Ulrich Jannert – All In EP

Every once in a while, we all have moments when we need some soulful music to get through the day or a week. And certainly, there are many artists and bands delivering that kind of vibe where beautiful vocal harmonies meet piano and guitar interplays while the steady beats keeps the groove just right. There’s something about that particular sound that soothes heart and soul as no other style could ever do. However, not so many music outlets can perfectly nail that particular sound. Somehow, even with the initial notes and beats, you get the feeling that something’s a bit odd or something’s missing. Everything is there, but it lacks more soul and emotion. Thankfully, there are also artists who know how to create emotionally and sonically resonant compositions where everything sounds so cathartic, captivating, and ethereal. Ulrich Jannert, a Swedish songwriter, composer, producer, and musician, channels all the experience, knowledge, skills, creativity, and talent in his songs. His music is constructed by combining brilliant ideas and outstanding musicianship, qualities that are very rare on the contemporary music scene nowadays. With “All In,” his latest extended play released revently via all streaming platorms, he proves that there’s still more than enough place for creative, fresh, unique, innovative music. Lyrically, his music examines various sentiments, moods, situations, and circumstances, crafting a captivating, highly relatable thematic landscape that will immediately resonate with the broader auditorium. Sonically, Ulrich Janner’s music carries everything you dearly love about soul. Soul dominates in his music the most, as he incorporated all the fundamental elements into each segment of every song, but do not be surprised if you stumble upon some of the finest properties of soul rock, soft rock, blues, sophistipop, and many other similar styles. He combines a singer-songwriter approach with various techniques, approaches, and directions, making this material so luxuriant. Those additional sonic ingredients serve as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details that unquestionably uplift those songs to an entirely new level, yet Ulrich Janner retains primary sonic direction intact. His music shines with a retro nostalgia that defines this particular genre, yet his music also carries all the qualities that meet the trends of contemporary music production, making this material suitable not only for the longtime fans of the genre but also for anyone who appreciates cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed music. It’s a treat for your ears, and you shouldn’t miss it!

At the core, there’s Ulrich Janner’s soulful, passionate, sincere, confident, powerful vocal performance, acting as a centerpiece of each composition, elevating every lyric, theme, melody, harmony, and beat, commanding attention, and guiding listening apparatus through each composition. His voice is calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal when needed to be, subtly raspy and raw when any song demands that the most, and it also goes up into high registers when choruses need that the most. His impressive vocal range seamlessly balances low, mid, and high notes with such precision and finesse, emphasizing everything he intended to achieve with this material. Besides marvelously decorating all those segments and orchestrations, his voice also contributes more than necessary emotional depth and complexity to the already intricate structures of those songs. You’ll also notice how the additional vocal layers add more detail and depth, depending on the mood and ambiance of the song, but only when those songs demand it. It is a clever implementation done with such precision and style. On this material, every instrument plays a significant role in shaping such a luxuriant backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. On “All In,” you’ll hear how keys and synths do exactly that by providing beautiful themes, melodies, and harmonies. During “Breaking Free,” the brass section reigns supreme in creating such a sophisticated mixture of soul, blues, and rhythm and blues sound. On “Follow The Compass In Your Soul,” the keys once again dictate the melody, harmony, and ambiance, while “Yin And Yang” blends both keys and brass section. It’s nearly mindblowing how all those layers articulate together without overwhelming each other, proving that Ulrich Janner thought about everything while writing, composing, arranging, and producing this fine piece of sonic artistry. In the meantime, the guitars immensely support these sonic maneuvers by providing even more themes, melodies, harmonies, licks, subtle solos, accentuations, riffs, chord progressions, and other sonic maneuvers over the top. This material wouldn’t sound complete without the equally impressive rhythm section. Now, the basslines lurk right beneath those mentioned orchestrations, and they serve as a binding element between guitars, keys, brass, and other elements, but they never overwhelm those instrumentations. Quite the contrary, they only provide warmth, depth, detail, heftiness, power, and groove while articulating smoothly. And the drumming is also spectacular with all those calm, moderate, accentuated, and nuanced rhythmical acrobatics. Everything runs so smoothly here, providing a backbone for all the instruments to shine upon.

With “All In,” Ulrich Janner created an emotional rollercoaster through a fascinating, mesmerizing, ethereal soul rock universe. His music shines with soul, heart, emotion, depth, and weight rarely heard or seen on a contemporary music scene nowadays, and you should immediately place this fine piece of sonic artistry on your music radar. Do not miss it!