'Illusions' my 7th solo album was released yesterday. Here's a few words about the tracks.

Hello Neighbor - Vocals by Josefine Malmkjær-Andersen & Nicoline Asmussen

I've never been interested in writing about sex. It's not that sex doesn't interest me, because it does, but I've never thought of it as a topic for lyrics. Nikola Tesla, however, was asexual and when I wrote the lyrics for 'Tesla', I was very aware, that I couldn't write anything remotely connected to sex. And that somehow provoked a desire to do a song about it. When I began writing 'Hello Neighbor', I remembered a couple of friends who lived on the third floor in central Copenhagen. Across the street a couple had regular, but very short intercourses and never closing the blinds. And I thought, wouldn't it be fun, if such behavior became the evening pastime watch instead of TV? And what if they invited their watcher over?


Meltwater - Vocals by Maria Søbæk Lykke

The frame of the body for this album was concieved deep inside the swedish forests, where I spend some time in a hut. I brought my laptop, but on purpose I didn't bring the usb key  lock for the music software I use. This meant that I could only use the software in demo mode, where I could save, but not open files. I have a tendency of returning to the same track over and over again, and this little trick prevented me from doing so. I came home from Sweden with a handfull new tracks including this one. The lyrics were written on the plane back home from a trip to the Faroe Islands.


Sign here with Blood - Vocals by Svante Wettergreen & Marie Hobitz

My favourite Pink Floyd album is 'Wish you were here'. The opening of the B-side is called Have a Cigar, a reflection on the record industry. Though I do not like that song in particular, I do like its lyrics. When it dawned on me, that the theme for this album should be deception, I felt that I should do my own version of Have a Cigar. The music owes more to early Peter Gabriel than Pink Floyd. I've always loved the way Peter Gabriel used marimbas, a kind of Robert Fripp on marimbas.


The Lighthouse - Vocals by Svante Wettergreen & Josefine Malmkjær-Andersen

This song is in part inspired by the Shoegaze music of the late eighties. In particular the band Slowdive. The song doesn't sound very shoegazed, but if you pay attention, you'll notice that the guitars are soaked in reverb and delay.
The lyrics is a reflection on Jean Guichard's 1989 photo of La Jument lighthouse off shore Brittany.


Capsize - Vocals by Marie Hobitz

This is a song from the archives. It was originally written for the Constructions album, then reworked during the Harvest sessions where it got its lyrics, and now, finally, found its way onto an album.
The lyrics are about australian explorer Andrew McAuley who attempted to cross the Tasman sea in a kayak, almost making it but capsizing 30 kilometers from Milford Sound.


Connect the Dots - Vocals by Ste van Holm & Marie Hobitz

This is the first time on any of my albums, where I sing. Albeit through a vocoder. An instrumental version of this song was used in the TV documentary 'When 2 sexes aren't enough' on danish national broadcast. I've had a fascination with tounge drums lately, and I've sampled a Hang Drum, which I did a few tracks with. The first track to use the Hang was Synesthesia from Tesla. The second is this.


Pareidolia

This little instrumental is based on a chord sequence played on Orchestron and me playing a keyboard solo on top of it using a VCS3 synthesizer. Not a real VCS3 though, but a very well constructed digital replica. The song has a close kinship with Voltage Control from Tesla.


Lights in the Sky - Vocals by Søs Maja

There's a strange natural phenomena happening in the norwegian valley of Hessdalen, where ghost lights will appear seemingly out of nothing. So far, scientists have been unable to explain what is going on.
The music is based on a unreleased track by my friend Klaus Schønning. I've tried to sample Klaus' music for years, putting it into a new context, but this is the first example of something coming out if these attempts.


Road Movie - Vocals by Maria Søbæk Lykke

The working title for this song was 'Americana', and to be honest there's not much of me in it. It is a test to see how well I was at the songwriting craft, and I wanted to do something with an american feel. It turned out well enough to end up on the album.


To pin a Butterfly

Another one from the archives. This one turned up on my homepage in 2003, titled 'Men of Power' and contained samples of politicians. It has been an orphan ever since. Until now.
It is barely audible, but I play the Chapman Stick on this track.


Deus ex Machina - Vocals by Marie Hobitz

Nikola Tesla was obsessed with the number three, and I thought the Tesla album should have a song in 3/4 time signature. It didn't fit the rest of the album and ended up here with new lyrics instead. The lyrics are about Isaac Newton, Rene Magritte and Steve Jobs all tied together by apples.



Here we are safe - Vocals by Svante Wettergreen

This song isn't really about anything. I could make up a lot of deep nonsense about transience of security and witch burnings etc. But this song is more about the sound of the words than their meaning. It took me quite a while to figure out how this song should be constructed musically. Maybe I haven't come up with something yet. I do like the chord structure of the verses, though.