Month: September 2010
I HAVE SEEN YOU THROUGH THE YEARS, WORN BY DIFFERENT FACES
I HAVE SEEN YOU THROUGH THE YEARS, WORN BY DIFFERENT FACES
PESTEG DRED/SS-SAY
CD/LP
SEPTEMBER 2010
PANOPTIKON/DARK ENTRIES (OPTIK 24)
A long awaited hole in the Martin Hall back catalogue was filled when the obscure art rock project Pesteg Dred and now internationally renowned group SS-Say (both bands featuring the singer Inge Shannon in the vocal front) were re-released as one cd with the album I Have Seen You through the Years, Worn by Different Faces in September 2010.
1. Salt (Pesteg Dred) (3:42)
2. Postcards and Reasons (Pesteg Dred) (3:56)
3. 20th Century Superior (Pesteg Dred) (4:08)
4. Cold Impressions of Perhaps (Pesteg Dred) (4:21)
5. Light, More Light (Pesteg Dred) (12:51)
6. Untitled (Pesteg Dred) (4:05)
7. Almost (Pesteg Dred) (2:30)
8. Transaction (SS-Say) (7:45)
9. Care (SS-Say) (4:48)
10. Fanfare (SS-Say) (4:19)
TRANSACTION
You say you’ve tried
Well try harder
Change it
Re-arrange it
The turning point’s getting closer
I’m gonna take it where it comes from
I’m gonna give it to whom it belongs
Without delay
Take a chance now
Take it
Reinforce it
So make a move, make it happen
I’m gonna take it where it comes from
I’m gonna give it to whom it belongs
You say you’re sorry
Well you’d better learn to forgive yourself
‘Cause there’s no one here who can do it for you
In this twentieth century
Emotional sell-out
Be what you wanna be
Get out
Shout it out loud
You talk about a truth
Well it’s all an illusion
So what you have to do is to make your own fusion
Do what you wanna do
Be what you wanna be
Take what you wanna have
Just remember to give
I’m gonna take it
Moving slowly
Master planning of the means
Make it happen
Fight the limits you obey
Burning fire
Feel it as a part of you
Make it happen
Fight the limits you obey
You say it’s like all words are used up
Well I’m not
I’m standing right here
Look into my eyes
Take me by the hand
I will never let you down again
All together and no excuses
Turning every weakness to strength
CARE
Moments of love
Distant from darkness
Overturning the balance with the power of doubt
Caring for the first time
See you for the first time
Feel you for the first time
Need you for the first time
Don’t you recognize yourself in the mirror?
Far too involved to cancel the care
The nameless games and the real thing
The final solution and emotional stunts
Viewing for the first time
Value for the second
I have seen you through the years worn by different faces
FANFARE
Come on
Come on
Come on
Let it shine on you
Knowing what I feel
Knowing I’m able to give
Knowing what I need
Willing to risk all my love
The Wire: ”Years of Struggle is a hitherto rarely heard album that exemplified the black-hole nihilism and hostile theatrics found in the abstractionist fractions of the post-punk movement. After this sole Pesteg Dred recording Hall formed a number of darkwave projects in Denmark with considerable aplomb, but the innovation coupled with the claustrophobia of Years of Struggle is so strong that I have to wonder where Pesteg Dred might have gone if they had had the opportunity back in the day.“
Boomkat: “Uncompromising seriousness and unfettered urgency … It’s kinda easy to become blasé with so many ****wave reissues around, but this is simply one of the most essential we’ve stumbled upon.“
Igloo Magazine: “Industrial solitude pours forth in a haunted Kirlian Camera style work of lonesome isolation. The album progresses along sepulchral darkwave lines. Desperation cascades over angst … I don’t know where Dark Entries scare up these obscurities, I only know I’m glad that they do.“
Aquarius: “Martin Hall appears to be the figure who defined the Danish New Wave scene. We’ve never heard of any of Hall’s other projects, but if any were half as good as Pesteg Dred, they’d be worth the price of admission. Death disco? You bet! Dark Entries scores yet again with a really great re-discovery on Pested Dred.“
Sideline Music Magazine: “Immerses you into another world immediately.”
