Ambient artist Christian Balvig announces debut album & shares new single ‘Where All Is’
(Photo by Michael C Madsen) On May 12th, Danish ambient composer Christian Balvig is set to release his debut solo album “Night Poem”. The album is an ode to and from the night, a rebellion against constant stimuli, and a meticulous hunt for ghost notes and the almost imperceptible sound of piano keys. Today he has shared the first single to be taken from the album, “Where All Is”.
Christian Balvig is known for his work scoring the hit Scandinavian drama series “Cry Wolf (Walter Presents)” as well as his work with Danish band Efterklang, renowned orchestras like The Royal Danish Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic and The Danish Chamber Orchestra. This will be his first album as a solo artist.
Of his new single, Balvig says: “The track is based on a live recording from my family cabin, recorded on my fathers childhood piano. It’s circling around the fact that every object has a hidden history that might be of equal importance as the condition or appearance of that same object. The piano is far from mint condition and has lived a long life, but still, it is one of my absolute favourite instruments to play, cause I feel so connected to its hidden history. Later I added the universe of synths and choirs. ‘Where All Is’ is placed as the ending track on the record Night Poem, with a hint of sunrise at the end of a long night of stories and dreams.”
Balvig had been commissioned to compose a work for a string sextet in response to Schönberg’s “Verklärte Nacht”. That in turn became a night concert, the live recording of which was some of the first material the composer brought to the summerhouse where he continued to rework it.
“I spent a lot of time awake in the nighttime, playing on top of those recordings,” he explains. As a result “In The Night” is made up primarily of live recordings from that night. Here’s a first track, “Where All Is”.
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