Undercover Beast by Langendorf United

The phenomenal Ethio Jazz / Global Groove band Langendrof United is finally back!
Following up their highly praised debut album "Yeahno Yowouw land" in 2023 (winning the alternative Swedish Grammys for "best global rhythm album of the year" and ranked as one of the best albums of the year by Songlines Magazine etc) with their new stellar album "Undercover beast".

Sing a song fighter is proud to present the highly inventive and impressive beast of an album on a limited edition 2-lp vinyl, cd and digital.

"Modal jazz has found its beast. She is Swedish, ferocious and goes by the name Langendorf United.
A ferocious rhythm section, a soaring sax, and a groove rooted in Ethiopia.
It’s jazz that hits hard, sweats, and makes you headbang — right into the haze." Djolo Mqagazine

‘Undercover Beast’ reinforces the fact that Langendorf United really are quite an extraordinary band. Their collective musical talents, group synergy and Lina Langendorf’s finely tuned compositional brilliance means that the five Swedes can take traditions from other countries and histories and dare to spin them into dynamic new places, always with respect to the source but with an artfulness and courage that deserves wide acclaim". 10/10. Truth and Lies Magazine.

"Undercover Beast is a joyful listen, Complex, yet at the same time, easily absorbed. This music moves your body and shakes your brain", Songlines Magazine Aug 2025.

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Bandleader Lina Langendorf has been known in Sweden for a long time as one of the most skilled and forward thinking saxophone players.
She has been staying in both Mali and Ethopia for longer periods and has performed in concerts with legendary artists like Alemayehu Eshete, Vieux Farka Touré and...Mulatu Astatke who, at his club African Jazz Village (in Addis Ababa/Ethiopia), introduced Lina to people in the audience with the words:
"Amazing saxophone player, big respect! We should play together some day".
Some minutes later they go on stage together. Joined by the legendary piano player Dawit Yifru and the bass player from Roha Band, Giovanni Rico Bonsignori.
"Fantastic. Everybody loves you, they say you are ethio-jazz" was Mulatu's words after the jam session.

Lina has also been invited to the live club Le Hogon in Bamako numerous times for jam sessions and concerts with Toumani Diabaté and his band.
And for Lina, these jam sessions in Addis and Bamako has been a crucial part of shaping (and sharpening) her musical vision.
Last year she was also touring the UK as part of James Yorkston, Nina Persson and the second hand orchestra.

But it wasn't until feb 2023 we got to hear her own music.
The debut album with her newly formed band Langendorf United was co-released between Italian label Black Sweat records and Swedish label sing a song fighter and it immediately resonated with music lovers around the world.
(Radiohead drummer Philip Selway called it "as if Tinariwen and Fela Kuti had a Blue Note session")

But the band is not just the composer/Saxophone star and band leader Lina Langendorf. Oh, no. The other four musicians are all highly praised musicians in various jazz bands in Sweden and Norway and together they form this sacred rhythmic unity with the pulsating bass at the centre.
Langendorf United's music is vibrant and spiritual and on fire!

The band is:
Lina Langendorf - saxophone
Daniel Bingert (son of legendary South American musician Hector Bingert) – keys, guitars
Martin Hederos (soundtrack of our lifes, tonbruket) – keys, viola
Ole Morten Vågan (trondheim jazz orchestra) – upright bass
Andreas Werliin (fire!, konono no 1, wildbirds and peacedrums etc) – drums
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The music of Langendorf United is a living, breathing phenomenon.
The five, highly skilled musicians merged into one single body, with the bass as the beating heart.The groove is the oxygen, and every tone becomes a breath.
Each song, an organ in itself.
Whether lyrical, raw, melancholic, or sheer euphoria, the band inhales and exhales the deadly groove. Music coming to life because of curiosity, humility, searching, certainty, sorrow, pain, joy, and playfulness. Langendorf United has the ability to fill a room with a vibrating, almost
spiritual, and devout presence — where the listener, too, becomes one with the music.

