Published
Thu, Aug 16, 2018, 13:30
- The album will be released on Kompakt this October, the two-year anniversary of the end of his hospital visits.
Kasper Bjørke is releasing an album that documents his cancer diagnosis and anxiety about relapsing.
The Fifty Eleven Project, named after the hospital department Bjørke often visited, is an ambient concept album. It was composed with three of the Danish musician's friends and where the "Quartet" part of the project gets its name: Claus Norreen handled analogue synths and hardware with Bjørke; Davide Rossi composed the music for the string instruments; and Jakob Littauer wrote and performed the piano part.
Bjørke says the album follows his life during and after cancer, starting from his diagnosis in November 2011—"just two weeks before my 35th birthday"—through his final appointment in October 2016 and beyond, dealing with anxiety about relapsing. "I felt this urge to document what I was experiencing through music, but at the same time, I didn't want to begin recording before my final hospital examination; not until I knew for certain I was going to be okay," he says in the press release. "I wanted to document the gamut of feelings—both light and dark—using these long instrumental compositions as the narrative, and the track titles as a chronological guideline. The project has been a therapeutic way of me processing the diagnosis, the constant fear of relapse, and the light in being healed."
The 11-track album is accompanied by 11 art films, in collaboration with Justin Tyler Close and Prxjects. The films will be on display at Klub in Copenhagen from October 12th through 21st, with a possible installation tour coming in 2019. The cover art is by Landon Metz.
Listen to "Dur For Vitus."
Tracklist
01. Line Of Life (Prologue)
02. Seminom Non Seminom
03. CT
04. 50 11
05. Neuron
06. Dur For Vitus
07. Paramount
08. Os
09. 061016
10. Contemplation
11. The Antiphon (Epilogue)
Kompakt will release The Fifty Eleven Project on October 19th, 2018.
Photo credit: Dennis Morton
