“12 stilleben med dansk natur” (“12 still lives with Danish nature”) is written for soprano saxophone, trumpet, percussion, piano and contrabass. It was first performed by Sirius Ensemble in 2017.

Danish nature is, in it’s literal sense, a little boring. As a Dane you can easily get nature inferiority syndrome compared to your Nordic neighbors. But in Denmark in 2016, when I wrote “12 Still lives with Danish nature”, there was a lot of talk about ‘Danish nature’, figuratively speaking. Bertel Haarder, at that time Minister of Culture, had a list of things, you had to fulfill, if you wanted to call yourself Danish – for example riding a bike and going to ‘folk school’. Others mentioned pork and bad jokes.

My piece includes all the most Danish things I could think of. The twelve ‘folk school songs’ included in the Danish culture cannon all appear in the piece, and the percussionist only plays Danish things: A hoptimist with a clapping hat, a boat horn, a bike bell, a squaking pig, a penis whistle, a plastic boob on a can, a mail box, a Kähler vase, a bottled ship, a bike wheel, a Carlsberg bottle and a Tuborg bottle.

The piece was recorded for the album “Journey Through Nordic Nature” in 2020. Follow the link below to purchase the CD.