Mikkel Hess is a Copenhagen-based composer, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind Hess Is More. Initially started as a solo recording project, Hess Is More has gradually developed into a circular Transatlantic ensemble featuring musicians from Copenhagen, New York, and Berlin. And over the course of nine albums and long list of EPs and singles, the Danish artist has crafted music that sits in the borderlands between jazz, kraut, electronica, pop, folk and more.
Additionally, Hess Is More has a long-held tradition of interdisciplinary collaborations including music for ballet, films, art installations and more. The ongoing interest in integrating music with other art forms has lately been expressed in the “Apollonian Circles” concert series.
Hess’ ninth and latest Hess Is More album, CÆKE was recently released through Music For Dreams. With CÆKE, Hess returns to the spare style of some of his earlier works, grappling with change with familiar sounds and a light-hearted, yet earnest disposition. Arrangements are built around piano, drum machines and vintage synths which serve as a lush yet minimalist space for Hess’ voice, which is pensive and unhurried to wander with strange, eccentric poetry. The maturity of the sound and arrangements are frequently offset by the Danish artist’s long-held tendency for the childish and curious; a subversive, playful lightness that may be reminiscent of his early sound.
The material’s ironies and pleasantries flow into a large mood of a mellow existentialism, informed by the seriousness of Hess’ life’s a father. While, the album is a return the basic, much has happened since Hess stated the project, and the basics have changed — because life has changed and the world has changed.
“CÆKE is in some ways a return to process and atmosphere from the early Hess Is More albums such as Tip Top Dynamo, Captain Europe and Creation Keep The Devil Away,” Hess explains. “We are primarily in the immediate area – the world waits outside for the 32 minutes the album lasts. There is a clear focus on the melodies rather than the longer sonic journeys that have characterized the later albums such as 80 Years and Iboja’s Sange. It has been cut to the bone so that the individual idea is presented as simply and precisely as possible. No concepts, no long inversions. Actually just 8 songs of 3-4 minutes each. Less Is More?”
To celebrate the release of the new album, Hess shared live footage of album track “You Don’t Dance.” Sonically, “You Don’t Dance” is a playfully escapist, mind-bending and super slick synthesis of disco, electro pop, world music, and jazz fusion that’s anchored around remarkably catchy, euphoric, Giorgio Moroder-like groove. The world is hard, harsh and fucked up. But dance. Not because you were happy. But because dancing makes you better; it makes your life better. It’s scientific.