SMALL OASES

Filmmusic FROM reality, FOR films and documentaries

A large part of the music on this site, is created by the ensemble Small Oases/”Filmmusic for reality” (searchable under “Categories”).

Small Oases was founded in 2003 and is a groundbreaking ensemble, creating 100% intuitive, improvised music. Music created live on the spot, adapted to, and inspired by the space, ambience and those present at the occasion.

The setup consists of three highly skilled and attentive musicians with 12-15 instruments each.
A soundengineer carefully live-mixes and records everything on multitrack. The tracks on this site have later been mixed for use in documentaries and films.

The idea with Small Oases is not to “entertain”, but to create a subtle and interactive “live filmscore” to support and enhance what is going on in the room (typically + 150 people) – the aim being very similar to music for films and documentaries.

The “playings” often last up to three hours without breaks, allowing the music to start from nothing, slowly evolving in countless different directions, shapes and sounds – often somewhere between ambience, sounds and music. Nothing is prepared or arranged beforehand. Truly “the music of the now”.

The difference between arranged music and live improvised music
Because the music is organic and created live, there is always “life”, communication and dynamic between the instruments, even in the most subtle and static pieces. And because the music comes from quite long performances, starting from zero and evolving in dynamic, ambience and colours, the same piece can be used to describe a storyline or person at different stages; musically supporting a dramaturgical development.

Small Oases have performed at events/places/occasions like:

COPENHAGEN AIRPORT

LOUISIANA, MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (HUMLEBÆK)

CENTRE FOR AQUIRED BRAININJURY (AARHUS)

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

CREATIVE BREAKS (DANFOSS, SØNDERBORG, DENMARK)

INAUGURATION OF JØRGEN HAUGEN SØRENSENS SCULPTURE “KOLLOSSEN” (AMAGER STRANDPARK)

“ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR” ERNEST & YOUNG (BELLA CENTER CPH.)

THE STORY OF SMALL OASES

It started with Jens Lysdal having an assignment to write music for a ten episode documentary for Denmark Radio/TV.
Ten times 30 minutes – is a LOT of music, especially when it is supposed to be in the background, while at the same time being inspiring and not fall into sounding like sheer “wallpaper music”.

At the same time he was preparing a concert with Nikolaj Busk and Bjarke Falgren. As usual they started warming up by playing something totally free. Some nice things came out of it, and they decided to have another go and make a recording of it – again starting musically from zero.
After stopping, they agreed that “something new and interesting happened”. It sounded like something between ambience and music. Then they tried to guess for how long they had played. Guesses were around 15 minutes, but it turned out, it was closer to an hour. They had another go, and same thing happened – time disappeared. As with almost one voice they yelled: “we have to try this live” ! – and Small Oases/”Filmmusic for reality” was born.

All the “playings” through the years, have been recorded on multitrack, and the result is a vast catalogue of truly unique improvised and intuitive music, sounds and ambiences, inspired by the surroundings and of the now.