Home » Jazz Articles » Mikkel Ploug
Jazz Articles about Mikkel Ploug
Mikkel Ploug: Balcony Lullabies
by Dan Bilawsky
Upset, isolated and frustrated during the early stages of the near-global COVID-19 quarantine, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug did what he does best; he picked up his instrument and started playing. Sitting on his balcony and reflecting on the moment, Ploug set beauty in strings, allowing his sound to hold aloft. His appreciative neighbors listened with rapt attention, applauding at the conclusion of that otherwise personal performance. And so began the balcony lullabies. At 6:15 p.m. every evening, ...
read moreMikkel Ploug: Faroe
by Neri Pollastri
Il rapporto artistico tra il tenorsassofonista statunitense Mark Turner e il chitarrista danese Mikkel Ploug è piuttosto lungo e consolidato, avendo i due suonato per circa dieci anni nel quartetto messo in piedi da Ploug dopo il suo arrivo in America nel 2005. E proprio l'intesa prodottasi tra i due è stata lo stimolo che ha spinto quest'ultimo a concentrare tutta l'attenzione sul suono dei soli sax e chitarra, per realizzare un disco in duo, su brani originali la scrittura ...
read moreMikkel Ploug & Mark Turner: Faroe
by Dan Bilawsky
While tenor saxophone heavy Mark Turner has toured with guitarist Mikkel Ploug's quartet for approximately a decade, the unique musical alliance developed between this pair has never before received such a high degree of attention. With Faroe, Ploug presents thirteen original compositions written or rearranged specifically to telescope their bond(s), explore the very essence of the melodic-harmonic communion, and artfully merge the precomposed and the improvised. Opening with the title track, a number that finds Turner's matte-finish melodies ...
read moreDálava, Gordon Grdina and Mikkel Ploug: Songs Old, and Sounds New
by Mark Werlin
Strangeness--a word that connotes foreignness, otherness, and a sense of unease when confronted by the unfamiliar. The sound of recognizable musical forms may attract us, in the same way we are drawn to familiar faces or voices. The sound of a foreign language may set us on the alert; syllables we do not recognize, meanings we cannot understand. And what if the words cannot always cross the boundary from one language to another, and the meanings never be ...
read moreMikkel Ploug: Alleviation
by Dan Bilawsky
Alleviation is a fascinatingly winsome document showcasing what occurs when tool serves as muse. While out and about in New York in 2016, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug happened upon a musical curio--a mahogany-top Gibson Banner LG-2. The instrument, essentially a wartime relic made by the (mostly) female work force in Gibson's Kalamazoo plant in the early '40s, was a worn-down wonder, preserved yet clearly put through life's demands. But the personality, quality of sound, and innate character of this guitar ...
read moreEquilibrium: Liquid Light
by Glenn Astarita
This European trio's third release is abetted by Songlines Recordings' pristine audio processes, which is a vital aspect since many of these tracks are quietly penetrating in scope and designed with ethereal atmospherics. The artists' specialty may lie within an artsy, avant-garde schema via a channel of electro-acoustic tone poems, enamored by Sissel Vera Pettersen's luminous and diffused wordless chants. Even though these largely temperate pieces are lithely woven amid the bumps, spikes, valleys, and a hint of new age ...
read moreEquilibrium: Liquid Light
by Dan Bilawsky
The concept of equilibrium is all about the balancing of opposing forces, actions, or influences; the music of Equilibrium is largely about the same, though some twists, focal point shifts, and ambient sound plays complicate and muddy the concept a bit. Equilibrium--a trio comprised of Belgian clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug, and Norwegian vocalist Sissel Vera Pettersen--quietly yet boldly goes to places unknown, finding and creating the maximum in minimalist settings while blending voices and ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 6
