Emil Mark sees himself as a multi-instrumentalist composer who actually never played an organ before it became the basis for his debut EP, Mellemtid. “In the record’s press materials, he admits that “I had never played an organ before, or even thought about them as anything other than something you associate with church. But as I got more into musicians who compose for organ and also the deeper listening music of Pauline Oliveros – whose book I also read – I became interested in longer format music and ambience, where it becomes a tapestry for meditative feelings.”
While studying electronic music and sound art at the Danish National Academy of Music, Mark came across three practice room pipe organs, instruments once used in small churches, in the school’s basement. His interest piqued, he wanted to approach the sound of the organ in new and interesting ways, processing the instrument’s sound and sampling it through the music software program Ableton.
Mellemtid consists of five tracks composed, performed, and sonically manipulated by Mark. The first one, “Blomster”, starts things off playfully, with repeated notes and interlocking melodies creating a warm, peaceful environment that expertly blends an archaic instrument with modern technology.
While at school, Mark was introduced to the works of minimalist composers like Steve Reich, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Philip Glass, and that sensibility makes up a large part of Mellemtid’s DNA. In fact, “I Vinden”, with its dramatic, sustained organ chords, directly recalls some of Olivier Messiaen’s organ-based compositions. Meanwhile, the song’s simple structure is a direct result of Mark’s love of minimalism. “Med Tog” is very much in Reich’s wheelhouse, bright melodic lines repeating over and over as newer melodies are slowly brought into the mix.
While “Op” uses a more dramatic, sedate approach, it still comes off as refreshingly approachable, with some textures resembling string parts in a film score, while the more traditional organ sounds are less pronounced. Meanwhile, “Rejser” closes the EP with a vibe similar to the first track, emphasizing a playful atmosphere as melodic lines collide and the repetition becomes almost dance-oriented (the press notes refer to it as Mark’s own “organ-tronic rave”).
Mellemtid – the title roughly translates to “meantime” in Danish – is a bit of a rarity in that it takes a unique concept that could be a gimmick in less talented hands, and ends up sounding fresh, musically dense, and highly enjoyable. Anyone who has an ear for the more playful aspects of minimalism and the sounds of analogue instruments filtered through a digital world will find plenty to love here, and will likely pine for a lengthier future release in Emil Mark’s discography.