The Obelisk Questionnaire: Mythic Sunship (Plus Track Premiere)
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Frederik Denning & Rasmus Cleve Christensen of Mythic Sunship
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Frederik Denning: One word comes to mind: Exploration. The foundation of Mythic Sunship is our love for music of all kinds. Be it early heavy rock, japanese noise or 60’ies free jazz. We don’t really have any limits to how we play and what we play, and I honestly feel extremely privileged to play with that kind of freedom and still have people enjoying what we’re doing. I think it’s fundamentally because our love for all kinds of music shines through in what we’re doing. We don’t really discriminate, so we find inspiration in Coltrane, Black Sabbath, Lana Del Ray, Run The Jewels and Robert Hood equally. Yeah, sometimes we try something out and figure: ‘You know, this isn’t really what Mythic Sunship is about”, but we never shy away from trying out new stuff, and we’re always actively trying to evolve. The first three records are sorta grouped together, then Another Shape of Psychedelic Music and Changing Shapes, and now: It’s time for something else.
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: As Frederik hints to, Mythic Sunship is very much about exploring musical creation through collective improvisation. Those are some expensive words, but it’s quite basic really. It’s just playing music without setting up a lot of boundaries for ourselves. And whatever musical ideas or ideals we share then shape what comes out of it. We don’t have one favorite sound or genre or artist we can all agree on, but there are many overlaps in our tastes within the band. And that tension, I guess, is what drives the music forward.
Describe your first musical memory.
Frederik Denning: When I played the 3-tone keyboard part of a song for the school’s spring concert at age 8, I knew at that specific point that music would be an integral part of my life until the day I die.
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: Dancing around to Michael Jackson or The Beach Boys in my parents’ living room (both were early favorites, can’t remember which came first). Playing actual music myself wasn’t a thing until much later in my life.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Frederik Denning: That is a pretty tough question to answer, because there have been more mindblowing experiences than I can count. In a Mythic Sunship context, playing Roadburn was an incredible experience.
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: So many great memories from recording and touring with these guys! Playing and just being at Roadburn was definitely a highlight. Also mindblowing concert experiences with Boredoms, Sun Ra, Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet and Grouper spring to mind.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: I firmly believed that our music appealed to very few people, but have been proven wrong by people who I know don’t normally listen to instrumental longform music who have loved going to our shows.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: Not sure I quite get this question. Whenever I feel like we evolve as a band it leads to many new experiences and realisations about what music can be. When you put yourself out there, you get so much back.
How do you define success?
Frederik Denning: By the quality of the music we make. Another Shape of Psychedelic Music saw a fair amount of commercial success, considering the content of the album, but the real success is the material on that record. Regardless of how Wildfire will be received, I also consider that album to be a success.
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: Doing something you believe in and then have it acknowledged by your surroundings.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Frederik Denning: Plenty of things in the past four years, but I prefer not to mix art and politics.
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: There was this roadside restroom in Slovenia… that I prefer not to talk about.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Frederik Denning: At some point we will do a sick Mythic Sunship Astral Family record. We’ve experimented with it live, playing with a ton of amazing artists, and at this point I can’t even point to one performance I prefer over the other. If you’re interested you can find some of the performances on YouTube. I know there are recordings from Le Guess Who, Festival of Endless Gratitude and our residency at ALICE CPH. At some point we’ll do this in the studio, and it will be absolutely killer.
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: I sometimes dream of a Mythic Sunship record with really slick production, and I don’t know why, ’cause it’s really not in the cards with our kind of music, but I just imagine it to my inner ear sometimes.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Frederik Denning: Art should push the mind to be able to reflect without the barriers of language. In turn philosophy (or the language) should then reflect over the art, moving the barriers further. And that’s kind of the endless dynamic between art and philosophy.
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: Definitely that experience which can’t be confined by language, as Frederik points to. That experience can be utter catharsis, a questioning of your whole existence or a feeling of inner peace or unity.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Frederik Denning: COVID-19 being history.
Rasmus Cleve Christensen: The end of world hunger, inequality, climate issues, racism etc., but yeah springtime and a shot of covid vaccine are also high on the list.
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