Aar & Dag is a collective of four Danish composers: Andreas Pallisgaard, Mads Forsby, Anders Lauge Meldgaard and Michael Mørkholt. Each of the four members has an independent practice as a musician/composer, working with instrument-building, computer programming, live improvisation, and notated composition.
In bringing the four members together, Aar & Dag’s intention is to create an open field for the examination and exploration into new methods, instruments, and systems for composing and performing music as a collaborative entity. The music on the LP Tifold af Fri Form og Fælles Motiv is the product of several years of development, live performance, and studio recording, documenting Aar & Dag’s work with a large ensemble of 10 musicians that includes self-built synthesizer and electronic instruments, reeds and brass, and percussion.
The uniqueness of Aar & Dag’s sound has a great deal to do with the lack of hierarchy in their approach to composition and performance, and the collective element of Aar & Dag is essential to understanding how their music is made. Large groups have often approached the question of structure through either notation or the dynamic of the player/composer as bandleader, with the leadership taking musical form as a melodic or rhythmic figure, from which the other players either support or embellish. Rather than the composer at the top of the pyramid sending their orders downward to the players, Aar & Dag functions more like a series of ever-widening circles, where sound flows inwards and outwards, generating further commands or conditions for the players, who can then respond and reintroduce elements into the sound field. To start simply, one could look at the object depicted in the center of the LP’s cover: a circular wooden object which the group calls a “clock wheel sequencer”. The sequencer wheel is mounted on a stand, with a crank handle and a series of small metal points attached to the wheel’s body. As the wheel is rotated, magnets placed in different positions trigger an electronic sensor on the wheel’s base, creating a pattern of sound at different pitches and speeds, with variations dictated by the hands of the musicians.
