What didn’t you know about creating and recording an album before this debut CD?
Firstly, it takes a lot of people to make an album. From booking the hall to picking up the vinyls at the publisher, not to mention the whole team in the record company, so many people are involved in every step and the whole process is long! It’s almost a year since we started recording.
You also need a very, very, patient tonmeister. We’re so thankful for Jonas Eliyah Munch-Hansen, who stayed calm and kind every time we got stuck on a passage or wanted to hear the same thing 100 times to be sure.
Metronome marks are more important than we had expected… When you record the same passage several times, you really don’t want to start doubting the tempo.
Finally – vinyls are heavy! Carrying 50 of them for our release concert in Paris was honestly a workout.
What did you learn during the process?
Be clear about your musical choices. In recording, you can’t be in doubt. Every bar you need to know exactly which atmosphere you want to create, which message you want to send, or which feeling you want to evoke.
Next: don’t record on December 23rd. Even though it was funny to end the session with ‘it smells like Christmas!’, this year we’re stopping on December 22nd!
And taking good care of yourself during the recording days is so important. Good snacks are key. Keeping the good mood is essential. Sleeping in our own beds also made it easier.
What were your favourite parts of the recording process?
We really loved our choice of repertoire. These are pieces that are close to our hearts, tied to our upbringing as a quartet, and something we’ve carried with us through seven years together. Also one of the best parts was that we could decide everything ourselves. For years we’ve joked about, ’Our future debut album cover will look like this’, or ‘If we ever record, then we should do that.’ And now the time finally came to put all of those ideas together. We feel that this product really shows who we are and we’re very happy with the result.
How would each member describe their individual experience?
Kaya Kato Møller (first violin): Sitting there in the concert hall under the mics, and making the choice to record and publish music that has meant so much to us, was really special! We played these pieces seven years ago when we were so innocent and inexperienced as a quartet, and it’s quite cute to feel how much we’ve grown since then. I’m proud and happy that this music now exists as a record of who we are as a quartet!
Nikolai Vasili Nedergaard (second violin): There are always ups and downs when doing a longer recording session, but in general our experience was mainly super-duper-awesome. Although, I should be honest, during a 7–8 hour session, the last two hours are not the most joyous experience. The muscles start to hurt, the left hand is getting tired, you are sweating because you have been giving your all the last few takes and then you get a fantastic message from the sound engineer: ‘It sounds tired and lazy’… Which means we have to do it one more time. Yay! Jokes aside, it was a lot of fun and I’m excited to do it all again for our next album!
Daniel Śledziński (viola): I had a lovely experience recording our debut album – we did have some experience engaging with some other projects related to recording and I believe it really helped us to keep a positive atmosphere throughout – taking breaks when we were getting tired, having good snacks around, comfortable clothes on (no shoes).
Signe Ebstrup Bitsch (cello): Recording our debut album has been very special as we have gotten to record some of our absolute favourite music in the beautiful concert hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music. We have had amazing people around us all the time so truly a fantastic experience.
TRACK 1 by the Novo Quartet was released on 3 October on the Aparté label. It features Nielsen’s String Quartet no.1, Shostakovich’s String Quartet no.8 and the world premiere of Hjerteblad by Matias Vestergård, commissioned by the Novo Quartet. Listen to it here.
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