Ebba Åsman

Swedish jazz virtuoso Ebba Åsman has announced the forthcoming release of her third full-length record When You Know. The new album arrives March 21st, 2025 via Dorado Records.

Coinciding with the announcement of ‘When You Know’ of the upcoming album are the joint first singles - the title track ‘When You Know’ and ‘No Answer’. The pair of songs channel the feelings that came into clarity for Åsman during her time in the woods: the stresses of not knowing where you’re headed, sensing that you’re losing grip of the life you’ve built, drowning in the infinite questions that swirl around in your head – and ultimately, accepting the uncertainty of it all. The latter track has been described as the turning point of the album, where acceptance of the circumstances begin to prevail.

Coming off of a Swedish Grammy (GRAMMIS) nomination for her 2023 sophomore album ‘Be Free’, live showings at North Sea Jazz Festival and London’s Ronnie Scott’s and an appointment as one of Yamaha’s brand ambassadors, the trombonist, songwriter and producer sought to quiet the noise around her and challenge the jazz genre’s rigid rules for her next project. 

The end result is ‘When You Know’; a smoky and melancholic 10-track cocktail of jazz, alternative R&B, indie, Hip-Hop and ambient sonics that experiments at every turn. On hand to co-produce the record and provide the electronic elements that move ‘When You Know’ away from the jazz world and into more avant-garde territory, Ebba collaborated with Berlin-based producer Lucy Liebe. 

Packing a potent emotional punch into a running time of just 31 minutes, the 10 tracks are a reflection of Ebba herself: direct, driven, precise. Retreating to a cabin outside of her small hometown of Hammarö, 200 miles west of Stockholm, she recorded the album in the dead of winter. 

With the temperatures outside nearing minus-thirty degrees, Åsman logged off for a month – disconnecting from TV, social media and emails. Embracing with vigour both the deep sense of calm and the challenges that come with the cold but also the stillness and solitude that is yielded being in the wilderness.

Though this is Åsman’s third studio album, it will be the first time she’s singing on record. An important statement and moment of transition for Ebba. Elaborating on this further she said: “If you’re singing, you are the closest you can be to your own expression but I wanted to first be respected as an instrumentalist. If you’re a woman and you tell people you’re a musician, everyone assumes and says “Oh – so you’re a singer?”. 

‘When You Know’ will mark the moment on which Ebba Åsman’s exceptional gifts are finally crystallised. At age 7, she began learning trombone and by 15, she won a place to study the instrument at the Södra Latin School in Stockholm. The renowned hot-house for Swedish talent whose alumni include Lykke Li, Yung Lean and the prolific hit songwriter Max Martin. 

But when she moved to the Netherlands to study at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music, she began to push against the constraints of formal learning.  Self-identifying as a “jazz rebel”, rather than being preoccupied with the theoretical and mechanical aspects of jazz, Ebba operates from a mode of pure intuition and feeling. At just 26, ‘When You Know’ finds Åsman continuing to push the boundaries of jazz through the two distinct sides of her musical self: the notes she conjures from the trombone and now, her voice.