26 February 2026

HANNA & JERRY – Relaxed (2026, LP, Outerdisk)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Outerdisk

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, 140gram, Black Vinyl

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, 140gram, Sea Blue Vinyl

Release Date: 20 Feb 2026

On February 20, 2026, via Outerdisk, “Relaxed” quietly emerged from the mist — a vinyl-bound meditation shaped by the intertwined visions of Hanna Östergren and Jerry Johansson. The Swedish duo, moving like a winding path through deep Scandinavian forests, craft a sound that does not merely expand consciousness but gently psychedelicises it, bending perception without force.

Jerry Johansson, long devoted to the spell of the sitar and the resonant twang of banjo and other stringed instruments, has traced a patient arc through exploratory sound worlds (he has been the heart of Grovjobb for several years, led jazz ensembles, composed music, and kept an open mind) — he has immerse himself in modal traditions reminiscent of seekers like Ananda Shankar, Sandy Bull, and Gábor Szabó. Alongside him, Hanna Östergren brings a parallel yet complementary journey, having traversed psychedelic terrains with Hills, Träden, and DJINN, among others — always circling the outer edges of perception.

Rooted in expansive, trance-like compositions where raga-inspired structures gently determine the unfolding, “Relaxed” drifts toward illumination rather than climax. Echoes of Charlie & Esdor and Joakim Skogsberg shimmer beneath its surface, yet the album never settles into homage. All compositions on “Relaxed”, by Jerry Johansson and Hanna Östergren. Parts of Mountain variations on trad.

Jerry Johansson: sitar, banjo, Mellotron, guitar.

Hanna Östergren: drums, organ, Rhodes, Mellotron, bass, voice, flute, percussion, shruti box, field recordings.

“Relaxed” contains just 5 tracks, 3 on the first and the rest 2 on the second side of the vinyl LP album. The opener “Remains” (6:02) unfolds slowly, almost ceremonially, establishing a soothing motif that gently slips into a full raga environment. The sitar leads the invocation, its resonant strings circling like incense smoke in a dimly lit meditation séance. Trippy, loosely structured percussion nudges the piece forward without ever disturbing its calm surface, guiding both track and listener into a trance state. What begins as a contemplative “meditation raga” gradually opens up, stretching its limbs into a long, improvised, hippie-like jam session — organic, unforced, and spiritually unguarded… Picking up exactly where “Remains” dissolves — almost as if the fade-out was merely a breath between mantras — “Silence” (8:31) deepens the Eastern-inflected atmosphere. Once again, the sitar stands at the centre, but here it is wrapped in a warm, bittersweet melancholy. The duo allow themselves room to experiment with tone and texture, subtly flirting with late-’60s psychedelia and even progressive rock expansiveness, yet never abandoning the raga-like discipline guiding the structure. It feels like a memory of the Summer of Love refracted through Scandinavian twilight… “Still” (2:46) lives up to its title in the most unsettling way. Dark, cold, and hovering on the edge of ambience, it feels like an experimental interlude carved from silence itself. Improvisational in spirit, it carries a cinematic tension — minimal yet evocative, almost eerie. The textures are sparse but deeply atmospheric, suggesting a shadow crossing the ritual circle. It’s a brief descent into the subconscious before the record’s second side expands outward once more.

Side ‘B’ opens with “Mountain” (6:27)… Ladies and gentlemen — enter the banjo. “Mountain” opens with a majestic, banjo-dominated introduction that feels both earthy and cosmic, grounded and transcendental. Trippy drumming bends the sense of time, creating a surreal soundscape that floats somewhere between Appalachian folk memory and psychedelic dream logic. Midway through, the track undergoes a radical transformation: the final three minutes erupt into a blazing instrumental raga hallucination. The improvisation intensifies, the energy thickens, and when the flute finally pierces through, it feels triumphant and unrestrained — leaving no prisoners, indeed. It’s one of the album’s most electrifying moments… The closing epic, “Dawn” (12:37), begins with a long, sitar-laced invocation accompanied by birdsong, instantly transporting the listener to a Mantra-like sanctuary or some ancient Eastern temple at first light. The sitar wanders through improvisational scales with pastoral grace, while ambient textures and field-recording nuances evoke Mother Nature in quiet ceremony. The piece flows peacefully, expanding into a serene, ambient-tinged raga that feels both earthly and cosmic. Yet, as the journey progresses, something more arcane emerges. Hallucinogenic, ceremonial vocals — wordless and incantatory — seep into the soundscape, blurring the line between preaching and exorcism. A pagan, almost occult aura envelops the composition, turning meditation into ritual. By its final moments, “Dawn” has fully dissolved time and space, closing the album in a state of mind-expanding transcendence that feels like a spiritual threshold…

In conclusion, Hanna Östergren and Jerry Johansson, through “Relaxed”, they inhabit the spirit of exploratory late-’60s Eastern-tinged Psychedelia and reshape it through patience, restraint, and deep listening. “Relaxed” feels like a ritual document — a field recording from the inner self. It is not for the casual listener, nor for those seeking hooks or immediacy. “Relaxed” belongs to the few romantics still searching for transcendence in repetition, for illumination in drones, for revelation inside a single sustained note. For them, this LP is not just heard — it is entered… Invest, freely! TimeLord Michalis