Henrik Möll: Bass
Inge Shannon: Vocals
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, keyboards, piano, bass, cello, violin, guitar, tapes, percussion, trumpet, balalaika, autoharp
Per Hendrichsen: Treatments, guitar, synthesizers
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Artwork: Christian Skeel
The original Pesteg Dred album Years of Struggle against the Lies, the Stupidity and the Cowardice was recorded by an 18-year-old Hall with vocalist Inge Shannon and guitarist/noisemaker Per Hendrichsen (later Under For) in December 1981. The album stayed unreleased until the summer of 1985 where it featured as a bonus cassette tape with the Danish art magazine Atlas.
In comparison to Pesteg Dred the later SS-Say project (and particularly the group’s 12″ single Fusion) received much more attention. The first constellation of the band made its debut at William S. Burroughs’ legendary visit in Denmark in October 1983 and ever since the reputation of the group has grown, both in Europe and in the United States – apparently because a French DJ kept playing the Fusion tracks at the New York club The Batcave.
Apart from the Scandinavian re-release in September 2010 the Pesteg Dred album was also released in America in a limited vinyl edition by the San Francisco based label Dark Entries (late October 2010). This edition received an abundance of international praise … such as when the illustrious English music magazine The Wire wrote the following about the record in their January 2011 issue (#323):
”Years of Struggle is a hitherto rarely heard album that exemplified the black-hole nihilism and hostile theatrics found in the abstractionist fractions of the post-punk movement. After this sole Pesteg Dred recording Hall formed a number of darkwave projects in Denmark with considerable aplomb, but the innovation coupled with the claustrophobia of Years of Struggle is so strong that I have to wonder where Pesteg Dred might have gone if they had had the opportunity back in the day.“
SOMETHING ROTTEN!
SOMETHING ROTTEN!
JAN POULSEN
ORAL HISTORY BOOK
SEPTEMBER 2010
GYLDENDAL (ISBN 9788702082883)
In September 2010 the first comprehensive book about Danish punk was released, Something Rotten! written by music journalist Jan Poulsen. It carries the subtitle “Punk in Denmark: Painting, Music, Literature 1977-85” and Martin Hall is one of the principal contributors.
The book is an “oral history” document where the author lets the participants tell the story themselves. Through thorough research and almost a hundred interviews with the leading figures on the Danish punk scene Jan Poulsen presents a mosaic tale rendering multifaceted insights into the milieu at the time.
The book has a volume of 412 pages and contains an abundance of illustrations.
Among the other contributors you can find names such as Claus Carstensen (professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts), Peter Peter (Danish punk act Sods/Sort Sol), Søren Ulrik Thomsen (poet), Fritz Fatal (singer in Before), Nina Sten-Knudsen (painter), Odd Bjertnæs (musician) and Lars H.U.G. (singer and front figure in Danish art-rock group Kliché).
I HAVE SEEN YOU THROUGH THE YEARS, WORN BY DIFFERENT FACES
I HAVE SEEN YOU THROUGH THE YEARS, WORN BY DIFFERENT FACES
PESTEG DRED/SS-SAY
CD/LP
SEPTEMBER 2010
PANOPTIKON/DARK ENTRIES (OPTIK 24)
A long awaited hole in the Martin Hall back catalogue was filled when the obscure art rock project Pesteg Dred and now internationally renowned group SS-Say (both bands featuring the singer Inge Shannon in the vocal front) were re-released as one cd with the album I Have Seen You through the Years, Worn by Different Faces in September 2010.
