Few Danish musicians are mentioned with greater
respect than keyboard player and composer Kenneth
Knudsen. His role as a developer of his own sounds,
timbres, and musical sequences is quite unique – and
widely appreciated internationally.
Kenneth Knudsen started as a jazz pianist in the 60s,
switched to the electrical keyboards and participated in
iconic groups like Secret Oyster and Entrance in the 70s,
led the animated rock band Anima and collaborated with
Sebastian, Palle Mikkelborg, and Niels-Henning Ørsted
Pedersen in the 80s, and formed the Bombay Hotel
with Mikkel Nordsø and Ole Theill in the 90s. Kenneth
Knudsen has recently been hailed as the most important
Danish keyboard player throughout the ages.
Kenneth Knudsen has not performed live for many years.
He has instead concentrated on creating new music in his
home studio, in collaborations with carefully selected
musicians in recent years behind a series of releases that
cannot be compared to anything else on the Danish scene
- or, for that matter, internationally.
Music created exclusively on digital instruments carries the
risk of becoming static and inorganic. Instead of clinically
created electronic rhythmic events and layers, Knudsen creates
forever changing musical spaces. Here, where nothing
sounds like something you’ve heard before and yet still
challenges the listener - but also engages, amazes and takes
you for a wild, unanticipated ride.
In NOVEMBER TANGO, we are also gifted with the presence
of guitarist Oliver Hoiness, whose bold and challenging
instrumental voice is a perfect contrast to Knudsen’s
original, ever-changing, and often beauty-seeking sounds
and progress.
It is also a meeting between generations. Where Kenneth
in the 80’s and 90’s was the major innovator of the use of
various keyboards, the nephew Oliver Hoiness has a similar
role today in the audio possibilities of the electric guitar (for
which he also received a Steppeulv Prize for in 2016).
Be open, take the music and let the two musical explorers
paint breathtaking soundscapes for your inner eye. Kenneth
Knudsens and Oliver Hoiness’s outstanding musical creativity
revives the soul.
