The new Album

Once upon a Sight is the long awaited follow-up to Heaven is a Sea, it is the second album in a musical /project I have dedicated to write a kind of film music of my own. Once upon a Sight takes the ideas of Heaven is a Sea further, for example, this time I've had the opportunity to sample pieces of the world and use them in some of the pieces. With Once upon a Sight I've chosen both to continue to develop my epic song format introduced in Heaven is a Sea, and to go the opposite way, to make small focused songs with only a few instruments.

Once upon a Sight is another landmark in my life, both as a result of my efforts and as a comment on the state of my life. If Heaven is a Sea was about exploring, Once upon a Sight is about looking back upon the traces we leave, some traces disappear within days, other stays for a long time. Think about Colloseum, that's a big trace.

The concept, the Time

It was Jens Larsens ['retIna] project which gave this album it's main direction. But there were also other influences that pointed the same way besides the best-of photos of ['retIna], for example Downhill from Here, which was written for a slide show of photos from a great ski trip with my friends, which also is a kind of looking back.

It took quite a long time to write this album, but it's mainly due to me being very occupied with other activities like being chairman for Radio Stil for almost a year and generally doing a lot of other things.

The Music

The music on the album can roughly be divided into two parts: epic songs and small improvisations. The epic songs are pieces I've worked with a lot, editing every note, rehearsed overtakes, edited drum sounds, loops and patterns to a great extent.

The small improvisations are songs that have started as a musical idea, just like the beginning of an epic song, but for which I've chosen the opposite path - keeping it simple. It's is sometimes too easy to try to perfect a piece of music, ending up working the life out of it.

The Songs

• Once upon a Sight was written for Jens Larsen's best-of resume/exhibition called ['retIna]. The goal was to write 30 seconds of unique music for each of the 17 photos and then put it all together. In the end, I succeeded in writing music for every photo, but I had to group the photos in order to be able to write longer themes.
• Hush little Moon was written an evening when the moon shone through my window from a starlight heaven.
• The Discipline of Curiosity is such a good title. I got it from a book I stumbled over called The Discipline of Curiosity: Science in the World by Juurd Eijsvoogel. I haven't read it yet.
• The Ever returning Sun. The idea behind this song started more musical than conceptual. The initial sounds I came up with reminded me of the way the spring sun melts the snow and starts the cycle of life over again. (am I an outdoor man or what?)
• Downhill from here was a difficult song to compose, it was originally written in just three days for a slideshow I did for my friends featuring ski trip photos (would I ever show slides for my friends without my own music?). The difficult thing was to capture the feeling of spending five intensive days together in the mountains and then coming home to ordinary, dull, life.
• Scarf: some things are meant to keep us warm.
• Tomorrow is lost Today might be the most minimalistic track on the album featuring only one instrument, yet I can't think of anything that would make this song express that thought better. Sometimes I'm not sure it's a wise thing at all to talk about today and tomorrow.
• Children in War is a song I'm little secret about. It's the last track because it's a good song to have as a summary, especially on an album looking back and summing up things. It is also good because its looking forward, it points to major direction of my future ideas of music making. Don't cheat! Let it be the very last of the songs you listen to. By the way, their names are Alan and Susan Raymond.

Photographer Jens Larsen has taken most of the photos related to this album and he has painted the album cover. If you're interested in his outdoor photography or need a complete article about a wildlife or arctic related issue, you may reach him at Pixonia.