Lilly Hertzman - Menneskeblomst (2016)

On her third album, Menneskeblomst, Lilly Hertzman presents a bouquet of twelve evocative songs. They unfold in a poetic glow of both light and shadow like the months of a year, rich in metaphors in both airy and dense arrangements. This is Lillys first release with Danish lyrics, and the instrumentation this time is simple and primarily acoustic, with a small but exquisitely strong team of musicians consisting of multi-instrumentalist Gustaf Ljunggren (S), bassist Anders AC Christensen (DK) and trumpeter Lew Soloff (US).

The songs on the album are written with an eye towards the movement and changeability of everything - both inside and outside oneself. With a recognition that human life is part of and also subject to the cycle of nature, no matter how cultured and urbanized we are or perceive ourselves. Hence the album title Menneskeblomst, which is also the title of one of the songs.

On the album, Lilly often revolves around the experience of transitions and shifts. Like the change from one season to another. Be it in the specific external landscape she has been in and observed, or in her internal landscape. Regardless of who we are and what we experience for better or worse, it can be challenging to handle these transitions and shifts, and it can sometimes lead to critical states. Especially perhaps if you have experienced a loss. For example, of something or someone you loved, but which inevitably cannot last.

Several of the songs were written during and after the breakup of Lilly's own small family. During this crisis, she decided to follow an inner calling for peace and closeness to nature, and therefore moved from Copenhagen to a smaller town by the sea in North Zealand. Here, the noise gradually subsided, and Lilly began to listen to what was hidden in the silence and tranquility around her and in the tranquility that spread within herself. Above all, she experienced a very strong deep connection with nature. An experience of being embedded in a larger context.

Human Flower bears deep traces of this awakening. Lilly felt like she had returned to a space she had not visited for quite some time. A space she often found herself in and expressed herself in as a child and young person, where she wrote several lyrics in Danish.
Even then, the seeds for a couple of the songs on the album were literally planted. Two of the lyrics from Lilly's childhood and youth have followed her through the years, as poems. During the process of writing the other songs in Danish, music for the two poems also emerged, so they can now be found on the album as the first and last songs, respectively. Like seeds in the ground, they have been waiting for the right conditions to be present so that they could germinate, grow and unfold as songs.

After two previous extensive and time-consuming album productions, Lilly this time wanted a simple process and production. She is happy that this was possible with a very strong team of musicians. They made it possible to record between one and three takes of each song. Like Lilly herself, these musicians draw inspiration and experience from many different genres and prefer to avoid putting labels on the music.
The respected musician and multi-instrumentalist, Gustaf Ljunggren (S), who was awarded the Ken Gudman Prize in 2015, plays guitars, various string instruments, piano, etc. on the entire album. He has also arranged and produced together with Lilly.

Gustaf is known for his collaboration with an incredible number of artists and musicians at home and abroad, including C.V. Jørgensen, Eddi Reader, Sofia Karlsson, Randi Laubek, Boo Herwerdine, Emil de Waal and many, many more. In recent years, he has received great praise at the SPOT festival in Aarhus for his NAKED sessions with various soloists.

On double bass is Anders AC Christensen (DK). He is one of the most sought-after and used bassists in both jazz and rock and has played and plays with The Raveonettes, Paul Motian, Jakob Bro and Nikolaj Nørlund, among others.

Lew Soloff (US) is a trumpeter who has played with a long list of world stars in both jazz and pop, such as Blood, Sweat & Tears, Gil Evans, Ornette Coleman, Frank Sinatra, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band, Machito, Marianne Faithfull, Barbra Streisand, Carla Bley, Dizzy Gillespie and many others. He also appears on Lilly's previous albums. She herself recorded two songs of him when she was in New York in January 2015. Unfortunately, this would turn out to be his last on songs from Lilly's hand. A few months later in March, he died suddenly of a heart attack, just four days after Lilly had lost her father after a short serious illness. In a modern world with a fast pulse, massive and almost constant activity and updating, with the cultivation of the individual and youthful, Lilly invites the listener into her personal and at the same time very universal human space. A space where there is space and peace to linger, listen and look around, but also to spread out her arms and around herself and each other. Here, in her very own way, she sheds light on the connection between people and between people and nature.