THOMASAGERGAARDWORKS
RELEASE
30. OCTOBER
2026
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Paper Trio - Light in The Dark:
Music Of Carl Nielsen [Time Span Records]
Released via Time Span Records on August 14th, 2k26 is "Light In The Dark", a twelve pieces spanning contemplation on and interpretation of compositions by the revered Danish composer Carl Nielsen, performed and led by the Paper Trio comprised of Randi Pontoppidan, Thomas Agergaard and Greg Cohen with further contributions and participations by the Akela String Quartet as well as Arnur Tuznik on piano and organ and bass-baritone vocalist Jakob Bloch Jespersen. Over the course of 53 minutes we see Paper Trio and their collaborators transfer Nielsen's original work into a timeless and free-floating, yet vaguely Jazz-infused context starting out with the tender and beautiful "Nu Er Dagen Fuld Af Sang" which could well be a variation of a centuries old traditional rural Folk piece vibewise with solemn, yet ethereal vocals hovering timelessly whereas "Dreams Of Dreams", as intimate as the piece itself seems to be, takes full advantage of full on panoramic string arrangements and occasional left of center (dis)harmonic movements and "Saenk Kun Dit Hoved, Du Blomst" sees its story told by a powerful and expressive Classical male voice and dreamy female non-vocalisms backed by a tender piano foundation. The subsequent "Andantino", albeit instrumental, takes us back to an unscathed, probably medieval rural Denmark and its folk tales with a playful flute as the leading instrument, "Gramaphone" comes at us as rather light-hearted and frolicking piano piece and a bit of a vintage fun fair feel at times contrasted by the airy and time defying "Motet" which follows, probably providing the most significant gravitas and large scale panoramic arrangement on this album whilst the closing cut that is "Solen Er Rød Mor" rounds things off on a traditional Folk-infused note once again just to name a few. Indeed, an interesting contemporary gateway to those not familiar with the "Music Of Carl Nielsen".
Album artwork on Instagram!
posted by baze.djunkiii at 11:07 PM
Light in the Dark
Paper Trio brings together Danish vocalist and improviser Randi Pontoppidan, her fellow Dane, saxophonist and flautist Thomas Agergaard, and American bassist and double bassist Greg Cohen.
Their story began almost by chance five years ago. During a concert at a paper museum in Denmark, the musicians experimented with incorporating the sound of paper into their music.
That experience also laid the groundwork for the trio’s latest studio album, Light in the Dark, released by Time Span Records. The album brings their music into dialogue with that of Carl Nielsen, the prominent Danish composer and violinist who died in 1931.
Improvisation lies at the heart of the record. Nielsen’s melodies are treated as living musical material, while remaining clearly recognisable throughout. The musicians avoid reshaping them in ways that might alter their essential character.
Artur Tuznik (piano and organ), Jakob Bloch Jespersen (bass-baritone) and the Akela String Quartet also took part in the recording, adding breadth and nuance to the music of a composer who famously resisted being associated with jazz.
More than a tribute or a reinterpretation, Paper Trio’s approach is a dialogue. Their aim was to place Nielsen in a contemporary musical setting, and they have undoubtedly succeeded.
Light in the Dark offers a way into Carl Nielsen’s music through the subtle lens of musicians who are technically accomplished and creatively inspired.
(Piergiuseppe Lippolis)
Light in the Dark
Paper Trio è la formazione composta dalla vocalist e improvvisatrice danese Randi Pontoppidan, dal sassofonista e flautista connazionale Thomas Agergaard e dal bassista e contrabbassista statunitense Greg Cohen.
La loro storia è iniziata quasi per caso, cinque anni fa: durante un concerto presso un museo della carta in Danimarca, i musicisti hanno provato a incorporare il suono della carta nella loro musica.
Su queste premesse e da questa esperienza è nato anche l’ultimo lavoro in studio della formazione, “Light in the Dark”, uscito per Time Span Records, disco che rappresenta il punto di incontro con la musica di Carl Nielsen, il principale compositore e violinista danese morto nel 1931.
Il disco affonda le sue radici nell’improvvisazione, anche perché le melodie di Nielsen sono trattate come materiale sonoro vivo e, anche per questo, mantenute sempre perfettamente riconoscibili e mai oggetto di ristrutturazioni che avrebbero potuto, in qualche modo, snaturarle.
Alla registrazione hanno partecipato anche Artur Tuznik (piano e organo), Jakob Bloch Jespersen (basso baritono) e l’Akela String Quartet, tutti presenti con l’obiettivo di aggiungere respiro e sfumature alla musica di un artista che, notoriamente, non ha mai accettato l’accostamento al jazz.
Più che un omaggio o una revisione, l’approccio del Paper Trio è dialogico: l’obiettivo era calare Nielsen in un’ambientazione musicale contemporanea ed è decisamente raggiunto.