The tracks:

1. And so it begins is - just as the title indicates, the beginning of something new. An opening and a kind of statement. The saxophones raise their voices to gather the people;
they have a story to tell. The door to the slightly unknown is opening, slowly but surely.
There, on the other side, stands the entire band, Langendorf United, with their arms wide
open. Ready to take us with them into their world of sound. And so it begins!

2. SO-MA-LI (Ode to MDOMA) - can be likened to a homage choir, singing praises for the
four band members Martin, Daniel, Ole Morten and Andreas. The working title of the bass line was ”the best-loved bass line”.
Lina had been searching for the melody for quite some time.
And then it was time for a live performance with Langendorf United at the Hemnes Jazz Festival in Norway. The band had not seen each other for a long time. As soon as Lina meets them, she begins to hear music. So, early one morning in Trondheim, she wakes up with a melody in her head. A homage choir of woman’s voices. She finds her phone and quickly sings the melody into the voice memo.
SO-MA-LI is born.

3 Cesária - is a song that has been with Lina for more than ten years. A tribute to the amazing musician Cesária Evora. All things come in their own time, and now the time has
come for this gem to see the light again and to meet both the band and listeners around the world.

4 Undercover Beast - This track has the significant Ethiopian Anchihoye scale as its guiding star throughout the song.
A tonality that is very familiar at the jam sessions at Fendika.
In fact, it might just as well have been an Anchihoye song that Lina joined in on that Monday night at Fendika, when she was given the title. The Monday concerts always end with a jam session led by the band. With the amazing musician Teferi Assefa behind the drums.
One month after Langendorf United had finished recording the new album, Lina received the heartbreaking and unimaginable news that Teferi had left this world. She was in the practice room and could not continue playing. In that moment, it became clear that this
song would be dedicated to Teferi. In gratitude for his generosity and all the opportunities that have been given Lina over the years - to be part of the Ethiopian music collective and
to deepen even more into the Ethiopian tonalities.

5. Ethiopia Ewdeshalehu - an ode to Ethiopia and to all the beautiful people Lina has met during her stays there. The generosity and warmth that run like a red thread through all of these encounters.
'Ewdeshalehu' is Amharic and means 'I love you.' So the title is,
Ethiopia, I Love You.

6. Soaring with The Wondrous Four - this too is a celebration of the amazing band members of Langendorf United.
Martin, Daniel, Ole Morten och Andreas a.k.a The
Wondrous Four.
Lina says ”To create and to be in the music together with these four
extraordinary musicians is indescribable. Perhaps it can be likened to the euphoric feeling of soaring in the sky, being carried by a force you can neither see nor touch. Music.
A source that is invisible and yet so incredibly powerful and physically present. Greater than the human being itself.

7.From Longitude to Lassitude - Lullabies and Laments - a title says more than a thousand words, and music says all this and more... A suite that moves through longing and dreams, total exhaustion, despair and chaos, hope, and serenity itself.

8. Alemayehu - this is a tribute to the legendary musician Alemayehu Eshete. Also known as
Abyssinian Elvis (the Ethiopian Elvis Presley). On several occasions over the years, Lina had the great honor of performing with Alemayehu at Hotel Taitu in Addis.
The plan was for Alemayehu to sing on this song, and he had said yes. ”We’re brother and sister” he said when the question about joining as a guest came. Sadly, life caught up with us, and in September 2021 Alemayehu passed away.

9 Prayers, Faith and Hope - a suite in three parts: a prayer, an instilling of faith, and the
life-affirming, vital hope.

Sing a song fighter = DIY record label. being run from the kitchen in Gubbängen, Sweden, while making omelettes for the kids. It is also the name that Karl Jonas Winqvist (music activist, producer, dreamer, percussionist and songwriter and music enthusiast) use when he arranges concerts etc ...

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