Alex Somers, the Maryland musician and visual artist known for his work with Sigur Rós, has beautifully reworked ‘Enghave Lys’ by revered Swedish pianist Henrik Lindstrand. Somers draws out the ambience and tranquillity of the piece with exquisite subtly, slowing down Lindstrands keys to focus on the space between them. Together, through this artificially created distance, they craft an explorative and meditative soundscape that highlights the originals emotional impact.
Henrik tells us “I’ve been fascinated by Alex Somers´ poetic universe since the ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ project and I was very excited when he wanted to rework ‘Enghave Lys’. Alex found a new composition inside the original piece, to me it is like a second movement and tells a new story. It shows pure artistic bravery and I love the consistency throughout the whole piece. So grateful for this collaboration and I hope people will enjoy it as much as I do.”
Alex expands; “I’m so happy to have collaborated with Henrik on this brand new version and reimagine the song from the tiny spark of the descending piano outro. That little gesture stood out to me and I felt compelled to explore it and build a new world around it. I looped the piano and found myself hearing a new chord progression to accompany it. I wrote and arranged a new chord progression and started overdubbing and mixing new sounds and layers. It all came together very quickly and it was a real treat to collaborate with Henrik.”
Last year Henrik Lindstrand completed his trilogy of personal, melodically woven soundscapes with ‘Nordhem’, following albums ‘Nattresan’ (2019) and ‘Leken’ (2017). Gaining notoriety for his semi-autobiographical stories told using sounds solely from the piano, the work from his solo ventures is ripe for reinterpretation.
Lindstrand’s career is littered with accolades that make up an impressive and eclectic resume. A keen musician from a young age, he graduated from the Rhythmic Conservatory in Copenhagen where he became engrossed in the local musical culture and lent his skills to a multitude of acts as a studio musician, live player and string arranger. This lead to him being “adopted” into Danish rock band Kashmir, one of Scandinavia‘s most prominent and acclaimed bands with whom he toured the world extensively as their keyboard player and guitarist.
During his tenure in Kashmir and until the band’s hiatus, Henrik worked with seminal profiles such as Tony Visconti, Andy Wallace, David Bowie and Lou Reed, whilst building a career alongside as a highly regarded composer for television and cinema. Recent accomplishments include the score for the ITV Nordic-noir series Greyzone, the soundtrack for the hugely successful and award-winning Lego game, Builder´s Journey and a film score to Undtagelsen (The Exception) released last summer. Recent noteable solo performances include sold out concerts in Copenhagen, The Heartland Festival (DK) Silent Green in Berlin, Soho House London, Union Chapel London and Pianeo Festival Munster (D).
In October Lindstrand played a unique and intimate live performance filmed in Copenhagen at Camp Adventure (one of Time Magazines 100 best places to visit), in a stunning 45-meter-high tower in the middle of the forest. In a time when live music experiences were few and far between across the world, Lindstrand and his team were able to create an extraordinary one-off outdoor event to perfectly house this captivating performance.
At the end of the year he released a book, a selection of 21 transcriptions and arrangements for solo piano from his three albums. With scores ranging from pure and minimal to experimental and inventive. It includes beautiful imagery, specially written notes from the composer and downloadable backing tracks to inspire the most enjoyable experience.
About Alex Somers
Alex Somers is an American composer and producer who currently resides in Los Angeles. He first rose to prominence in 2009 with ‘Riceboy Sleeps’, his ambient album collaboration with partner Jónsi (Sigur Rós). He then co-produced Jónsi’s 2010 debut solo album ‘Go’ before opening his own recording studio in Reykjavík where he co-produced and mixed Sigur Rós’ 2013 album ‘Valtari’. At his studio he continued to collaborate with artists Jónsi, Julianna Barwick, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Damien Rice, Amiina, Sin Fang, Briana Marela and more.
Alex began scoring for film and TV in 2011 and has collaborated with Jónsi to compose music and produce songs for We Bought A Zoo, How To Train Your Dragon Trilogy, Aloha, season one of WGN’s Manhattan, and The Circle. In 2016, Alex took on his first solo film, providing an original score for Matt Ross’s Cannes-feted Captain Fantastic, and in 2017 he worked with Bill Morrison on his award-winning documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time, which he later performed live to picture with the Winnipeg Symphony as part of the Winnipeg New Music Festival. In 2017, Alex also scored the “Hang The DJ” episode of the highly-acclaimed Netflix series Black Mirror, and provided original music for the Oscar nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening, and additional music alongside composer Danny Elfman, to Gus Van Sant’s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot, both of which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
Since 2018, Alex has collaborated with Jónsi and producer Paul Corley on ‘Liminal’, an endless ambient mixtape built around music from ‘the Sigur Rós family’ of artists, as well as a live musical soundbath, which they have performed in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Barcelona, Hobart, and Reykjavík. In 2019 Alex composed the music for Honey Boy, A film written by Shia LaBeouf and directed by Alma Har’el.