“Light in the Dark” rappresenta, di fatto, un modo per avvicinarsi alla produzione di Carl Nielsen attraverso il filtro sottile di musicisti tecnicamente solidissimi e molto ispirati anche in termini compositivi.
(Piergiuseppe Lippolis)
MUSE også for børn
Vores børn er vores fremtid.
Musik skaber varige minder, glæde og oplevelser for livet.
MUSE har en ambition om at nå langt flere børn i 26/27. Vi søger Fondsmidler til Tegnekoncerter for indskolingen på Folkeskoler i Næstved Kommune. Men du kan også gøre noget, tryk på Donate og støt mit arbejde med MUSE.
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Thomas Agergaard
– A Progressive Voice at the Intersection of Composition and Improvisation
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DRAWN TOWARDS the DEEP
”
For Earth seems made for life. A strong magnetic field protects against the particle radiation of solar winds, and a dense atmosphere retains heat. Here, we find the Solar System's most diverse landscapes with lush forests, scorching deserts, snow-covered mountain ranges, and oceans of liquid water. All life on Earth – plants, insects, animals, and fish – contributes to the ecosystem, of which we are also a part. You can get access to extraordinarily developed material if you buy the CD. CD out 19. October
Light in the Dark
Light in the Dark is the Paper Trio’s contemporary encounter with the music of Carl Nielsen.
There is an irony at play. Nielsen famously rejected jazz, yet here the language of free music exists just beyond the frame, sometimes entering as a distant commentary. The result is neither homage nor revisionism, but dialogue. Light in the Dark allows Nielsen’s music to remain itself while placing it in a contemporary sonic environment — one that acknowledges both its historical weight and its continued capacity to resonate.
Vor Frie Fruer
New Release: Vor Frie Fruer – Free Improvisation in Unique Acoustic Surroundings
Two musicians with nearly 40 years of shared experience invite the listener into an organic and dynamic universe with the album Vor Frie Fruer – a release based on free improvisation, recorded in the five-towered Church of Our Lady (Vor Frue Kirke) in Kalundborg.
Here, small abstract sonic novellas unfold in an open tonal language, where lyrical landscapes and shimmering cascades of sound merge within the church’s magnificent acoustics.
The distinctive resonance of this architectural gem from the 13th century made post-production unnecessary and left a strong imprint on the recordings, which took place in 2024 and 2025.
The title Vor Frie Fruer refers both to the recording location and the music’s unbound form – a reflection of the intuitive and trusting interplay between two seasoned improvisers, carried by playfulness, presence, and musical understanding.
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FORGOTTEN BEATS
In August 2016 the Danish politician and leader of the political party Alternativet Uffe Elbæk asked the composer, musician and event maker Thomas Agergaard to become artist in residence at the Danish Parliament in Christiansborg.
Agergaard immediately accepted, proposing to create a sound installation based on recordings of the heartbeats of Danish politicians.
The sound installation is sponsored by the famous Danish loudspeaker company Artcoustic.
Link til Guld og Grønne skove 2025
My Sound Installation Needed a text component
The sitting prime minister had banned experts and taste arbiters.
I decided that my text component should consist of a series of meetings with a central agenda relevant to our time.
One meeting I arranged was with Minik Rosing (Professor of Geology at the University of Copenhagen). The topic was the mineral-rich glacial silt, of which there are vast amounts in Greenland.
At the meeting, experiments with glacier meal were agreed upon in the fertile Danish soil at Lundsgaard Estate near Kerteminde.
Underneath are photos from that meeting that I am posting here, as the results have only truly emerged now—something you can hear about in the DR program Guld og Grønne Skove.
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PAPER TRIO
HIPPO ROAD
The Paper Trio was created when Thomas was asked to play a concert at a Paper Museum/Gallery in the countryside of Denmark. Luck had it that Randi and I were the other 2 musicians in the band.
But the gig had its caveats.We could only get money if we used actual paper to make our sounds. So we all scrambled to find interesting types of paper in the studio there and we briefly practiced incorporating these sounds to our normal trio world.
Lo and behold! It worked. The public loved the paper sounds and the Paper Trio was born.
After that concert we were all inspired to take this trio into the studio and capture these sounds, and more. You can hear the recorded sounds of paper stamping machines and other paper fabrication machines used. Each piece was introduced in the studio simply with a mood or title, and then we started to play.
We hope you enjoy this effort as much as we have enjoyed making it.
PAPER
TRIO
HIPPO
ROAD
By Vito Camarretta - Dec 29 2024
Artist: Paper Trio
Title: Hippo Road
Format: CD + Download
Label: Time Span RecordsRated:
Step onto "Hippo Road" and prepare for a sonic safari unlike any other. With the sound of rustling parchment as its heartbeat, this audacious album by Paper Trio redefines improvisational music, proving that even the most mundane material - paper - can transcend its humble origins to become a profound artistic medium.
