Braskiri 2018
'Live at MCO'
When Peter Bjornild and Frans de Rond asked Braskiri to do this live recording, I - as the co-founder and composer of this ensemble - had to dig deep into my inspirational resources to come up with something new. After all, we had only recently released our second album, The Couch Principle, and obviously, we could not record the same pieces all over again. So I challenged myself to write a whole new repertoire for this recording session. I had about three months to do this, and it is amazing what a tight deadline can do. To my own surprise, I managed to write a new piece every week, for eight weeks straight (besides my normal daily tasks). It was as if through this way of composing, every day life seeped into my music. And before I knew it, I had eight pieces that perfectly reflected this period of my life. They could not have been written any other way, that is how I see it now, and it makes it the most personal album I wrote.
The compositional process of that period is reflected in 'The Bermuda Triad': getting lost in triads, as a compositional crutch, sucking you to the bottom of a musical shipwreck. 'Call from the Green Tower' tells about a lovely view: the church tower of St. Hubert's, from a window at my parents’ house. The simple but strong melody just popped into my head, while practicing my trumpet skills at my mom's. The personal struggles of every day life in 'The Traveler' are my demented father’s struggles - the man who taught me to read music, and who is now traveling the whole world in his head. ‘Into the World' is about my son, who is almost ready to begin his own life, and is taking his first brave steps into a new world. Then of course, there is my cat, that occasionally walks by and asks for food... and claws at me in thankful return - in 'The Bogeyman’s Cat. 'Love Theme' comes from the love I get from my family when we do the things we do, that in turn enable me to do the things I do. And then there is the interaction with the audience when we play, expressed in 'Intertwined'. As audience and musicians you briefly touch one another's lives. After the music everyone continues upon their own path again, but not without warm memories of what we shared during the concert.
I think Frans has done a wonderful job capturing this concert with the utmost precision and dedication. I was stunned by the natural sound he is able to produce with just one – very special – microphone. Of course, I also must mention Peter here, who was the one who contracted us, inspired us and took care of all the things a production like this cannot do without.