Biography
Carsten Bo Eriksen, also known as My Beautiful Decay 1973, is a Danish Neo-Classical composer and pianist whose music fuses elements of post-rock, american minimalism, ambient electro-acoustic and electronic music, and field recordings. He received his education at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied composition with professors Ib Nørholm, Ivar Frounberg, and Hans Abrahamsen, and studied at Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. Eriksen has also studied the Balinese gamelan music in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia with musician Pak Tama. But it was a meeting with the composer Arvo Pärt in Copenhagen in the year 2000 that changed his music. In 2004, he was awarded a three-year working grant by the Danish Arts Foundation.
Eriksen's music is often compared to that of Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter, Philip Glass, Brian Eno and Johann Johannsson, as he brings a fresh approach to post-classical and neo-classical music, combining the rigor of the classical tradition with experimental electronic music. He has worked with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) since 2015, and has performed primarily in the US and Europe. Eriksen has been nominated for a Danish Music Award in the Classical category with his former ensemble Nordlys, and has won the first prize for best electronic music at the Danish Arts Foundation.
Since 1991, Eriksen has established and produced several ensembles, including the critically acclaimed Nordlys and the art rock band Melonheads. He has also organized and participated in various music and media festivals, such as the World Music Days (1996) and ARTRA (2000). In addition to his musical pursuits, Eriksen is also a painter and video artist, and is self-taught in these disciplines. He has served as a board member for the concert society for contemporary music Musica Nova (1997-2000), and has been appointed as a member of KODA's collective tape funds assets (2003 and 2013) and as a jury member of the Danish section of ISCM (2000). Eriksen has been exhibited and performed at prestigious venues in Denmark, such as the Museum of Modern Art Louisiana, the National Gallery of Denmark, the Royal Library "Black Diamond concert hall," Tivoli's Concert hall, and VEGA, and has also performed internationally in Germany, the US, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and elsewhere. Eriksen's music has been aired on the Danish National Radio and other European radio stations, and has been featured on official playlists on Amazon Music, Apple Music, KK Box, and Spotify.