Eivind Buene
9
© PR
20.
march
It is always a huge risk to re-interpret classical icons and drag them onto the contemporary scene, especially if you are an award-winning composer and musician of international fame, such as the Norwegian Elvind Buene. Classical music, like all genres, has its small circle of purists and aficionados that are prompt to flag down any attempt to move the statues they adore out of their mausoleums. And this is exactly what Eivind Buene does in his Schubert Lounge album.
The title itself announces an unorthodox approach to the famous German Romantic musical genius: a lounge is not exactly the type of room or architectural installation one would immediately associate with Franz Schubert. But what Buene points to is that Schubert’s music, and more specifically his songs, the famous lieder sung by Kathleen Ferrier and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, are about intimacy and that they can be heard today in the half-lit comfort of a lounge, as they were in a salon by candlelight.
There are ten songs on the album, all with their titles in English and without the corresponding German name. For instance, we have »The Sea« and »Beautiful Moon«, which are (very well) known as »Am Meer« and »An Den Mond«. The songs themselves are translated (or adapted) into English, turning the whole project into a singular musical object, which totally deconstructs the traditional prison walls of music history.
Eivind Buene’s voice does not compare with Ferrier’s or Fischer-Dieskau, and it doesn’t even try to. By re-arranging harmonics in modern dissonances and replacing the nuances with a surprising flatness of tone, sometimes switching to delicate higher notes, Buene tells us that classical music is not what we assume it to be: a motionless monument that keeps repeating itself. Turning Schubert into a transnational composer is a radical choice, and a real dangerous one, the risk being to be laughed at, shunned or, even worse, ignored. A Norwegian artist deciding to sing 19th century German lieder translated into English in 2022 is not just an act, it is a radical manifesto. As Buene has written in an article published online, »Music is always now in the sounding moment. Music is, in a sense, a history of unfinished work.«
And this album absolutely proves it.
Playliste
Mit navn er Brian Nygaard – vil du se min playliste?
30.
march
»Musik er sjælens sprog. Den korteste vej mellem mennesker adskilt af afstand, tid eller savn. Udover poesi, er musik det tætteste, vi kommer på kærlighed uden fysisk berøring. Musik er en større energikilde end fossile brændstoffer og musik kan vise os verdner, vi ikke vidste fandtes – inde i os selv. Få ting kan få os til at lette røven hurtigere end musik kan. Og nærmest intet andet kan endelig få os til at holde kæft.«
Brian Nygaard er journalist hos Weekendavisen, hvor han skriver om cykelsport og kunst. Der udgiver han også nyhedsbrevet Hjertets Bjerge, der tilbyder en anderledes refleksion over den gamle sport. Han har udgivet flere bøger om samme emne, blandt andet Iltgæld sammen med kunstneren Erik A. Frandsen (Gyldendal 2020). Han arbejder også som ekspertkommentator hos DR under Tour de France. Nygaard har en kandidatgrad i filosofi fra Aarhus Universitet med speciale i semantik og epistemologi, men det teoretiske har ikke tynget hans virke de seneste år, hvor han udover journalistgerningen er begyndt at producere pinot noir fra det kolde klima ved Stillehavskysten i det nordlige Californien under sit nye label, Oceanic.
© Lis Kasper Bang
27.
march
There are twelve tracks on Josefine Opsahl’s album Cytropia, each with the duration of a rock song. Remarkably, there is a straight line from the first to the last – both in timbre, rhythm, melody, atmosphere, and playing. The ears are embraced by a gentle melancholy created by small cello figures in long sequences, with a slow-moving cello melody on top. Some parts in minor, others more open.
She is receiving quite a lot of praise these days for her many projects – an opera and a ballet – alongside her work as a cellist-composer, and it must almost be due to the highly accessible, cohesive, and dreamy sound she consistently delivers. I must admit that I have become somewhat skeptical along the way. Both as a musician and as a composer, I wish she would challenge herself with new approaches and new visions for the stories her music should tell. On Cytropia, we approach a constant state of uniform sound, evoking thoughts of the deliberate inertia of New Age composers.
There are quite beautiful moments along the way. The track »Cyborg« is crystal-clear in its surface. A piece like »Leaverecalls«, in its mechanics, the American minimalism of Philip Glass. But once again, one misses displacements and rhythmic additions that could challenge the static soundscape. The last hundred years of experimentation have expanded the battlefield of cello playing. Opsahl draws on some of these experiences to create her own small mechanical accompaniments for herself. Yet, the setup with a sequencer and a cello seems limiting in allowing Opsahl to explore timbres and ideas where the gravity of melancholy can truly be felt.