1. Salt (Pesteg Dred) (3:42)
2. Postcards and Reasons (Pesteg Dred) (3:56)
3. 20th Century Superior (Pesteg Dred) (4:08)
4. Cold Impressions of Perhaps (Pesteg Dred) (4:21)
5. Light, More Light (Pesteg Dred) (12:51)
6. Untitled (Pesteg Dred) (4:05)
7. Almost (Pesteg Dred) (2:30)
8. Transaction (SS-Say) (7:45)
9. Care (SS-Say) (4:48)
10. Fanfare (SS-Say) (4:19)
TRANSACTION
You say you’ve tried
Well try harder
Change it
Re-arrange it
The turning point’s getting closer
I’m gonna take it where it comes from
I’m gonna give it to whom it belongs
Without delay
Take a chance now
Take it
Reinforce it
So make a move, make it happen
I’m gonna take it where it comes from
I’m gonna give it to whom it belongs
You say you’re sorry
Well you’d better learn to forgive yourself
‘Cause there’s no one here who can do it for you
In this twentieth century
Emotional sell-out
Be what you wanna be
Get out
Shout it out loud
You talk about a truth
Well it’s all an illusion
So what you have to do is to make your own fusion
Do what you wanna do
Be what you wanna be
Take what you wanna have
Just remember to give
I’m gonna take it
Moving slowly
Master planning of the means
Make it happen
Fight the limits you obey
Burning fire
Feel it as a part of you
Make it happen
Fight the limits you obey
You say it’s like all words are used up
Well I’m not
I’m standing right here
Look into my eyes
Take me by the hand
I will never let you down again
All together and no excuses
Turning every weakness to strength
CARE
Moments of love
Distant from darkness
Overturning the balance with the power of doubt
Caring for the first time
See you for the first time
Feel you for the first time
Need you for the first time
Don’t you recognize yourself in the mirror?
Far too involved to cancel the care
The nameless games and the real thing
The final solution and emotional stunts
Viewing for the first time
Value for the second
I have seen you through the years worn by different faces
FANFARE
Come on
Come on
Come on
Let it shine on you
Knowing what I feel
Knowing I’m able to give
Knowing what I need
Willing to risk all my love
The Wire: ”Years of Struggle is a hitherto rarely heard album that exemplified the black-hole nihilism and hostile theatrics found in the abstractionist fractions of the post-punk movement. After this sole Pesteg Dred recording Hall formed a number of darkwave projects in Denmark with considerable aplomb, but the innovation coupled with the claustrophobia of Years of Struggle is so strong that I have to wonder where Pesteg Dred might have gone if they had had the opportunity back in the day.“
Boomkat: “Uncompromising seriousness and unfettered urgency … It’s kinda easy to become blasé with so many ****wave reissues around, but this is simply one of the most essential we’ve stumbled upon.“
Igloo Magazine: “Industrial solitude pours forth in a haunted Kirlian Camera style work of lonesome isolation. The album progresses along sepulchral darkwave lines. Desperation cascades over angst … I don’t know where Dark Entries scare up these obscurities, I only know I’m glad that they do.“
Aquarius: “Martin Hall appears to be the figure who defined the Danish New Wave scene. We’ve never heard of any of Hall’s other projects, but if any were half as good as Pesteg Dred, they’d be worth the price of admission. Death disco? You bet! Dark Entries scores yet again with a really great re-discovery on Pested Dred.“
Sideline Music Magazine: “Immerses you into another world immediately.”
Henrik Möll: Bass
Inge Shannon: Vocals
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, keyboards, piano, bass, cello, violin, guitar, tapes, percussion, trumpet, balalaika, autoharp
Per Hendrichsen: Treatments, guitar, synthesizers
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Artwork: Christian Skeel
The original Pesteg Dred album Years of Struggle against the Lies, the Stupidity and the Cowardice was recorded by an 18-year-old Hall with vocalist Inge Shannon and guitarist/noisemaker Per Hendrichsen (later Under For) in December 1981. The album stayed unreleased until the summer of 1985 where it featured as a bonus cassette tape with the Danish art magazine Atlas.
