Bremer/McCoy

The Danish duo consisting of bassist Jonathan Bremer and pianist Morten McCoy, announce their sixth album, Kosmos, out September 6th via Luaka Bop. Against all odds, the duo have created their own understated cosmos in a noisy time. The appropriately titled Kosmos sees Bremer/McCoy aiming to convey a worldview founded on deep connectedness and a sense of freedom. 

Some of the wholly improvised, airy melodies that make up Kosmos have been simmering for the 15 years that Bremer and McCoy have been playing with each other; and together with new material, they create a statement without exclamation marks or large fonts. Kosmos is two Danish musicians’ attempt to capture the world they stand for—and that they wish to share with others. The album represents a worldview, and in Bremer/McCoy’s cosmos, we can meet each other without words. “Humans have always played music. We’ve sat around campfires and sung. We’ve danced. When we play together or listen together, we communicate wordlessly. And right now, it’s important to remember to communicate, as many feel we are living in difficult times. I believe everyone feels a fundamental joy and peace when experiencing something beautiful being created,” McCoy says. 

Formed in 2012 by two former schoolmates, Bremer/McCoy initially started playing dub music. It’s hard to imagine that that’s how they started when you listen to the ethereal sounds they make now, but the influence becomes clearer when you see them live: they insist on traveling with their own sound system. Both musicians have been nominated for the Danish music award Steppeulven, with Bremer winning the award for “Musician of the Year” in 2020.

“We are very flow-oriented. You have to be careful not to try to force too much into the music and have a plan for what you want. Only when you remove all ego is there room for what needs to happen,” explains Bremer. “If, as a musician, you think, ‘Now this and that must happen,’ you place yourself outside the music. We want to play as if we are merely listening to the music emerge. That is the ultimate freedom.” This approach is more evident on Kosmos than any of the duo’s previous work. The tracks embody themes such as meditation, prayer, gratitude, and a quiet optimism on behalf of all of us. 

At the group’s concerts, this intimate and immediate atmosphere emerges. The basis for Kosmos was to capture the emotions from their concerts on record. Therefore, they approached the initial studio session as if they were performing, and from there, they began to improvise. Their form of improvisation:  They don’t improvise solos, but songs. They delve into a story. They don’t know what the story will be when they start, but they discover it together.

Bremer/McCoy will follow Kosmos with a series of concerts in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway before concluding with three concerts at the Conservatory Concert Hall in Copenhagen. Next year will see the duo tour outside of Scandinavia for the first time, taking their own soundsystem on the road through Northern Europe.