LANDING is without a doubt my biggest accomplishment to date as a solo artist. It was my decision to manifest myself as a solo artist that brought the project to life, and made me gather this amazing crew of musicians and make this album.
Before this album I had been part of numerous bands, which I was a founding member of, and released albums that contained my compositions, but in a form that came very close to "traditional music".
In the liner notes I wrote: A landing is both a movement and a state of being. It can be the final part of a journey from one place to another, but also finding your feet and creating balance in a new situation.
This album embodies both. A movement through more than fifteen years of writing music, album releases, and tours, to a new standing point where compositions that lacked a home can take root and flourish on their own terms.
I wanted to create a place for those of my compositions that needed to become "pieces" instead of "tunes", but I still wanted to maintain the importance of the tunes in the pieces.
I also wanted to go beyond what you would expect of a Nordic folk composer, simply because I wanted my own sound, and not duplicate other bands in this category. I simply wanted to expand people's perception of "the Nordic folk sound". So I came up with the idea to use instruments that historically has a connection to traditional folk music in Denmark.
I decided to bring in tuba, cimbalom, percussion and fiddles, as they are have in common that they have been a part of traditional music in Denmark - not together, however, but in connection with different peoples or hierarchies in society. Somewhere along the way, I realized that these instruments had all been - at some point in Danish history - either outlawed or frowned upon, which gave me the idea to call this unusual kind of music "forbidden folk". I am still working on that concept, and I am not sure exactly where it's going to lead yet, but something fun will come out of it, I am sure!
The band got together for the first time in late 2020 and the beginning 2021, because I had to play an entrance exam to get into the National Academy of Music in Esbjerg to become an advanced postgraduate in Contemporary Creative Art. I got in and was told at the entrance exam by the head of department, composer and multiinstrumentalist, Thommy Andersson, that he hoped I would continue with this band. I took this as a big testament to its uniqueness and appeal towards people with an interest in investigating any and all possibilities in music to make something new.
Fast forward - a few months before my son was born, I recorded this album - the debut album of Maja Kjær si Orkester - in Copenhagen with Louise Nipper as sound tech, Ian Stephenson as the producer and a crew of amazing musicians: Jacob Hee Lund on percussion, Rasmus Svale on tuba and George Mihalache on cimbalom ('hakkebræt' in Danish). A few weeks after the Copenhagen session the next layer was recorded in Aarhus with Johan Toftegaard Knudsen on clarinet, soprano saxophone and baritone saxophone and Tim Ewé on trumpet. Lastly, a remote session with Signe Kierkgaards Schmidt on second violin was arranged in Gothenburg!
The whole thing was mixed by Ian Stephenson (also the producer) prior to him having to undergo surgery for a tumor in the brain. This added a whole other layer of gratitude and importance to the production for me. Ian had intended to master the music for me as well, but his condition and trying to get all at the time current projects done and off the table before his operation, he had to give in to the limited time he had available, and handed the mastering over to his good friend and colleague, Sam Proctor, who did a great job.
The album LANDING is out now, but I'm actually still only finding out how to position and balance these instruments in a way that allows each of them to bring their greatest strengths into the music. It's really hard, but also a lot of fun testing different approaches and ideas - it triggers my curiosity, and I simply want to try out every possible way to make them work together.
It was and still is a steep learning curve to decide to become a band leader and a solo publisher. Making the album was a really tough period because of different factors; all very human and just a part of life - but there were so many people involved, and they all had different needs, schedules, lives etc. It did give me more than a few new grey hairs to try to manage them all at once!
Looking back, however, I still would have gone into this project and released this album with all my strength, as I did, because I really learned a lot in the process - I became a better leader, a better composer, a wiser publisher and a wiser version of myself. Simple as that. The tough processes in life really can make you stronger, but also just wiser, and I like that very "down-to-earth" feeling of that fact.
I hope you will enjoy listening to the album - and I hope it now rings with a slightly fuller sound, now that you know its story and my reasons for making it.