Anders Nordentoft is a contemporary Danish composer
who, in making On This Planet, has provided the Naxos affiliated
label dacapo with the opportunity to cross-over into the areas
of improv and avant-rock. I thoroughly enjoyed this disc but have
to admit that it is very different to almost all the music normally
reviewed on this website. The only nominally "classical" music
I can think of which bears any resemblance to Nordentoft's muse
(at least on the evidence of, particularly, the vocal pieces included
here) is Tom Waits singing Bryars' Jesus Blood Never Failed
Me Yet. Beyond that I am reminded mainly of mavericks from
rock's experimental wing such as Blixa Bargeld's extraordinary
Einstürzende Neubauten, Trout Mask Replica era Captain
Beefheart and Waits himself, circa Swordfishtrombones,
but also of the more Dadaist practitioners of improv/jazz. Certainly
Thomas Sandberg's alternately gruff and resigned vocals locate
the music in those contexts even more than the jazz-related compositions
of the aforementioned Bryars and, say, Mark Anthony Turnage.
The first half of the disc, up to and including
Too Much Sand, is angular, spiky and often dissonant, while
still existing within a fairly disciplined overall structure.
Even the orchestrated instrumentals here fit the Neubauten/Waits/Beefheart
rubric but Don't Be Afraid sees a shift towards a more
reflective approach, much characterised by the use of harmonium
played by the composer himself. Its sad, gospel-like hymnic feeling
is followed by the relatively abrasive Wheel but even here
Sandberg's manic wailings are accompanied by tuneful sampled(?)
"chimes". The Nordentoft of Don't Be Afraid re-emerges
on the first section of the CD's centrepiece Lucid King,
now evoking Nick Cave, Peter Hamill and even the Peter Gabriel
of Family Snapshot or Here Comes The Flood. In spite
of plenty of exotic sounds in the background, this is, when all
is said and done, a beautiful but disturbed and deeply affecting
ballad. It flows straight into the very similar Voice and Choir
but Stones and Voices is something else again with its
half whispered cut-up quotations from poetry by Rimbaud (Les
Illuminations) and Derek Walcott (Earth) and its electroacoustic
backdrop. After the instrumental quietisms of Two Mobiles
and an untitled piece, the "suite" concludes with the surreal
but lovely Happy Fish for piano and vocal. Last but certainly
not least comes Forget My Face, another short but gorgeous
piece of harmonium-driven melancholy Scandinavian hymnal.
I really didn't know what to expect when first
listening to this disc. I found the garish cover art rather off-putting
but every listen just makes me like the music more and more. Both
the vocals and lyrics (the latter often strangely and highly topical,
e.g. Too Much Sand) may be something of an acquired taste
and, as I hope I have made clear, this is possibly the least conventionally
"classical" disc I have ever reviewed for Musicweb but I love
it. If you care for any of the many points of reference I have
tried to include then you could do far worse than sample it yourself,
you may reach the same conclusion as I did. I will certainly be
on the lookout for more music from this composer. Highly recommended.
Neil Horner
See also review
by Paul Shoemaker
Thomas Sandberg, voice 
