Recently I've posted remastered music videos for the tracks 'Black Stalks' and 'Truth Serum' which were both filmed at the same location on the same day.
The 'Harvest' album however, had a third music video made.
'Incantations' was filmed two years prior to the other videos, and while we filmed we didn't really know what to do with the footage.
During location scouting for the 'Cloudberries' music video, I stumbled across a deserted amusement park which was partly burned down. I phoned Jesper and asked him to join me. We brought a bag of new years hats, but we had no ideas. We filmed a lot of random stuff, and then the footage gathered dust... Until that day in 2013 where I accidentally played Incantations while browsing old unused footage.
And here it is in remastered version... I wish I had a better camera back then.

Last week I re-posted the music video for 'Black Stalks' wich was filmed in a defunct bunker facility i Vedbæk, just north of Copenhagen back in december 2012.
It was a unique opportunity kindly granted to us by Rudersdal Kommune, and we decided to make the best of it by not only shooting one, but two videos at the same time.
'Truth Serum' is the other one we did.

Back in december 2012 (shortly after the release of 'Harvest') we obtained permission to shoot musicvideos inside a bunker facility in the outskirts of Copenhagen.
We divided into two teams: The band filming a 'performance' in one room, and Signe & Camilla doing 'other stuff' in the rest of the bunker.
This is the video Signe & Camilla did.
The video is a strange mixture of urban exploration, stop motion and dreamscapes.
The song itself is actually about the ukrainian town Pripyat, that were deserted after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Chernobyl is a combination of the words chornyi and byllia, which literally mean "black stalks".

The video was released in february 2013.

A one hour edit of the Ste van Holm & Friends concert held at Hundested Kino October 25th 2019.

Tanja Hollerup: Vocals
Jesper H. Petersen: Bass
David A. Jeppesen: Drums
Ste van Holm: Guitars and electronic devices

Sound: Jens Søbæk of JS Musik & Event
Light: Mikkel Møller-Larsen of LSD Events

00:00 The Noise
03:30 Drown
08:31 Kite
10:25 Maleficence
14:24 Connect the Dots
17:53 Lights in the Sky
22:01 Cloudberries
28:00 Substance 25
32:13 Synesthesia
37:09 Oscillations

Local newspaper 'Halsnæs Lokalavis' has posted a review of last weekend's concert:

For the non-danish, here's a rough translation:

"That band should have a full calendar"

Ste Van Holm & Friends presented great art at the Kino
By Jesper Kragh-Pedersen

With a musical bombardment of the senses, Hundested Kino lifted off Strandvejen at 8pm on Friday.

A number of audiences of all ages joined in the multimedia journey. If anyone was expecting a night of plain solid rock, they were surprised. The band delivered a terrific concert with advanced ambient / avant garderock full of overdubbing, playback and other technical means.

Stefan Holm delivered interesting introductions and the band performed over 2 sets of 13 compositions plus 2 extras. All with well-integrated video installations of formidable, expressive, thought-provoking, mostly gloomy character.

A lonely death

The band kicked off a video backdrop of an atomic bomb blast this evening with a blast of a composition "The Noise" from the album "Construction". Then followed a well-chosen series of strong tracks all with fantastic video backgrounds and lighting effects.

The first set ended, especially Hundested relevant, with a grippingly beautiful but somber video performance accompanied by the musical "Alone in Eternity" about Jørgen Brønlund's lonely death in the cold and dark of the polar night during the tragic "Denmark's Expedition" in Greenland 1906-1908, where three man perished of hunger and cold.

Tesla and Chernobyl

In the second set, the song "Voltage Conrol" from the album "Tesla" left an impression. The album has, of course, been very successful in Nicola Tesla's home country, Croatia and can be recommended.

Likewise, a long, creepy video installation from Chernobyl - with accompanying music - made a strong impression.

Avantgarde Venues

Light and sound were perfectly matched (though the sound at the high end volume scale). Strangely enough, the band does not have a fully booked concert calendar. Maybe someone finds the music too inaccessible.

Fortunately, parts of the film industry and DR caught sight of Ste van Holm. I do not hesitate to call what Ste van Holm & Friends presented the audience for that evening, "great art", and there should be bids for them on various avant-garde venues.

This year's only concert was held yesterday at Hundested Kino.

The venue operates on daily basis as a regular cinema, but roughly once a month it is turned into a theater or concert hall. We turned it into both, as we used the cinema's high power projector to show our custom music films while we played. To our knowledge, this was the first multi media show held at the venue.
The performance wasn't freed of imperfections and bum notes, but they were few and far apart and the supporting audience ensured an enjoyable evening.

The mood was set already as the doors opened, as a custom made 50 minutes long drone based on 'Nacreous Clouds' from the 'Thaw' album welcomed people.

The show itself saw quite a few firsts, as we played tracks like 'Alone Into Eternity' from 'Thaw' and 'Transatlantic' plus 'Oscillations' from 'Tesla', which has never been performed live before. Furthermore we premiered a new track called 'Substance 25', a homage to 1967, The Beatles and Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd.

The band consisted of Tanja Hollerup on vocals, Jesper H. Petersen on bass, David A. Jeppesen og drums and me on guitar and electronic devices. This was David's first concert with the band since 2013, and it was a very welcome return.

Heres the setlist:

The Noise
Drown
Kite / Maleficence
Connect the Dots
Lights in the Sky
Cloudberries
Substance 25
Alone Into Eternity

Voltage Control
Sleepwalking
Transatlantic
Synesthesia
Oscillations

Encore:
Blue Sky Cafe
Garden of Exile

Newspaper preview of this friday's concert:

Here's some more from 'Thaw'.
'Antenna' starts off as a soundscape, and turns into a beautiful song about isolation and loss of identity.

'Thaw', my new album is now available from most streaming and download platforms.

And the danish newspaper 'Halsnæs Avis' is having an article about it:

The day after tomorrow, my new album 'Thaw' will be released!

The last track to be previewed before the release is 'Ebb and Flow'!

Once again it features Julie Frey on vocals and Anders Frey on guitar.

Only one week to go before 'Thaw' is released!

Over at Bandcamp you can now stream yet another track:

Today, Heather Hill's album 'Dark Silent Place' has been released!

https://open.spotify.com/album/7JpX181H0D4kEN3NicR3On...

The songs are written and sung by Julie Frey, who is also contributing to my new record, 'Thaw', which will be released next Friday.
Dark Silent Place is produced by Anders Frey, who also appears on 'Thaw'.

In addition, you can hear me on bass, mandolin and hand percussion on 'Dark Silent Place', which I've also mastered, by the way!

Give it a listen!

If you can't wait for the new album 'THAW' to be released september 27th 2019, here's one of the songs called 'Alone Into Eternity'.

In the years 1906 to 1908 a succesful scientific expedition to the northeastern Greenland took place. One of the goals was to explore the last blank spaces on the map, and for this purpose three men went by dogsled to the Independence Fjord drawing a map as they went. Their way back was made difficult by an unusually warm spring rendering travel on the sea ice impossible. Only one of the men was found the following spring, and in his diary they found a death letter hinting the fate of the other two and written just before he laid himself to rest. This song is about dying alone in the freezing polar night.

'Thaw' can now be pre-ordered, and as a token of appreciation you'll get to hear one of the tracks, 'Alone Into Eternity', right away.

Here's Thaw's tracklist, and a few words about each track:

Ouverture
I’ve always been interested in doing commissioned music for films and theater. In 2003 I worked on a theater adaptation of ‘The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum’ by Heinrich Böll, but unfortunately the play was never staged. This little melody was the centerpiece for that play, and it has been in my drawer ever since. I worked on it again and considered it as opening for ‘Tesla’. During these sessions it got it’s coda. Then a year ago I acquired a Teisho Koto, which is a cross between a steel guitar and a typewriter, and with that instrument ‘Overture’ finally found it’s form.

Antenna
Early in the writing process, there’s always a piece that defines the direction for the whole album. On ‘Harvest’ it was the song ‘The Jackdaw’ that defined what the rest of the album should sound like. On ‘Thaw’, this is that piece.
It is about the sense of isolation that modern communication can generate. Like how the knowledge of how big the world is can make you feel very small and insignificant, which in return makes your surroundings insignificant. The grass is always greener on the other side, but if you have no knowlede of your neighbor’s lawn, yours might actually appear very green. Ignorance really is bliss.

Glacies
In 2014 I went to an exhibition called Arktis at Louisiana, the museum of modern art not far from where I live. There I saw - or rather heard - the installation Isfald by Jacob Kirkegaard and was absolutely mesmerized. It was a dark, draped room with numerous speakers playing back the sound of glacial movements recorded with boundary microphones embedded in the ice itself.
This track is my reflection on that installation.

Blank Sheet
To relieve tension from otherwise serious matters, playwrights often introduces a ‘comic relief’ in their plays. Shakespeare for instance used comic reliefs in all of his tragedies. I thought I’d use that technique to lighten up this album, and this naïve piano piece is the first of three short comic reliefs or intermezzos on this album.

Alone Into Eternity
In the years 1906 to 1908 a succesful scientific expedition to the northeastern Greenland took place. One of the goals was to explore the last blank spaces on the map, and for this purpose three men went by dogsled to the Independence Fjord drawing a map as they went. Their way back was made difficult by an unusually warm spring rendering travel on the sea ice impossible. Only one of the men was found the following spring, and in his diary they found a death letter hinting the fate of the other two and written just before he laid himself to rest. This song is about dying alone in the freezing polar night.

Dogsled
This is the second comic relief on the album. North of Kangerslussuaq, dogsled is the most common means of transportation in Greenland (in addition to snowmobiles, boats, helicopters etc.). Everybody who’s experienced these dogs up close will know, that chaotic dog fights can and will happen out of the blue. Hence the chaotic end to this track.

Ebb and Flow
This song does not take place in Greenland, but in the bay of Kangiqsujuaq in the far north of Canada. The story was too good not to include, though. In the coldest of winter, every two week the moon’s pull is so strong that the fjord drains underneath the ice. The ice then sits directly on the floor of the bay, and the locals climb down underneath the ice to collect blue mussels. They have to be quick and alert, because the tide returns fast.

Tupilaq
Whenever you go to souvenir shops in Greenland, you’ll see numerous bizarre creatures carved out of reindeer antler called tupilaks. These have nothing in common with the tupilaq from greenlandic folklore. The real tupilaq was a spiritual killing machine made of various animal parts and something from the victim. The creature were called to life by a secret chant and were only visible to shamans. It would only disappear if the victim was murdered unless the victim was strong enough to turn it on it’s creator.

Nacreous Clouds
This eight minute drone is named after the rare but beautiful mother-of-pearl clouds which can be seen in the polar skies. I wanted to create a track that behaved like clouds. When you look up into the skies, the clouds might seem stationary, but if you look away for a few minutes and then back up, the skies looks different. I wanted to do a track like that. If you pay attention, nothing happens, but if you let your mind drift, you might find a different soundscape when you return.

Lamp Extinction Games
The third and final comic relief is about sex. As inbreed is a bad thing, it wasn’t uncommon in the small settlements to invite guests on a little bit more than coffee.

Qivitoq - The Fell Walker
Even today, the fell walker is feared. A person could go qivitoq because of shame, guilt, anger or offence and it is believed that the person after some time would become a spiritual creature coming back to get revenge. Living on after death as a vengeful ghost. Numerous qivitoq caves can be found in the wilderness of Greenland.

Broken Arrow
In 1968 a B52 bomber crashed on the ice not far from the Thule base. It carried four thermonuclear bombs, but unfortunately only three were recovered. The code name for a lost nuclear warhead is ‘broken arrow’. Both USA and Denmark tried their best to cover it, but the workers sent out on the ice to clean it up, later suffered strange symptoms. It took nearly 30 years to get an official apology out of the danish prime minister. Nobody knows, if the fourth bomb is still up there.

Initially, I only asked Anders Frey for a relatively small contribution on one of Thaw's tracks. But Anders really embraced the concept and asked to hear all the demos for which he then developed guitar parts. Anders can be heard throughout the album and we split the guitars roughly 50/50.

Thaw will be released september 27th 2019.

All vocals on the new album ‘Thaw’ (out sept. 27th) were performed by the amazing Julie Frey of the bands Heather Hill and Barquentine. Julie also performed on the ‘Constructions’ and ‘Tesla’ albums.

September 27th 2019, I will release my new album 'Thaw'!

It is a departure from my recent decade of work, entering into a more atmospheric realm. I think it sounds like something that could come from Hans Zimmer or Vangelis, but with my trademarks (whatever they might be) all over.
Stay tuned for tracklist and EPK.

I've just returned from an expedition to Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Here I captured an Aurora.