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HC 003LP
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The third release on The Henning Christiansen archive label features a previously unreleased work from 1991. "The Wandering Human Being - The Wandering Voice", as the title suggest is a piece for voice and features Carlo Quartucci, Carla Tatò, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, and Henning Christiansen. Ursula and Henning met the couple Carlo Quartucci and Carla Tatò through the curator Johannes Gachnang on a visit to Genazzano in Italy 1983 and became close friends, collaborating on a variety of projects, most notably on Carlo and Carla's epic adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist's play Penthesilea. "The Wandering Human Being - The Wandering Voice" came about from a conversation between the four of them whilst on a beach on the island of Møn in the eastern sea in Denmark, looking south. Here they all laughed at the realization that on the other side of Europe in this direction was Sicily where Carlo and Carla lived. The island Sicily, The island Møn. As Henning says: "The human-being was wandering from sea to sea." Henning saw no difference in their way over life "over there" and mused on the means of which we cross over oceans and move around facilitating awareness of the same family of human being. People from islands meet people from islands and they can all look across vast waters and laugh together. Human-basic-technology This conversation and collective realization of the simplicity of it all lead to this work which is one of the finest in Henning's vast catalog. L'essere Umano Errabando La Voce Errabando is a mantra for four voices, the sound of the ocean, a PVC tube, effects, and wind instrument. The piece moves in an organic hypnotic fashion lulling and rolling, ebbing and flowing over the two sides of the record. Rudimentary phrases in various languages interlope and weave a mystical music, as primitive as it is "contemporary". "The Wind, The Stars" are repeated over in random untrained fashion. The two couples from different countries weave voices, words and language into a common sonic fabric which eradicates identity, the idea of "national," the idea of country, the idea of difference. Unlike anything else in Henning's output, L'essere Umano Errabando La Voce Errabando is a calm and meditative work which rolls along two sides wrapping the listener in a random melancholic meditative mantra. Only Henning Christiansen could summon such haunting, beautiful, gothic music carved from political hope.
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HC 002LP
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The second release on The Henning Christiansen archive label is a compilation of four works from 1967-1972 including a poem set in a bath, an unknown musical work, the musical backdrop to a horse sacrifice and a soundtrack to a school play. What binds these works together alongside the period when written is their basis in "song" and some traditional "musical" elements. What separates it them from said tradition is that they were composed by Henning Christiansen. "Op. 41 BADET" is a simple work featuring three elements: Charlotte Strandgaard reading her poem "Badat" (The Bath), Henning playing melodica, and the sound of water splashing in a bath. The result is an unusual and evocative lo-fi setting to the resigned nature of the reading. Not a lot is known about "Kom Frem For Satan" (Come Forward Satan). Possibly a soundtrack of sorts? It certainly carries that mood with jazz-inflicted interludes, melodic organ moments all interlaced with the diegetic sounds of cars, footsteps, gunshots, etc. The result comes across like a gangster tinged musique concrete radio play. "Min Død Hest" was previously released as a single-sided 10" under the name "Hesteofringen", here restored under its correct name. "Min Død Hest" (My Dead Horse) was written to accompany the Bjørn Nørgaard performance "Hesteofringen" (The Horse Sacrifice) on January 30th, 1970, one of the most notorious performances in Danish art history. Featuring a poem written by Lene Adler Pedersen, this is a recording made after the performance with Lene Adler Pedersen singing, accompanied by Christiansen on piano (as opposed to the green violin he used in the performance), "Min Død Horse" is a beautiful haunting fragile song laden with metaphor, a sad lullaby is as simple and unusual as anything in Christiansen's output. "Op. 72 Bondeføreren Knud Lavard" is the soundtrack to a school play performed on at the Fanefjord School on the island of Møn, Denmark, where he lived, in 1972. Another surprising work in Christiansen's oeuvre the six pieces that make up this work shift between the sinister and sweet, often in the same track. Falling within the same period Henning made the soundtrack to The Executioner, "Bondeføreren Knud Lavard" mixes the melancholic romantic mood of that soundtrack whilst deep organ chords, military drumming and an acoustic guitar solo (played by Henning's first son Esben Christiansen) all make an appearance.
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