in brief

31.10.2021

Sange på gennemrejsen

Hans Rønne: »Over Vadehavet – musikalsk ode til himlens fugle«

»Over Vadehavet«. © Per Pedersen

Da St. St. Blicher i 1838 skrev Trækfuglene: En Naturkoncert, følte han, døden snappede ham i hælene. Melankolien hviler over digtsamlingen, men også en længsel mod naturen og rejsen. I Hans Rønnes nye forestilling Over Vadehavet skeles der til Blichers lyriske hovedværk – med ny dramatisk tekst af Jens Kepny Kristensen og musik af Uta Motz. Tre amatørornitologer, Frikke, Iversen og Gram, sidder på deres vante observationspladser og småskændes om, hvem der har set flest fugle i år. Gæs skræpper foroven. Naturen synger for mennesket. Samtidig gennemsyres det hjemlige af udlængslen. Buret er ved at sprænges. Frikke, søn af Iversen, længes bort. For også han er kun her på træk. Men vil moren lade ham sprede sine vinger?

Rønne kalder forestillingen en musikalsk ode til himlens fugle. Det er den også – til dels. Der synges uddrag af Blichers egne tekster, og Motz eksperimenterer med fugletællerens mekaniske rytme i tandem med skuespillernes 'mimicry' af fuglenes sang og lyde. Det sidste kunne der have været mere af. Der er et stort potentiale i at lade menneskestemmer åbne sig mod mere dyriske toner. Det sker desværre kun glimtvis i Over Vadehavet.

Det er dog stadig et fint, lille værk. På et tidspunkt når vi at kede os. Sådan er det at se på fugle. Man venter i dage, før man spotter en eleonorafalk eller en citronfinke. Dette afspejles i fortællingen, som tager en uventet drejning, da de tre karakterer tvinges til at gøre op med vante opfattelser af ophav og tilhørsforhold. Kedsomhed er en formidabel aktør i udviklingen af 'suspense'. Fuglene bliver det gennemgående motiv, der illustrerer figurernes tanker om endelighed og frihed.

playlist

03.10

My name is Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek – would you like to see my playlist?

»Recently, I discovered that when a couple of thousand people clap their thick gloves in minus 30 degrees, it sounds like the softest techno – a freezing space where the cold air turns into a wave of warmth, and we, in a moment of collective devotion, become one with the rhythm, one with the invisible bond that connects us in the warmth of silence. Music is not just sounds, but a vain attempt to capture the infinite, which has always been and always will be.«

Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek has been the editor-in-chief of Seismograf since 2021. He is also a music critic and cultural journalist at Kristeligt Dagblad and Århus Stiftstidende/Avisen Danmark and has over the years written to publications such as Kunsten.nu, Glissando (Poland), Neural (Italy), Raw Vision (UK), Nutida Musik (Sweden), Kunstkritikk (DK/Sweden), Iscene.dk, B.T., and Jazz Special. He is the author (together with Lars Muhl) of the book HVA' SAA! En guidet rutsjebanetur gennem Aarhus – før, nu og i fremtiden (2024) and has also contributed to the anthology on music criticism Man skal høre meget (ed. Thomas Michelsen and Claus Røllum-Larsen, 2024). He is a founder and partner in the Polish-Danish cultural organization Kultur(a), and wherever there is a piano, he will be there, eager to coax a melody from it.

playlist

02.10

My name is Aria Leth Schütze – would you like to see my playlist?

»For me, music is an opportunity for transformation.«

Aria Leth Schütze is based in Copenhagen and is the creative force behind the music projects Alto Aria and Samler På Dig. They are a co-founder of the record label Rhizome and a co-editor of the music magazine Passive/Aggressive. Their practice brings together electronic and acoustic music in an exploration of transformation.

playlist

02.10

My name is Mikkel Krause Frantzen – would you like to see my playlist?

»For me, music is the art form that – if measured in hours and minutes – occupies by far the greatest part of my life. I cannot sing, nor can I play an instrument, but I can listen – as a happy amateur – while cycling, on the dance floor, and, above all, at the office. I almost always work – that is, write – to music.«

Mikkel Krause Frantzen (b. 1983) is an associate professor at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, a literary critic for Politiken, and the author of several books in English and Danish, such as En fremtid uden Fremtid (2018), Klodens Fald (2021), and Slutspil (2024).

playlist

28.09

Mit navn er David Dyrholm – vil du se min playliste?

»Music is what gets my gears turning. It sets both my body and mind in motion – and on a good day, even gets them up to speed. My listening habits are entirely shaped by my mood... and by the musical tastes of my two children, which shift every eight minutes... so the home stereo gets exposed to a bit of everything. In a way, that’s exactly how it should be. Room for everything and everyone.«

David Dyrholm (b. 1990) is a food and music critic for Politiken, focusing on jazz – ranging from the traditional to the modern—and avant-garde music. Alongside this, he has worked for the Modern Jazz Days festival, served on the jury for the DMA Jazz awards, and previously released a number of records with the hip-hop collective DoktorDoktor.

in briefrelease

25.09

An Organ in the Dark Forest of Doubt

Calum Builder: »Although Changed, I Arise the Same«

Thanatosis, 25.09

Kristoffer Møllegaard

Last year, Builder released Poor_in_Spirit, an album in which he explored, on his own, the sonic possibilities of his self-built organ. It was an album shaped by this exploration, but ultimately also by the limitations of the organ itself. On Although Changed, I Arise the Same, the composer finds a way beyond them.

The organ is now joined by three additions: Builder’s own alto saxophone, along with the voices of Zola Mennenöh and Johanna Sulkunen. It makes all the difference, providing the diversity of instrumentation that Builder has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to compose for. At times, the organ’s bass sinks beneath the voices and saxophone like a light haze; at others, it envelops them in a heavy fog. It howls like wind in the trees and roars like a train in the night. Mennenöh and Sulkunen sing, chant and breathe simple, repetitive phrases about spiritual uncertainty and searching, as though lost in the dark forest of doubt.

It is a Spartan form of storytelling, giving the listener enough lyricism and atmosphere to set the mind in motion, but never so much that it becomes overwhelming. This is where Builder’s strength lies: his music clearly grows out of his life and experiences, yet he composes in such a way that the listener is invited to enter the story with their own imagination.

Builder determines the colours, but leaves part of the picture to the listener. It is an album that is far more restrained in its dramaturgy than previous releases. No less beautiful or inspiring for it.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek