Blåly - Nystalgi (2024) [Hi-Res]

With a reputation for championing Denmark’s most special emerging creative voices to the world, April Records is home to many of the country’s finest contemporary musicians and composers. This Autumn the label proudly presents the contemplative debut release from ‘Blåly’, a brand new trio motivated by the transformative and healing powers of music.

‘Nystalgi’ is set to release on September 13th.

Led by pianist/composer Barbara Fiig, the ensemble is made up of three creative communicators self described as ‘blue sheep’ of the jazz world. First stumbling into each other at the music education program at Classical Music Conservatory DKDM, their sound is rooted in collaboration and community, drawing on elements of musical poetry, jazz, folk, Nordic and Classical traditions.

Regarding the name Blåly, the trio explains that it is a made up word open to interpretation. Derived from the word ‘ly’, meaning ‘shelter’ in Danish, it is reflective of the shared feelings of safety and introspection the trio find in their music making and that they hope to impart onto their audience.

Exploring themes of motherhood, new beginnings, mental health, identity, and the cathartic potential of music, the record is built around Fiig’s personal approach to the piano. Combining gentle lyrical melodies and colorful melancholic harmony, Blåly perform and interpret each piece with a mature, spacious and textural sound palette, ebbing and flowing between the composed and the improvised in a collective exchange of ideas and energy.

Driving drum grooves, hypnotic piano patterns and ethereal timbres from bowed double bass craft a stripped back sound world that is simple, immersive, honest, and captures the feeling of an intimate live performance.

Barbara Fiig: Piano
Timon Matern: Drums
Johan Kjær Houver: Double Bass

Tracklist:
1-1. Blåly - Nystalgi (03:24)
1-2. Blåly - Helt (04:11)
1-3. Blåly - Afsked (04:27)
1-4. Blåly - Nat og dag (02:59)
1-5. Blåly - Drømmen (03:58)
1-6. Blåly - Ly (02:33)
1-7. Blåly - Garnisons Kirkegård (03:30)
1-8. Blåly - Forbundet (03:49)
1-9. Blåly - Gro (03:06)
1-10. Blåly - Daggry (03:34)
1-11. Blåly - Hoppet (03:48)