Benjamin Koppel New Nordic Quartet - Living Room Recordings #2: The Lost Musicians (2013)

Benjamin Koppel, Danish Jazz saxophonist and composer, is one of the most award-winning musicians of his generation, renowned for his versatility and virtuosity. With Benjamin, the story begins with family. Grandson of the famous Danish classic composer Herman D. Koppel, and son of the beat musician and composer Anders Koppel (Savage Rose, Bazaar), Koppel has always been amongst music. This lineage of classical, jazz and pop is evident in Benjamin’s agile ability to cross genres.

He formed his first band at 15 years old, and has since appeared on more than 50 recordings. Highly sought after internationally as a collaborator, the variety of his work is wide reaching. As a soloist and bandleader he has performed and/or recorded with Phil Woods, Daniel Humair, Palle Danielsson, Sheryl Crow, Alex Riel, Miroslav Vitous, Anders Koppel, Inger Dam Jensen, Michala Petri, Adam Nussbaum, Randy Brecker, Chano Dominguez, Phil Woods, Charlie Mariano, Portinho, David Sanchez, Kenny Werner and more.

In 2001 Benjamin formed his own independent record label, Cowbell Music, releasing exceptional jazz as well as classical, crossover and pop. Cowbell Music also produces big music events, like the Valby Summer Jazz festival – described by international jazz magazine All About Jazz, “...a labor of love that has become so prominent it almost outshines its big brother, the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.”

'The Lost Musicians' is the second album in the series 'Living Room Recordings'. The Lost Musicians is a long time dream come true. A group of the four best, most versatile and creative voices on the Nordic jazz scene, gathered together to bring life to a series of new compositions drawn from select masterpieces of modernist Nordic literature. All of the compositions have been written with that special Nordic tone, taking the uniquely Nordic way of language and poetry as inspiration.

”The great impact that the following authors have had on me as well as generations of others, turnd out to be both an inspiring as well as unifying factor when I began composing for this new group…[we] decided to search for a new Nordic sound, a Nordic approach to the thoroughly well-researched format of the standard jazz quartet, sax, piano, bass drums…I sincerely hope that you, the audience, will feel invited, intrigued and as entertained as we did, recording this music.”

William Heinesen, The Lost Musicians / De fortabte spillemænd (1950)
Hans Scherfig, The Disorder of Nature / Naturens uorden (1966)
Selma Lagerlööf, Invisible Links / Osynliga länkar (1894)
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Beyond Powers / Over ævne (1883)
Karen Blixen, The Immortal Story / Den udødelige historie (1953)
Haldor Laxness, The Atom Station / Atomstödin (1948)
Edith Södergran, The Shadow of the Future / Framtidans skugga (1920)
Astrid Lindgren, The Children of Noisy Village / Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn (1947)