From the ‘Dark Ages’ to the ‘Garden’: An Interview with Pianist Yelena Eckemoff

Justin Smulison:
Welcome to a special Radio X music video interview. I am your host, Justin Smulison. I am delighted to present an interview with Yelena Eckemoff, a wonderful composer and pianist. Yelena’s twenty-third studio album is ‘Rosendals Garden’. It will be available on March 27, 2026 through L & H Production. You are hearing a clip of the lead song and one of the lead singles, ‘Abba Museum’. It’s wonderful. It’s got some fantastic instrumentation from and from her cellist, violinist and her drummer. And it was recorded in Sweden, and you can just feel the delightful energy coming from this music. I absolutely love it. I’m not just a metalhead, folks. I also like some nice jazz and instrumental work as well. Yelena last year released “Scenes from the Dark Ages”, which is how I first heard of her, and she’s been through several clubs in New York. She’s played the Jazz Standard and Birdland. And we’re going to talk all about what it’s like for her to write and record and compose, the different types of energies and players that she likes to bring into different projects, and what might be next for her, and why she doesn’t tour so much anymore. We’re going to find out all about this. So, let’s get to it. Radioradiox.com audiences worldwide, please welcome Yelena Eckemoff. All right, so I am joined by Yelena Eckemoff. Good morning.
Yelena Eckemoff: Hi. [laughs] Good morning.
Justin Smulison: It’s been… It’s so wonderful to hear your voice because I know you mostly through your music, but now we’re actually hearing what you sound like, so this is exciting.
Yelena Eckemoff: Well, I think my voice is nothing special. Uh, I hope my music is. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: All right. Well, that’s a great, a great philosophy right there. [laughs] And your newest album is ‘Rosendals Garden’. You call that one your Swedish baby, right?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yeah, I do. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Tell us a little bit about it.
Yelena Eckemoff: All my albums, of course, are my babies, but now this is a Swedish baby. I like Sweden. I like all Scandinavian countries. But Sweden holds a bit more special place in my heart because it reminds me my homeland which I cannot visit. It is not the same, but very close. And Finland too, by the way. We’ve been to Sweden quite a few times and, I always enjoyed it, and then I wanted to record with Svante Henryson. I noticed him years ago because he’s a wonderful musician and his cello is… I think he’s the best living jazz cellist.
Justin Smulison: Yeah. Yeah, okay.
Yelena Eckemoff: Well, not only in jazz, but you know, I think he’s just wonderful. It’s like, Mark Feldman is a maybe best living jazz violinist, and, Svante kind of reminds me a bit of Mark Feldman, not exactly, but. Such a feeling, that he plays with and such a mastery, such a taste in music. I appreciate the taste probably the most.
Justin Smulison: That’s him right there, right? [Points to his picture.]
Yelena Eckemoff: Yes. That, that’s him. Yeah, there in white shirt. He, he’s tall, and he has gorgeous hair. [laughs] [laughs] So, but anyway, he was always on my radar, but somehow, we never recorded. Actually, we wanted to, we talked about it in 2012. And since that time, nothing. So, I thought, “Well, I want to record with Svante.” And then I thought, “Well, he’s Swedish, and I like Sweden, so two plus two equals four, you know?” So that’s how ‘Rosendals Garden’ came to be. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: That’s wonderful. And I’m so glad that you mentioned his cello playing, because on a personal note, when I heard ‘Abba Museum’ and I heard his part, it was so emotional for me also because my children both play cello. So, it’s my hope that they can sound like that someday-
Yelena Eckemoff: Oh, yeah
Justin Smulison: … playing music like yours. So instantly I was hooked when I heard it, and then I said, said, “You know what? I got to talk to this lady. I got to see what’s going on and try to pick her brain a little bit.” So, you went to Sweden to record with, with those two players.
Yelena Eckemoff: It was a trio, but since Svante played both cello and the bass, he could overdub. I asked Svante, “What drummer would be good for us?” And he recommended me Morgan. I played also some keyboards, in addition to piano. That’s why it’s, it sounds that there are more than three people definitely. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Yeah. It’s a wonderful album and I think also with the change in the season right now, where I live, all the snow is finally melting. So, it is nice to see some foliage and some vegetation. This album is kind of perfect for release right now.
