Reflections on 2024 and a look into 2025

It’s been a while since I updated this space. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reflecting on the year gone by - what worked, what didn’t, and how I want to approach 2025. It’s easy to let time drift by, one task leading to the next, without stepping back to check where things are headed. This holiday, I’ve made an effort to pause and take stock.

New responsibilities at Koncertkapellet

This year began with a significant change. On January 1st, I stepped into the Kapelvært (chapel host) role at Koncertkapellet in Roskilde, a concert house for acoustic music. It’s a fantastic space, both acoustically and atmospherically, and it comes with a Steingraeber C-212 grand piano that’s a true joy.

This wasn’t a planned move - I wasn’t looking for a day job as such. But the opportunity came up, and it ticked all the right boxes: music-related, flexible, and full of variety. It felt like the kind of role that could keep me rooted while still leaving room for my own projects. Now, a year in, I’m settling into the rhythm of it.

It’s been an adjustment, balancing this new responsibility with my creative work. After years of freelancing, committing to something more structured felt a bit daunting, but it’s been rewarding. I’ve been involved in shaping something meaningful, and while it’s taken a lot of focus, it hasn’t taken me away from music or the other parts of my life that matter.

A tough year in the garden

The garden didn’t have its best year, though.

I started the season with a solid plan and plenty of motivation. But the reality of a fox picking off my ducks, followed by weeks and weeks of relentless rain, threw everything off. The rain brought an army of slugs, and without ducks to keep them in check, the sprouts I planted were gone by the following day. By midsummer, I had to admit defeat and leave the sad leftovers to the slimy beast.

There were also wins, though. The polytunnel produced a decent haul of tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplants. Early potatoes, garlic, and peas made it through, as well. And I got four Muscovy ducks to patrol the garden. In September, one of them hatched 16 ducklings. Now, with 20 ducks in total, I’m gearing up for a better season in 2025.

The plan for next year is to be more prepared. I’ve put up an electric fence for foxes, moved the chickens to the garden over winter to scratch for slug eggs, and a more focused planting strategy. Beans, tomatoes, kale, garlic, squash, and flowers are on the list. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Music

Having two active bands - Klingra and Afenginn - means I’m always balancing multiple creative projects, and while both have had their share of focus, Klingra has been the more active this past year. Here’s a closer look at what 2024 brought for each.

Klingra

This year was a significant one for Klingra. Our debut album, …eftir, was awarded the Faroese Music Award for Alternative Album of the Year—a moment that felt like a deep acknowledgment of the work and vision behind the project. While I couldn’t attend the ceremony myself, watching Dánjal and Heðin accept the award on stage was a proud and humbling experience. I caught the moment live on Faroese television. Watch it here.

We also released …droplets / dropar…, a 212-page coffee table book that goes beyond being a companion to the album. Designed by Liv Anastasia Ikkala and published by Sprotin, the book is an immersive dive into the themes and stories that shaped the music. It weaves together poetry, photography, personal anecdotes, and traditional Faroese recipes to paint a vivid picture of life in the far north.

At its heart is the story of Færingehavn, a remote Greenlandic harbour where generations of Faroese fishermen endured icy waters and harsh conditions to provide for their families. Through collected anecdotes, letters, and reflections from Abbi (Dánjal’s late grandfather whose voice threads through the book), …droplets / dropar… explores resilience, longing, and the connection between people and place.

It’s also a deeply personal work, blending stories of loss and solidarity with poetic reflections inspired by the lyrics of …eftir. For anyone who wants to go beyond the music, the book offers a window into the soul of Klingra. Read more about it here.

On the live front, Klingra toured both Denmark and the Faroe Islands this year, performing as a trio and as a full band. Each format brings its own dynamic energy, and I’ve loved exploring how the music evolves in different settings.

Another exciting development is our collaboration with Second to the Left, a new booking agency that now represents both Klingra and Afenginn. I’m thrilled to see where this partnership takes us.

