DANIEL HERSKEDAL - My Favourite Sound After Silence
Interview by Chris Baber
Born in 1982 in Molde, Norway, Daniel Herskedal began playing tuba at the age of 14, having started out in tenor and French horns. Having studied music in Molde and Trondheim (winning Jury prizes in competitions in 2004) he gained his Masters degree in Copenhagen in 2008 (and further prizes) and he has been recording from 2007. Initial recordings were with trios, Listen and Lochs/ Balthaus / Herskedal, and then quartet, Magic Pocket, as well as a host of solo albums. Recently, he released Harbour with Eyolf Dale and Andreas Norbakken, on which the tuba is very much the lead instrument, in keeping with his previous recordings.
My first question concerned this role of the tuba in the foreground, not only as a lead instrument but also the transition from its typical role as the bass pulse of a tune. For Herskedal, this transition has “been a natural development for me as an instrumentalist. I think the key to my approach is that I stopped thinking of myself as a tuba player. The first years as a tuba player I thought my instrument was the coolest thing in the world. But after a few years, I ran out of idols and I stopped thinking that tuba-based soundscapes were nice and beautiful as such. To continue enjoying being a musician I needed to open up my horizon, and learn from singers, trumpet players, saxophone players. And diving into tonality, ornamentations and philosophy from Eastern European, Oriental and Sami music has been really important to my approach to composing and performing music. I see my instrument only as my tool to make music, I have 0% focus on that it is a tuba.” In terms of idols, he lists “Stein Erik Tafjord, David Gald, Lars Andreas Haug, Michel Godard” – the first three of these players have helped raise the profile on the tuba, particularly in Norwegian jazz, and the fourth has been exploring the avant-garde potential of the tuba. From this latter musician, in particular, one can see how the transition to an instrument that can explore tonality and ornamentation.
For Herskedal, these explorations have taken him, both physically and musically, to the Middle East. “Oriental music has been a huge inspiration for me, it opened up a whole new world of how to deal with music performance. I did a tour in Syria in 2008, and I heard so much fantastic music and met a few great musicians. One of them is Maher Mahmoud who is the oud player on Voyage. I’ve travelled to Palestine and Lebanon to play and to learn. I have also been taking lessons from Maher to learn more, and to know enough to be able to use this tradition as an honest part of my own sound. The tuba is chromatic and based on half tones, which limits the quarter note possibilities (unless you build quarter note length valves). But I got 5 valves that gives 12 different overtone scales to choose from, and special combination of those gives the possibility of micro tonality. When I’m searching for a specific notes I adjust the tuning by pulling slides connected to the valves.” As well as jazz and oriental music, there is a strong feeling of classical music to the ways in which Herskedal constructs his compositions. “Classical music is something that also has played a huge role in my development from the beginning. I studied classical music for one year at the music conservatory; going for a career as an orchestra tuba player was a serious possibility back then. I have my favourites in classical music, such as Wagner, Mahler and Stravinsky, and obviously Grieg is something we hear a lot in broadcasting and concerts over here. These are all important parts of the big sound puzzle. My approach to composing is usually improvising and recording. And from time to time I get to work with classical musicians and ensembles, such as BBC Concert Orchestra at LJF in 2015 and the album Behind The Wall for a classical trio. This week Marja Mortensson and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra released their album, and I’m orchestrator and co-composer in this project.”
Turning to the question of his approach to composing, I asked how he decided which instruments to score for his pieces. “It’s much more important to me who the musicians are, not what instruments they play. For instance, there are thousands of fantastic drummers out there, but it’s really Helge Andreas Norbakken I want to develop and perform my music. He’s not just a drummer, he is a highest level ensemble musician that gets the most out of all musicians he plays with. And his personal style and approach to my music, that kind of musicians is what I need to get my music to the next level. My music works best when the musicians have the freedom in it to be personal and get the chance to get musical ownership in the tunes and the ensemble sound. Working with larger ensembles is a very different story - then I have to me much more specific in the orchestration and notation how I want it. And that’s also something I enjoy very much, to push the big button (symphony orchestra) from time to time, and the combination and interplay with my own little ensemble is also something that I experience as a two way development of music.” On Harbour, and Slow Eastbound Train, a central theme is travel and I wondered how he related this to his approach to composing. “I always search for a strong melody in my compositions, and think of my performance as story-telling. That’s probably the key to why many would describe my music as cinematic. I always hope my listeners will have their own stories and imagination while listening - and titles that have movement (traveling) is a good starting point. I find the sea inspiring in itself. Being in a boat or next to the water is the perfect place to find peace but also to thing the big thoughts. Waves hitting shore is my favourite sound after silence.”
