Ever After – Live at Southampton Arts Center is set to be released on October 2nd 2026 on CD, Vinyl and Digital.
There will be 3 single releases leading up to this:
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August 21 – The Journey (single)
September 4 – Como en Vietnam (single)
September 18 – Little Africa (single)
October 2 – Ever After (album)
Here’s the story behind:
On the evening of April 7th, 2018, four musicians shared the stage for the very first time in the beautiful concert hall of Southampton Arts Center. Danish vibraphonist Martin Fabricius says: “Some of the best moments of my life… are in music. Literally — being in the music.” That night, everybody was there, in the music. Luckily, the evening was recorded by a thoughtful sound crew that soon realized this was something special. The result is Ever After, now released for the first time on Caretone Records.
In the months leading up to the concert, the musicians had been corresponding via e-mail. Although Fabricius had played with Claes Brondal in his teens before Brondal moved from Denmark to the USA, and Brad Shepik had performed with Steve Swallow on several occasions, the four musicians had never played together as a group.
On the morning of the concert, Fabricius and Brondal drove through the spring landscape outside Sag Harbor to borrow the vibraphone that would be used that evening. There was a quiet sense of anticipation, mixed with a certain nervousness. It had been a few weeks since Fabricius had last been in touch with Swallow. Then, as if Swallow had read his mind, an e-mail arrived: he was on the road, car packed, and looking forward to the meeting later that day.
Martin recalls: “That small act of consideration worked like magic. Suddenly I couldn’t wait to get up on that stage. Not only would I share it with one of our time’s greatest bass players — Steve Swallow — but I already felt he had my back and was reading my mind.”
Later that evening, the four musicians gathered for the first time. A brief soundcheck and rehearsal gave way to a shared meal as the audience arrived. By 7 p.m., they stepped onto the stage to begin the first of two sets.
What followed was a performance in which preparation gave way to presence. The careful planning, the selection of musicians, and any lingering uncertainty dissolved as the music unfolded. The players listened closely, supported one another, and moved fluidly between leading and accompanying, entering and leaving the musical space with a rare collective focus. As Fabricius describes it, everything disappeared, “leaving only the music — the music for us, and for the audience, to be in.”
Although Fabricius and Swallow have stayed in contact over the years, speaking of future meetings, life intervened, as it often does. It was not until the summer of 2025 that the recordings resurfaced. After searching through numerous hard drives, Fabricius located them on an old MacBook stored away in his basement — a machine marked by time, but still holding the music intact. The recordings revealed a performance that remained as vivid as ever, fresh and vibrant as the moment they were recorded.
When Fabricius shared the material with Swallow and asked whether it should be released, the response was immediate and characteristically encouraging: yes.
Ever After is more than a document of a single evening — it is a recording of a moment when four musicians met in complete presence, creating a shared musical space that continues to resonate.
And now it is here — for us to be in, for ever after.
Martin Fabricius | vibraphone Steve Swallow | bass Brad Shepik | guitar Claes Brondal | drums