In comparison to Pesteg Dred the later SS-Say project (and particularly the group’s 12″ single Fusion) received much more attention. The first constellation of the band made its debut at William S. Burroughs’ legendary visit in Denmark in October 1983 and ever since the reputation of the group has grown, both in Europe and in the United States – apparently because a French DJ kept playing the Fusion tracks at the New York club The Batcave.
Apart from the Scandinavian re-release in September 2010 the Pesteg Dred album was also released in America in a limited vinyl edition by the San Francisco based label Dark Entries (late October 2010). This edition received an abundance of international praise … such as when the illustrious English music magazine The Wire wrote the following about the record in their January 2011 issue (#323):
”Years of Struggle is a hitherto rarely heard album that exemplified the black-hole nihilism and hostile theatrics found in the abstractionist fractions of the post-punk movement. After this sole Pesteg Dred recording Hall formed a number of darkwave projects in Denmark with considerable aplomb, but the innovation coupled with the claustrophobia of Years of Struggle is so strong that I have to wonder where Pesteg Dred might have gone if they had had the opportunity back in the day.“
LIVE AT ST. PAUL'S
LIVE AT ST. PAUL’S
MARTIN HALL
DVD
SEPTEMBER 2010
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 23)
In September 2010 Panoptikon released Martin Hall’s critically acclaimed live performance at St. Paul’s in Aarhus as a dvd.
Originally filmed and transmitted by the Danish television network DK4 at the event in October 30, 2009, the dvd release has been added English subtitles in respect of Hall’s European audiences.
The repertoire of the night stretches from Hall’s early Ballet Mécanique period all the way up to his at the time current album Hospital Cafeterias.
Among the highlights of the night is ”Images in Water” as well as Hall’s acoustic version of ”Treatment”, a song he originally recorded with Martin Krogh (deceased 1988) under the band name Front and Fantasy in 1985.
1. P.O. (2:36)
2. Other Rooms (4:19)
3. Plaza Flesh (2:31)
4. 40 Versions of the Time Before (2:38)
5. An Attempt of Interruption (7:45)
6. Treatment (6:17)
7. Ash and Lemon Water (3:10)
8. Images in Water (8:03)
9. Crush (5:14)
10. Imagine Focus (5:12)
11. To Be Continued (5:33)
12. Torn Envelope (8:03)
13. Eyes and Hands (5:11)
14. Avenues of Oblivion (3:45)
15. The Mark (4:49)
P.O.
I’ve seen your face a thousand times
I’ve seen you hide within the crowd
I feel you run within my blood
But dreams are never quite enough
Not enough
All I want to believe in
Is the look in your eyes
All I want to believe in
Is your sigh
Let me stay here forever
Let me stay here tonight
Let us stay here together
For a while
No one knows you better than me
No one knows you better than me
OTHER ROOMS
The cigarette smoke in the air
The smouldering waves everywhere
Full of eyes
Prune coloured eyes
In Moscow and St. Petersburg
The places turn into a blur
In your mind
A violent sigh
The salt water traces that burn on your skin
The words that you hid in letters never sent
Your heartbeat’s a rage never tamed, never shown
Wherever you go, you’re never alone
The alcohol glows for a while
It’s shining like gold in the light
Like a trace
Of halcyon days
Like ghosts in their circuits of loss
You carry your own little cross
As a shield
Against any need
Wherever you go, you leave something behind
The parts of yourself you’ve been trying to find
The smell of the night seems to stick to your skin
All locked in a cage the journey begins
PLAZA FLESH
Show me your true desires
Show me your plaza flesh
Pictures of people dying
Seem to have no effect no more
I don’t really give as much as a toss anymore
I just want to hide away, never beg anymore
I don’t really count the days or the hours anymore
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone
Come now
Inject the daylight
Come here
Each little girl
At first I just want to kiss you
But then I want it all
I want excess
Your plaza flesh
40 VERSIONS OF THE TIME BEFORE
Falling asleep on a long distance flight
The images in the still of the night
A scent of waste
The sight of your face
A flicker of uneasiness
Will I be able to forget now?
