Opening Night is a collection of instrumental music composed for the opening gala of the New Theater Hollywood by Danish composers MK Velsorf & Aase Nielsen. A cycle of minimal pieces for e-guitar, e-piano and backing tracks, the music was performed and recorded live from the stage balcony during the dress rehearsal, arrival of the guests and between speeches throughout the night.
The music is patient, minimal and groovy – consisting of sparse guitar vamps, drum and synth loops, it establishes a mood, or a tone: one of sun-soaked dreams, ecological dread and never-ending anticipation. Opening Night evokes the environmental furniture music of Erik Satie, as well as the light melancholia of Arthur Russell, the procedural TV score of Mike Post, and the sleazy atmospheres of certain Michael Mann films.
Designed to weave in and out of the listener’s consciousness, Opening Night is light in feel yet with a deep pull, breezily conjuring feelings of banality, pleasurable dissociation, and eerie repetition. The listener is invited to get in the car and stay for a while.
The New Theater Hollywood is a performance space run by artists Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff, housed in the historic 49-seat 2nd Stage Theater in Hollywood’s largely defunct Theater Row, conceived as a space to develop and stage original theatrical productions in the crosswinds of performance, literature, contemporary art, film and television.
Music composed and performed by MK Velsorf and Aase Nielsen.
Guitar by MK Velsorf.
Keyboard by Aase Nielsen.
Backing tracks by MK Velsorf and Aase Nielsen.
Grand piano on track 02 by Laurel Halo.
Produced by MK Velsorf, Aase Nielsen and Laurel Halo.
Mixed and mastered by James Ginzburg.
Design by Studio Hugo Blanzat.
Cover and inner photograph by Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff.
Back photograph by Aase Nielsen.
Recorded live at New Theater Hollywood, January 20, 2024.
