Review & Full Album Premiere: Uffe Lorenzen, Magisk Realisme
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on September 10th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
[Click play above to stream Uffe Lorenzen’s Magisk Realisme in full. Album is out tomorrow on Bad Afro Records.]
An unhurried feel persists throughout the third Uffe Lorenzen solo album, Magisk Realisme. The title translates in straightforward fashion to magical realism, referencing the literary style that brings magical or otherworldly elements to an otherwise “normal,” modern context. It’s fair enough ground for Lorenzen to work in, considering his pedigree dating back 30 years to the beginnings of Danish psychedelic rockers On Trial, for whom he handled drums. That band went on for more than a decade, but the even greater impact on underground psych revivalism for Lorenzen would come with the advent of his own band, Baby Woodrose, in the early aughts. Adopting the nom de plume Lorenzo Woodrose, Lorenzen became an icon — seriously: he was on Danish Sesame Street and everything — of garage and traditionalist psych, performing with an inimitable energy and a cosmos-bound feel that came accompanied by an oft-voiced commitment to a psychotropic lifestyle.
The advent of a solo career, doing work under his own name and in the Danish language, began with the 2017 solo debut, Galmandsværk (review here) and continued in 2019 with Triprapport (review here), and with Magisk Realisme — released like its predecessors through Bad Afro Records — Lorenzen seems to work to reconcile the various sides of his sonic persona while presenting a cool-toned and engaging float. What began as an exploration of acid folk has transcended stylistically and seemed to become all the more personal even as it covers more aesthetic ground, which is to say, with Lorenzen looking at more of his rocking side — see also: Baby Woodrose, Dragontears, Spids Nøgenhat and so on — Magisk Realisme gives a proportionately more complete picture of who he is artistically. It’s not that this aspect of his work was ignored on Galmandsværk or Triprapport since the underlying structure of his songs is largely unshakable — not to say Lorenzen has never jammed out, but some of his most effective work is in the pre-punk space-garage vein, verses and choruses at the forefront.
That’s true of Magisk Realisme as well, which seems to present a maturation of Lorenzen as a solo performer. He plays nearly all the instruments on the record, with Henrik Lysgaard Madsen adding a notable pedal steel guitar to “Caminoen” while Trine Trash sings backup and plays cello and Anders Juhl Nielsen brings trumpet — yes, trumpet — to “Efterår.” That’s a standout moment, to be sure, but the “magical realism” involved in the album’s title more likely refers to the blend of earthbound and psychedelic elements that takes place across its somewhat unassuming 10-song/37-minute span; a classic-style LP format, divided evenly into two five-track sides. That begins with “Lad Det Gå,” the lead cut that opens with a telltale strummed riff and “Yeah!” from Lorenzen that itself is a dogwhistle to let his fanbase know the man himself has arrived.
Organ, electric guitar, and of course Lorenzen‘s voice, drums, bass, etc., and the backing vocals of Trine Trash in the hook, all set a familiar stage drawing from ’60s psych, but in truth there’s nothing retro about it — the sound is modern, crisp, and the mix executed with a depth and a clarity that allows for the solo in the second half to top the rhythm track fluidly before cutting back to a last verse. A highlight to start off, then, and “I Mit Blod” hits a little harder, even, ahead of the shift to acoustic for “Efterår” and the mellow roll and wistful pedal steel in “Caminoen.” These turns of mood and arrangement are handled with remarkable smoothness, and while one should expect no less from a composer of such experience as Lorenzen, it’s nonetheless significant that even in this relatively new context of solo performance, he’s so able to lead the audience wherever he wants to go. On the title-track, that’s to the very heart of guy-and-guitar vibing, an acoustic strum taking a progression that might in another situation be a driving rock riff and turning it into a sentimental meditation. I won’t pretend to speak Danish, but the vocal performance there from Lorenzen, stark with just his own guitar accompanying, is a highlight either way.
More of the same on side B? Well, it starts with another “Yeah!” at the beginning of the also-organ-laced “Livet Skriger,” and Trash returns on backing vocals, so there’s definitely some mirroring going on with the first half of the record, but the pacing has more shove in “Livet Skriger” than did “Lad Det Gå,” and the feeling is of shaking loose, breaking free perhaps, from any constraints. Liberation rock, and perhaps as close as Magisk Realisme comes to Baby Woodrose. An immediate dreamy turn is undertaken with “Tornerose,” wah guitar peppered along with layers of vocals and a subdued spirit that still carries some motion with the drums behind it, deep-mixed though they are, and “Nede Af Vejen” picks up on that and adds tambourine for further percussive revival, which further smooths the shift into “Stjernestøv.” The penultimate inclusion on Magisk Realisme reinforces the album’s core blend of songwriting and more full-band-style performance from Woodrose, with organ, tambourine, drums, electric guitar, and so on, as he moves through a subtly quick 2:22 to ground the record one last time ahead of “Dommedags Eftermiddag,” for which the drums depart and a fuller drift and trippy melodic wash takes hold.
Lorenzen‘s echoing voice is well established as being suited to such fare, and amid the waves and wahs of electric and acoustic guitar and whatever keys are happening in there, he provides a human presence that is inimitable enough to be entirely his own. The same is true of the record as a whole. Uffe Lorenzen, as a musical project by the person of the same name, is becoming more complex, but in so doing, it also seems to be getting closer to encompassing all the work of that person in the first place. Does it represent a shifting interest in modes of expression back toward rock from the folkier movements of his first two solo albums? Certainly possible, but that’s not something that can really be answered until the next one comes along. Most crucially, Lorenzen shows no signs of stopping or letting up on his creative evolution, and whatever it is he’s searching for in this ethereal landscape, he seems bound only to keep looking. So much the better.
Uffe Lorenzen, “Caminoen” official video
Uffe Lorenzen on Thee Facebooks
Baby Woodrose on Thee Facebooks
