My labelmates in Murder will soon release their third album. There’s no need to say, why they are great. The song below pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?

Photo by Johanne Fick.

Hi, hymnfriends.

It’s been a while. I’ve been so so so busy making music. SO, you might wonder, how far we are with the record? Frankly, it’s hard to say, but we’re closer to closure! So far, we’ve recorded 12 songs, and we want to record a couple more. Some of the twelve songs aren’t finished, but some are, and we are thrilled with the result (“we” are Aske, Caspar and I)! The songs will vary from orchestral songs with symphonic arrangements to simplistic, almost lo-fi-ish songs. Since we started the recordings, we’ve had approximately 15 people contributing with various instruments and lots of vocals. You might say, that it becomes more and more difficult to argue, that Hymns from Nineveh is a soloproject.. ! Last saturday, we had the honour of recording the magnificent Sarah Hepburn (Glorybox, Zhaeng Zhaeng, Kloster), one of my favourite female artists. She managed to lift four songs to higher levels. It was and is fantastic!

I hope that you will be able to stream some songs on myspace during the summer. I’ll keep you updated! You can go to Hymns from Nineveh’s Facebook page once in a while to see small updates.

If you have the time, you can visit my friends in Hunch Bettors. They’ve just won the music contest Karrierekanonen hosted by Danish National Radio P3. I play the cello on one of their songs. They will record an EP during the summer – keep a close eye on them!

That was all for now.

Love – Jonas

You might know one of my friends, RebekkaMaria? She was the fine female singer on my christmas-EP, and she has just released her 2nd album, “Sister Sortie”. It’s clubby, clever and sincere! Stream two more songs from the album here!

and watch the wonderful video for her hit “Corollaceous” below.

She has just kicked off her springtour, so if you happen to be in Sweden, Denmark or Germany any of the dates below, go see her and her beautiful band!
Wednesday 4/14 – Babel, Malmö, SE
Thursday 4/15 – Forbrændingen, Albertslund, DK
Friday 4/16 – Stars, Vordingborg, DK
Saturday 4/17 – Pitstop, Kolding, DK
Wednesday 4/21 – Lille Vega, Copenhagen, …DK
Thursday 4/22 – Pustervik, Gothenburg, SE
Friday 4/23 – Studenterhuset, Aalborg, DK
Saturday 4/24 – Gimle, Roskilde, DK
Thursday 4/29 – Sønderborghus, Sønderborg, DK
Friday 4/30 – Musikhuset, Århus, DK
Saturday 5/1 – Posten, Odense, DK
5/21-22 – SPOT Festival, Århus, DK
5/28 – Fermaten, Herning, DK
8/7 – Knust, Hamburg, DE

/with love/
Jonas

Sunday was the last day on the springsupporttour with Murder. The grand finale. It had been sold out for months, so we were so excited.

Planeten is a venue that is normally used as a theater, a very cool place that holds 150 people, so it is quite intimate. And it’s painted black!

Without exaggeration I can say, that it was a fantastic night. Good concerts require good audience, and the Copenhagen made our concert one of the best experiences ever. I think Murder made their best performance of the tour too this evening. Overall it has been such an honour to be supporting these guys. They will release their 3rd album later this year! Can’t wait. Stay tuned on their Myspace.

I would have liked to show you some photos from the day, but unfortunately, there was a burglary in our backstageroom while Murder was playing. The idiot took some money, some wallets and my cellphone with my pictures on it. Shame on you!

Politiken were at Planeten to review the concert, and they gave 4/6 hearts to HfN and 5/6 hearts to Murder. If you speak Danish, you can read it here.

There are more musicblogs/newspapers reviewing the concerts (also in Danish, sorry!):

Blaa Vinyl , smårepetitioner , Lokalavisen Aarhus and of course, the 5 star review in GAFFA.

We will play three more shows this spring and we’re looking forward to it:
22/04 – Korsør (closed Arr.)
01./05 Ikast – Konnekt
08/05 Odense – Kulturmaskinen festival

We’re starting in the studio again on Monday, it will be nice to go back to work.

See you out there!
Jonas

There's only one Hymn from Nineveh

Hi, Reader.

Third day of the tour went to Odense. It got late before we got home from Aalborg, so we were tired. But also very excited about going to Odense, partly because Dexter is such a cool venue, partly because we had persuaded Mikael to join us once more. Jakob and Christel also came, so Hymns from Nineveh played as a quintet for the first time ever!

Mikael drove with the Murder tourbus from Aarhus, and Niko and I took the train from Aarhus. Jakob and Christel came from Copenhagen.

At the trainstation in Aarhus, we came across some people who were politically involved in getting more nuclear power to Denmark. As you can see below, Nikolaj has a different view on that question (for non-danish readers: His bag says “No to Nuclear Power”).

There was a good atmosphere at Dexter, and once again, the place was packed and nearly sold out. Magnificent. There were two downsides of the evening: 1) When we had played two songs, the electricity went out for twenty minutes! The Dexter crew had never experienced anything like it, so they panicked a bit. We thought about playing the rest of the show acoustic, but that wouldn’t work for Murder, because they had electric guitars and basses. The Odense audience were very patient, and when the lights came back on, they were eager to hear more music. Fantastic.

The other downside of the evening was, that it was so wonderful to have Mikael with us, that we are sad that he can’t join us at the last show in Copenhagen. Well, that wasn’t really a downside, was it. I can assure you that it isn’t the last time Hymns from Nineveh performs is a quintet.

