Kosmos Trio Interview

Recently I heard a great album from the danish jazz band Kosms Trio called „Brev till en ven“. It´s full of energy a lot of impressive music, which is inspired by the great danish landscape.

More information you can find here:

https://jazzfuel.com/project/kosmos-trio-brev-til-ven/

 

In my interview I talked with Kosmos trio about the album an the origins oft the Kosmos trio.

JP: How the name Kosmos Trio came about?

KT: The name “Kosmos Trio” came up quiet incidental. We were having a discussion about the name of our project and didn’t really get anywhere. Then we began looking around in the room, saying out loud the things we saw and the words we read. A poster had the word “Kosmos” on it. It resonated with us, because the word says something about an order and connection between everything in our lives. On one hand, we think that our music is influenced by everything around us and on the other hand our music also has an impact on the world around it. Therefore “Kosmos Trio”. 

 

JP: What are the influences in the music of the Kosmos Trio?

KT: As individuals the musicians of Kosmos Trio are quite different, and we therefore also have our individual influences. Frede Holger Thorsen on piano is also working as a church organist and choir conductor. Frede has been playing a lot of classical music and this influence can be heard in the compositions. The brothers, Harald and Gustav Hagelskjær (double bass and drums), have mainly studied jazz and improvised music, which likewise is to be heard in the comping. With that said, Kosmos Trio is not trying to imitate any specific style of music; the trio is influenced by so many different musicians, musical genres and things not even connected to music. It all takes part in the compositions and the trio’s way of playing together. 

 

JP: Why is the trio format (still) relevant for you?

KT: The trio format is small and when playing with few people it can often be easier to create space in the music. Every musician is heard clearly and as a player you can listen to the others in a very intense way, as you focus on only two other people. When playing in a trio format the communication between each musician is very clear and articulate, which makes it always interesting to play. Every musician’s individual voice has its place. 

 

JP; How your first record "Brev til en ven" came about?

KT: After 3 years of writing material and playing concerts, we had developed a large repertoire and a common sound, which particularly took shape, when we began writing, rehearsing and playing concerts in churches. The acoustics of a church are special and require a different way of playing. Discovering this aspect of our playing was one of the final steps for us wanting to share our music on a record. We then made a live-session, that April Record came across and eventually led to them releasing our debut-album. 

“Brev til en ven” consists of both old and new compositions and is almost a summation of our compositional history as a band. 

 

JP: How long does it took to write this wonderful melancholic songs for this album?

KT: As mentioned earlier the material for the album is written over 3 years, but a large amount of the songs was written last year in a church on Fyn, Denmark. 

 

JP: Does the danish landscape had a huge influence on your music?

KT; We all live in Denmark and the danish landscape is a part of us, so in that way the landscape has an influence. Harald and Gustav are from a small village on the west coast, which has a certain kind of peace and slow pace; examples of this aspect taking part in our music would be songs like “Ved kysten” (At the coast) and “Slow Motion”. But in general, we don’t compose songs directly inspired by nature, but of course being danish and growing up in the countryside has something to say in the compositions. 

 

JP: Are you planning to go on tour in Germany?

 

KT: At the moment we don’t have a specific tour planned, but we definitely want to do so in the future.