Nurses and young girls in a row
How can I ever let you go now?
Like 40 versions of the time before
The ballerinas at my feet
The connoisseurs out in the street
Oh you mean nothing to me
Just try to tell yourself the tale again
You tell yourself it’s all the same again
The city lights that came alive
The stars that fell down from the sky
You turned around within the light
Your skin so frail and lily-white
The centre of the Western world
A glamorous confusion zipped
Upon the parting of your lips
Intangible as every breath
As inescapable as death
Oh it means nothing to me
AN ATTEMPT OF INTERRUPTION
The nurseling and the tendon
The naked responsibility
Unexisting possibilities
Like long gone friends
Infectious ideas
I kept your sins
Sincere to the end
And I concentrate on remembering your face, your eyes
But the noise from the second day’s party wipes it out
Sentimental warfare
Days of life
Seconds of love
Hours of sin
This could be as heart-known
Lust dead in deed
Vulgar to feed
Holding me down
You could be forgiven
‘Cause I’ll lie for you
I’ll die for you
I’ll do anything
To be forgiven
TREATMENT
Treat me hard
Treat me with heart
Show me no mercy
Show me no sign of weakness
Retreat me right
Remain in light
Through every night and day
So cruelly
I know you’ll be my destiny
In all
Surrender completely
Fade into me
I need you this close
I want you to be
The purpose itself
To every extent
In method and need
Beginning and end
Treat me right
Treat me with right
Show me no mercy
Show me no sign of weakness
In cover of all of your love
I’ll make this dream come through
In every trace of every face
I feel a stream of you
So tender we treat each other with fear
The root of our need will constantly tear
Our fiction apart
Revealing the bone
Behind walls of love
We’re still all alone
Be my Judas
Be my destiny
I’ll forgive you in eternity
Be my Jesus
Be my sacrifice
I’ll betray you with a kiss of ice
ASH AND LEMON WATER
Ash and lemon water
Shining on your lips
Whatever you do
Don’t try to resist
It’s the kind of understanding that makes you feel uncomfortable
It’s the kind of circumstances that make you feel so old
You’re all immune
To crowded rooms
Your heart’s made of air
It’s easy to share
You’re sliding down
The open sky
A handle that breaks
Excitement’s a rage
IMAGES IN WATER
The sound of the room
The sound of your breathing
See the night rain that falls
Hear it run down the walls
There’s a scent in the air
There’s a trace in the water
And you’re stretched like the sky
On these carnival nights
That you carry inside
And the image you see
Such a weight on your eyelids
It never dried on your eyes
Never silenced the cries
Like a needle you find
That injects light inside you
See the ribbons of rain
Draw the lines of a face
The thinnest of air
Was all that you needed
Now the glittering stars
Shine a light far too hard
On the tip of your tongue
There’s a word never spoken
Like a vanishing gaze
Choreographed games
That you try to rename
And the image you see
Such a weight on your eyelids
It never dried on your eyes
Never silenced the cries
Like a needle you find
That injects light inside you
See the ribbons of rain
Draw the lines of a face
The scenes of a night cut in marble
The sound of the rain’s getting harder
A hand mirror line turning flesh for a while
You’re so tired now
CRUSH
As you fill me again
I have no further questions
Condemned to be free
As I reach out for you again
Nothing is new
But something has grown
Bigger than both of us
Stronger than memory
And much stronger than defeat
I’m gonna crush the worlds we used to know
A seed is sown
I’m gonna let it grow
I’m quite aware what I’ll be going through
There’s no way back
It all depends on you
My destiny
I’ve seen it in your eyes
A love so deep
A stream that purifies
And in your arms
The nature of all death
Is nothing but a touch of timelessness
I’m gonna crush you with my love
I’m gonna be crushed up in love
IMAGINE FOCUS
Just a touch of lost
Burning as always
As it was, as it is
And eventually
