Svaneborg Kardyb: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. It's the same spirit — stripped-down sets, an intimate setting — just a different space.

Kara Frame | May 25, 2022
Svaneborg Kardyb’s Tiny Desk (home) concert was recorded in the countryside of Djursland, Denmark. “You have to drive for a while on a gravel road, and then you come to a lovely old house surrounded by hills and a stream on one side and a very flat landscape on the other, where you can see 10 miles away,” the band wrote to us, describing the location of the shoot. It’s this place that inspired Svaneborg Kardyb’s second album, Haven. “‘Haven’” (means garden in Danish). Haven celebrates places we like to be,” the duo writes.

The Danish jazz duo is composed of Nikolaj Svaneborg — on the Wurlitzer, synthesizer and piano, and Jonas Kardyb — on drums and percussion. Their instrumentation set-up is untraditional, with the drums and keys facing each other, a position that they play in on stage just as they do in Jonas’ kitchen and living room here. They open up their set with the title track from Haven, which begins with a quiet melody over an effervescent loop. The sound mimics the shimmy of leaves in the breeze.

This concert is the soundtrack for lying beneath a tree canopy and watching the sun illuminate each leaf, seeing the veins clearly as the sun makes its way down to reach each branch. Immersing yourself in nature is grounding, which is reflected in Jonas’ last line describing their (home) concert: “The countryside reminds you that it is lovely to place both feet in the grass.”

SET LIST
"Haven"
"Et Lite Øyeblikk Bare"
"Orbit"
"Terrassedør"

MUSICIANS
Nikolaj Svaneborg: Wurlitzer, synthesizer, piano
Jonas Kardyb: drums, percussion

CREDITS
Video: Kristoffer Juel Poulsen
Audio: Simon Wetterstrøm Mariegaard

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Kara Frame
Video Producer: Kara Frame
Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin
Tiny Production Team: Bob Boilen, Bobby Carter, Michael Zamora, Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Ashley Pointer
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

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