‘Composition is a game where I shift energy around’, says Jens Peter Møller. Behind the statement lies a keen and intense awareness towards the individual sound, big and small. Rhythmical patterns, organic textures and synthetic sounds are the pieces in Møller's musical puzzle, which lies somewhere in the borderland between new composition music, rock, jazz, and West African music.

On 20 March, Jens Peter Møller's debut for Dacapo Records is releasing, that is the EP Compilation recorded by the ensemble K!ART. 

A supersized band

Compilation (2019) has grown organically from the ground up in Møller's hands. While working on the piece, he isolated himself in an empty country house, filled the living room with instruments, and began his search for sounds – he describes his method as akin to hip-hop's use of samples.

For the work, Møller chose to disregard conventional forms. Instead he assembled an ensemble which most resembles a supersized band: five percussionist, two pianist, electric guitar and double bass. The emphasis on percussion is no accident. According to Møller, percussionists often possess a particular oppenness to sound, which matches his own way of thinking.

The hidden engine of the music

In his music, Jens Peter Møller draws inspiration from both Western classical music but also music traditions from especially West Africa. While studying classical composition, he frequently travelled to Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Mali to explore the West African rhythmic understanding that differs markedly from the Western tradition. In West African music, tempo is a collective feeling; everyone carries the pulse and slight shifts are not mistakes, but a way of expressing life.

This philosophy permeates Compilation as a special rhyhtmic undercurrent or a "hidden engine". It is music where time bends, and where the musicians are invited to feel one another. Through the work, Møller draws the listener into this distinct pocket of time in which frantic and deconstructed rhythms wave a web of irregular time signatures, but also meditative moments.

You can experience Compilation live at a release concert i Huset i Magstræde on Thursday 2 April. Read more here.