Magnus fra Gaarden

Magnus Fra Gaarden are the children of the new generation of jazzmusicians, but stand however in deep contrast to the roots and traditions of jazz, since they replaced tiring bebop-solos and swinging eigths with thoroughly composed punk-jazz in measured amounts.
Without compromising technical qualities, challenging instrumentation and the art of interaction,the band moves way beyond the neutral scene of classic jazz and electrifies a melting pot of complex balkan, indierock and arab-music.
This is emphazised by the fact that the boys have won the Danish ”Young Jazz” competition and qualifed for the final in the ”Young Nordic Jazz Comets” this september. The band also had the pleasure of qualifying for the final in the biggest danish all-round (rock) music competition ”Live Contest”. During the past months Magnus Fra Gaarden played several gigs at different european festivals and venues such as 12 points Festival(Ireland) Nordklang Festival(Switzerland), Copenhagen and Aarhus Jazzfestival(Denmark) etc. The next step is to promote their album which was released in april 2009 and has already gotten great reviews from danish newspapers such as, Politiken, Jydske Vestkysten and danish jazzmagazine "Jazzspecial". The reviews can be read in the blog. The fall of 2009 will involve heavy touring throughout both Europe and their native Denmark.
The Direction of the ”12 points Festival” wrote this:
“Direct from a garage somewhere in the Copenhagen suburbs comes Magnus fra Gaarden, five musicians who've decided bebop is not for them, at least not for the moment. Magnus fra Gaarden are young men in a hurry to find their own voice and their mash up of anthemic melodies and wailing horns over riffing guitar distortion and a beefy rhythm section is very likeable. In amongst the indie rock, ska and surf guitar references, a coherent signature can be heard that shows a band still very much within the jazz orbit. Be assured there is plenty of musicality at work from trombonist Magnus Bak, saxophonist Henrik Melbye, guitarist Lars Pilgaard, bassist Rune Jakobsen and drummer Casper Mikkelsen to match the energy that fairly leaps off the bandstand."
Irish Times:
”With plenty of noise, over-driven blues and heavy metal in the mix, it's not what most people would call jazz, but it's loud, exciting and a whole load of fun!”
The Danish music-magazine ”soundvenue.com” wrote this about the semifinal of the Live Contest competition (Henrik R. Hansen):
”Complex melodies were executed by various musicians at the same time but never with an impact on the overall sound. Supertight , entertaining and deeply impressive.
The judges all agreed that Magnus Fra Gaarden was the most original, technically superior and intense experience of the evening.”
The words of the judges of the danish ”Young Jazz” final:
”A great musical experience. Humourous, joyous, unimpressed, nasty swinging and metrically advanced. Magnus Fra Gaarden played a mindblowing set! They have a great potential for the future and their expression combines such different genres as punk, ska, surf and jazz!”
"...top talented danish band..." - Thomas Michelsen - Politiken
The music you will hear on our space were recorded and mixed by John Fomsgaard at Karma Crew Studios and mastered by Lehnert Kjeldsen at Mastertouch.
Pitctures by Paul Van Zijl
Du kan læse det hele på dansk ved at klikke her.
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