Just in trust, nothing more
So suddenly
From beginning to end
While this centreless present reflects itself
In inverted moves of an obsessional stage
In a stream of light from unreachable marks
Something long ago in everlasting terms
In a crossfade of untitled reasons
What it turned out to be
And occasionally
Everything in my hands
So totally
In the heat of the touch
Like the way we were
Beyond love under will
Suddenly away in these only words
By mistakes again into changing links
In this compromise of dependence then
Stage by stage, in exposure
Still so timeless in this life release
Nearness hidden in casual moves
Watch the changes and recall
Touch through another focus
Mark perfection twice
With or without purpose
Still tons against tons
Carefully mistaken in retrospective fear
Restrain it all while I imagine focus
As I lie down
As I lie
TO BE CONTINUED
My-my
Here’s a drummer
All melodramatic
I wonder who invited him in
But I’m amused as always
By the glamorous stupidity
It’s the puff and the posh of the way that you are
Sugar coating any word
When it all begins to hurt
A little too Babylonian
Now you’re breaking into tears
Though you know I can’t be near
Such an effortless act
It’s shining through your skin
A skin so paper thin
A living memory
It’s just a breath away
All drawn in pale and grey
So tense and self-aware
I can’t breathe in the absence of beauty
Come sustain my arrogance
With a sigh that never ends
A little falling from the sky
Ain’t gonna make the day worthwhile
Not exactly unpredictable
I love the feeling
The nervous shivering
A skin show of dreams
Olympian ideals undefeated
TORN ENVELOPE
With lips bleeding red
A flicker of skin
Her one silk caress
It’s a breath just about to begin
She believes
What she feels
The white of her eyes
A glow in the dark
Wherever she is
She’s a silence that shelters my heart
She believes
What she is
And I wish she could see
What she’s doing to me
In spite of the past
In spite of the present
She’s the air I breathe
She’s the trail of the days
My guide and my trace
The world never sleeps
It feeds on her dreaming
As I close my eyes
A taste in my mouth
Of sugary sand
The world seems so small
As it glitters in her open hand
She believes
What she needs
And I wish she could see
What she’s doing to me
In spite of the past
In spite of the present
She’s the air I breathe
She’s the trail of the days
My guide and my trace
The world never sleeps
It feeds on her dreaming
As I close my eyes
In the still of the night, the dim desires
In the faint afterglow of heated cries
On the moon flooded roofs and in her eyes
It all comes alive
It all seems to hide
And the words seem to fall like whispers that drip
Her voice’s like a fog on her moist soft lips
Like a torn envelope that’s sealed with a kiss
How it all seems to break
All seems to shake
In a single embrace
EYES AND HANDS
As I am
Changing in these filters of light
Without difference between the symbol and the force that is symbolized
Just like you
Scanning the shadows
I see you through nothing but eyes
Depending on eyes
As the sphere of wound strengthens the love
Earthbound to heaven but trapped in the mirrors
If self-made conditions rule perfectly blind
So selfish bourgeois
So vulgar pretentious in your attempted martyrdom
From sacrifice to power release
The strain keeps the balance of love
While it shines like a diamond
So dustless and unseen
Beyond tension and form
Feel it
Skinless
Take it in
In whirls of love
Through eyes and hands
A voice surrounds me
A touch reminds me
Equalizing every change
Again I lie down to die in your arms
Surrounded by the rings in the water
Beyond dividing life into senses in intellectual self-mutilation
In every circle knowing the centre
In every touch a signal so tender
All on the outside
All on the inside
Without distinction
From request to request
Hiding in the mirrors
In these laws of pain
In the identity of the pain
Drawing the lines between love and hatred
Based on code and revenge
Where’s your respect for love?
Where’s your respect for life?
