For the 15th Mixtape volume Danish artist Minais B is takes us through a selection of inspirational music and a few demos from the making of Quiet Bloom, his second full-length album. Behind the moniker, we find Villads Klint, who is also well known for being part of the avant-pop trio KhalilH2OP and a collaborator of Copenhagen artists Astrid Sonne and Xenia Xamanek.

Minais B’s debut album was received as a strain of post-internet abstract and cybernetic music. But with this second album, released this year by Anyines, the artist shapes a considerable turn in his compositions: I needed less conceptual music, more direct and not afraid of emotion. The album was inspired in part by the loss of a loved one and the experience of grief; music grew from a place of great loss and emptiness but sparked a new whole creativity horizon.

Drawing from Minais B’s interest in spiritual music traditions, in particular Danish hymns, combined with electronic, synthesizers and organ compositions as the artist explains, weaving as a musical metaphor of composition, juxtaposing computer music and the more organic sounds of the church organ, in an analogy of conveying the different colours of sorrow.

Bringing an organ into the equation, Minais B continues, brought some lovely afternoons playing around with a church organ and spend more time with harmonies and chord progressions. It also brought a lot of reference to the compositions. The sound of an organ is loaded with associations, which I tried to make use of. Regarding this tough, the biggest challenge was to avoid making it too churchy – it is not religious music.

The album result is both trancey and modernly baroque and as gratifying as the selection the artist has prepared for us pointing towards some of the musical inspiration for the inception of the album.

Tracklist:

Af dybens nød, o Gud, til dig · Thisted Kirkes Drenge-Mandskor · Johannes Walter

Demo#14 (pop it)

Hans Abrahamsen - Intermezzo 1

BACH - Canon a 4 BWV 1074 - Musica Antiqua Köln

The Newcomer - FUGUE

Ursula Le Guin & Todd Barton - A Homesick Song

Demo#1994 (nocturne)

Sonic ceremony#1 (Caparica Vocal Group SYNC exercise)

FHM - For the Oranges and Melons

Af højheden oprunden er · Odense Motetkor · Niels Wilhelm Gade

Demo#22 (tintinnabulum)

Astrid Sonne - Air Is Unfit

Hans Abrahamsen - Intermezzo 3

Exorcist theme - Robert Miles version

Sonic ceremony#2 (Alvin Lucier x Oure Efterskole)

James Blake - Overgrown

ML Buch - Sap

Hans Abrahamsen - Intermezzo 2

Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen - Igen