Mikael, Jakob and Christel had to leave early, but Niko and I stayed for the whole Murder show, which was, once again a fantastic show. Jacob Bellens’s lowfrequency vocal literally made the floor shake beneath our feet. Murder were kind to offer us a ride home to Copenhagen. It was a good feeling to be back home in your own bed.

Now we have a couple of days off before the final show in Copenhagen. It has been sold out for weeks – what a privilege.

Danish readers can find a big interview with Hymns from Nineveh in today’s edition of Kristeligt Dagblad.

Love/The hymnboy

Photo by Mathies Brinkmann Jespersen

Aalborg was the next target on the springtour. And spring it was – sunshine and birds singing, lovers walking, flowers blooming, and the expectations in the HfN camp were high after the fantastic Aarhus-experience.

Huset in Aalborg is a much smaller place, but also has a much more intemate atmosphere.

The place was packed, and the audience was so quiet. Thank you!

Murder made a fantastic performance, perhaps better than the 5-star Aarhusgig.

Below you can see some pictures I took during the day + some photos from the concert…….

It’s Odense tomorrow – the delicate jazzhouse Dexter!

/Jonas

Mikael. Photo by Mathies Brinkmann Jespersen

Nikolaj. Photo by Mathies Brinkmann Jespersen

Photo: David Bust (http://www.davidbust.dk)

Welcome, reader!

It’s the day after the fantastic Voxhall show. I’m sitting in Mikaels cozy livingroom drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes. I’ve just read GAFFA’s 5 star review. Life is good! The Aarhus audience was so good listeners, and it was a great experience to play for them. You can’t always expect the audience to listen, when you are the supporting act. You can see more pictures from last night here.

It was a loooong day yesterday, both Nikolaj and I were awake for nearly 24 hours. Well, Niko took a nap in the train.

We had to take an early train (06.50!) from Copenhagen because we needed to rehearse with Mikael, who had had little time to listen to the songs and read the instructions. But as the skilled musician he is, he had made some new guitarparts and some cool choirparts. We practised for 6 hours and drove to Voxhall, one of the finest and biggest venues in Aarhus.

Setlist

I’ve been a MURDER-fan for several years, so it was nice to finally meet them. And to be able to see them 4 times in a week. It’s Aalborg tonight – the third largest city in Denmark. I’ve never actually played in Aalborg, so I’m looking forward. Hope to see many people there too.

Love/Jonas

Happy Easter! I hope you have enjoyed the Easter Holiday! I spent mine in the beautiful Faroe Islands. I played a show in the capital city, Torshavn, and also got some time off to visit a good friend of mine and the breathtaking Faroese highlands.

Tuesday morning I was interviewed to the Faroese National Radio (the morning show called “Good Morning Faroe Islands”. I also played two songs, So mournful the elegy, So comforting the hymn and Selma. Listen to it here.

waiting in the lobby at the radiostation

Wednesday I played at The Nordic House, which must be one of the world’s most beutiful venues with a panorama view over Torshavn city and the Atlantic Ocean.

Tickets

I should have played with Lena Anderssen, but unfortunately, she got sick just before the show, so instead, one of the most popular artists on the Faroe Islands right now, Høgni Reistrup played instead. Keep a close on him – I think he has the potential to get a big audience outside FO – maybe the next Teitur

The show went well, and I hope to return soon!

As I mentioned, I also got some time off to see the Faroese Highlands. The weather can change in seconds – from bright sunshine to snow and fog, but the weather was great (nearly) all weak. The landscape is a bit like Iceland, but much greener. No trees, though.

One thing that is a bit peculiar with the Faroe Islands is, that there are more sheep than there are people. Approximately 70.000 sheep. And the Faroese people eat everything but the wool and the contents of the intestines. They use some of the wool for clothing, and it should be some of the finest wool you can get. And when I say, that they eat everything, I mean EVERYTHING – like the head below…

delicatesse: The head of a sheep

I’m preparing for the Denmark tour that starts tomorrow. I’m so excited. Stay tuned the next couple of days, I’ll post some pictures and updates. And come to Aarhus or Aalborg og Odense, if you want to hear Hymns from Nineveh and Murder. It’ll be great.

See you.

/Jonas

Day 9 of the Album recording was an extraordinary day. Instead of recording at Pinligtavshed, Aske and I went to record in my appartment in Vesterbro. Here we did three small songs: “Eveningsong”, “Cocoon” and a brand new song called “Who can make a woeful heart to sing”.

We took a much more lo-fi approach to these recordings. Aske put up his Neumann mics in the middle of the room, and then I played the songs – guitar and vocal, that’s all. The idea is, that the listener will be able to go into different “soundrooms” when listening to the album.

/Jonas

Thursday was spent by the piano. We wanted to record a song called “Sister sorrowsong”, and we agreed that the instrumentation shouldn’t be guitarbased. So in order to be able to record other instruments than guitar, we decided to make a pianotrack. But before that could happen, the guitarpart had to be transscribed into a pianopart, which turned out to be ore difficult than we thought. Although Aske is a very talented painoplayer, he had a rough time figuring out which rhythm I’m playing, and I couldn’t tell him, because – when it comes to guitar – I don’t think, I just play!

But we figured it out in the end, and had a lot of fun. I think the endresult is going to be fantastic.

/Jonas