“A profound offering for many subsequent generations of ears to ponder,” reads a recent review of Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard’s SOUND X SOUND series on the renowned music blog I Care If You Listen.
Composed from 2014 to 2016, Løkkegaard’s SOUND X SOUND series consists of seven works for specific instruments: 8 recorders, 30 chromatic tuners, 9 pianos, 15 shakers, 18 clarinets, 16 triangles and 10 hi-hats. Last year all seven works were released as an LP box on the Danish indie label Hiatus.
“Løkkegaard’s forceful brevity of form and shrewd focus in concept and execution allow these pieces to exist in a creative space that feels unchallenged by cliché,” the critic argues. “The result is a satisfyingly holistic library of sounds and textures, indirectly described in the liner notes as the captured sounds of ‘various instruments in their natural habitat’.”
Read the full review on I Care If You Listen.
Music for the inner ear
Løkkegaard is currently working on a new, conceptual project called ‘Music for the Inner Ear’. ‘Music for the Inner Ear’ is an attempt to create music that exists only in the inner ear of the listener – an imaginary music, inseparable from the individual listener.
As with the SOUND X SOUND series, ‘Music for the Inner Ear’ explores how we listen to music – and what we see as music, listening and sound. It poses the question: Could the story about a musical work be perceived as the work itself?
Earlier Løkkegaard projects have focused on the same topic. Løkkegaard invented the fictional pianist Johannes Richter (2012–16), released his SYMPHONY No. 1 in 2016 – a symphony released as a book for the inner ear – and with the creation of the Curatorium Festival, also in 2016, online audiences were presented with a sound festival that never took place, a so-called non-event.
Recently, Løkkegaard was a guest on Danish radio. You can listen to him telling more about ‘Music for the Inner Ear’ on Radio24syv.