also plays the vibraphone on the album) on the final track. A day’s worth of illumination ends in bright, celebratory tones on “Liquid Mountains”—a moment that signals only the end of the light, not consciousness itself.

This kind of carefulness and reverence, cloaked in joyous observance of everyday brilliance, makes it impossible not to be excited for the next appearance of the sun. © Jeff Laughlin/Qobuz

Sven Wunder – Warmer Air