Tuesday 24 March 2015, 7.30pm
Danish composer/songwriter/improvisor Anders Lauge Meldgaard aka Frisk Frugt arrives at OTO on the tide of open-source symphonic pop joy that is his new album ''Den Europæiske Spejlbue', inviting you to a special evening of live performance, special guests and fruity insights.
As well as a headline live Frisk Frugt set and some cherry-picked guests in support, Anders will deliver a breezy illustrated talk on what makes Frisk Frugt tick...a primary colour jumble of homemade instruments, singing plants, sonic postcards and palm wine epiphanies.
“A rare beast … sunkissed tropical jazz pop, the musical equivalent of running along a beach wearing a grin and a garland of big flowers” - The WIRE
Anders Lauge Meldgaard is a native of Aalborg, DK, currently dwelling in Berlin. Best known for his freerange pop project Frisk Frugt, Anders is a multi-instrumentalist who loads up his optimist’s dinghy full of saxophones, self-made mechanical instruments and other inspired sound gadgets, and sets sail on music’s diverse waves of opportunity. His imagination is boundless and his music follows ... live, whether it’s skeletal folk with toy parrots, minimalist recitals on his homemade flute organ, free jazz firestorms or ensemble shows alive with percussive possibilities, he stretches and tweaks his open source music into thrilling new shapes, always with a sense of wonder and spontaneous relish. His Frisk Frugt album Dansktoppen møder Burkina Faso i det himmelblå rum hvor solen bor, suite, released in late 2012 by UK label Exotic Pylon, was heavily informed by a long musical journey of discovery around the great West African countries of Mali and Burkina Faso, armed with a taperecorder and a workbook. African melody, rhythms and ritual dance meld into pop chaos and elegiac homespun folksong and poetry.
In recent times Anders has toured across Europe with like-minded border-busting acts including A Hawk and A Hacksaw, Konono No.1, Awesome Tapes From Africa and Lukas Ligeti.
The Sacred Harp is an old tradition of community singing that uses a hymn book published in the American South before The Civil War. The music is sung unaccompanied in four parts with the singers seated in a square and facing inwards. The sound is direct and raw. One by one singers step into the centre to lead a song of their own choosing. There are no rehearsals and normally no performances. Singers sing for themselves and for each other in that moment.
London Sacred Harp meet about once a week in the Capital and welcome new singers.
