Since his solo album first debuted in 2017, Jakob Lindhagen has already managed to make an indelible footprint in the modern classical music scene in Scandanavia and Europe. Having played instruments since the age of 5, Jakob as gone on to become an award-winning composer, music producer and multi-instrumentalist whose work has been streamed by millions whether as a solo artist, collaborator, or creator of soundtracks for film. The occasion that brings us here is his newest musical adventure which will debut on the Icelandic/American I N N I imprint, an ambitious audio-visual work called Stages of Change.
Inspired by Lindhagen’s reflections on what he calls “large-scale, collective changes on a societal level and their correlation with personal shifts”, it is a prismatic, shapeshifting piece of music divided into six episodic tracks which will be accompanied from beginning to end by stop-motion animation developed by longtime artistic collaborator Sofia Nystrand (aka Vargkvint). The heart of the EP is a fetching melodic theme which appears in kaleidoscopic array of motifs ranging from intimate piano and string quartet to atmospheric electronica and euphoric trumpet and layered synths, essentially distilling a wide range of human experience and emotion into twenty-two minutes of music.
I wanted it to feel like a journey pulled forward by polar opposites. As it represents changes both in the past, present and future, I wanted it to feel both old and new, human and artificial, familiar and strange.
As a taste of the full experience which comes out next month, you can enjoy the beautiful music and captivating animation right here for “Reaction”, the first single for the EP which has just been released.
Stages of Change was mastered by Sin Fang and releases on May 24, 2024, on I N N I with “Reaction” available for download and streaming now as a single. In addition, Lindhagen will host a release concert at Reimersholme Hotell in Stockholm on May 22, followed by performances at Q3Ambientfest in Potsdam (June 2), and then in Poland in Warsaw (June 6) and Sopot (June 7) together with Vargkvint.
More Info: Bandcamp (digital single) | Jakob Lindhagen | INNI Music
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