Blue Harp and song: Arden album out now

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October 12, 2021

Photo: Marcus Engler

Arden has a new album out (Neue Meister): home-produced, blue harp and vocals, layered with ambient sounds from Janus Rasmussen. It’s gentle, enveloping and touching, and very different to the synth-pop we danced to in 2019. “Although it’s not quite new”, she says. “It might look like that, but it’s also a natural development.”

It was while playing at the Reeperbahn Festival that Arden met pianist Pieter de Graaf, who was working intensively with loops at the time. “I was inspired by this and started sampling the harp live, then preparing the harp and sampling that”, Arden goes on. “It was very free work, without a project concept behind it. Then I had my second child, then the pandemic hit…and in that kind of bubble at home, I was drawn to focusing on my musical roots, harp and song. That’s the only frame you can put around the album…there are a lot of natural images, and despite all the challenges it was a very simple process, full of joy and beauty. Sometimes in the past I’ve found it a bit of a struggle to produce songs to order, in a particular style according to what the label wants or what we all decide should be done at a given moment. These songs have just flowed out of me.” 

We recommend Arden to everyone curious to discover new voices for the blue harp!