Afenginn

Afenginn had its own highlights this year, even though it’s been a quieter period for the band compared to Klingra. A standout moment was our performance at the Heartland Festival, where the entire extended Afenginn family came together. With 11 musicians on stage and many of our families present, the weekend felt like a celebration! The energy of that gathering stayed with me long after the show and brought a lot of good energy.

Looking ahead, 2025 marks the beginning of an ambitious new chapter: the Movements trilogy. This three-part series of albums is a single, interconnected piece of music - a 100–120-minute journey designed for both listening and movement. Each album will feature two immersive, 20-minute compositions, blending acoustic and electronic elements in an organic and expansive way.

The trilogy will explore themes of flow, chaos, stillness, and transformation. It’s music that invites a physical response, whether through dancing, swaying, or simply letting the rhythms carry you. The instrumentation will be rooted in the familiar - clarinet, violin, mandolin, piano, cello, and percussion - but layered with subtle electronic textures to create something otherworldly.

The first album, with the working title Movements I, begins production in six weeks with Heðin Ziska Davidsen (yes, the same Heðin as in Klingra) as producer. The plan is to release singles throughout 2025, with the full album arriving in September. Movements II and Movements III will follow in the upcoming years.

This trilogy is both a challenge and a thrill to create. It’s a step into new territory for Afenginn, blending the meditative with the dynamic, the structured with the spontaneous. I’m eager to see how it takes shape and to share it with audiences in the coming years.

Health and balance

On a personal level, 2024 has reminded me of the importance of balance. Sleep is a work in progress - I’ve always been an early riser, but that only works if I’m disciplined about early nights. Regular exercise, fresh air, and limiting screens in the evening are things I’m focusing on.

I’m also trying to be more mindful about how much I take on. I love what I do, but it’s easy to overextend, especially when the work is meaningful. This year, I want to carve out more space for rest and recharge, without losing the momentum in the things that matter.

Looking forward

2025 feels like a clean slate, with plenty to look forward to. There’s the trilogy project with Afenginn, another season in the garden, and hopefully some time to experiment with ambient music and production. And new Klingra stuff as well. Bring it on!

Faroese Music Awards nominations

I've got some good news to share. The Klingra album "...eftir" has landed us nominations in not one, but two categories at the Faroese Music Awards 2024. We're up for "Ársins Myndlistarligi Samleiki" (Artistic Identity of the Year) and "Ársins Ser-Útgáva" (Special Edition of the Year).

Creating "...eftir" was a journey full of creativity and hard work, and seeing it get recognised like this feels pretty special. I’m super thankful to everyone at the Faroese Music Awards for considering our work.

The awards night is happening on March 9th in Tórshavn. While it's exciting to be nominated, just being part of the Faroese music scene with so many talented artists is an honor in itself. We're keeping our expectations in check and looking forward to a fun evening, celebrating the amazing music that comes out of this little corner of the world.

Thanks for all your support, and here's to more music and good times ahead!

Check …eftir out here!

Afenginn join forces with Spectacle Music

I’m very happy to announce that Afenginn has joined forces with Spectacle Music, who will take care of the bookings from now on. Here’s the post copied from Afenginn’s website:

https://www.afenginn.net/posts-archive/spectacle

Spectacular news, ladies and gents and Afenginnados all over the universe - Afenginn joins forces with Spectacle Music 💥

We are overjoyed to share some great news with all of you - Afenginn has officially joined forces with the booking agency, Spectacle Music!

After some years of slightly lower live activity, where we’ve restructured, loaded up on new ideas and ambitions, this marks a significant and exciting milestone in our musical journey and road to supreme world domination.

In 2020 a lot of things happened (as well as didn't happen). We finished our tour with the Klingra album (from 2019) a few days before the whole shebang broke down. By then we'd performed the music on our third Australian tour, on a tour with 60 girls from Copenhagen Girls Choir in California, with symphony orchestras in Siberia, on tours in Germany and Denmark and a single show in Sweden as well.

