NEWS 2015
MARTIN HALL IN NEW DRK SERIES (29-11-2015)
In DRK’s new series about the history of classical music in Denmark, Danish music throughout 500 years (a series of all in all four broadcasts that begins on Tuesday the 1st of December), Martin Hall is featured in the programme that will be sent on Tuesday the 8th of December at 22.40 PM.
The series works with four main topics in Danish classical music, and every broadcast thus serves as a specific angling of the history of the country’s music.
The programme Hall appears in focuses on a cultural capital – how niche music works and enacts its relevance in a larger context. The broadcast includes a new interview with Hall as well as a selection of his latest works.
“H” – NEW VIDEO AND LAST THREE WEEKS (09-11-2015)
A new video documenting the Ingvar Cronhammar exhibition “H” featuring original music written and performed by Martin Hall is now available on YouTube. The footage’s featured piece of music is an excerpt taken from the full composition which lasts one hour in its full duration. The selected seven minutes feature performances by Hall, Daniel Ostersen and Lydenskab.
The site-specific exhibition has been awarded with a line of sublime reviews and visited by more than 90.000 guests during 2015. Last chance to see “H” at the Cisterns will be on November 29, 2015. You can find much more information about the exhibition here.
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian): “Overwhelming … the perfect combination of something industrial and something sacred.” (rating: 6 out of 6)
Berlingske (the Danish equivalent to The Times): “A unique installation in Frederiksberg’s underworld.” (rating: 6 out of 6)
Fyens Stiftstidende (major sectional newspaper): “Extraterrestrial magic!” (rating: 6 out of 6)
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent): “An underground cathedral of light and water … an extremely successful installation.” (no rating system)
Weekendavisen (the Danish equivalent to The Observer): ”Eminent.”
MARTIN HALL AT DEFINE ART FESTIVAL (09-11-2015)
On Friday the 20th of November Martin Hall opens the electronic art festival Define in Sønderborg. Apart from several installations and performances there will also be live concerts with Liima, Darkness Falls, Rangleklods, The Smith Quartet and Tritonuskoret at the festival. You can find further details about the arrangement here.
MARTIN HALL AT BANDCAMP (10-08-2015)
You can now stream and listen freely to all songs and tracks from a large selection of Martin Hall solo albums and related side projects at Bandcamp. You can also buy the titles as both physical and digital albums at the site. If you acquire a cd or vinyl version, you automatically get the record as download as well.
An important feature in the Bandcamp context is that you can buy downloads in the FLAC format – audio files in a much higher quality than the mp3 standard. In comparison this is not possible if you buy downloads of services such as iTunes.
VISIT THE NEW MARTIN HALL BAND CAMP PAGE HERE
You can use Visa, MasterCard and several other credit cards on the site. Obviously it’s also an option to pay via PayPal.
Among the many titles you can find albums such as Inskription, Apparently All the Same, Relief, Cutting Through, Presence, Random Hold, Metropolitan Suite, Camille, Das Mechanische Klavier, Facsimile, Catalyst, Hospital Cafeterias, If Power Asks Why and Phasewide, Exit Signs. SS-Say, Pesteg Dred and Before material is also available.
“PROTOTYPE/PROTOCOL” AT ODENSE SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL AUGUST 21 (05-08-2015)
The performance play Prototype/Protocol – an inter-aesthetic meeting combining music, film and graphics between Martin Hall, the musical ensemble Lydenskab and Staal Film – will be reenacted in relation to Odense Spoken Word Festival 2015 on August 21 at Kulturmaskinen, Odense (19.30 CET).
The stage play was originally performed in both Denmark and Germany during November 2014. You can read more about the play here.
Tickets can be purchased via the following links:
NEW OVERGADEN GROUP EXHIBITION IN JUNE: “CEASEFIRE” (26-05-2015)
2015 is the 100th anniversary of Danish women’s suffrage. In this relation Tomas Lagermand Lundme has curated a comprehensive group exhibition that takes stock of the developments of gender struggle since women’s official entrance onto the democratic scene. Martin Hall writes the music.
The exhibition Vaabenhvile (“Ceasefire”) takes place at Overgaden, Institute of Contemporary Art, and will be open from June 6 until August 9, 2015. You can read more about the event here.
The participating artists have been invited to dive into 100 years of history and process different opinions, positions, and events that have been particularly significant. As a play with many entries and detours the exhibition is shaped as a complete set design for an exploration of this longstanding community performance in which the human being plays the lead role, while notable men and women hold important supporting roles. The exhibition features a wide range of expressions and media, including sound, text, performance, archival material, an open newspaper column as well as a number of social events focusing on dialogue and exchange.
Participating artists: Kristina Ask, Kristina Nya Glaffey, Martin Hall, Molly Haslund, Huskegruppen, Jomi Massage, Mathias Kryger, Maja Lee Langvad, Jonas Liveröd (SE), Stine Ljungdalh, Tomas Lagermand Lundme, Pulsk Ravn, Rumpistol, Julie Sass, Nina Strand (NO), Gritt Uldall-Jessen, You Little Teapot, Kristoffer Ørum among others.
THE QUEEN OF DENMARK VISITS “H” (23-05-2015)
On Friday the 22nd of May Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark visited the exhibition “H” at The Cisterns where she met the artists Ingvar Cronhammar and Martin Hall. You can watch a news feature on the Danish television channel TV2 Lorry regarding the Queens’s visit by clicking on the following link.
“H” has received sublime reviews. The New York Times has recently recommended The Cisterns as one of only twelve sights you have to see, if you visit Copenhagen.
