Asger Baden - If The Music Stops

Danish composer, pianist and producer Asger Baden has made a name for himself as a film and TV-series composer with his atmospheric music featured in world-acclaimed productions such as Breaking Bad and The Wolfpack.

After having worked on several collaborative projects and composing with his bands "The Crooked Spoke" and "Cours Lapin," Baden now releases his album of solo material, If the music stops, they'll eat him up via Berlin-based label Neue Meister.

If the music stops, they'll eat him up invokes through its nine tracks a sense of mysterious and highly visual storytelling. As is expected of a composer who has worked with cinema extensively, the music unfolds much like a motion picture, conjuring images that are rich and textured. It's as if Baden was painting a wide and vast musical room where the listener is invited to explore its every nook and cranny, from soft percussive footsteps in the background, to the whispering rumbles of synthesizers just in front or the frail conversation of strings happening to the side. There's an overwhelming sense of openness and atmosphere to every sound, with a churchy echo delineating the space that surrounds them.

"I want to put myself in a position where my ‘ears are wide open' to the quirks, random incidents and happy accidents rather than being totally focused on the composition in a conventional sense," says Baden. "To me, this opens a door to a much larger canvas, so to speak."

The entire album calls for the active participation of the listener in filling in the blanks. Like all good pieces of art, it incites more questions than it formulates answers.

Side A

1. All the Rage

2. Crooked Spoke

3. If the Music Stops

4. Nobrac Naked

5. In the Mire

Side B

1. Simtom

2. Sip of Zarniqa

3. They'll Eat Him Up

4. After Curtain Call (They'll Eat Us All)

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