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Svaneborg Kardyb

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Svaneborg Kardyb: “You develop a kind of automatic language, a search for limits”

Danish duo Svaneborg Kardyb – Nikolaj Svaneborg and Jonas Kardyb – walk the line between classical and contemporary music. An imaginative, percussion-infused experimental jazz outfit, their sound is delicate and difficult to reproduce, an enthralling and adaptable combo that’s forged from years of ad-libbing live and learning how to extract the most from each other’s styles.

“We have songs, of course, but the way through the songs, and how we go from one song to another, that’s improvised,” they explain. “That keeps our lives shows alive. We don’t necessarily know how it will turn out, and it keeps us in the moment. It’s about interplay, and it feels good, sometimes neither of us know what to do. We can end up in places where nobody knows what’s next, and we’re both waiting for each other.”

“We have mixed Scandinavian jazz, and folk/ roots backgrounds,” they explain. “When we started together we played a lot of ways, and at one point we were really into simple compositions, looking at just how simple they can be. If you get something really simple right, it evolves, the sound changes, and simple chords become the most beautiful thing. You practise and practise and develop a kind of automatic language, a search for limits.”

“We wanted the simplest themes that were organic and original. We started jamming, and we left so much space in the music, as there were just two of us. We felt so much freedom to express ourselves, and we committed. At one time, Jonas was playing in eleven different bands, but we met up and played music, brought coffee, and went from there.”

“One night we might play for a guest audience, and the next night at a kind of rock festival. Maybe at the rock festival we’re on at 2pm and the other night we’re on in the evening, but it kind of works. The music fits in a lot of places and I think a lot of people relate to it. A lot of people say they don’t like jazz, but they like what we do.”

“The whole thing is less of a genre and more of an approach, of thinking curiously about music and what you’re hearing. Nothing has to stay the same every time, not the melody, the course, the tempo, whatever… If the song starts quicker or slower, then instead of returning it to the ‘right way’, you work with what you’ve got. That’s what is curious for us.”

“A lot of the melodies fit in with folk, and with pop. We like an airy feel, to jump about, and so on. Sometimes we have shoes on when we come on stage, and then Jonas takes off his shoes, and people laugh, and it’s like an ice breaker.”

“It started out looking at what happens if you use a maracas instead of a drumstick, or a bell, or a tambourine, and we learnt to play differently, with different sounds. At some point you feel limits by always following convention, or by putting percussion on in a simple way. We like long notes, ambience, resonance.”

“We didn’t sit down and decide to play jazz, it’s just kind of where we landed. But it’s also electronic, playful, with almost pop melodies. We try to connect to where we come from, too. We connect with Danish folk music. All over Denmark, community singing, singing at weddings and birthdays and that kind of thing. These songs are about nature, life, and spirit.”