Acting out neurotic non-appearance
Stimulating some denied desire by simulating a heart on fire
In worlds on location
In wordless betrayal
In the illusion of security
But there will be no restrictions
Nor any limits
For body and spirit
When love transcends
In both sense and symbol
Beyond good and evil
Beyond you and me
AVENUES OF OBLIVION
Electric music is ripping the air
Streets lit up by electricity
Coins of death call through the haze
Disparating conditions of minds
The avenues of oblivion touch your mind
Its sick fingers seek your energy
Shades of submission printed in the air
The corps of the silent army slowly move
Arms of death crawl the highs
Dancers of destruction scream
The preludes of tomorrow
Another rebellious transmission
The avenues of oblivion
The dancers of destruction
THE MARK
Haven’t learned my lesson
I won’t excuse when I say I
Please do not beg me
Please do not beg me
Senseless responsible as I hold this knife
Guilt is heavier than any weapon
Unprovoked as I testified
The burden of therapeutic lied gave me the right to judge
The fear has reached a limit
Where armless have no helping hands
Please do not beg me
Please do not beg me
And with the feverish light as guide
I was given the mark of the beast
I as you this close
Held of to believe
Searching for the gift of life
“An absolutely outstanding evening … you couldn’t ask for much more.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine)
“Beautiful and experimental … he let the highlights of his first 30 years of his impressive career speak.”
( * * * * * )
Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest daily newspaper)
“You have to admit that Martin Hall is able to stage himself and his songs in a way that always turns a Hall concert into a special event … an impressive walk through the career as a whole”.
Geiger (Danish equivalent to Wire Magazine)
Carla Kuotila: Cello
Henriette Groth: Keyboards, piano, clarinet
Ida Bach Jensen: Double bass
Johnny Stage: Guitar, backing vocals, sitar, mandolin
Karoliina Koivisto: Violin
Martin Hall: Vocals, acoustic guitar
Mikkel Meyer: Electronics, modulators
Sisse Selina Larsen: Drums, backing vocals, percussion
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Mie Brinkmann
Martin Hall’s concerts during October and November 2009 in Denmark and Germany were his first live performances as a singer for more than three years. The reviews succeeding all events were fantastic. Hall was reported to be at his peak as both a singer and a performer and the St. Paul’s concert was given five star ratings and reviews in both Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine) and Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest newspaper). The concert was also awarded “best Danish concert 2009” by the users of the Danish Recession festival.
The opening concert in Flensburg, Germany, was reviewed with proclamations like these:
Grenzwellen: “A touching and impressive evening! Totally overwhelming.”
Medienkonverter: “Für mich das bewegendste und emotionalste Konzert seit langer Zeit. Ganz, ganz groß!.”
Geiger: “Phenomenal: Martin Hall and his group weren’t just good; there were moments that can only be described as sublime.”
Transmission: “I’m about to give the event the concert of the year sticker.”
Recorded at The St. Paul’s Church (Denmark) on October 30, 2009, by DK4. Live sound by Thomas Li, light design by Per Daumiller. Sound remix made by Johnny Stage.
KINOPLEX (AUDIOBOOK)
KINOPLEX
MARTIN HALL
DVD (MP3 AUDIOBOOK)
SEPTEMBER 2010
LINDHARDT OG RINGHOF (9-788711-428030)
Concurrently with the release of Martin Hall’s first piece of fiction since his literary breakthrough with The Last Romantic in 2005, his novel Kinoplex from 2010 was also made available as an audiobook.
This version of the book features a line of new, original music written and produced by Hall in collaboration with Danish artist Christian Skeel.
The audiobook consists of 65 chapters divided into 81 tracks with a total duration of 5,3 hours (319 minutes). It’s read up by the Danish journalist Jan Poulsen.
