Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart

2 World premieres! An “Indie Classical production” Concerto for harp, recorder and string orchestra. Reflects the composer Mikkelborg’s life-long journey, through the sonic realms of progressive jazz, contemporary classical and world music idioms. 

After a long absence, jazz patriarch Palle Mikkelborg, one of the undisputed founders of the Nordic Sound, returns with a full-length composition featuring the artistry of Helen Davies (harp), Michala Petri (recorder) and the strings of the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Henrik Vagn Christensen. Conceived as a deeply personal “Ein Heldenleben” of sorts, Mikkelborg’s “Going To Pieces – Without Falling Apart” takes us on a journey through the “over-tones, where we all recognize each other’s deepest desires despite our more earth-bound differences.”

With more than a hundred published credits and a lifetime of extraordinary collaborations with the greatest creative musicians of the 20th including Gil Evans, Terje Rypdal, Ian Garbarek, Gary Peacock, Shankar, Don Cherry, George Russell, Dexter Gordon, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, and Bill Evans, not to mention his seminal Grammy award winning composition for Miles Davis, “Aura”, Mikkelborg is unquestionably one of the most influential and visionary voices in contemporary music. “Going To Pieces…” reflects his life-long journey, through the sonic realms of progressive jazz, contemporary classical and world music idioms.

The recording concludes with a special Bonus Track; “Afterthoughts” – a live improvisation on themes from “Going To Pieces…” featuring Mikkelborg’s trumpet and live electronics sensitively manipulated by master producer Thomas Li, the whole project, lovingly captured by Denmark’s wizard of sound, Preben Iwan.