During these tours it became more and more clear to us what this new music actually was about. And how strong the reactions to it were. What also became clear was how increasingly difficult it was to combine the music from the Klingra album with that from OPUS and earlier, at least in the same show. So while the world was on hold, Afenginn was restructured and like a cell divided in two parts and thus the Klingra band was founded. A new band with about half of the crew from the OPUS days, that would focus on the music from Klingra. Afenginn continued with the other half, the old hard core family. For a while the focus was on this new creature and new music came to life. Earlier this year Klingra released our debut album …eftir and toured in Scandinavia and keeps going. In this time Afenginn has been working more behind the scenes, making new plans, collaborations and dreams. And there’s good things in the pipeline. 

That’s also why we couldn't be more thrilled to have teamed up with Spectacle Music to take care of our bookings. They’re dedicated, passionate and committed, which aligns perfectly with our vision. We’re honored to share the roster with some phenomenal and internationally acclaimed acts like Atomic Swing (remember Stone Me Into The Groove?!), The Bluetones, Ba Balance, Kolonien, Symbio, Doctor Krápula, Lasse Aagaard, and Partiet, to name a few. Each of them amazing artists, and we are humbled to be in such esteemed company.

There’s new music on the way and good things to come. This partnership means bigger and better things are on the horizon. We're excited to bring our music to festivals, concert halls and venues in new corners of the world. 

Thank you for your support and for being a part of our little musical family. Onwards!!

Get in touch Jeppe from Spectacle Music at jeppe@udgiv.dk or www.spectacle.dk for booking enquiries and questions. Booking festivals and tours for 2024/25 now.

Award for Best Original Score

I’m in Greece at the moment and have been participating in the Short Encounters International Film Festival in Préveza. A really nice little town in northwestern Greece. This is what Wikipedia says:

Today Preveza is a commercial harbor and tourist hub, with a marina, 4 Museums, two cinemas, an open theatre, a music Hall (OASIS), many clubs, taverns, and cafes, benefiting from its proximity to the nearby Aktion National Airport and the nearby island of Lefkada, a major tourist destination.

…and an annual film festival, whichI had the honour to have been invited to. I did three small live performances during the award show and closing ceremony, presented the award for Best Original Score 2023 - and picked up the award for Best Original Score 2022 that I won last year for my work on Skilleveien, which you can listen to here, if you feel so inclined

Here’s a picture of the award. A real beauty made out of upcycled wood.

Thanks for having me!

Klingra release tour

It’s busy and exciting times here. The debut album from Klingra - “…eftir” - is ready, and has been for a good while actually, and the release is just around the corner. On the 14th of April the album will be released. There’s a lot of action around connected to that. Promo stuff to get people to know that it’s out there, sending the baby to this and that blog and playlist and media and and and. I’m really proud of the album and would, obviously, like loads of people hearing it.

But apart from all that office work, one of the most rewarding and fun things about this, is going on tour. We’re having a nice release tour lined up in Scandinavia. See the dates here:

Looking forward visiting these places and performing this music live. Hooray!

Tickets available at www.klingra.net/live

New year and first quarter overview

Happy New Year 2023. Here we go again. Another round. I like the feeling of a reboot when passing the winter solstice and going into a new year. The light is slowly returning and there’s a refreshed feeling of hope and focus. I usually spend some time on reflecting over the past year and making thoughts about the upcoming. Drafting out projects and plotting stuff in the calendar that have just been floating around in my mind or on the whiteboard. Now is a good time to find and give space for projects that is due to get concretised. To move them from the “Some day / Maybe” category to “Next action”.

So also this year. Although not quite ready with that yet, I’m starting to get a good overview of what the year might be serving. At least some of what is within my control. The two main buckets that I’ve been drafting on are music - in all the different shapes and forms that I’m fortunate enough to have a go at -, and gardening / self-sufficiency. Both very dear to me. And a good complement for each other. Music being more abstract and airy, gardening more concrete and earthy. Yin and yang.

These very days I’m finishing the scores and arrangements for Afenginn’s “Klingra album for a project that I’ll being doing with the Danish National Academy of Music in a few weeks. In a week I’ll be rehearsing the music with a group of students from there, and this ends with a performance at the Folk & Fæstival - festival in Esbjerg on February 3rd. I’m looking forward to the whole project!

Shortly after that we’ve finally managed to get a rehearsal camp in the calendar with the busy boys in Afenginn. We’ll be working on old and new music, making plans and hanging out. We’re celebrating 21 years since our first show as Afenginn in February and that calls for a toast as well!

In February the Klingra album “…eftir” will be released. This is something that I’m also really excited about. We’ve been releasing singles throughout the autumn and still have one more in the pipeline before the full album drops. From mid-April to beginning of May we’ll go on tour with that in Denmark, Sweden and Faroe Islands with the full 7-piece band. Much more Klingra stuff to be announced later.

And things are also moving with Roma’s and mine little duo Vielsted. We’ve been working quite actively lately with focus on the live production. We’ve come a long way and are ready to start getting this on the road as well. In the coming months we’re planning on booking some smaller shows and throwing ourselves out there in front of the roaring crowds. Watch out!

In addition to these three projects that are all moving forward on each of their tracks, I’m having plans on composing a new piece for classical ensemble with electronics. I’ve been working on the concepts and different ideas for this and I’m really enjoying diving into the rabbit holes of fractals and sequences and slow tempos and and and…

And then all the sowing and planting and building soil and all that will be happening in between. Hooray for that!

Happy New 2023 Year!

Heating with compost

A few weeks ago I got my compost heater ready. It’s been on the way for years, ever since I first learned about Jean Pain and his projects. I’m pretty interested in low tech off-grid solutions in general and I’ve been having this as my focus as I’ve been setting up my little dwelling. There’s a lot of clay here. Clay on the walls, around the windows, clay floor with floor heating and last year I built a rocket stove mass heater out of clay. I made it with a coil that’s heating water for the buffer tank, which then in turn sends heat into to floor. This way there’s a lot of mass to store excess heat in. The rocket stove is not any atomic reactor, but it gives off a nice amount of heat with pretty low input of firewood. And especially now, when the compost heater is running and providing a good basic temperature in the tank. So, the compost heater.

It’s basically a box, 2,5m deep, 2,8m wide and 2m high. Looked like this:

This was filled with a mix of wood chips and horse manure. The chips I got delivered a couple of months ago and were pretty dry after the hot and dry summer here, and needed to be watered a lot. The mix was about 10-20% horse manure and then the ret wood chips. The first layer is about 50 cm and then the first layer of coil was put in. I used a roll of floor heating pipe (120m long, ø20mm) and about half of it in the first layer.

Then I put in a drain pipe to provide oxygen into the middle, followed by another layer of chips, approx 70cm. And the second layer of coil and more chips on top. There’s about 13m3 of material in total.

The pipe goes through the wall and is connected to the buffer tank. Inside the heap, there’s a sensor that measures the temperature. When it reaches 45 degrees, the circulation pump starts to pump the liquid (glykol) around and feed the buffer tank. When it goes down to 35 degrees it stops again.

The composting process started pretty fast and the temperature was raising up to 45 degrees within a few days, and has been going steadily since then. Now, ca. 3 weeks into the process it’s still going well and has been keeping a temperature between 47-52 degrees.

At the moment it’s still very mild outside, ca 15 degrees in the days and 7-10 degrees in the nights, so it’s pretty easy to keep the house warm just with burning the stove once a day and with the compost. I’m very interested in seeing how the setup will perform over time and if it can keep generating heat when it gets colder.

Impressions from the Faroe Islands

I’m back in Denmark after spending the last week on the Faroe Islands working with Klingra. I love being there - the mood, the nature, the people - and I often catch myself thinking that it feels a bit like a second home. It was also a pretty intense week and it’s good to be home and back in my daily routines.

We had three shows scheduled and worked a lot on those. Rehearsing, working on the production, visuals and diving deep into the details and really took the show a step further. The last show in Gøta was filmed and if it turns out ok, we’ll be sharing some footage from there.

Wednesday morning Dánjal and myself were in the morning radio talking about the upcoming album (to be released in March 2023) and exclusively played a couple of tracks from there. One of them featuring a recording of Dánjal’s grandfather talking about an accident out of the coast of Greenland that happened about 60 years ago, when he was working at the “Faroese harbour” there. 14 men froze to death or drowned. Hearing these memories from him, 92 years old, is very touching and we got a lot of feedback from people who had been there themselves or otherwise had something to share from that time. A lot of Faroese fishermen were working there back then and the music and story really seemed to resonate with them this many years later. The next morning Dánjal and I went to a house where (mostly) the men from the village of Miðvagur meet up each morning to sit and sort of the world situation and drink coffee. We’re both really interested in hearing first hand stories of how it was and felt to be there. How the daily life was, what food they ate and so on. We came unannounced and after the first “wild-west-stranger-coming-into-the-saloon-moment” we had a very interesting and touching talk with these 13 men. We’re brewing on a few ideas to bring some of these impressions to life.

With all this still in the body - the concerts, interviews and feedback - it feels even more exciting to soon have the pleasure to start releasing the music and first singles in about a month.

Below is a short (very hand-held) video from the rehearsals before the first show. This is the track Litirnir:

What’s cooking

Entering the second half of August, the summer is plugging on with hot and dry days. It’s a busy time of the year here and while the days are still pretty long and light and summery, I’m starting to switch into a different mood. It’s about preparing for the times ahead - both with getting the produce from the garden preserved (been fermenting cucumbers and making dried eggs) - but also keeping the music and creative side of my work running. This is also a time where a bunch of deadlines for applications suddenly appear out of the blue each and every year, and also a time to start booking shows for next spring and summer.

I find writing applications for fundings quite rewarding. Obviously if the funding is granted, it’s a huge help to keep this boat floating on these stormy waters, but also just the fact of being forced to write down the visions and projects in a way that other people can understand. Making timelines and budgets and strategies. I like that kind of stuff. When all these things are done, it’s a lot easier for me to get the projects and visions off the ground and the art in them start to manifest.

In the Afenginn corner, I’ve started brewing new music, which slowly will manifest into our eighth album. The concept is taking shape and I’m having a good feeling about it. It feels clear and exciting and I’ve carved out a good amount of time this autumn to really start fiddling with all the nuts and bolts and themes and structures and all. It’s a big project and I’ll try to write a bit about the process as we go. After years of meltdown in the Afenginn-newsletter-camp, I’ve finally got around getting that up and running again. I’ve written a bit about it on facebook and here, where you also can sign up if you want.

In the Klingra corner there’s a lot of activity as well. Next week I’m going back to the Faroe Islands for three shows, which I’m really looking forward to. Our debut album will be released in early 2023 and we have a lot of things to do regarding that. Meetings and layout and creating videos and choosing which singles to release when and recording some bonus things and this and that. As well as the main thing of playing of course. We’ll try to post some pictures on social media. Check it out if you like!

www.facebook.com/klingra

www.instagram.com/klingraband

Cheers in earl grey!

An update from the garden

Since March this year I’ve been renting about half a hectar of land on the neighbouring plot and setting that up to produce food. The rental goes for ten years to start with, and then we’ll see how we both feel about it all. Right now I’m feeling magnificent about the the whole circus there. I love having some more space to make a mess on and really enjoying all aspects of the work. Setting up the beds, building another poly tunnel and wood shed…and in some kind of process setting up a small house for the ducks for when it gets cold. I’m building out of cordwood and cob and it seems to be turning out quite ok. Even if I’m a bit careless and sloppy with it. Admittedly.