For further information about the novel, please see this notice:
TOTEM / NATTENS ENGEL
TOTEM / NATTENS ENGEL
VARIOUS ARTISTS
DVD
JUNE 2010
ANOTHER WORLD ENTERTAINMENT (AWE0227)
The two legendary Danish films about respectively the poetry scene and musical underground of the start-80’s, Nattens Engel (“Angel of the Night”, 1981) and Totem (1984), were released as one dvd by Another World Entertainment in June 2010. Both films are directed by Claus Bohm.
Nattens Engel (“Angel of the Night”, 1981) has its focus on the new poets of the period, particularly Danish poet Michael Strunge, 1958–1986. Martin Hall has written and recorded the music for the film.
Totem from 1984 focuses on the dawning music scene of the period and contains both an interview with a 20-year-old Martin Hall as well as two live performances with his group Under For (both tracks are also featured on the Catalogue box released in 2007). You’ll also find performances with Sort Sol, Ads and Alive with Worms in the film.
1. Totem (36.11)
2. Nattens Engel (34.07)
”A fine and visually stimulating portrait of an epoch and a group of people who it’s hard not to admire. Also many years later.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine) – Ras Bolding (June 7, 2010)
”Totem and Nattens Engel are two fantastic films and tales of time …”
( * * * * * )
Cinema Online (Denmark’s biggest film site) – Helle Perrier (June 14, 2010)
KINOPLEX
KINOPLEX
MARTIN HALL
NOVEL
SEPTEMBER 2010
LINDHARDT OG RINGHOF (ISBN 978-87-1142650-0)
Kinoplex was Martin Hall’s first piece of fiction since his literary breakthrough with The Last Romantic released in August 2005. The title was also made available as an audiobook, a recording featuring a line of new music written by Hall and Danish visual artist Christian Skeel.
In comparison to its predecessor Kinoplex is a darker, more plot-driven novel. The scenes in the book take place at two levels, the first being told from the narrator’s present point of view (24 hours on location in a foreign land), the second enacted as a set of flashbacks shedding light on a story that goes back more 20 years in time.
The book is a tale about the disintegration of identity. It’s a story of voyeurism and modern visual culture – how the constant flux of visuals and excessive image manipulation of everyday life affect us. The question throughout the book remains: What are the consequences of this epidemic spread of visuals in relation to our ability to navigate sanely through our lives?
Genre: Novel
Pages: 203
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Territorium
"Not even when I stepped out of the cool shadows of the airport could I say with certainty what it was I had traveled so many miles after."
“In many ways the most important book in his literary career.”
Berlingske Tidende (the Danish equivalent to The Times)
“Martin Hall’s new novel is an intelligent analysis of modern voyeurism and its consequences. The story is psychologically interesting because it enacts the void that’s left when all excesses have been staged and experienced.“
( * * * * * )
Nordjyske (major regional newspaper)
“It is in all ways an intoxicating book Martin Hall has written … a sensuous language combined with a string of pearls of good, original observations.“
( * * * * )
Fyens Stiftstidende (major regional newspaper)
”Martin Hall has a quite fantastic sense of turning the written language into harmony and you can only surrender to Hall’s linguistic shrewdness and mystical travels into the various intoxications and splendours about all and everything.”
( * * * * )
MetroXpress (Denmark’s biggest free newspaper)
“A novel about a depraved, depressed and disillusioned environment delivered in the most beautiful language … my God, this is good!“
The Literature Site
The novel is supposedly said to have been inspired by an authentic video footage that Martin Hall found on the internet during his research on the subject matter. During the process of writing the book Martin Hall was awarded a grant from The Danish Arts Council.
As already stated the title was also released as an audiobook with its own original soundtrack. Parts of the manuscript also served as basis for an audiovisual stage play that was performed during the autumn of 2010. In November the book was chosen as ”book of the month” at the Main Library of Copenhagen.
- See the reconstructed video footage from the original trailer at www.kinoplex.org
- See recitation from the theatre performance
Herbert Zeichner at the “Kinoplex” theatrical performance at Københavns Musikteater (Copenhagen’s Music Theatre).