The morning sun is trickling through the leaves. You are in your childhood garden, surrounded by trees and memories. Then a gentle piano note floats through the air on the light summer breeze. That is about what Swedish composer Henrik Lindstrand’s single Hallonlandet sounds like. Hallonlandet means as much as “raspberry land” and the single is inspired by the garden in the artist’s childhood home. The video to the track feels just as intimate as the gentle piano melody.
Hallonlandet is teasing the pianist’s forthcoming LP. “‘Nordhem’ is the final chapter in my piano trilogy and the three albums all share the same theme: going back to my roots and exploring the piano’s possibility for storytelling. The compositions are often named after places and environments that have meant something to me during my life in one way or another,” Henrik Lindstrand says about the record.
Finding Inspiration
The tender acoustic instrumentation might fit best into a natural environment, but when it comes to the inspiration for song writing the artist finds it even in unlikely places. “Strangely enough, I tend to get melodies or chord progressions in my head while biking around in the city, and some themes on the album have started like that.” Talking about inspiration Henrik Lindstrand notices that as he gets older and gains more life experience, he has been able to write different songs than a couple of years ago. “In my everyday life, I’m mostly inspired by the people close to me and I don’t need to travel across the world to seek inspiration.”
With coming of age, the artist also found solace in the immediate environment surrounding him. Famous for its stunning landscapes the Swedish nature is another place where he draws inspiration from. “I’m definitely more appreciative now when it comes to being outdoors and experiencing nature than when I was younger. Long walks by the sea for instance, but also walking in forests is always inspiring to me.”
“Writing Music is an Exercise”
In the video to Hallonlandet, Henrik Lindstrand is honing his newfound love for nature. It shows the artist playing on the piano in a park. Down to earth and bright – the video’s theme perfectly mirrors the musical arrangement. “Environment has been a huge influence”, the composer says. Not only when it comes to writing the music but also when it comes to recording. Luckily enough the artist was able to build his own studio in Copenhagen, which has been “a game-changer” for his creative process. The studio has given me absolute freedom and opportunities to express myself immediately with my pianos always mic’d up and ready to be recorded. It has created a very intuitive workflow for me on an everyday basis.”
About the writing process for Nordhem the artist says: “I also sometimes write music in my head if I wake up during the night. It can be small fragments of a melody or a rhythmic pattern or something else. I usually try to get the idea recorded on my phone while whispering into it, so I don’t forget it. After listening back in the morning, it is usually deleted at once, but sometimes there is something worth keeping. Besides that, I usually try to write a piece of music every day because I believe that writing music is also an exercise and you have to practice at it to become good. So, a combination of hard work and a good portion of coincidental inspiration might result in something worth keeping on a good day.”
Nordhem will be released on October 23rd via One Little Independent Records.
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