© Lis Kasper Bang
27.
march
Der er tolv skæringer på Josefine Opsahls album Cytropia, hver af en rocksangs varighed. Bemærkelsesværdigt nok er der en lige linje fra den første til den sidste – både klangligt, rytmisk, melodisk, i stemningen og i spillet. Ørene omfavnes af en let melankoli skabt af små cellofigurer i lange sekvenser med en langsommelig cellomelodi ovenpå. En del i mol, andet mere åbent.
Hun får ret meget ros for tiden for sine mange projekter – en opera og en ballet – ved siden af produktionen som cellokomponist, og det må næsten være på grund af den meget tilgængelige, helstøbte, drømmende sound, hun er garant for. Jeg må indrømme, at jeg er blevet lidt skeptisk hen ad vejen. Både for hende som musiker og som komponist vil jeg ønske, at hun udfordrede sig selv med nye tilgange og nye visioner for, hvilke historier hendes musik skal fortælle. På Cytropia nærmer vi os en konstant tilstand af ensartet lyd, der får tankerne hen på new age-komponisternes bevidste inerti.
Der er ret smukke tilstande undervejs. Nummeret »Cyborg« er glasklart i sin overflade. Et nummer som »Leave« minder i sin mekanik om amerikansk minimalisme, som Philip Glass kan skrive den. Men igen savner man forskydninger og rytmiske tilføjelser, der kan udfordre det statiske lydbillede. De sidste 100 års eksperimenter har udvidet kampzonen for cellospillet. Opsahl bruger nogle af de erfaringer til at skabe sine egne små mekaniske akkompagnementer til sig selv. Alligevel virker setup’et med en sequencer og en cello begrænsende for, at Opsahl kan nærme sig klange og ideer, hvor melankoliens alvor kan mærkes.
Playliste
We are NEKO3 – would you like to see our playlist?
26.
march
»Music is like an ancient mineral, containing a history of wisdom reaching over centuries, stratifying and evolving into new forms. It is like a black hole, wrapping around us and allowing us to temporarily escape the noise of the world.
An emotional safe zone, a place for solace, a bringer of light, a unifying factor. It is us.«
NEKO3 is a Copenhagen-based experimental music group consisting of: Fei Nie, Lorenzo Colombo and Kalle Hakosalo. The group is working towards the creation of a new musical language, flexibly moving between various performance media and artistic expressions. Continuously collaborating with composers and other creators of art, it seeks to integrate music and other forms of art into one conceptual whole.
NEKO3 has performed at Festival Internacional de la Imagen, SONICA Glasgow, cresc... Biennale, Time Of Music, Rondò, MINU festival, Copenhagen Light Festival, Unerhörte Musik and Spor Festival. They have been featured as soloists with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Aarhus Sinfonietta, and given workshops and presentations at ie. Standford University, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, University of California San Diego and Kungliga Musikhögskolan (SE). The ensemble has recorded multiple EP’s and released their first full length album Angel Death Traps in collaboration with Alexander Schubert in 2024.
NEKO3 has performed at Festival Internacional de la Imagen, SONICA Glasgow, cresc... Biennale, Time Of Music, Rondò, MINU festival, Copenhagen Light Festival, Unerhörte Musik and Spor Festival. They have been featured as soloists with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Aarhus Sinfonietta, and given workshops and presentations at ie. Standford University, the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, University of California San Diego and Kungliga Musikhögskolan (SE). The ensemble has recorded multiple EP’s and released their first full length album Angel Death Traps in collaboration with Alexander Schubert in 2024.
© PR
26.
march
The abstract, collage-like »Movements« on Lebanese artist Raed Yassin's Phantom Orchestra are yet another piece of contemporary art born out of the COVID-19 crisis. Like a distant echo from a time most have already repressed, the experimental artist has assembled a series of recordings performed by a motley group of Berlin musicians – all united by a single premise: improvisation.
Over nearly an hour, Yassin weaves these recordings into seven progressive suites, ranging from approximately nine to twenty minutes. And while the sonic chaos at times reaches such heights that one struggles to find a common auditory anchor, the result is a creatively stimulating listening experience, as hand-played percussion, Baltic folk singing, and the Japanese koto (harp) seamlessly merge – despite the musicians never having been in the same room together.
At its core lies an immensely inspiring concept, one that draws equally from sampling aesthetics and contemporary art. This is particularly evident considering that the pieces were reportedly created using no fewer than twelve turntables, introducing an element of chance. One can only assume that this required a remarkable degree of planning – which makes it all the more astonishing when, for instance, the interplay between modular synths and drums on »Movement III« unfolds, or when the almost horror-like contrast between happy jazz trumpet, frantic vocals, and demonically prepared piano emerges on »Movement IV«.
At times, the idea behind the work is more fascinating than the sound itself, but all in all, Phantom Orchestra is a dazzling, slightly mad experiment, driven by a will to create harmony in chaos. A final echo of the pandemic – of standing together while apart.
English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek