Weekend Beats + Pieces (Part Deux)

Ole Knudsen, patten, Clear Path Ensemble.

Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka yours truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.

WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:

One of my favourite jobs I do at the moment is creating press releases and liner notes for the New York-based reissue label Frederiksberg Records, which specialises in European jazz and folk, Caribbean dance music and bits and pieces of soul-jazz, disco-funk and boogie. Recently I wrote a text for them about the Danish musician Ole Knudsen’s final album Det Handler Om Kærlighed (It’s about Love). Although he was arguably best known for his membership in the progressive folk-rock group Fujara, Ole’s solo work has its own unique charms. Here’s the story behind Det Handler Om Kærlighed.

In 1992, the Danish guitarist, singer-songwriter, composer, percussionist, and music teacher Ole Knudsen self-released his second and final album, Det Handler Om Kærlighed (It’s about Love). Culminating in the infectious melodies of ‘Slingrevejen’, Det Handler Om Kærlighed was inspired by Ole’s romances and friendships with the women he knew in his life, tales of happiness, lost love, affection, and esteem. Expressed through sunny guitar figures, shuffling bossa nova style rhythms, memory lane lyricism, abstract prose, and woodwind ornamentation, the album’s fifteen songs - originally conceived in a chapter book style - live and breathe at the intersection of folk, rock, and jazz.

Four years after the album was released, Ole died at age 53 after a short struggle with aggressive cancer. Over two and a half decades after he passed from this realm to the next, Frederiksberg Records is pleased to announce the first official digital reissue of Det Handler Om Kærlighed, now packaged with an unreleased bonus track, ‘Der bor en bager’.

Born in 1943 in Køge, a seaport town southwest of Copenhagen, Ole Knudsen began playing drums and percussion at a young age, quickly acquiring the nickname Bongo Ole due to his diligence with practice. Between 1-9th grades, Ole attended school alongside flute, flugelhorn, and trumpet player Poul Christian Nielsen and trombonist Jørn Nørredal. Although Ole was more focused on dreams of becoming a soccer star at the time, the three became firm friends and eventually lifelong musical collaborators.

After finishing 9th grade, Ole interned at a local bank. In the early sixties, he began playing the guitar and singing at Hugo’s Kælder, a small local bar in Køge, south of Copenhagen. Ole’s original songs captivated the imaginations of the regulars, giving him his first taste of success and the desire to do more.

Halfway through the decade, Ole and Poul Christian joined the New Orleans Ramblers, a traditional Danish jazz band with a rotating roster. While he was playing with the New Orleans Ramblers, Ole had the opportunity to make his first studio recordings. In 1968, he played the drums and sang with them on It's All Right With Me / Black And Blue / Lille Hund, a three-track EP the New Orleans Ramblers recorded for Danish label CSA Records.

As the popular music landscape transformed in the late 1960s, Ole, Poul Christian, and Jørn Nørredal began writing music together while all working as music teachers. In 1970, they teamed up with three other musicians from nearby Roskilde, guitarist Jan Andersen, bassist, and vocalist Jesper Christiansen, and drummer John Olsen. Inspired by the British jazz beat, west coast American folk-rock, and the hippie subculture of the era, they formed the progressive folk-rock group Fujara (named after a Slovakian flute).

In the early seventies, as the influence of Woodstock and The Isle of Wight Festival reverberated through Scandinavia, Fujara performed regularly at Roskilde Festival, a legendary annual Danish music festival that endures to this day, and were often found performing around Denmark. In 1973, they recorded their first and only self-titled album for CBS Denmark. Although they were a collective, Ole functioned as the unofficial bandleader and lead lyricist, with Poul Christian composing most of the music.

After the album’s release, the legendary Danish radio host Hans-Otto Bisgaard selected ‘Majara’ by Fujara as the theme song for his weekly rock radio program Det Er Dansk. As a result, their music acquired a cult reputation within the local scene. 

In the late seventies, Ole had a burst of musical activity. He returned to the studio with Poul Christian, Jørn, and friends when he recorded his first solo album, Nattevandring, for Michael Krogsgaard’s Hookfarm label in 1977. The following year, he played drums on Du Er Noget by AOF's Sang- Og Musikgruppe, a Danish folk group with links to the worker's enlightenment organization AOF. In 1979, he recorded an album of Danish children’s music titled Jens Børges Fødselsdag with members of Fujara, played congas on Ugens Tilbud by Dan, and drummed on Røde Erling & Workshop Band’s album of Christmas songs. That year, Fujara disbanded.

Twelve years later, Ole returned to the recording studio with Danish guitarist Hans Henrik Bay to make his final recording, Det Handler Om Kærlighed. On completion, Ole presented the album to labels, who considered it dated and unreleasable. Where they heard a relic from the past, Ole heard something timeless. Committed, he self-released it through his own OK artist label. Announced with minimal promotion, Det Handler Om Kærlighed slipped into obscurity before slowly acquiring a cult following after the dawn of the new millennium. Press play and spend some time with the songs and spirit of Ole Knudsen, a man who faced life’s troubles and tribulations with dignity, grace, humour, and heaven-sent melodies for the ages.

Det Handler Om Kærlighed is out now through Frederiksberg Records (here).

On Thursday, the 25th of September, I’m DJing at the Clear Path Ensemble Solar Eclipse album launch at Meow in Wellington. I’m thinking UK Street Soul and some West London Broken Beat. A very talented young hip-hop soul artist named MĀ is playing support. You can purchase tickets here.

BEATS:

London visual artist, designer, lecturer, and producer (what can’t he do?) Damien Roach aka patten, returns with his first music release of 2022, Desire Paths. A tight, tautly muscled three-tracker, Desire Paths arrives eleven years after patten’s debut release with the excellent No Pain In Pop label, GLAQJO XAACSSO. On ‘Kiss U’, patten opens up the EP with an explosive whoomp, rapid handclaps and buoyant bass kicks, giving us the lay of the land before elegantly manipulated vocal snippets spiral into the heart of the song. You could subtitle this one Love At 130 Beats Per Minute. Up next on ‘Slushy’, patten keeps the whoomps and claps going, before laying down some filtered percussion loops, another heartbeat groove, and after the switch-up, going full throttle. Afterwards, on ‘Never Could’, he blends relaxational synth notes with a shuffling UK garage groove (lean and mean a la EL-B) and rhythmic vocal snippets. Coming off the back of 2021’s abstract hip-hop and ambient/OST efforts Burner and 3049 (Original Film Soundtrack), Desire Paths leaves me with the impression that patten is ready to get back on the dancefloor. This suits me down to the ground because so am I. Three essential weapons for all the uptempo DJs out there.

London-based South African producer/DJ Okzharp’s new Hyperdub release, Outside The Ride, is typically, almost predictably brilliant. Seven slices of cybernetic gqom-meets-footwork-meets-techstep for 3022. Apparently, the music started as a soundtrack for a short film, and while I can very much hear that, it also very much stands on its own two feet as a release.

PIECES:

Former Beatport Employees Allege a Toxic Workplace Where Fear Ruled: The powerhouse dance music retailer preached inclusivity and diversity, but ex-staffers say bullying, sexism, and casual racism was pervasive. Annabel Ross for Vice.

Missy Elliot’s Hip-Hop Transformations: How the rap star and producer avoided the prevailing stereotypes of the music-video industry and created a style all her own. Hilton Als for The New Yorker. [originally published in 1997]

Deep Roots: The “Willow Tree” singer Cleveland Francis embraced the term soul-folk. Ashawnta Jackson for Wax Poetics.

Hugo Largo :: Drum: Two bass guitars, a violin and the ethereal vox of Mimi Goese. Released in 1988, I first encountered Hugo Largo’s Drum some 30+ years later while visiting Zach Cowie at his Topanga Canyon home. Aquarium Drunkard on Drum by Hugo Largo.

New, Weird Vienna: Nowadays, Vienna is often seen as a “museum city,” associated with a repository for stuffy classical music and other conservative cultural traditions. The city’s pro-culture policies have always led to the proliferation of performing arts institutions, with numerous active dance and theatre companies. However, there is a long-standing tradition of counter-cultural movements revolting against these more mainstream aesthetics. Andra Nikolayi for Bandcamp Daily.

EXTRA EXTRA:

The mighty Dr Rob came through with a spectacular review of Key To All Your Love/Judas by Summer Vee over at Ban Ban Ton Ton.

The Givealittle page to help Paul Huggins from Rough Peel Music is going extraordinarily well.

FIN.