Born from a whimsical challenge to incorporate paper into their performances, the trio - Randi Pontoppidan (voice, electronics, paper), Thomas Agergaard (flute, saxophones, paper), and Greg Cohen (double bass, paper) - turns this constraint into their muse. "Hippo Road" is their declaration that art knows no boundaries, not even those of cellulose.
The title track, “Hippo Road”, sets the tone with a lumbering, primal groove, as if a great beast is making its way through the sonic underbrush, its every step accompanied by the crunch and crinkle of paper. Pontoppidan’s voice floats like a phantom, shifting between whispers and ethereal wails, while Agergaard’s saxophone bends and stretches like light through a dense canopy. Cohen’s bass provides a steady, grounding pulse, as if tethering the wild experiment to the earth.
Tracks like “MIire Herz” and “Litho” showcase the trio’s ability to craft miniature sound worlds. “Chewy” is a playful romp through textured improvisation, evoking the sensation of tearing, folding, and crumpling. Meanwhile, “Golden Blume” unfolds like a delicate origami flower, its fragile beauty highlighted by Pontoppidan’s celestial vocal tones.The album isn’t without its humor.
The aptly titled “Gutenberg Blues” riffs on the history of paper with a melancholy saxophone line that seems to mourn the analog days of ink-stained fingers.
“Pulp Friction” is a cheeky closer, its percussive rhythms and kinetic energy making it feel like the soundtrack to a papermaking factory gone delightfully rogue.Yet amidst the whimsy lies genuine depth. “Cellulose Dreams” is a hauntingly beautiful meditation, its sounds swelling and receding like memories on the edge of recall. The trio’s chemistry is palpable, each member responding intuitively to the others, creating a soundscape that feels organic, alive, and deeply interconnected.
The Paper Trio’s "Hippo Road" sounds like an ode to transformation.
From the tactile world of paper emerges a transcendent musical experience, one that blends jazz, experimental sound art, and pure improvisational magic.
To listen is to witness a conversation between the ephemeral and the eternal, between the crackle of paper and the infinite possibilities of the human spirit.
"Hippo Road" invites us to crumple up our expectations and take a leap into the unknown. The destination? A place where creativity flows freely, like ink across a blank page.
TEGNEKONCERT
Den 2 og 3 dec. 2024 på Frederiksberg Bibliotek
Den 2 dec. Skolen ved Nylandsvej
Den 3 dec. Skolen ved Søerne.
Ramus Bregnhøi maler live til Simon Toldam og Thomas Agergaard
Skolerne beholder værkerne.
Fra vores tegnekoncert på Frederiksberg Bibliotek kan værket erhverves ved at deltage i konkurrencen
https://fkb.dk/frederiksberg-hovedbibliotek/arrangementer/arrangementer-born/konkurrence-vind-et-maleri-4-10-ar
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Eventyrlige Aftener
1 December 2022
Live concert
JB10 Næstved
Kim Kristensen: Synthesizer, programering
Simon Toldam: Synthesizer
Thomas Agergaard: Tenor saxophone, Soprano saxophone .
Live recording Henrik Vindeby
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BACH PERSPECTIVE
Jeg har samarbejdet med Tobias van der Pals i mange år, men vi har kun spillet sammen ved forskellige projekter.
Under Corona pandemien opstod muligheden for st udbygge samarbejdet og vi dannede Bach Perspective, her er vores første single.
Tak til støtte fra KODA Kultur og tak til Jesper Andersen fra DKDM Han Xu studerende fra Kina stod for indspilningen. Gateway har igen været en fantastisk samarbejdspartner.
Det smukke cover er udarbejdet af Morten Agergaard, også tak for det smukke greb.
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MASS FOR THE SEA 2023
Ung Klang synger første del af mit værk Mass for the Sea - Tobias van der Pals dirigerer og Henrik Vindeby har indspillet.
Det endelige værk udkommer 2026 i dolby atmos.
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Lars Jansson / Thomas Agergaard
GARDEN of SOUNDS
This is a fine duo album with compositions from the two musicians that draw influences from John Cage, Wayne Shorter and Charlie Haden, and who also dip their toes into the murky waters of free improvisation suggesting another avenue of exploration.
Possible through a collaboration with Thomas Lyngdam / Arts Music
Recent Jazz album releases that will blow your mind!
No Rhythm Section? No Problem! As a Scandanavian Sax/Piano Duo Proves!
Mike Greenblatt
Jul 28, 2023
Garden of Sounds is a fascinating jazz collaboration by Swedish pianist/composer Lars Jansson and Danish saxophonist/flutist/composer Thomas Agergaard.
Kathy Parsons Jul 28, 2023
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