On the way to brighter times

It is early New Year's Eve 2020-21, there is a Moroccan in my oven tagine and simmer with a delicious vegan meal that I look forward to eating a little later in the evening, there is a bottle in the cooler Copenhagen Kombucha brewed with Oolong tea, which will make up for the evening's champagne, and on Spotify the Milanese mezzo-soprano sings Cecilia Bartoli Rossini.

My youngest son Carl Alfred moved in the autumn to Valby with his girlfriend, and these days is preparing for the last months in 3G at Frederiksberg High School. My eldest son Swede Alfred was just home for a few months in the fall before he sailed via Poland to Berlin to work there. At the time of writing, he is on his way to Portugal to work at a small shipyard nearby Lisbon. Both boys are happy despite all the challenges and I am very proud of them both.

As you know, it has been a strange year with political unrest, i.a. in the US, and the corona virus all over the world with the consequent stoppage of virtually all travel and tour activity.

I think it's the first time in 35 years that I haven't been outside Denmark's borders for a whole year, and even though I don't really miss the airports and the flights in particular, I still miss getting around with my music and meeting my Danish and foreign friends friends and acquaintances.

I have spent the time developing, organizing, recording and editing podcasts about folk music, composing and recording music, and preparing for times to get better so we can get out and play our music again.

If you want to hear some of the podcasts I have produced under the auspices of RadioFolk.dk, then you can e.g. listen to the current affairs podcast The Cat in the Sack here. 

The cat in the sack is about the Danish folk music scene right now, and has been published roughly once a month since 2014, and it will continue to do so in 2021, financially supported by e.g. the genre organization Temp and The Norwegian Art Foundation. Thank you!

At the beginning of 2021, the first episodes of the podcast will also be published 'Inspiration – where does the music come from?', which is about writing songs and music, about the craft and about the power of inspiration. It is supported by Koda Culture. We thank you for that too!

We have already produced the first two episodes of Inspiration, and are waiting for something new in the hope that we can record the third episode, which will be with songwriter MC Hansen in Copenhagen Folk Club on 20 January. If we can get permission for that cat's corona virus. (The article continues after the video).

2020 was also the year when singer and percussionist Mia Guldhammer and I should have recorded our debut album live at the festival Music over Præstø, but the Danish festivals were canceled as you know, and we have now started recording at Louise Nippersay hers Soundscape Studio in Frederiksberg with a team of fantastic guest musicians.

We recorded the video above in November in the prison which is located above the old church The castle on Østerbro in Copenhagen. We sing and play the old 'Hyttevisen' together with the lovely soprano saxophonist Charlotte Andersson, who will also play on our upcoming album.

If you would like to know more about the project, and perhaps support us by pre-ordering and paying for one or more copies of the album, click here!

We expect our debut album 'Trail, Wire & Tradition' can be published in the spring of 2021, and of course we are very much looking forward to that.

Now we are all just waiting for the new year to bring joy, hope and relatively normal conditions so that we can all come out and play and sing and dance. And with this innocent but heartfelt wish for the new year, I hereby say goodbye and see you out there where the music lives. Now it's dinner time. See you!