Danish pianist, synth-player, sound artist and composer Anders Filipsen – known from The Black Nothing, The Firebirds and Kresten Osgood Trio, focuses on his first solo album, «Waiting Music», on the feeling of anticipation. Filipsen plays here only on synthesizers and offers an audio-visual series of 12 immersive soundscapes. These soundscapes were created over a period of three years and each one is accompanied by a video-clip that presents a distinct location where Filipsen has experienced such a feeling of anticipation, all filmed by Filipsen’s family and edited by his son.
«Waiting Music» was born out of Filipsen’s decisive experience on the Knippels-bridge in the inner harbor of Copenhagen. Filipsen thought that when the bridge goes up, everyone would be frustrated since they can not go on with the daily doings, but he was surprised when peacefulness filled the air. This experience inspired Filipsen to create sonic moods that can open our mind to the feeling of waiting. He explains that he wanted the listeners to «sense a deeper experience of something by stepping back and letting things take shape without intervention».
«Waiting Music» was created with four synthesizers in live-takes without further editing, and is often circular, melodic and ambient. The most obvious references are Brian Eno’s quiet, ambient music (as on «Ambient 1: Music for Airports», E.G., 1978), Terry Riley’s minimalist and slow-shifting melodic fragments (check the seminal «In C»), or German electronic composer Hans-Joachim Roedelius of Neu! and Cluster fame.
«Waiting Music» succeeds to offer an-out-of-time immersive sonic experience. The 12 meditative soundscapes develop gently and patiently. All suggest an intimate, private and safe space where the gentle, ethereal vibrations of the atmospheric synthesizers wash away our daily routines and enable us to contemplate on the natural course of life, not obtrusive by human actions. The accompanying video-clips expand this spiritual sonic experience with clever suggestions to transform it into a multi-sensory experience in the wide open, Danish nature scenery.
Eyal Hareuveni
Anders Filipsen (synth)
