in brief
05.07.2022

På med den hvide kittel

Quatuor Umlaut & Joris Rühl: »Calques«
© Quatuor Umlaut & Joris Rühl: »Calques«
© Quatuor Umlaut & Joris Rühl: »Calques«

Nogle komponister føler sig stadig draget af at trække i den hvide kittel, sådan som mange gjorde det i efterkrigstiden for at se musikken gennem mikroskop. Lidt videnskabsmand har man vel lov at være.

Den kategori hører franske Karl Naegelen til, hører man på albummets titelværk for klarinetkvintet – over en halv time zoomer komponisten ind og ud på nervøse strygerklange i tætte klynger, men fletter også pludselige temperamenter ind i musikken.

Strukturen minder næsten om en gyserfilm. Ud af ingenting kan klarinetten blive helt løbsk og lyde som en frø i drabelig dødskamp. Calques (2020) pendulerer mellem små bevægelser i stilstanden og hidsige fortællende elementer. Men narrativ drift er der egentlig ikke; det er først og fremmest ‘undersøgelsen’ af klang og multiphonics, der interesserer Naegelen.

Lyder det – som så megen anden dybdelytningsmusik – en smule tørt? Måske, men musikerne gør, hvad de kan for at holde liv i tonerne. Det er en kvalitetsindspilning. Det hører man også på albummets mere klassiske værk, Morton Feldmans Clarinet and String Quartet (1983).

Her tegner langsomme gentagelser og tvære strygerklange en fortabthed op, som klarinetten søger ud af uden rigtig at tro på foretagendet. Næsten romantisk og i hvert fald kun blødt radikalt lyder det lange værk i dag.

Jeg har det vanskeligt med musikkens hang til indspist mikroskoperi. Lad os da bruge undersøgelserne til noget. Det bliver lidt høvisk. Men delikat lyder det.

© PR

»Music is, to us, a kind of closed club of nepotism, networking and Copenhagen cowboy energy. But in reality, it’s got nothing to do with expensive guitars or technical skill. For us, music is something you can feel in your chest, or something that gives you goosebumps. The best concerts are when someone screams so earnestly that the rest of us don’t have to. The best music expresses emotions in a way that would get you picked up by an ambulance if you did it out on the street. For us, music should fuck with the people who have it too comfortable, and give those who have it fucked a feeling that they’re not alone. Boom. And what the fuck is a chord and a key anyway? Kisses from Nightmaries.«

Nightmaries blend saws, guitars and voices into a dark-country, no-wave, cowboy-doom nightmare. They create the kind of soundtrack that feels like a fever dream you somehow don’t want to wake up from. As the world gets stranger and darker, Nightmaries lean into the madness, serving up slow-burning songs that creep under your skin like a poison that takes its sweet time. Put on your favourite steel-toe boots, dip your smoky eyes in an ashtray, and prepare yourself for sloppy doom with punk energy.

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»To me, music is love. I love how music allows you to skip the small talk and connect directly with people’s innermost selves. It is an extraordinary and moving way to meet one another.«

Fenja wrote her first song at the age of twelve – about a polar bear dying due to climate change – and themes of existentialism, nature, and her own sensitive nature came to define the lyrics and sound she has since developed. She released her debut album, Flugtdyr, in 2021, and in February 2026, she released the album Menneskedyr.

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© PR

Danish composer Sofus Forsberg has died at the age of 56. With his distinctive blend of melodic sensibility, electronic processing and rhythmic precision, he created a musical world that moved effortlessly between IDM, pop and the avant-garde.

© Simon Weyhe

»Music for me is my hobby, my job, my outlet, my mood, an endless source of discovering new music and new, old music, some of the best and can be some of the worst. And I love it!« 

Track72 aka Tue Track aka Anders Lundby Brixen. Producer, DJ, rapper and more. Known for his role in the trio Malk De Koijn, which since the mid-1990s has created a personal universe in Danish hip-hop. Has performed in Ponyblod, Xtra Naan, Track Abdullah Rock, Booty Cologne and others.

© PR
© PR

On Wednesday, 5 August 2026, it happened again: a chord in John Cage’s Organ2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) changed after two and a half years. Classic FM reports.

The work was written by the American avant-garde composer John Cage in the mid-1980s. The score consists of eight pages of music, and, as the title suggests, the instruction is to play it »as slow as possible.«