Orchestral arranger
As an orchestral arranger, Martin has worked with most of the Swedish symphony orchestras and some of Sweden’s most popular performers such as Laleh, Miriam Bryant, Veronica Maggio, Weeping Willows, Miss Li, Benny Andersson, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Timbuktu and many, many more…
He is well known for his ability to put together cross-over tribute shows such as “This Woman’s Work – a tribute to Kate Bush” with singers Jennie Abrahamson & Malin Dahlström together with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
In 2023 he masterminded “Blue and Beyond – a tribute to Joni Mitchell” with Sarah Klang, Sofia Karlsson, Christian Kjellvander & Malmö Symphony Orchestra. Together with Timo Räisänen he made Sweden once again sing the songs of Ted Gärdestad with their joined effort Timo sjunger Ted. Kenneth Gärdestad was so impressed that he wrote an extra verse to one of Ted’s demos for Timo and Martin to record!
Among other things, Martin has also arranged for performances on the Nobel Prize Banquet as well as scored the string arrangements for Lisa Nordström’s original soundtrack for Children of the Enemy, for which she won a Guldbagge (The Swedish Oscar) for best film score in 2022.
As a conductor and string co-ordinator, he has worked for Robyn, Fibes, oh Fibes, Natasha Bedingfield and Sofia Karlsson, to name a few.
Musicals
To date, Martin has written and done the orchestral arrangements for three new Swedish musicals:
Närmare Kanten (with Patrick Rydman & Mattias Palm). Premiere on HSM 2019.
Silverhjärtats Hemlighet (with Jenny Schaub). Premiere on HSM 2021.
Dead or Alive – Balladen om Kate Warne (with Patrick Rydman & Mats Kjelbye). Premiere on Malmö Opera 2022.
Songwriter
Martin is (together with wife and singer Jenny) the main songwriter for the folk band West of Eden who has released twelve albums and toured as far away as China! West of Eden has been described as “The best of contemporary folk” by Irish Music Magazine and so it seems that Martin has proved himself one of today’s leading songwriters in the contemporary Celtic music scene.
Martin has also written music for Timo Räisänen, Henning, Sanna Hogman, Esbjörn Hazelius, CUE, Swedish Television and the instrumental project CHAMBER MUSIC.
Band leader & musician
Martin started off playing the violin when he was four years old and hated it! As soon as he was old enough to have his own saying, the violin was out of the window. Instead he taught himself how to play piano, and today he would consider that to be his main instrument.
Besides the piano and the keyboards, Martin also plays acoustic guitars, mandolin, cittern, accordion and a little bit of harmonica and dobro.
You might have seen Martin on stage when performing with artists such as Mats Ronander, Timo Räisänen, Sanna Hogman, Rebecka Törnqvist, Magnus Carlson (from Weeping Willows), Sofia Karlsson, Ebbot, John McCusker, to name a few.
He’s also been the band leader for lots of events, galas and shows, many of which have already been mentioned above!