Yelena Eckemoff: Ah. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Do you get that a lot? When you speak to people about your music, do they tell you about what it makes them think of and things like that?
Yelena Eckemoff: My fans who appreciate my music, they are like that. I always respect the nature. Since I paint my pictures, and I’m better landscape painter than anything else- [laughs] … so here you go.
Justin Smulison: You painted that?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yeah.
Justin Smulison: Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow.
Yelena Eckemoff: Yeah. I paint all of my covers.
Justin Smulison: Oh, wow. Uh, so you painted The Dark Ages album too?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yeah.
Justin Smulison: Um, that’s wonderful. Now, it’s, it’s worth mentioning, I believe, ‘Rosendals Garden’ is your 23rd album since 2010?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yes.
Justin Smulison: Oh, my goodness. How, how do you keep writing like that? And you mostly write on piano first, right?
Yelena Eckemoff: Uh, in my mind, sometimes. Sometimes, I write into Sibelius music notation software, but sitting at the piano, that’s probably my preferred way to write.
Justin Smulison: Right. And is that a daily thing for you? Do you sit and say, “Something’s going to come out,” or do you just let it flow?
Yelena Eckemoff: If I sit at the piano, and I have time, I will always come up with something.
Justin Smulison: Yeah?
Yelena Eckemoff: That’s why I, I have so much stuff, like stacks of folders. So, I try to abstain from composing for the last couple of years if I can. But sometimes I cannot. [laughs] I don’t want to create too many folders because I have only my life and that’s it, to make sure that I do something with my folders. And I am in that style which requires other people’s input and their improvisations combining it all. It’s not just classical or jazz. It’s all of it. And since I require this to be a sound recording, that’s why I’m thinking, “Okay, what I’m going to do with all those tunes or all those compositions?”
Justin Smulison: That’s excellent. So, you’ve got this stack of folders and sifting through it -[laughs] … to find what fits the, the concept or the song the best, and that’s great. And, you travel to Sweden. You created this album. I watched one of the videos, it is where you’re all in separate rooms. Do you, do you feel a sense of cohesion when you play with players of this caliber?
Yelena Eckemoff: Of course, that’s why I play with those chosen ones. It’s always the very carefully chosen group. Once I know who’s going to be on the project, I think about what their personalities are, how they’re going to play, and that also helps me to shape up the compositions and, and the music so they would feel comfortable, and they could express themselves the best way.
Justin Smulison: It wasn’t all that long ago that “Scenes from the Dark Ages” came out, right?
Yelena Eckemoff: I release every spring. I record in summer, fall, and release in spring. I used to record a couple of projects a year for several years, but now, I have to do just one. I tried to release two albums a year and the critics said, “No, no, it’s too much” [laughs] “They hated me for it.” [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Oh, all that glorious music, it’s too much at once. It’s an overabundance.
Yelena Eckemoff: Too much, too much of a good stuff. [laughs] [laughs]
Most of my projects are double discs. ‘Rosendals Garden’, for example, I hoped it would be just one disk, but then we started playing and improvise. You see, every song has a structure, but in certain places I say, “Well, this, this is going to be just a free solo. From this point, we’re just going to play whatever.” And I love it, and especially I loved it with Svante and Morgan. Record ended up with so many improvisations that I didn’t want to cut. I didn’t want to cut them. Arid Anderson, a bass player who I worked a lot with, he always told me, “You know, you need to kill your darlings.”
Justin Smulison: Yeah, I know people who say that to me too.
Yelena Eckemoff: And I say, “I, I’m not-” [laughs] “-killing my darlings. I am not.” I’m Ukrainian by my father, so that’s I think like Ukrainians. No, no, you don’t waste anything. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Right. Yeah. No, I’m, I’m glad you didn’t because it’s, it’s wonderful music. Like I say, it’s very uplifting and, and it-
Yelena Eckemoff: Thank you
Justin Smulison: … it just, it, it helps heighten the senses in the best way. The coffee tastes better, the food tastes better when I’m listening to you, so you’re doing great.
Yelena Eckemoff: Well, thank you so much. This is one of the best compliments I ever heard of my music.
