“His delicate, layered, and intentionally sparse compositions provide the perfect soundtrack for reflection.”
- Magnetic Magazine
“Evocative, but never cluttered playing”
- Electronic Sound
“Lindstrand channels emotion through wistful and calming melodies.”
- The Ransom Note
Esteemed composer and pianist Henrik Lindstrand presents his new album ‘Klangland’, out via One Little Independent on March 10th, recorded in Berlin by engineer Francesco Donadello and conducted by The London Contemporary Orchestra’s Robert Ames.
Following the release of his lauded solo piano trilogy, Henrik Lindstrand felt the need to expand his vision, in doing so he embarked on his most challenging sonic journey to date in a bid to discover new instrumental narratives and ways to convey emotion through concentrated melody alone. It’s a hunt that has defined his musical career so far, and on ‘Klangland’, his fourth studio album, he took an exacting approach to the process, utilizing a stirring 16-piece string section.
“This album has definitely been my most ambitious work so far” he tells us, “I knew that I was going to get out of the piano-only dogma that I had on the trilogy. And I was excited to involve other instruments, but I didn't know beforehand where I was heading. It took a lot of effort over a couple of months before I ended up with the idea of including a string ensemble, I did lots of experimenting with a wide range of sound sources, and tried to broaden my palette as much as possible”.
Henrik has a longstanding relationship with strings as it is (his name is attached to several orchestral soundtracks) so on his aural travels he found himself once again at home, albeit a new one. This is echoed in his real life, he had relocated with his family to the West coast of Sealand, away from the city, and his explorations became a way for him to express something of a transitionary period. He wrote an almost complete album before scrapping it and starting again, coveting further reinvention the more he pushed himself.
Henrik’s talents lie in the expression of complex emotion with minimalist compositions. He believes in the importance of space, that the gaps between keys are as important to his stories as the notes themselves. It’s a streamlined, effective simplicity that sheds any unnecessary weight and allows each track to glide effortlessly into one’s imagination before making themselves at home.
The LPs title, ‘Klangland’, is named after his Copenhagen studio (“klang” translates to “sound”). A lot of its concepts are drawn from nature and surrounding, for example ‘Tumlare’ imagines a small pod of porpoises that, during a summer walk, Henrik saw playing off the coast near his home. ‘Gammafly’ is a moth with intricately patterned forewings boasting beautiful, unique shades of brown, grey and silver, making it a master at camouflage. ‘Tuvstarr’ is inspired by ‘Princess Tuvstarr Gazing Down Into The Dark Waters Of The Forest Tarn’, a famous gothic watercolour by Swedish painter John Bauer that channels evocative, mysterious fairy tale illustrations.
Once again drawing on the album’s themes of home, family and environment, ‘CPH-ARN’ documents the journey made from Copenhagen to Stockholm. Here, Henrik ruminates on distance’s impact on perspective, looking down from his flight, changing his surroundings, “zooming out”.
Elsewhere on the album, alongside a sophisticated appreciation for classical composition and gorgeous, natural arrangements, Henrik draws inspiration from Italian film scores of the ‘50s, Swedish jazz of the ‘60s, Scandinavian folk, as well as artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Thomas Newman and Ennio Morricone to name a few.
Working alongside a team again, for the first time as sole creative lead, Henrik learned to adapt to a new way of working. “It was such a fantastic experience to work with Rob again. We did work on a soundtrack four or five years ago. And then he also contributed to my Reimagined album last year where he did a beautiful version of För Den Goda Viljan. Rob suggested we recorded the strings in Berlin with Francesco and a couple of amazing young players.”
He also speaks openly about how connectivity, to his space and to other musicians, had a healthy impact on him under current circumstances, “It was like a playground for myself and my ideas, to throw things around just as much as I wanted to, and record them intuitively. I wanted to go back to writing without the computer. So, for the first period I only wrote sitting down by the grand piano with a piece of paper and a pen, which gave a new energy to my process. You know, it's so unsexy to look into a screen, it doesn't really inspire you that much. I think that it’s healthy for everyone to think about their location, even if it’s just moving your desk, whatever it is, to change your environment”.
Solo, Henrik Lindstrand has a lot of strings to his academic bow, as well as being a respected multi-instrumentalist in his own right, he’s built a career as a highly regarded composer for television and cinema, as well as the hugely successful and award-winning computer game, LEGO Builder´s Journey. Builder’s Journey won SPILPRISEN’s award for Best Audio and Best Visuals as well as Mobile Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards.
In 2020/21 despite restrictions, Henrik was able to play the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, returning to the Thorvaldsen Museum, and the first ever concert in the Forest Tower at Camp Adventure.
Last year, Lindstrand released ‘Reimagined’, a collection of compositional reworks by some of the best contemporary artists working today. It features the likes of Anne Müller, Manu Delago, Tom Adams, Christina Vantzou, Alex Somers, Benoît Pioulard and more. He also released a book of his material, a selection of 21 transcriptions and arrangements for piano from his three albums.
In early ‘22 Kashmir, one of Scandinavia’s most prominent and acclaimed bands with whom Henrik has toured the world extensively as keyboard player and guitarist, reformed for their postponed concerts. They played three sold-out arena shows in Denmark and headlined four major festivals. The resulting reviews were universally ecstatic describing the band as “at top of their game”.
On ‘Klangland’ Henrik is at his most explorative but also his most grounded, taking nothing for granted, and using his unique melodic expertise to craft the perfect soundtrack to finding yourself.