Astral Cinema - Astral Cinema

Astral Cinema is a collective of musicians and film composers based in Copenhagen and  London who have known each other and worked together on numerous projects since the early nineties. In 2022 they decided to form an ensemble of cinematic and dreamy, but still with strong song structure, soundscapes. A Space-Age sound supported by trip hop / afrobeat rhythms with references to Portishead, Francis Lai, a bit of “Air”, Radiohead and touch of Jan Johansson.

Between them they have been on close to 1000 recordings, including albums by Paul Motian(US), Joe Lovano(US), George Gazone(US), Jakob Bro(DK) w/ Lee Konitz(US), Brian Blade(US), Tom Harrel(US), Tomasz Stańko(PL), Swan Lee(DK), Trentemøller(DK), Klaus Voormann(D) w/Yusuf Islam(UK), London Brew(UK) plus many Oscar, Grammy and Brit Awards, chart topping albums by The Specials(UK), Adele(UK), Jason Mraz(US), James Morrison(UK) Lana Del Rey(US) and as film composers scored 35 features a handful of documentaries and 3 TV series (10 nominations 4 wins).

Jonas Struck - Guitar, piano / Nikolaj Torp Larsen – Keyboards, piano, melodica, synth bass, Ondes Martenot / Anders ’AC’ Christensen - Bass, piano / Jakob Høyer - Drums 

"A star-studded debut with something close to a Danish supergroup. Astral Cinema is the name of a quartet featuring Jonas Struck on guitar, Nikolaj Torp Larsen(The Specials) on keyboards, Anders 'AC' Christensen on bass, and Jakob Høyer on drums. And listening to this dreamy debut is like sitting in a cinema among the stars on a velvety soft night with southern temperatures.

The lyrically visionary music flows effortlessly through moods, genres, melodies, and rhythms, like a flying carpet heading towards dreamland. Good heavens, what more could you want? Here, Astral Cinema truly unleash inspiration from the farthest corners of their record collections in music that—often quietly and stylishly—insists on sending its listeners on adventures through wonderful soundscapes. Extremely well played and superbly held together by a world-class, elastic rhythm section.

There’s even a guest appearance by singer Hattie Webb, perhaps best known for her collaboration with Leonard Cohen, in the soothing and hopeful 'A Peace Process'. Spoken word with Hattie Webb over a catchy melody, the kind that abounds on 'Astral Cinema'.

An album that is so bright and friendly in spirit that you're not just in good company, but you also physically and mentally feel better because of it and the optimism that peeks through in the playing and arrangement of a fine track like ‘Golem’. Humor lurks in the creativity and the title of a melody like ‘Dame Etna’. A nod to Australian Dame Edna and Italian Etna in the same title. The Dame and the volcano in something that together is a tribute to the film composer of them all, Ennio Morricone. It’s chardonnay and gladiolus, distilled into music, to mention two of Dame Edna's favourite things in life."

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