Justin Smulison: Oh, thank you. [laughs] Well, you deserve it. I’m more of a rock metal guy, but when I hear good jazz like this, I just go. I can’t start my every day with aggressive stuff. It’s got to ease into the day, and that’s how I do it. And, it’s nice to listen to you while I’m having breakfast or studying or something like that. So, it’s great. And, I think that I’ve been playing it very subtly for my children in the background just to show them that cello doesn’t need to just be orchestra cello. It can be this other thing; it can play in these other genres.
Yelena Eckemoff: Right. Yes.
Justin Smulison: Let’s talk about the Dark Ages record. What was that one like for you?
Yelena Eckemoff: I never before that recorded in Italy. And I wanted to record with Trilok, but he has his recording studio in Italy. Because of him I was assembling this project in Italy. And I am so happy that I did because I found those wonderful Italian musicians that I wasn’t aware of before, and especially, Riccardo Bertuzzi, guitar player. He also participated in another of my project with Paolo Fresu ‘Romance of the Moon’. I recorded it after I recorded ‘Scenes from the Dark Ages’. I asked Riccardo to record four tracks over Internet for that project. And also we recorded together one more time in past fall. That album hasn’t been released yet. It’s going to be released next year. I really love Riccardo Bertuzzi’s guitar and Carlo Nicita’ flute also. Carlo’s just pure genius, you know, how he plays flute. Flute is not my favorite instrument. It’s a high-pitched instrument, but how he plays it, he’s just amazing.
Justin Smulison: Excellent. Yeah. I do want to mention that you release all your music on your own production company, L&H Production, right?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yes.
Justin Smulison: Okay. And a quick shout-out, the next Bandcamp Friday when you can support Yelena is on May 1st, so be sure to head over to her Bandcamp page, which we’re going to plug in the show notes. But it’s pretty simple. It’s just YelenaEckemoff.bandcamp.com. Support her on Bandcamp Friday. She’s got this vast repository of
whole discography there.
Justin Smulison: Rosendals Garden comes out on March 27th, and it was recorded in 2024, so you have your next album already recorded for next spring, right?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yes. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Yeah. Okay. What, what can you tell us about that album … without giving anything away?
Yelena Eckemoff: It’s going to be called ‘Bird Island’. This is something, again, really, really special for me. I just finished writing the story for this project, it is over 10,000 words, and the longest story I ever wrote. It’s a fictional story about the group of people who end up on that very special island that is not on a map. I recorded it again in Italy with Riccardo Bertuzzi, Carlo Nicita, and Faso  on bass, he is very famous Italian bass player, and I invited Manu Katché to play drums.
Justin Smulison: Now, I saw some clips of you playing at some clubs in New York. I’ve been to Jazz Standard. That was a long time ago. Uh, you’ve played there. What was it like to play in in famous clubs in New York like this and Birdland and others?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yeah, I enjoyed it, of course. Uh, it was something special and it was difficult to arrange because, you know, I don’t have a booking agent, and I don’t like to perform too much because I’m too busy, you know?
Justin Smulison: Yeah.
Yelena Eckemoff: In order to do all of what I’m doing, it’s full-time job.
Justin Smulison: Sure.
Yelena Eckemoff: I work very hard. No help. My husband is only helper with logistics and everything. That’s all I have, me and my husband.
Justin Smulison: Yeah.
Yelena Eckemoff: I performed in several very good places, including
Ronnie Scott’s in London and Spice of Life in London, and in Germany too. I have videos of these performances, and I said to myself, “That’s enough.” I’ve done my part as a performer. No one can doubt that I can play. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Right.
Yelena Eckemoff: And, I stopped performing. When I performed, I enjoyed, it was fun. It was very nice.
Justin Smulison: And do you teach as well?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yes, I used to teach. I stopped my lessons, when COVID started. And when COVID ended, I thought, well, maybe that I should not restart my lessons. I’m too busy. But I taught all my life, you know. I was a very good teacher, by the way. I had very good results from the kids who were not necessarily that talented or that motivated. They all loved it, and they all performed very well, the best they could. So, I’m proud of my teaching. I worked at church also, as the church musician for twenty-two and a half years in the United States. So, I’ve done that thing also. Also I am over with that. [laughs] Now, I just focus on my stuff.
