Magnus Öström is a drummer from Sweden. He is an original member of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.), whose 12 albums include Viaticum and Leucocyte. He has accompanied many singers with his nuanced touch including Monica Borrfors, Lisa Nilsson, and Louise Hoffsten, among others. While a member of Nils Landgren Funk Unit, he formed and leads the Magnus Öström Group, whose debut album, Thread of Life in 2011, was followed by Searching for Jupiter (2013), Parachute (2016), and Room for Travelers (2023). He's worked with pianist Jeanette Lindström since 1995 and bassist Lars Danielsson since 2012. With E.S.T. bassist Dan Berglund and keyboardist Bugge Wesseltoft, he formed Rymden. Their debut, Reflections and Odysseys, appeared in 2018, followed by 2020's Space Sailors, 2023's collaborative Rymden + KORK (with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra), and Valleys & Mountains. In 2024, Öström, Berglund, and collaborators, issued e.s.t. 30, offering live reworkings of the band's catalog material. Öström was born in Skultuna, Sweden in 1965, the second child of artists Arne and Siv Öström. Very early, his older brother Tommy introduced him to the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the Allman Brothers Band. So taken with the music he heard, Öström built his first drum kit from his father's paint cans at age eight. He formed his first band -- Beware of the Beginners -- at ten. In 1978, his older brother took him to a concert by John McLaughlin with drummer Billy Cobham. The introduction to jazz-rock proved life changing for the teenager. He began playing in various bands with childhood friend, pianist Esbjörn Svensson, often rehearsing in the latter's living room and playing everything from punk to soul to rock and fusion. Öström attended the music high school in Vasteras from 1981 to 1983 and studied music at Sjoviks folk school from 1983 to 1985. In 1985, he moved to Stockholm to study at its Royal Conservatory of Music, as did Svensson and future bandmate bassist Dan Berglund. While playing in several jazz bands, Öström auditioned for a spot in singer Monica Borrfors' band, where he made his recording debut on 1990's Second Time Around. He toured at home and abroad with her. He has always said that playing behind singers was great schooling for a young drummer. In 1989, a futurist experiment with Svensson called Stock Street B, used samplers, octapads, and other electronic gadgets. At gigs, listeners often assumed that they were playing to backing tracks but everything played was live. The duo officially formed the Esbjörn Svensson Trio in 1991 with an array of temporary bassists until Berglund was recruited permanently in 1993. The group's debut, When Everyone Has Gone, was recorded at sessions in July and September and released in December. The album included nine originals and a cover of Victor Young's standard "Stella by Starlight." It showcased the trio's restlessness and ambition as they crisscrossed and multi-tracked electronic effects, classical, rock, pop, and film music and jazz, listing Béla Bartók and Radiohead as influences. In 1994 the trio -- trumpeter Magnus Broo and saxophonists Fredrik Ljungkvist and Per "Texas" Johansson -- issued an eponymous jazz-rock album as Jazz Furniture. Öström did session and road work with several artists in the aftermath, and in 1994 played on albums by singers Lissa Nilsson (Till Morelia) and Louise Hoffsten (6), as well as making his debut with the Jeanette Lindström Quintet on Another Country. In 1995 E.S.T. recorded the live Mr. & Mrs. Handkerchief; it was compiled from concert dates across Sweden. (The album was reissued by ACT in 2001 as E.S.T. Live '95.) The following year, the trio released Esbjörn Svensson Trio Plays Monk, their Superstudio Gul debut, and the only outing of its kind in their catalog. It won attention across Europe and put the band on the map, though critics still had little idea of their core approach. It wasn't Öström's only recorded outing that year, he also played on the Stockholm Kaza Session with saxophonist Per "Texas" Johansson and vocalist Rebecka Törnqvist; Lina Nyberg's So Many Stars, and Hoffsten and Lasse Englund's Kara Du with E.S.T. Superstudio Gul released the trio's Winter in Venice. It included their opus, "Semblance Suite in Three or Four Parts." After Öström played on Viktoria Tolstoy's White Russian, released on Blue Note, E.S.T. collaborated with saxophonist/composer Krister Andersson on Intromotion. Two years later, E.S.T. issued their European breakthrough album, From Gagarin's Point of View. Not only did it win airplay at home, but also across the continent, which allowed them to tour abroad. That same year, Öström made 5000 Miles with the Nils Landgren Funk Unit. 2000's Good Morning Susie Soho won critical comments stateside, while 2001's Somewhere Else Before, a compilation of early tracks, was released by Columbia. 2002's Strange Place for Snow charted across Europe and, for the first time, in the United States (on the Traditional Jazz Albums list), expanding the band's touring opportunities. Traveling and performing activity was all-encompassing for E.S.T. over 2002 and into 2003, when they released Seven Ways of Falling, an album that introduced younger audiences to the band's strikingly original approach, drawing comparisons to the Necks from Australia and the U.S.