Andreas Borregaard
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Jamen så gør vi det bare!
Andreas Borregaard: »Solo Act 2: Just Do It!«
Andreas Borregaard. © Borealis Festival
På den norske Borealis Festival præsenterer den danske akkordeonist Andreas Borregaard to meget forskellige videoværker (tilgængelige online til og med 18. april, red.). I det første, Philip Venables og Ted Huffmans My Favourite Piece Is the Goldberg Variations, fortæller Borregaard sin mors livshistorie, mens falmede hjemmevideoer flimrer i baggrunden og hans dramatiske akkordeonspil på én og samme tid modarbejder og understøtter fortællingen.
Det er akkordeonet, som får en banalitet som »I felt better with him around / he was always holding my hand« til at lyde som hårdt tjent livserfaring, og som fremhæver den knusende melankoli i børnesangen »Bjerget i skoven«. Med få, velvalgte virkemidler formidler Borregaard på smukkeste vis en fortælling om kærlighed og tab, om tosomhed og ensomhed. Det er en udsøgt sanseliggørelse af hverdagen.
Anderledes forholder det sig med det andet værk, Marcela Lucatelli og Kirstine Fogh Vindelevs Drift. Her spiller Borregaard skingre, skrattende lyde på sit akkordeon iført en gylden latexheldragt, gentager omkvædet fra Rod Stewarts »Sailing«, som var det et mantra, tilfører »Alle sømænd er glade for piger« en helt ny, homoerotisk tekst, laver fjollede grimasser iført paryk og læbestift og vandrer forvildet rundt i snevejr klædt ud som et kæmpe insekt.
Programteksten fortæller, at værket inddrager elementer fra Borregaards virkelige liv, hvilket forekommer mig usandsynligt, medmindre han er hovedpersonen i Kafkas Metamorfosen. Jeg er en stor beundrer af Lucatellis arbejde som vokalist, men må nok indrømme, at jeg ikke forstod Drift. Jeg sad tilbage med følelsen af, at værket forsøgte at sige noget om køn og seksualitet, men præcis hvad, blev aldrig tydeligt for mig. Omvendt er det måske en fejl at lede efter et budskab frem for blot at hengive sig til værkets arbsurdisme.
© Guannan Kang
自由即兴创作比性爱更好! – »Free improvisation is better than sex.« According to drummer Kresten Osgood, the saying is attributed to Confucius. Whether the ancient Chinese philosopher ever uttered those words is doubtful. But the quote perfectly captures the spirit of one of the most unusual events at this year's Copenhagen Jazz Festival.
From 7–11 July, pianist Søren Kjærgaard and drummer Kresten Osgood will take over CC Taste on Amagerbrogade, performing daily from 2–4 pm among diners, dim sum and steaming hot pots.
© Laura Cecilie Krogtoft
»Music, for us, is a fusion of different consciousnesses into a single shared focal point.«
The band Selvhenter was founded in 2010 by trombonist Maria Bertel, saxophonist Sonja LaBianca, violinist Maria Diekmann, and drummers Jaleh Negari and Anja Jacobsen. In 2017, Maria Diekmann left the group, and Selvhenter continued as a quartet.
Selvhenter’s sound is driven by a deep fascination with sonic textures, rhythmic displacements and polyrhythms, acoustic and electronic melodies, hard-hitting compositional choices, improvised beauty, and a sheer joy of creating and performing music. Selvhenter has played concerts both in Denmark and internationally. The group is also the nucleus of the artist collective Eget Værelse, which houses the members’ solo projects as well as collaborations such as Valby Vokalgruppe, SOLW, Nina Garcia & Maria Bertel, and G.E.K.
© PR
»Music for me remembers.«
Håkon Guttormsen is a Norwegian composer and trumpeter living in Copenhagen. He is educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and the Royal Academy of Rhythmic Music. He primarily composes scores for ensembles as well as music drama and opera. He is currently working on a work for solo violin and electronics for ILK Music’s concert series during CPH Jazz 2026 and on his first symphonic work, which will premiere at the academy in 2027. He is a member of nyMusik’s composer group in Norway and a board member of UNM Denmark.
Deadly Serious Play at Louisiana
Simon Steen-Andersen, Håkon Stene, Tanja Orning: »Nye klange på Louisiana – Portrætkoncert med Simon Steen Andersen«
© Camilla Stephan
New Sounds at Louisiana is an initiative in which the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art has invited the record label Dacapo and the music publisher Edition S to curate concerts featuring living composers. Simon Steen-Andersen was the first composer in the series, and he seized the opportunity to assemble a programme that was not only overwhelming and exhilarating, but also deeply unsettling. Lasting an hour, the concert unfolded as a continuous sequence in which each work flowed seamlessly into the next, forming a single extended statement of at least part of the composer’s artistic practice and philosophy.
Combining video and live performance, the concert served as a manifestation of several of Steen-Andersen’s key artistic strategies. Central among them are techniques of estrangement and defamiliarisation, exemplified by Asthma (2017) for accordion, air pumps, and video, a work that explores and interrogates human breathing in all its positive and negative dimensions. Amid the many grotesque and humorous scenes – accompanied by Håkon Stene’s brilliant Foley-style soundtrack of air noises, sound effects, and spoken commentary – a brief clip of brutal police violence suddenly appears. In it, an officer methodically sprays pepper spray into the faces of handcuffed demonstrators. In that instant, everything else no longer seems quite so funny, and the crooked smile freezes.
The concert was a veritable sensory bombardment. Presenting all the works attacca undoubtedly created a powerful sense of flow, but it also left the audience almost saturated with impressions. Even so, the subsequent conversation between Simon Steen-Andersen and music critic and author Thomas Michelsen felt far too brief. Yet the composer succeeded in making his point: everything he does, he said, is a form of »deadly serious play.« Exactly.
© Simon Bendix Borregaard
»Music for me is a constant movement (in me). It is a constantly changing song in my head. Music can be calming and uplifting, and it can give me answers that I didn’t know existed. Music guides me through life – whether it is the biggest and best moments of my life, or difficult periods. Music is also a community where new thoughts and ideas can come to life. Community is not a competition, but a way to move forward together.«
Troels H. Sørensen is the booking and program manager at the Skråen venue in North Jutland. He is a former manager at 1000Fryd. Together with Casper Clasen, he runs the Lasher Agency and is responsible for the Lasher Fest festival, among other things. Sørensen plays in the band Vægtløs and has previously been in various bands from the Aalborg underground and has released records through his cooperative record label 5FeetUnder Records.