Svaneborg Kardyb
The new Nordic jazz duo Svaneborg Kardyb (pronounced Kah-doob) announces their second album for Gondwana Records, titled Superkilen, following Over Tage (2022) and the EP At Home (2023).
Superkilen, the new album by the Danish duo Svaneborg Kardyb, consisting of Nikolaj Svaneborg (keyboards) and Jonas Kardyb (drums), is named after a public park in the ethnically diverse Copenhagen neighborhood of Nørrebro. This former wasteland was transformed in the early 2010s by the artist group Superflex to bring immigrants and locals together in an atmosphere of tolerance and unity. The title seems emblematic of their music, which also inventively creates space and tranquility - as a countermeasure to the tense and overloaded living environment of the 2020s. Just as the urban planning project transformed the neighborhood, Svaneborg Kardyb draws on this positive energy to spark changes in their own music.
“‘Superkilen’ means ‘super wedge’ in Danish,” says Nikolaj, who has a studio right next to the park, “but it’s a very expressive word, with the connotation of a breakthrough, like when you take a piece of wood and split it.” Jonas adds: “It’s like something that desperately wants to be there, something from the outside that breaks in and moves forward, and you can’t do anything about it - we had to allow that on this album.”
Thus, Superkilen and the ideas behind it became an integral part of the psychogeography of Svaneborg Kardyb's latest album, as they introduced bolder synthesizers and more powerful beats into the subtly nuanced textures of piano and drums that are known from their earlier work. The listener is taken on a sonic adventure each time, filled with much of the soothing sound language that has garnered them fans worldwide, but is also unpredictable, with its narrative capable of radically changing with a single new chord or a barely perceptible rhythmic shift. Complex, captivating, and decidedly addictive - Superkilen seems to live up to its name and could herald SK's rise to a new career height.
Like most Danes, they take pride in their country's progressive principles, says Nikolaj: “on looking out for the well-being and having a system that supports you no matter what happens. We pay a lot of taxes, but we also get a lot back. It’s a mindset of the people.”
“But then you also have to get out of Denmark,” says Jonas with a smile, “you have to go to New York and get kicked in the butt, then you can come back with that energy and use it creatively. We felt that we needed to do something new, to shake things up a bit - be bolder, maybe angrier.”
On Superkilen, the two also draw on their recent tour experiences following the breakthrough of their Gondwana debut Over Tage and the NPR Tiny Desk appearance. They have seen how audiences in festival tents began to dance during more driving sections, and they have witnessed dark aspects of life outside their homeland. These impressions have inevitably influenced the music they made at home for their fourth album. You can hear it in the tilting, out-of-control beats and the final resolution of “Vakler + Balancen,” in the wildly bubbling synthesizer patterns of the title track, and the synth interference that ultimately engulfs the closing "Arendal" - perhaps a vision of an industrial ecological catastrophe that destroys the initial idyll. And yet, much of the delicate beauty in SK's music remains intact. The blissful "Udsigten" (translated: "View") reflects in its title the breathtaking view over the sea from the floor-to-ceiling panoramic windows of the Karmacrew Recording studio on the island of Møn, on Denmark's southeastern coast.
The connection to Gondwana Records also brings positive energy. They exchange ideas with label mate Caoilfhionn Rose; additionally, they sought an extra color for two tracks on the new album and reached out to Portico Quartet bassist Milo Fitzpatrick - “and he nailed it perfectly.” With an album title that reflects Matthew Halsall's Fletcher Moss Park as an inspiration, Svaneborg Kardyb looks forward to presenting Superkilen and its more urgent electronic elements live in the fall.
“It’s a long-term journey to be a musician at Gondwana,” summarizes Jonas, “and it's all about the music, about making something that excites you.” In every way, Svaneborg Kardyb is already fitting well into the family of the label, and an exciting future lies ahead of them.
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
