Blomsten
Pladsen
Blomsten, Pladsen
“Pladsen” is the debut album from the Copenhagen based group Blomsten. The quartet works with percussion, drums and cymbals in a circular choreography assembled as one instrument in the shape of a flower (Danish: blomsten).
Each player shares a small setup consisting of a flipped bass drum, a snare drum and a cymbal, bongos and small objects united in a cascading configuration. The possibilities and limitations of this unusual joint drum kit marks the baseline from which Blomsten works.
The group consists of four artists who have previously worked together in an array of projects, but the quartet manifested itself when they played together in the Aar & Dag tentet on the LP “Tifold af Fri Form og Fælles Motiv” in 2021.
The four performers share an explorative and open attitude in their playing. They approach their compositions in an egalitarian and collective manner, developing interdependent parts together, using improvisation as the seed that propagates into new musical organisms - spontaneous, anarchic and highly organized, all at once.
The circular architecture of the drum layout allows the performers to use physical movement and gestures as an integrated part of their compositions. This doesn’t only make it a fascinating sight to behold, to experience the quartet live, but also lends itself to a different sensibility of sound in how the hands of the four performers guide their sticks, brushes and mallets in new and unexpected ways, exploring the collective instrument. In conjunction with the setup there is an organic flow in the connection that comes from playing the same instrument as it allows the performer to dissolve into the sum of the whole and let the undertow be the principal guide.
“Pladsen” hints at blurred references from written music and ancestral drum traditions while sounding modern and unconstrained at the same time. The music alternates between rhythmic plateaus, tonal states and phasing rhythms, weaving and shifting in circular shapes: at times ceremonial, calm and scored and at times in flux - absorbed in rich, swirling textures and dense energetic sound. The playing almost simulates a living entity, merging the four players into an aural embodiment of an eight-armed organism.
Digital Release: April 1st, 2024
Percussion and drums: Mads Forsby, Anders Bach, Victor Dybbroe and Anders Vestergaard
Recorded by: John Fomsgaard
Mix: Anders Bach
Master: Kassian Troyer @ Dubplates & Mastering
Cover: Michael Mørkholt
År & Dag 2024