Henrik Meierkord - Falling (2024)

Stockholm-based composer and cellist Henrik Meierkord returns to Projekt for his second album of forlorn yet iridescent ambient soundscapes. Utilizing cello and violin with and without pedals and effects, the styles range from drone and ambient to classical baroque. Where most ambient music is made with electronics and synthesizers, Meierkord’s melancholic soundscapes arise from the organic sound of strings. The music, as EXPOSÉ has written, “features a lustrous shimmering character within which all the various instruments can weave in and out at will, much like a tapestry of soft metallic colors and shaded nuances."

As Meierkord explains it, “We are all falling, sometimes we are not aware of it and sometimes we just fall into the warm deep sea and we like it. I make music especially when I have anxiety or feel bad or even when the weather is bad. Creativity works as medicine for my brain and soul; I grow calm. For me, the warm sea is like a harmonic creative ocean where I accept the light insanity — or let’s say: the creative ‘insanity’ — that takes over. I fall into the musical ocean, and I can’t control what appears. I play and create what comes to mind within the flow. It’s a range between light and darkness where sorrow is sometimes simultaneous with creativity. To create, one sometimes needs to go inside your inner darkness and embrace it. I think the ocean could be about acceptance: that all people let their control go and just fall."

AVANT MUSIC NEWS wrote (about a previous release): "Meierkord’s modus operandi is to employ cello, other stringed instruments, and effects to create ambient soundscapes. Beginning with brief overlapping melodies he builds these into larger, denser structures. But Meierkord also offers up several minimalist improvisations that are airy and atmospheric. While melancholy, the tone is not consistently dark. Brighter moments light up these pieces, like the sun peeking out on a cloudy day."