Music created by veteran Danish composer and keyboardist Anders Koppel has been the mainstay of several successful Dacapo releases over the past years. Now, Still Life joins them as a documentation of a new endeavour of his, a vibrant music music-making in duo with cellist Henrik Dam Thomsen, whose far far-reaching musical creativity matches Koppel’s own. Still Life is a meeting of kindred spirits – yielding 15 impressions of life as captured in a dimly lit night.

Anders Koppel (b. 1947) is both a composer and musician; from the age of five he studied with his father, pianist and composer Herman D. Koppel Koppel. Anders Koppel began playing Hammond organ in 1966, and with his brother Thomas Koppel formed the rock group Savage Rose, touring all over the world – still today.

In 1970, Anders Koppel purchased a Hammond B3 Organ. And precisely that organ is probably one of the best-known instruments in Danish musical life, for the endlessly creative Anders Koppel has played on that selfsame organ ever since – also on this new album.

Since 1999, Henrik Dam Thomsen (b. 1973) has combined his position as first principal cellist in the Danish National Symphony Orchestra with a versatile appearance as chamber musician and soloist. Thomsen has also distinguished himself as an improviser and has performed with an array of Danish and international jazz stars.

Koppel and Thomsen began to play together in various contexts in the 1990s, and in 2019 the time had come for them to work together directly as a duo.

As its point of departure, the music on this album has compositions by Koppel, scored for cello and Hammond organ. But the arrangements, the duo have developed together, and in the making there has been room for improvisation. The borderline between improvisation and composition is so fluid that one cannot always make out which is which.