Beyond the Light / Conversations

New upcoming work “Conversations” and ”Beyond the Light” from My Beautiful Decay 1973, the danish composer who offers equal parts of emotional nordic noir and a mesmerizing sound of the north. He’s been called a lyrical rebel in the contemporary musical landscape. My Beautiful Decay 1973 has previously performed with American Contemporary Music Ensemble (Max Richter, Johann Johannsson) at Le Poison Rouge NYC and at Louisiana Modern Museum of Art, Denmark. Music magazine Passive Aggressive has written”: My Beautiful Decay 1973 is neoclassical ambient music that beautifully sings the inevitability of transience.

The composer writes: “The musical compositions in "Conversations" and "Beyond the Light" represent a dialogue with the past through my perspective and auditory senses. They are like musical postcards that travel from the present to the past and back again, akin to a time machine. The emotional mood in the paintings, the universal feelings, and everything we don't see. What's not in the picture. In their time they made self-portraits, today we take selfies. A soldier on his way to war is present even in our time. Kronborg Castle is still there, as a monument of the past. You experience it all now, but just for a moment, then you’re gone and someone else will experience it. As an existential realization, "Life must be understood backward. But it must be lived forward." The quote is a combination of a longer Kierkegaard quote from 1843 and refers to the fact that one must live life as it happens and cannot plan one's life in advance. I often go out to Søren Kierkegaard's stone, which is placed in Gilleleje where I live. I put my hand on the stone while I look out over the sea and think about how hopeless life is in principle, but then I am filled with a warm feeling when the sun's rays hit my face and I hear my music in my inner ear while the wind rustles in the treetops of slender trees, as a counterpoint to my inner music. Life is light, and out of the light comes love. The hope of light lives on in my heart and in my music and art.”

"Conversations" is composed for string quartet and electronics, and "Beyond the light" is composed for piano and electronics. 

"Conversations" will have its world premiere at The Metropolitan Museum on April 14, 2023, performed by American Contemporary Music Ensemble and will be recorded at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, New York and released os Cosmopol Music later in 2023. Read more about the great and wonderful musicians in American Contemporary Music Ensemble here: https://www.acmemusic.org

"Beyond the Light'' will be released on April 14, 2023, with the focus track “Lost Road” and on April 7, 2023 the single “Love Letter”  will be released, pre-save link here: https://orcd.co/loveletter_ 

All pieces are partly inspired by a series of Golden Age paintings from the exhibition "Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art" at The Metropolitan and J. Paul Getty Museum. Link to the exhibition here:
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/beyond-the-light

Coverart and Ensemble

American Contemporary Music Ensemble - Photo by Mark Shelby Perry

"Life must be understood backward. But it must be lived forward."” - Søren Kierkegaard

— The quote is a combination of a longer Kierkegaard quote from 1843 and refers to the fact that one must live life as it happens and cannot plan one's life in advance.

Compositions and releases

Conversations

My Beautiful Decay 1973

Featuring: American Contemporary Music Ensemble:
Ben Russell, violin
Laura Lutzke, violin
Caleb Burhans, viola
Clarice Jensen, cello (artistic director)

RELEASE DATE TBA COSMOPOL MUSIC

Track 

Title

Inspiration

Duration

1

Melancholia

View towards Kronborg from the coast north of Helsingør - Johan Thomas Lundbye

3:48

2

Cascade

Self-portrait with a Backpack - Wilhelm Bendz

2:11

3

Aurora - Moonlight - Hunter

Moonlight Picture. Hunter by a Dolmen - Jørgen Roed

2:00

4

Large Oak - Tree of Life

A Large Oak - Lorenz Frølich

3:04

5

Slender Trees - Variation I

Slender Trees on a Hill - Vilhelm Hammershøi

1:47

6

Southern Aisle of Saint Canute

Southern Aisle of Saint Canute’s in Odense - Christen Købke

4:15

7

Little Boy Little Girl - Limewood Skulls (remix)

Limewood Tree - Christian Købke

3:37

8

Moonpiece

Copenhagen Harbor by Moonlight - Johan Christian Dahl

2:29

9

Slender Trees - Variation II

Slender Trees on a Hill - Vilhelm Hammershøi
(will not be performed at The Met)

1:47

10

Lost Road

Panorama of the Copenhagen Roads - Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

2:27

Beyond the Light

My Beautiful Decay 1973

RELEASE DATE APRIL 14, 2023 COSMOPOL MUSIC
- (Single: Love Letter, April 7, 2023)

Track 

Title

Inspiration

Duration

1

Love Letter

"Perfectum - Præsens - Futurum" - Johan Thomas Lundbye

3:22

2

Deviate

Landscape with Dolmen - Johan Thomas Lundbye

4:14

3

Southern Aisle of Saint Canute

Southern Aisle of Saint Canute’s in Odense - Christen Købke

4:15

 

 

version for piano

 

4

Fall

Study from Sørups Field near Frederiksværk - Johan Thomas Lundbye

2:22

5

Looking out

View from the Domed Hall at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen - Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

4:26

6

Little Boy Little Girl

Limewood Tree - Christian Købke

3:37

 

 

version for piano

 

7

Lost Road

Panorama of the Copenhagen Roads - Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg

2:27

 

 

version for piano

 

Commission and support

The music by My Beautiful Decay 1973 alias Carsten Bo Eriksen has been commissioned by American Contemporary Music Ensemble and AFSMK- American Friends of SMK/National Gallery of Denmark with the kind support from Koda’s Cultural Funds, The Danish Arts Foundations and The Augustinus Foundation.

The work "Beyond the Light" and "Conversations" is commissioned by and dedicated to the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME, NYC) on the initiative by AFSMK (American Friends of SMK/The National Gallery of Denmark on the occasion of the exhibition: Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art, organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Getty Museum, in collaboration with SMK – The National Gallery of Denmark.

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