Emil de Waal Old News: ‘Novelties’

The fourth album from Emil de Waal Old News - ‘Novelties’ - celebrates and mourns at the same time. This collection of original tracks from the Danish group features an eclecticism from the opening ‘Hellen’ through the perpetual motion of ‘Last Millenium When We Were Young’ through to the final, quasi-classical ‘Nuntii Veteres’.

There is always a decision to be made following the passing of a band member. The loss of Elith "Nulle" Nykjær led Emil de Waal (drums and percussion) to reshape Old News by bringing in Henriette Groth (clarinet) alongside the existing line-up of Gustaf Ljunggren (contra alto clarinet, viola, arco contra bass, guitars), Jacob Anderskov (piano and spinet). Additional vocals and guitar come from Randi Laubek).

Novelties features entirely original compositions, which each member contributing two tracks. The resulting collection takes us around folk and jazz, with tracks like Lim by de Waal himself seems to reflect some of the ‘newness’ of the title and the more traditional influences.

Throughout the album, the clarinet spars with the guitars, while percussion is used sparingly and to great effect.

The intensity of Anderskov’s Forgotten, not Forgiven combines beautiful piano melodies with those on clarinet and the rarely-heard contra alto clarinet. Each track on Novelties takes the listener in a different direction and yet we all seem to travel together.

You can find Emil de Waal Old News ‘Novelties’ on Bandcamp