-based Bad Plus (with whom they toured). E.S.T. were commercially successful: each album after Gagarin's Point of View sold in the six figures. In 2003, ACT issued the DVD package Live in Stockholm, showcasing a filmed performance from 2000, interviews with all the members, and an audio overview of their career to date. Further, they received the German Jazz Gold Award for all three albums. Though he had less time for it, Öström played on some key pop albums during the first four years of the 21st Century: Nicolai Dunger's Soul Rush and Lisa Nilsson's Små Rum in 2001, Camilla Ringquist's For Venus in 2003, and Viktoria Tolstoy's Shining on You in 2004. In 2005, E.S.T. released its international smash Viaticum. Certified gold and platinum within three months of release, it made the pop charts in Germany, France, and Sweden as well as in jazz. The following year, E.S.T. became the first European jazz act to make Downbeat's front cover. That year the trio also collaborated with poet Kristina Lugn on her album Jag Vill Aldrig Mer Vara Ful Och Ensam. In March 2006 they recorded Tuesday Wonderland; it appeared in September and charted at jazz and pop across Europe as the band toured jazz festivals. Just before they went out on another leg in Europe, Öström re-engaged with Lindström and appeared on her Whistling Away the Dark. The following year, E.S.T. issued the double length Live in Hamburg to rave reviews in jazz and rock magazines. While touring in January 2007, E.S.T. booked two days at Studio 301 in Sydney, Australia. They jammed for nine straight hours each day and came up with enough material for either a double album or a two-part full-length. The band completed its tour and took their longest break yet. During that period, Öström joined pianist Bobo Stenson, saxophonist Joakim Milder, bassist Palle Danielsson, and trumpeter Ulf Adåker to record the tribute offering Miles by Five. On June 14, 2008, Svensson was scuba diving with some friends on Ingarö outside Stockholm. He went missing during the dive and was later found by his companions unconscious on the seabed. He was rushed to a hospital by helicopter, but could not be saved. He was 44 years old. In September 2008, ACT released Leucocyte as a single album. The tragedy caused album sales to soar. It made the U.S. Jazz albums and Traditional Jazz albums charts, and made the pop charts in the U.K. Germany, Australia, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden. Both Öström and Berglund went into seclusion for a time. Though the drummer felt like giving up music, he was coaxed into playing sessions with Lindström (Attitude & Orbit Control) and singer Marie Bergman (Det Liv Du Får). By 2010, he was ready to get back to playing. ACT booked him and a handpicked cast into Atlantis Studios in Stockholm in October and November. He emerged with his first solo album, Thread of Life, in February 2011. In addition to the tracks cut in Sweden, Öström added "Ballad for E" (for Svensson) that was recorded in New York City with Berglund and guitarist Pat Metheny. Interestingly, it was the guitarist who convinced both men not to give up playing music. Öström joined Lars Danielsson's band alongside pianist Tigran Hamasyan, trumpeter Arve Henriksen, and guitarist John Parricelli. Liberetto appeared in 2012, the same year he joined American guitarist Lee Ritenour on Rhythm Sessions. The year's biggest record by far, however, was the release of e.s.t. 30 (titled after the Australian Studios that birthed the Leucocyte sessions). The simultaneously recorded extant material was always intended for release. Longtime sound engineer Åke Linton and the rhythm section assembled the material and remixed wherever necessary. It was wildly successful and received reviews in every major jazz and rock publication, and it charted inside the Top 20 across Europe and in the Top 40 in the U.S. Jazz Albums chart. It was bittersweet, however, as there was no longer an E.S.T. to support it on tour. In 2013 the drummer released his second solo outing, Searching for Jupiter, with the same musicians who played on Thread of Life; he also worked on recordings by Danielsson, guitarist Ulf Wakenius, and Robert Wyatt. Öström released his third solo album, Parachute, in 2016 and toured Europe in support. In October, ACT released E.S.T. Symphony to posthumously fulfill one of Svensson's ambitions: Having the trio's epic, cinematic music played by an orchestra with a larger ensemble. Hans Ek arranged and conducted the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra fronted by an ensemble of Berglund, Öström, and Scandinavian guests, including saxophonist Marius Neset, Finnish pianist Iiro Rantala, trumpeter Vemeri Pohjola, and pedal steel guitarist Johan Lindström. The album received laudatory reviews internationally. The following year, ACT released E.S.T. Live in London, a document of the trio's sold-out 2005 performance at Barbican Centre. That same year, Berglund and Öström formed Rymden with Norwegian pianist, keyboardist, and producer Bugge Wesseltoft. Reflections & Odysseys, their debut, appeared on Jazzland to fantastic reviews. ACT continued digging into E.S.T.'s vault of recorded concerts. In 2019 they issued Live in Goteborg, which was recorded in 2001. Rymden released Live on Earth that year. Öström rejoined Jeanette Lindström's group for Queen of the Hillside, and played on the Walter Lang Trio's Pure. Rymden's second studio album, Space Sailors appeared in September 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In November they issued the five-track Live in Umeå EP. The drummer stayed busy by playing with Lang's trio on Tens and on Wakenius' Taste of Honey. Öström returned to work with Lars Danielsson's Liberetto on 2021's Cloudland and toured Europe with them. In February 2023, Rymden + KORK, a collaboration between the trio and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra appeared on ACT. They followed with the studio album Valleys & Mountains, that included American jazz guitarist John Scofield in a guest role. To cap off the year, A Room for Travelers, the fourth album from what is now called the Magnus Öström Group was released by Jazzland. In June 2024, the drummer and Berglund released e.s.t. 30. In commemoration of the trio's 30th anniversary, they played two concerts at the Philharmonie in Cologne and at Filadelfia Church in Stockholm with collaorators Wakenius, saxophonist Magnus Lindgren, and trumpeter Pohjola. They improvised on some of the trio's best known pieces, reinventing them without altering musical character. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi