Echoes Bjarke Mogensen

• Martin Lohse (b. 1971): Echoes off Cliffs:
• 1 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: I 03:19
• 2 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: II 02:19
• 3 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: III 03:06
• 4 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: IV 02:18
• 5 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: V 07:46
• 6 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: VI 01:48
• 7 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: VII 04:04
• 8 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: VIII 00:35
• 9 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: IX 01:37
• 10 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: X 03:14
• 11 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: XI 02:22
• 12 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: XII 03:11
• 13 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: XIII 02:23
• 14 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: XIV 02:36
• 15 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: XV 01:49
• 16 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: XVI 01:51
• 17 Lohse: Echoes off Cliffs: XVII 00:46
• Black Sun:
• 18 Lohse: Black Sun: Starling murmurations 09:16
• Total Runtime 54:20

Info for Echoes

Martin Lohse’s "Echoes off Cliffs" was an electroacoustic tribute to Bornholm – and to the echo – framing the perpetually tantalizing question: Where does sound go when it disappears?” Seismograph review

During the Covid-19 lockdown, accordionist Bjarke Mogensen and composer Martin Lohse embarked on a project that had been in the making for many years: a composition and homage to the nature and landscapes of Bornholm. This resulted in the piece ‘Echoes off Cliffs’ for solo accordion and live electronics. The composition was performed 8 times at selected locations around the island and at Christiansø.

If one was unfortunate enough to miss these performances, there is an opportunity this year to experience this unique piece again during the cultural week on September 21st at 9:00 PM in Sct Clemens Church.

The music heard in the concert originates from Bjarke’s accordion. The tones created in the present moment often resonate with a backdrop of previous recordings, “echoes,” specially processed for this composition:

Both as the echo created by sound bouncing off a massive cliff wall and as a work where nature and the slow, almost infinite time of the rocks blend with the instrument, in a meeting between the almost infinite time of the rocky island juxtaposed with the fleeting time of human beings. Martin Lohse’s music and tonality align with the great minimalist composers such as Arvo Pärt and Philip Glass, but with a strong personal expression that, in contrast to them, writes music in constant harmonic transformation and conflict with itself.

This project is the latest in a long series of collaborations between Mogensen and Lohse, which have garnered attention from critics both domestically and internationally. In 2015, the album “Mogensen/Lohse: Works for Solo Accordion” received 5 stars in Politiken with the headline “This release will convert skeptics to new classical music.”

Bjarke Mogensen, accordion
Mikkel Egelund Nielsen, guitar

Bjarke Mogensen
is an astonishment on record. Once heard, never forgotten. So writes one of the world’s leading music critics, Norman Lebrecht. Bjarke Mogensen (b. 1985 on the island of Bornholm) is the new star of the accordion in a country where there are already fine accordion traditions. He is one of those rare talents who seems to have been born with his instrument. Bjarke Mogensen had his instrument strapped to his shoulders at the age of seven. Within just a few years he had reached an amazingly high standard. At 13 he made his debut as a soloist in a German TV broadcast with the Munich Symphony Orchestra.

At 14 he both won the Gold Medal and the Talent Prize in the Berlingske Tidende Music Competition and received the Jacob Gade Grant. His popular breakthrough in Denmark came when he won DR TV’s soloist competition "Spil for Livet", and the same year won the Victor Borge Music Prize. He studied with Geir Draugsvoll at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and today himself teaches chamber music in the same place. Bjarke Mogensen has given solo concerts in many parts of the world, from New York to Moscow, from Iceland to Turkey. He has performed chamber music with the violinist Augustin Dumay and Gidon Kremer.

As a soloist he has also worked with orchestras like the Moscow Virtuosi, Kremerata Baltica, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Copenhagen Philharmonic, conducted by among others John Storgårds, Lan Shui, Rolf Gupta and Vladimir Spivakov. His repertoire is almost unlimited and ranges from folk music and his own transcriptions to brand new works for accordion.

A long succession of collaborations with prominent living composers has resulted in many new compositions – concertos, chamber music and solo works – dedicated to Bjarke Mogensen. Already during his student years he has released 4 CDs performing solo works and accordion-concertos on the labels Orchid Classics and Dacapo Records which recieved rave reviews.

The Danish National Chamber Orchestra
is the only professional chamber orchestra in Denmark, and a major representative among DR’s national ensembles. The orchestra consists of 42 musicians and the chief conducter is Adam Fischer.

Being a chamber orchestra is the distinctive hallmark of The Danish National Chamber Orchestra. It is constantly developing its style and identity. And as a result thereof a transparent sound, rich in nuances, is a constant feature of its music-making.

The orchestra’s starting point is naturally the Viennese classicism, primarily represented by Mozart. But the repertoire also covers other periods such as the second Viennese school and music of present time.

Rolf Gupta - Conductor
The Norwegian conductor Rolf Gupta is a wide-ranging artist who effortlessly spans everything from Baroque music played on original instruments to classical symphonies and recently composed works. He is artistic director and chief conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and has earlier been principal conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra. Rolf Gupta, who has also trained as a composer, is well known for putting together unconventional concerts with many living composers on the programme. As an able interpreter of contemporary music, he has conducted world premieres of works by leading composers including Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio, Magnus Lindberg, Peter Maxwell Davies and his own former teacher Per Nørgård. Rolf Gupta is a frequent guest conductor with the Oslo Philharmonic, with whom he has also recorded and toured. He has worked with orchestras like MDR Leipzig, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della Toscana, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Remix Ensemble, Avanti! and Ensemble InterContemporain. Gupta has also made a name as an opera conductor and has worked at opera houses in Norway, Finland, Frankfurt and Holland with both classical and contemporary works. In addition Gupta has been artistic director of festivals in Berlin and Kristiansand, and has recorded CDs with among others Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica as well as the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Booklet for Echoes