Omdrejninger: S/T

Release date: 26-05-2017

Omdrejninger is a unique project conceived by sound-installation artist Christian Skjødt and composer, and guitarist Mark Solborg aiming at investigating and challenging the listening experience for both musicians and audience. A site-specific work for ensemble, space and loudspeakers. Solborg and Skjødt call it a spatial instrument. It is played by these amazing artists:

Axel Dörner - Trumpet and electronics
Ingar Zach - Gran Cassa and percussion
Jakob Kullberg - Cello
Michael Rexen - Voice
Mark Solborg - Guitar and devices
Christian Skjødt - Processing, Shortwave-radio and RC Oscillator


In brief the music consists of composed and improvised pieces played by a handpicked ensemble and then processed through a system developed and designed specifically for the project. The system (the patch) can only treat what it receives from the ensemble and the microphones. Delay, enlarge, distort, sample, and geographical displace through the speakers in different patterns and tempi. The audience is placed around the ensemble, the loudspeakers around everybody. An original version of a contemporary and very special listening experience. Another type of communication of relatively abstract music and sound.

The first version of Omdrejninger was a commission by the Wundergrund festival, premiered  in KoncertKirken at Nørrebro. The participants was, besides Skjødt and Solborg, the legendary german trumpet-player Axel Dörner, cellist Jakob Kullberg, vocalist Michael Rexen  and drummer Bjørn Heebøll. It was an intense  and unique experience for both audience and musicians.

“..a sensation of a spatial instrument with the powers to lift and take off with all of us.” - Laura Berivan Nilsson, Omlyd

During Copenhagen Jazzfestival 2015 another edition was brought to life. This time with an explosive combination of Dörner, the Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach, Solborg and Skjødt.

Both editions where recorded in sound and picture by The Lake Radio, John Fomsgaard, a.o. Then it was processed, mixed and mastered by Solborg and Skjødt in collaboration with true experts within the field. The result is a limited deluxe 2x180g vinyl album with two visual renditions by director and cutter Laurits Flensted-Jensen in video-format with surround audio (5.1.) on a USB stick and a photo-montage with pictures by Peter Ganushkin, Hanne Budtz-Jørgensen and Raphael Frisenvænge. The release is also available in a reduced version on CD and digitally.

Omdrejninger holds a dense and nuanced sound-universe in many layers. We recommend good listening equipment, or headphones , for a full and detailed experience.

Watch a video here.
More info here.

_ _ _ _

This album and the performances of Omdrejninger are supported by Gong Tomorrow, Koncertkirken Blågård, Statens Kunstfond, DJBFA / Komponister og Sangskrivere and Koda, Dansk Kapelmesterforening, Goethe-Institut Dänemark and JazzDanmark.

Reviews:

The album was included in a series of releases that Jazz Special finds particularly interesting.

Live: "..Indescribable beauty. A vertiginous symphony of sound that spellbound the audience for the duration of the concert." The album: "It is generous, sublime, innovative and epochal, and deserves the greatest attention far beyond the realms of contemporary music…" - Jazz Special

…you become one with the sound .. Communication-wise this is some of the most impressing I have seen in a long time from Danish artists ….if you’re into experimental and abstract music this album is no. 1. on your future shopping list – Niels Overgaard, Jazznyt


★★★★★ (5/5)
“…this project presents a fascinating, even illuminating, listening experience. Each listening session deepens the intense, captivating power of this work, revealing more and more nuances, colors, shapes and textures. You feel that you can drawn into the meditative, sometimes turbulent breaths of Dörner, stroked by the wise, minimalist touches of Solborg and Zach or charmed by the eccentric-ecstatic vocals of Rexen. A highly stimulating, almost hallucinogenic experience is guaranteed.” – Eyal Hareuveni, freejazzblog.org


Downbeat News on Omdrejninger release concert at Copenhagen Jazzfestival 2017:
..a highly controlled flair for placement and timing .. whirling sonic delicacy.

"En usædvanlig lp med eksperimenterende gruppemusik og et prægtigt visuelt tilbehør. ..Her rejser sig en særlig dramatik og dynamik. Især D-siden fascinerer med sine langsomt tiltende klange og en eventyrlig udvikling, der bl.a. implicerer Jakob Kullbergs billedskabende cello og små, rablende ting fra Rexens mund."  - Politiken.