Name: Christian Balvig
Nationality: Danish
Occupation: Composer, pianist, producer
Current release: Christian Balvig's "Where All Is" is out now via Where All is. It is the first single to be taken off his upcoming full-length Night Poem, scheduled for release on May 12th 2023.
Recommendations: Promises, a record by Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders. Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, a book by Jonathan Safran Foer.

If you enjoyed this Christian Balvig interview and would like to know more, visit his official website. He is also on Instagram, and Facebook.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I listen mostly with eyes open. If I like the music, I can’t stop moving my whole body and especially my arms, hah.

Actually, music is mostly a bodily experience and I like forgetting time and space. I think one beautiful thing about music is that it can exist beyond form and visual representation.

I recorded some (to me) incredible pieces of music when I had almost no idea what I was doing. What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

Great question! I like to start in a more chaotic process where I lose control - I think of it almost like a treasure hunt - digging for gold, while doing random stuff. I like to put myself in the listener's chair, rather than being “the creator”, so doing stuff with little or no control definitely helps me also experience the ideas from the listener's perspective. Later in the process, the experienced mind kicks in, I analyse the sketch and build very detailed from there.

I think one skill I have is that I’m very structured about trying all possible solutions. So when figuring out a beat, or a melody - I will turn every stone, every note until I find the one I like the most. Time consuming, but worth it, I think.

It is generally believed that we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between 13-16. Tell me what music meant to you at that age, please – and how its impact has changed since then.  

Ohh, I was into all kinds of music at that age. Actually, my journey from 13-16 is huge.

At 13 I only played classical percussion, mainly marimba. But I still already knew that music was what I was supposed to do in life! My first big big big experience with music, was watching Pink Floyd’s The Wall at the age of 15.

I don’t feel the impact has change since then - what hits me is still when I feel the music has what I best describe as a tense emotional urgency. It must exist. It must be played. Must be heard.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and how do you think has working with them shaped your perspective on music?

As a pianist - that instrument has definitely shaped my overview of music. I relate everything to the piano.

But also working with subtractive synths - I for sure got a more in depth understanding of the overtones series and timbre in general - which shaped my ears, and helped me compose more full sounding music for acoustic instruments. This has made me view music more like physics - it's waves.

And working with manipulating those waves in different ways helped me understand some more fundamental stuff about sound and music.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

I want to give audiences and myself experiences! Make me feel. Make them feel. Take them places they didn’t knew existed. In a world with super-fast stimuli all around, all the time.

I think that there is something extremely powerful about having a full hall of people (hopefully) devoting their attention 100 precent to one thing like music for maybe a whole damn hour.

I hunt an experience of fulfilment - where the perfect sounds and long format musical forms make you forget time and space.

Paul Simon has been quoted as claiming that “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

For me there are 3 key elements I listen for - sound, space and time. The first being the overall sound, the second being what space I am in while listening. I like that there is foreground, middle ground, background and maybe even a universe in the far ethereal horizon. The time is kind of how the music flows or grooves.

The overall sound can for me be horrible, but if the music grooves and flows - I can still enjoy it!

I would describe my own sound world as physical, organic, textural and lyrical, and I tend to like low frequencies a bit more than highs.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to forces of nature. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

I like the sound and smell of nature in general. Also, I love when I get the chance to sit down at a piano and open the windows - accompanying the outdoors or the rain on the window.

Nature and city noise can be a great co-musician at times I feel.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

Oh I really do like having instruments build for deep sounds play high melodies. Like a high melody on Tuba, Contrabassoon, on the C string of the cello etc is really something for me. Creates a very tense and resonant tone quality.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads of ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

For me the long format piece works the best. Like symphonies, movies, a long format improvised concert. A full length record.

I think it’s because I feel that the long format give some room for being a bit more radical. You can take yourself on a journey step by step and maybe end up a place you might have dismissed, if you got there too fast.

Science and art have certain overlaps and similarities. Do you you think "objectivity" has a place in art and do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

I don’t think there is objectivity in art. But I believe in science and the science of sound. I use it a lot. If I have to make a full sounding chord for orchestra.

I know I have to orchestrate the chord so it aligns with the natural overtones of the instruments, so they resonate with each other, that is just physics.

Seeing, smelling, touching, tasting – which of these sense impressions have the strongest points of contact with your hearing/listening experience?

Seeing.

Does the way you make music reflect on the way you live your life? And vice versa, can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I won’t say the way I make music reflects my life. Maybe only to the extent that If I don’t create, I start to feel sad. Creating is part of my satisfaction in life.

AND having a life in music gives me so many experiences that I’m really grateful for: like traveling, meeting a lot of people, having fun, working intimately and personal with a lot of people etc.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Emotions and undivided attention and focus.

Also, I engage my imagination a lot when writing - almost imagining a future scene in which the music is perceived by an audience.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Conversely, many popular love songs leave me cold. Do you have similar paradoxical examples - and why, do you think, is the same piece of music capable of conjuring such vastly different responses in different listeners?

I think this is part of the beauty of music. We experience it so differently - like life. That’s why I really try to create music that I like myself, cause trying to guess what others like is a failed task from the get go.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would love the future to be more reflective. Long pieces of music. Not just 3 minute tracks. I would love a renaissance of acoustic instruments rather than sample libraries in film music and pop music - get the physicality in there.

I would love to see a creative and new way of using AI as a way of creating truly new and surprising artworks, not just generative copies.