You can read much more about the exhibition here.
SUBLIME REVIEWS TO THE “H” EXHIBITION (10-03-2015)
The Ingvar Cronhammar exhibition “H” – featuring new music written and performed by Martin Hall – has been awarded with a line of sublime reviews. An unanimous press has praised the installation with highlights such as these:
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian): “Overwhelming … the perfect combination of something industrial and something sacred.” (rating: 6 out of 6)
Berlingske (the Danish equivalent to The Times): “A unique installation in Frederiksberg’s underworld.” (rating: 6 out of 6)
Fyens Stiftstidende (major sectional newspaper): “Extraterrestrial magic!” (rating: 6 out of 6)
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent): “An underground cathedral of light and water … an extremely successful installation.” (no rating system)
Weekendavisen (the Danish equivalent to The Observer): ”Eminent.”
Read much more about the exhibition and the artists involved here.
NEW RADIO FEATURES WITH MARTIN HALL (10-02-2015)
You can hear Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s interviews with both Martin Hall and Ingvar Cronhammar about the process of creating “H” via the following link. The interviews are made in Danish, but musical excerpts from the exhibition can be heard during the features. The programme was sent Tuesday the 3rd of March.
Apart from this Martin Hall also appears in The Sunday Classic on P2 where he discusses classical music with violinist May Kullberg and singer Jakob Zethner (Sunday the 15th of March 15).
At the other end of the scale indie radio channel The Lake has asked Hall to be “curator” of some of their upcoming shows. His first contribution was added on Tuesday, March 10.
”H” – NEW EXHIBITION BY INGVAR CRONHAMMAR WITH MARTIN HALL AT CISTERNERNE (06-02-2015)
33 years after The Cisterns were drained, the water returns to the 4.320 square metre wide water reservoir below Søndermarken (a large park in Copenhagen, Denmark). The new exhibition “H” by Ingvar Cronhammar is an ambitious installation created in accordance to the site-specific challenges and climate of the place. The music for the project is made by Martin Hall.
As a visitor you will be surrounded by water, both in form of a large water surface covering the floor and columns of luminous, falling water as well as water dust appearing like haze in the rooms. The water will mirror and reflect the visual and musical aspects of the project.
“H” opens on March 3 and runs until November 29. You can find more information about the exhibition here.
On the musical part Martin Hall has collaborated with participants such as Daniel Ostersen (a young boy’s voice singing the main theme), the classical ensemble Lydenskab and Maiken Kildegaard.
Martin Hall and Ingvar Cronhammar have worked together several times before, first in relation to Elia in 2001 and later on with Racing Cars at ARoS in 2006.
BRILLIANT REVIEWS TO THE NEW HALL/KATZ ALBUM (19-01-2015)
The new album Efterladt featuring Janina Katz and Martin Hall has received a line of brilliant reviews. Leading Danish newspapers and magazines such as Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian), Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine), BT and Femina have all awarded the album with five out of six possible stars. Also Berlingske (Danish equivalent to The Times) praised the release with a double-spread feature and called the album “a miracle”.
The record is available via Target Group’s webshop.
NEW JANINA KATZ/MARTIN HALL VIDEO (08-01-2015)
A new video featuring a Janina Katz reading from the forthcoming album Efterladt is now available.
Efterladt – a Danish word that means both “abandoned” and “left behind” – is a posthumously released spoken word album featuring the Polish-Danish author Janina Katz’ last readings made shortly before her death. The album is produced by Martin Hall and will be released on January 15, 2015.
The video excerpt – “Efterladt VI” – features Othon on piano (music and performance). The sequence is filmed by Staalfilm.
NEW SPOKEN WORD ALBUM OUT ON JANUARY 15 (02-01-2015)
Efterladt – a Danish word that means both “abandoned” and “left behind” – is a posthumously released spoken word album featuring the Polish-Danish author Janina Katz’ last readings made shortly before her death in October 2013. Already then the plan was to produce an album with a musical setting – however, at the time no one knew how ill she was.
During 2014 Martin Hall continued to work on the project, assisted by the project’s original initiator, journalist and writer Søren E. Jensen, and it is this work that is now finally ready to be released in its final form. The album is produced and musically staged by Hall.
Among the musicians on Efterladt you’ll find several artists featured on Hall’s latest solo album, the critically acclaimed Phasewide, Exit Signs – names such as Greek-English pianist Othon Mataragas (probably best known from his works with names such as Marc Almond, Current 93 and Peter Christopherson from Coil and Throbbing Gristle), the young Danish musician Linus Carlsen, producer and visual artist Christian Skeel as well as The Vista Dome Ensemble.
You can pre-order the album and read much more about the release here.
Janina Katz was born in Krakow. She lost most of her relatives in the Plaszow concentration camp in Poland from which she was smuggled out in 1943, three years old. As an adult Katz studied Polish literature and sociology at the Jagielloński University in Krakow, but left Poland in 1969. After a short stay in Germany she moved to Denmark where she made her debut as a writer at the age of 52 – 22 years after her arrival. During her authorship she released 18 books, novels as well as poetry. Her writing especially reflects her Polish Jewish origin and experiences during World War II.
In 1993 she received the National Arts Foundation prize for best novel, My Life as a Barbarian. In 1998 she received the Beatrice Award and in 2002 she was awarded the National Arts Foundation grant for life. In 2012 she was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize for his poetry collection Written in Polish. Janina Katz died on October 18, 2013, at the age of 74.
Portrait taken by Piotr Topperzer.