Photo: Søren Lynggaard Andersen
Bremer/McCoy, the Copenhagen-based duo of pianist Morten McCoy and bassist Jonathan Bremer, have announced the release of their sixth album, KOSMOS, arriving on September 6th through Luaka Bop. Known for crafting serene, immersive and engrossing soundscapes, Bremer and McCoy have refined their signature sound over five previous albums that saw them morph from a reggae group into a jazz, dub, and neo-classical outfit.
The new album, fittingly titled KOSMOS, has an ethereal and airy quality that resonates with the duo’s intent to create a musical world of deep connectedness and freedom. With an overarching theme of meditation, prayer, gratitude and optimism running through the album, the compositions are a mix of new material and melodies that have been simmering throughout the 15 years of their musical partnership. The duo sought to capture the feeling of their live performances, enhanced by the custom-built soundsystem they use. As Bremer puts it, “We are very flow-oriented. You have to be careful not to try to force too much into the music and have a plan for what you want. Only when you remove all ego is there room for what needs to happen.”
In the upcoming KOSMOS, Bremer/McCoy offer a world where music becomes a wordless form of communication, an antidote to the noise of contemporary life. McCoy comments:
“Humans have always played music. We’ve sat around campfires and sung. We’ve danced. When we play together or listen together, we communicate wordlessly. And right now, it’s important to remember to communicate, as many feel we are living in difficult times. I believe everyone feels a fundamental joy and peace when experiencing something beautiful being created.”
Alongside the album announcement, Bremer/McCoy have shared the lead single, ‘Alting Løser Sig’, which means ‘Everything Will Work Out’. “This is one of the tracks where everything just came to us intuitively”, McCoy says. “We thought that we were just doing a demo, but when we tried to recreate it for our ‘real’ recording we couldn’t get the same vibe again. The outro was completely improvised and gave the song a new openness and a feeling of light and hope.”
Listen to ‘Alting Løser Sig’ below.