Justin Smulison: How long did it take for you to feel comfortable composing your own music? How old were you, and how long had you been composing?
Yelena Eckemoff: I started to compose as soon as, I got my little hands on the piano, I was four.
Justin Smulison: Oh, wow.
Yelena Eckemoff: And my mom, she was a pianist. My mom wrote down my little pieces. I still have that notebook where she copied them to. And I actually remember when I was five, I composed songs that were named like, ‘Birds in the garden’, ‘Fishes in the pond’, ‘The squirrel that cracks nuts’, and I remember playing those with both hands, these tiny pieces. Not only I started to compose very early, but I started to play piano by ear at the same time, before even I started my school. It’s always been my desire to express things, something that I feel or I see. I love to express things in music.
Justin Smulison: That’s fantastic. So, you’re a full-time composer and musician, and you’ve got L&H Production, and there is Bandcamp everybody can go to pick up your music. And Bandcamp Friday is May 1st, and there’s more Band Camp Fridays later in the year after that. [laughs]
Yelena Eckemoff: Thank you.
Justin Smulison: You don’t perform live anymore, but do you think one day you might do a special performance here and there, maybe?
Yelena Eckemoff: If somebody would want me to perform, I would perform, definitely. But like I said, it’s pretty much impossible to arrange for the group that I want at certain place and at certain time. And I have a different group for each of my projects. Some musicians might live in Europe or some live like Peter Erskine, in California. Peter told me one time when I wanted to invite him to New York, “Yelena, you can’t afford me.” [laughs] [laughs] I barely could afford him to record on my four albums. “You can’t afford me to [laughs] fly to New York and perform.”
Justin Smulison: Right.
Yelena Eckemoff: So here you go. You know, this is not that easy, and if somebody wants to arrange the performance of me with one of my groups, yeah, I would go for it, but I think it’s just a dream. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Okay. Well, let’s, let’s hope the dream becomes a reality someday for us. And, so you’ve left us with so much wisdom, and we’ve been playing clips of different tracks from ‘Scenes from the Dark Ages’ and ‘Rosendals Garden’. Is there anything else that you want to tell your fans and anybody who might be hearing about you now for the first time?
Yelena Eckemoff: I appreciate people who listen to real music, not AI music or not some kind of a playlist which they don’t even know what’s in there, that was created by Spotify or Tidal. At this time of our lives it’s very important to support real artists, artists who, who don’t use AI, [laughs] like I do not. My painting maybe not a such a great painting, but it is my painting.
Justin Smulison: That’s a wonderful painting.
Yelena Eckemoff: It’s what I did myself. And my music is something that I did and my musicians did, and no AI, no anything, just a good mix.
Justin Smulison: Right.
Yelena Eckemoff: Just good performance and a lot of labor put into that. AI is not the way to go in the art. Maybe in some other, like, technical things, but not in the art. Art should be kept pure as art. There is human impression in, human expression. [laughs]
Justin Smulison: Excellent. Well, it’s been such a pleasure to speak with woman behind the music and, it’s just such a delight to hear your voice as well, and I look forward to… You said Bird, ‘Bird Island’?
Yelena Eckemoff: Yes.
Justin Smulison: ‘Bird Island’. I look forward to that and catching up- [laughs] with you when this record comes out as well.
Yelena Eckemoff: Thank you so much.
Justin Smulison: All right. Special thanks again to Yelena Eckemoff for joining us here on radioradiox.com. Her new album is ‘Rosendals Garden’. It is available worldwide from our friends at L&H Production. That is Yelena’s production company. At the top and once again, you are hearing a clip of ABBA Museum, and during the interview, we also played the title track. So, it’s just some absolutely wonderful music, totally chills me out, and I hope that you will dig it as well. Be sure to visit Yelena at yelenamusic.com and landhproduction.com. All the links to her socials are on this interview’s show notes. And be sure to support her on May 1st on Bandcamp for Bandcamp Friday. Nearly all of her 23 albums are available on Bandcamp. There is certainly something there to strike your fancy. And as we always say, remember, no matter what you do, be sure to make legitimate purchases of the music merch and eventual tickets to support hardworking artists like Yelena Eckemoff.