A Minor Project is exactly what it says on the tin – “a couple of musicians from Denmark that have played together in another constellation for years” seeking a little variety. I hope it isn’t too far away and that they can make it here in at least a few light years because I like what I hear and it would be good to see them live.
They started ‘A Minor Project’ to make some creative space where they can play around with music and lyrics that they both love to work with.
Their EP is accordingly called ‘Utopia’, and consists of six songs which they say are “a bit tricky” for them to categorise. There are distinctly indie elements, bits of rock music, some singer/songwriter stuff, a Nordic twist of melancholy and “a general fondness for the minor chords”. Well that last one goes with the Nordic blues I suppose.
That suggestion of variety means that we really shouldn’t apply the usual sample track rule to what is a six song EP. However, squeezing in reviews between World Cup games is a necessity right now.
So I went for the title track, recalling that it was only the other day that I’d mentioned the famous line from 2001 – A Space Odyssey; that “The newspapers of Utopia would be exceedingly dull.”
You see how things have a way of coming around, here.
There’s nothing dull about this ‘Utopia’. They describe themselves as “writing in the margins of society” and the extended opening note sounds like it could take up residence on the Øresund Bridge along with a headless corpse in a Scandi Noir cop drama opening sequence.
Very quickly thereafter it’s as if REM met Morrissey on a plane somewhere and decided to record a single.
It is extremely atmospheric and a little surreal, the sort of thing you’d prefer to listen to in a smoky club where you can barely make out the artists, as if they’re a faint hologram sent from somewhere on the other side.
Where the tempo ramps up along with the rhythm section but declines to carry the song where it was never intended to go.
Is it typical of the EP? Well the melancholy and the minor keys predominate throughout for sure but you’ll find more bluesy constructions on it and a surfeit of cutting lyrics.
The key thing is that they do it because they enjoy it. And so will you.
A Minor Project is David Grün and Niels Kølln Madsen.
Find them on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aminorproject.band/