Since a couple of months now, I’ve been able to live fairy well from what the garden has been giving. Nettles, radishes, turnips and early potatoes in the early summer. Then salads, beets, peas, fennel, carrots…and now cucumber, tomatoes, squash, beans, corn, kale, ginger, etc…and there’s plenty still coming. Freezer is full of berries - currants, raspberries, gooseberries. And I’m starting to get an urge to start fermenting and conserve for the winter. Sauerkraut, kimchi, fermented cucumbers, beans, green tomatoes. The potatoes, leek, Jerusalem artichoke and kale stay in the ground for now to harvest throughout the colder months. And I’m starting up miner’s lettuce, dill, cilantro, cabbage, etc to go in the greenhouse over winter.

Soon it’s also time to start drying and preserving apples and pears. So still plenty of things to stay active with out there. Before winter I also want to build a compost heater to help heating my house that will finish the heating system consisting of the mass rocket heater (that was a true blessing last winter), the new compost heater and the existing heat pump running on geothermal energy.

And the garden plans for next year are already starting to knock on the door. I want to set up a better watering system, maybe with swales. The pond is empty and I’d need to be able to collect much more rain water during the wet days. And I’d like to start up a small food forest in the northern end up the little hill. I didn’t get to that area yet at all. I also will make more beds and paths and propagate bushes and flowers. Plant a small birch forest down in the humid corner, so I can sit in there and pretend that I’m in a Finnish forest…maybe move the sauna tent over there and the experience is getting pretty close.

So that’s a bit of what’s been going on out there. In here, there’s plenty of stuff happening as well. The new Klingra album is ready and the album campaign is about to start. VERY excited about that! And there’s some exciting plans with Afenginn as well, which probably will start manifesting soon. All in all happy days. Stay tuned and in semi-perfect pitch. Cheers!

Below is a similar rant disguised as pictures:

Video from Spår (Traces) performance

In 2021 the Faroese Chamber Ensemble “Aldubáran” and Summartónar Festival commissioned a piece from me, which was premiered in August 2021 in the Faroe Islands. Here’s a 6 minute extract from the performance of 28 min in total. I’m hoping to make a proper recording of the piece and get it out there. Hopefully within this year.

Not one, but two new releases!

Yesterday was a big release day in this headquarter and so both the soundtrack to the movie “Skilleveien” by Peter Salling and music by yours truly, AND the first Vielsted full length album, named “Dimma”, was released to the roaring masses.

Skilleveien was really cool to finally get out. I’m proud of the work I did on the music and learned a lot from the whole process.

And the work that Roma and myself are doing as Vielsted is also very rewarding. We’ve set up a very ambitious plan of releasing a new Episode (EP) every quarter, which is quite a lot. But until now we’ve kept on schedule, more or less, and I’m working full speed on Episode 3 at the moment. This “Dimma” album consists of the first two episodes, without breaks or any of that, just music to float away to.

Listen to Skilleveien here:

…and Dimma here:

Working on Klingra’s debut album

These last months I’ve been busy working on the debut album from the new band Klingra. Last year in August we had a recording session in Studio Bloch in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands where we got most of the tracks in the box. The ambitions with the album has grown as we’ve gone deeper into the music and new ideas have emerged, resulting in some additional recordings and tweaks here and there. At the moment the whole thing is very close to being done and ready to be mixed. This will happen in a few weeks.

Here’s a short snippet from when we were fiddling around in Mikael’s studio a few weeks ago:

Vis dette opslag på Instagram

Et opslag delt af Klingra (@klingraband)

New band: Klingra

Based on the album “Klingra”, which is the latest album from Afenginn, I’ve decided to start a new band that will focus on the musical expression and direction from that album. The band is also called Klingra. It means “circle” in faroese. The members are all musicians that I’ve worked with before in Afenginn and on the Klingra album.

I’ve been writing on this in the second half of 2020 and the music to the first album is now done. I’m very excited about getting this going!

www.klingra.net