Born in 1982 in Molde, Norway, Daniel Herskedal began playing tuba at the age of 14, having started out in tenor and French horns. Having studied music in Molde and Trondheim (winning Jury prizes in competitions in 2004) he gained his Masters degree in Copenhagen in 2008 (and further prizes) and he has been recording from 2007. Initial recordings were with trios, Listen and Lochs/ Balthaus / Herskedal, and then quartet, Magic Pocket, as well as a host of solo albums. Recently, he released Harbour with Eyolf Dale and Andreas Norbakken, on which the tuba is very much the lead instrument, in keeping with his previous recordings.
My first question concerned this role of the tuba in the foreground, not only as a lead instrument but also the transition from its typical role as the bass pulse of a tune. For Herskedal, this transition has “been a natural development for me as an instrumentalist. I think the key to my approach is that I stopped thinking of myself as a tuba player. The first years as a tuba player I thought my instrument was the coolest thing in the world. But after a few years, I ran out of idols and I stopped thinking that tuba-based soundscapes were nice and beautiful as such. To continue enjoying being a musician I needed to open up my horizon, and learn from singers, trumpet players, saxophone players. And diving into tonality, ornamentations and philosophy from Eastern European, Oriental and Sami music has been really important to my approach to composing and performing music. I see my instrument only as my tool to make music, I have 0% focus on that it is a tuba.” In terms of idols, he lists “Stein Erik Tafjord, David Gald, Lars Andreas Haug, Michel Godard” – the first three of these players have helped raise the profile on the tuba, particularly in Norwegian jazz, and the fourth has been exploring the avant-garde potential of the tuba. From this latter musician, in particular, one can see how the transition to an instrument that can explore tonality and ornamentation.
For Herskedal, these explorations have taken him, both physically and musically, to the Middle East. “Oriental music has been a huge inspiration for me, it opened up a whole new world of how to deal with music performance. I did a tour in Syria in 2008, and I heard so much fantastic music and met a few great musicians. One of them is Maher Mahmoud who is the oud player on Voyage. I’ve travelled to Palestine and Lebanon to play and to learn. I have also been taking lessons from Maher to learn more, and to know enough to be able to use this tradition as an honest part of my own sound. The tuba is chromatic and based on half tones, which limits the quarter note possibilities (unless you build quarter note length valves). But I got 5 valves that gives 12 different overtone scales to choose from, and special combination of those gives the possibility of micro tonality. When I’m searching for a specific notes I adjust the tuning by pulling slides connected to the valves.” As well as jazz and oriental music, there is a strong feeling of classical music to the ways in which Herskedal constructs his compositions. “Classical music is something that also has played a huge role in my development from the beginning. I studied classical music for one year at the music conservatory; going for a career as an orchestra tuba player was a serious possibility back then. I have my favourites in classical music, such as Wagner, Mahler and Stravinsky, and obviously Grieg is something we hear a lot in broadcasting and concerts over here. These are all important parts of the big sound puzzle. My approach to composing is usually improvising and recording. And from time to time I get to work with classical musicians and ensembles, such as BBC Concert Orchestra at LJF in 2015 and the album Behind The Wall for a classical trio. This week Marja Mortensson and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra released their album, and I’m orchestrator and co-composer in this project.”
Turning to the question of his approach to composing, I asked how he decided which instruments to score for his pieces. “It’s much more important to me who the musicians are, not what instruments they play. For instance, there are thousands of fantastic drummers out there, but it’s really Helge Andreas Norbakken I want to develop and perform my music. He’s not just a drummer, he is a highest level ensemble musician that gets the most out of all musicians he plays with. And his personal style and approach to my music, that kind of musicians is what I need to get my music to the next level. My music works best when the musicians have the freedom in it to be personal and get the chance to get musical ownership in the tunes and the ensemble sound. Working with larger ensembles is a very different story - then I have to me much more specific in the orchestration and notation how I want it. And that’s also something I enjoy very much, to push the big button (symphony orchestra) from time to time, and the combination and interplay with my own little ensemble is also something that I experience as a two way development of music.” On Harbour, and Slow Eastbound Train, a central theme is travel and I wondered how he related this to his approach to composing. “I always search for a strong melody in my compositions, and think of my performance as story-telling. That’s probably the key to why many would describe my music as cinematic. I always hope my listeners will have their own stories and imagination while listening - and titles that have movement (traveling) is a good starting point. I find the sea inspiring in itself. Being in a boat or next to the water is the perfect place to find peace but also to thing the big thoughts. Waves hitting shore is my favourite sound after silence.”
For more information visit danielherskedal.com
Click on the album covers to read our reviews
Click on the album covers to read our reviews
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