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Pianist and composer
In recent years, Jacob Anderskov has made an impression as one of the most original young pianists on the Danish jazz scene.
He graduated from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen in 2002, but he had already made his debut the year before with the albums Scraggly Music and Doctor Structure. Since then, he has recorded a number of award-winning albums under his own name in the groups Anderskov Accident, the Jacob Anderskov Trio and Doctor Structure.
A common aspect of Anderskov's many projects is that they all consist of equal parts madness, humour, sincerity and intelligence, and both challenge and add new facets to the jazz tradition. This is aptly demonstrated by one of Anderskov's newest projects, Jacob Anderskov - På dansk ("Jacob Anderskov - in Danish") (2006) in which he radically explores a number of traditional Danish songs and gives them new life.
"One of the few predictions you can trust is that the future won't resemble the past. I believe that traditions must survive through renewal if they are to stay relevant. I prefer to regard our cultural heritage as something open, inclusive and ever-changing, rather than as a fixed entity in need of conservation." […] "This statement was originally about my take on traditional Danish material, but of course it also goes for the jazz tradition and any other tradition."
This approach to jazz has made Anderskov a central and popular figure on the younger Danish jazz scene, especially in connection with the recording company ILK. He has worked with many top Danish and foreign musicians, including Lotte Anker, Jesper Løvdal, Stefan Pasborg and Kresten Osgood, as well as Michael Formanek, Airto Moreira and Chris Speed, to name just a few.
Today, he is acting as a spearhead figure, together with saxophonist Lotte Anker, in the jazz export campaign of the Danish Jazz Federation and the Danish Ministry of Culture, "International Danish Jazz Launch". In 2004 he was awarded the Danish Arts Foundation's three-year working scholarship, and he has also received various other prizes, including two Danish Music Awards.
Uniting contradictions
Anderskov's approach to music both bubbles with spontaneity and at the same time contains subtle structures. His music unites contradictions in a strange-sounding, contemporary universe.
"In order for the music to reflect the time in which it is created, I feel that today's music must contain (some) contrasts. Romantic elements in the music, for example, only become contemporary when they collide with something modern or odd.
I prefer to imagine that the beautiful elements in the music enter into a fruitful collision with something else, which creates great intensity, and for me, the feeling that the expression becomes contemporary.
Similarly, the abstract elements are more memorable when they are located in a context in which they interact with something else, or with something more concrete.
Even provocation is only possible today to the extent that a framework story has been established, or in other words, when there are conscious or unconscious assumptions about what music is, what it is expected to be."
This willingness to take new paths is illustrated by Anderskov Accident's much-lauded album Unity of Action (2005). The octet consists of five horn players and a rhythm section, and creates a very special sound that Anderskov makes use of in his compositions: the complex colour tones of the five horn players are expressed in melancholic, dissonance-rich and labyrinthine sequences which are combined with lop-sided swinging grooves.
A complex relationship also exists in his music between freedom and structure: on the one hand everything seems to be totally composed, but the individual musicians still have room to express themselves.
"In my music there must be room for individual musicians to express their creativity, so that their artistic choices can have a strong influence on the music. In this context, Unity of Action means that the music must on the one hand take place in a common structured movement or a composed transformation towards the next musical zone, while this sequence is continually being challenged or even counteracted by the freedom of the individual musicians."
The result may well startle listeners at first, but they will find it impossible to relinquish the music again. You find yourself caught up in Anderskov's peculiar musical universe, where contradictions are united and the music finds new forms.
By Kaspar Thormod
Published 2007
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