ANDERS NORDENTOFT
On This Planet
Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen
Thomas Sandberg, vocal

Anders Nordentoft, composer

Morten Ryelund, conductor

About
Dacapo Records’ very first DVD production is extraordinary in every way. On This Planet transcends the limits of conventional opera and presents a new artistic idiom that is ideal for the DVD medium.

On This Planet is a journey through life from birth to death. But it is no ordinary journey. It has been set to text and music by the composer Anders Nordentoft, it is performed by the musician Thomas Sandberg; on stage Martin Tulinius has created a unique unity of video, computer graphics, sound and light – just as the music mixes different genres. Anders Nordentoft’s past as a rock musician is combined with his classical training in a brand new musical universe where the concept of crossover is no longer adequate as a label.

Thomas Sandberg is well known in Scandinavia as an unusual mixture of performance artist, percussionist, clown and sound artist. Together with Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen he creates a symbiosis of the human voice and instrumental sound where texts by Anders Nordentoft and the West Indian poet Derek Walcott meet. With On This Planet we enter the same universe as Twin Peaks and Lars von Trier’s The Kingdom, where anything can happen and nothing is what it seems. This suspense-filled universe is given musical nerve by Anders Nordentoft in a mixture of rock, jazz, blues and modern composition music. There are no borders On This Planet. Anything can happen.

Reviews
On This Planet fremstår som et overvældende udsagn om at være menneske.
(Ulrik Cold, Børsen)

Disse Waitsinspirerede sange med deres buldrende rå, vanvittigt poetiske og smukt sansede univers handler om livet. Hele livet. Om barndom, børn, forelskelse, død og tilliden til frelse.
(Thomas Michelsen Politiken)

Det er en forestilling, man på stedet får lyst til at se én gang til.
(Knud Ketting, Jyllands-Posten)

Credits
Sound engineer: Jacob F. Utzon
Recording producer: Preben Iwan
Executive producer: Karsten Wolstad
Editing engineer: Preben Iwan
Mastering: Kasper Johannesen, SDC Studios Denmark

Audio format: Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Digital Surround

Lighting: Lars Egegaard Sørensen
Costumes: Hanne Mørup, Caféteatret
Video design: Mikal Bing and Martin Tulinius
Technical director and production manager: Bert-Åke Persson
TV producers: Morten Larvad and Martin Tulinius
Video engineer: Blue Planet Film
Post production: PNW Film
Produced by Scanframes
Mastered by SDC Studios Denmark

Dacapo Records acknowledge, with gratitude, the financial support of Augustinus Fonden, Danish Composers’ Society/KODA’s Funds for Social and Cultural Purposes, Danish Musicians’ Union , Gangstedfonden and Politiken-Fonden.