In the beginning there was…

The story of New Orbits, and how the band came to be, is the story of a few different paths merging after existing in parallell over a number of years. So, we’ll rewind to about 1994 and a cold winter night at Scharinska Villan, Umeå. A then 14 year old Mikael Emsing got his music teacher to take him to the local jazz club where Jonas Knutsson Band was performing. The room in which the concert was held: “Spanska salen” (The Spanish Hall) got its name from the mediterranean mosaic tiles that covered walls, but to call it “hall” is perhaps a stretch, at least in terms of size. Despite shortcomings in size and sonic challenges with performing in a tiled room, the venue was (and is to this day) legendary, and prominent performers such as John Scofield has described the experience of playing there as “magical”

As was often the case, the night in question, the room was jam-packed with people, forcing concert-goers to stand in the windows and to sit on the floor right in front of the band to see and hear the band perform. It was this night Mikael decided that he wanted to make music his career. A few tears later, Mikael got to sub with Jonas’ band and the two have collaborated on a number of projects over the years.

Fast forward to 2014. Umeå was the ‘Culture capital of Europe” and the band “Emsing Trash Orchestra” saw the light of day. A massive 9-piece band with vocals, drums, saxophone, guitar, modular synth, percussion, spoken word and pretty much everything except bass that included amongst others Mikael and Jonas. When putting the band together, one of the members said that “this band needs Andreas Estensen”, and well… he was right. The band performed on a number of occasions over the coming years, but the sheer size of the band made it a hassle to perform and while the band never formally was disbanded, the last performance was at the 50th edition of Umeå International Jazz Festival.

Jonas, Mikael and Andreas however didn’t want their collaboration to end there, and the trio New Orbits was formed over a dinner in 2017. Since then we have performed both concerts, club-gigs and Jazzyoga in a number of venues, with more to come. Oh, by the way.. The venue where the concert described above went down was shut down a few years ago. However… in a series of serendipitous events, we are now recording our songs in a studio located in the very same venue.

Members:

Jonas Knutsson

Name: Jonas Knutsson
Born: 1965 (Umeå, Sweden)
Residency: Stockholm, Sweden
Profession: Musician, teacher
Main skill set: Harmony, Melody, Composition
Instruments: Saxophones (Soprano, Alto, Baritone)

Jonas is a Grammy winning musician, writer and producer who has played with a host of Swedish and international artists. In 2013, Avicii used Jonas melody “Hymn” in his song “Dear Boy”. The melody was also used by Swedish artist Viktor Leksell for his song “Fantasi” and Hov1 for the song “Lilla B”.

In 2021, Jonas was inducted in to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music alongside amongst others Quincy Jones.

Andreas Estensen

Name: Andreas Estensen
Born: 1992 (Umeå, Sweden)
Residency: Umeå, Sweden
Profession: Sound Designer, Musician
Main skill set: Production, Sound Design, Arrangement
Instruments: Modular Synth, Ableton Live, Bass

The technical wizard of the group. Also our resident mycologist, who spends his evenings playing boardgames, patching his modular or reading obscure and really, really old books about mushrooms. Lately he is has started to research and record bats as well.

Mikael Emsing

Name: Mikael Emsing
Born: 1980 (Umeå, Sweden)
Residency: Umeå, Sweden
Profession: Musician, Producer, Researcher (Public Health)
Main skill set: Rythm, Production, Arrangement
Instruments: Percussion, Ableton Live

Somewhat of a restless soul, Mike started playing percussion at 14. He has studied percussion for masters such as Malando Gassama and Amadhu Jah. Then he decided to be a police officer, before returning to music again. He has a PhD in Epidemiology and public health.