Signe Emmeluth: "I don't want the composition to dictate the form of the music"

Signe Emmeluth is currently one of the most exciting musicians on the young improvisation scene in Europe. Born in Denmark, she has been based in Norway for many years, where she also founded her band Emmeluth's Amoeba. After her performance at the Leipzig Jazz Days, she spoke to our author Leona Cordes about her beginnings as a musician, the moment on stage and upcoming projects.

"One, two, three!" shouts Signe Emmeluth - and off they go. The four musicians play their way through the first piece at an insane tempo. Emmeluth's Amoeba is the name of the band: Ole Mofjell on drums on one side of the stage and Christian Balvig on piano on the other sit opposite each other, framing Karl Bjorå on guitar and Signe Emmeluth on saxophone.

The four of them fire each other up, their playing bursting with energy. One idea follows the next. Their joy of playing is infectious. Unison runs, melodic and edgy at the same time, finally break out. Now Emmeluth's saxophone chirps and rants in staccato playing. Drums and piano contrast with percussive impulses. Balvig frequently picks the strings of the grand piano - a fast tak-tak-tak sounds. Was that piano or drums? There - the drum roll clearly comes from the snare drum. Now Bjorå joins in again, scratching the guitar strings with a wooden stick.

A high level of attention is required - both from the musicians and the listeners. If you want to grasp what exactly is happening, who is referring to whom, you soon feel like you're in a tennis match. However, not only one ball is being played here, but several at the same time. The musical ideas are played back and forth. The band's energy and wealth of ideas are impressive.

Emmeluth's Amoeba are playing two concerts that evening at Horns Erben in Leipzig. I meet Signe Emmeluth afterwards and talk to her about her career and her musical self-image.

What do you think about the two concerts tonight?

I feel good. But both concerts were very different. The first concert was a bit more energetic, more powerful - there was more space in the second. We tried out a few different ways of expression to make the music interesting for us. So we worked a lot with the same material, but we didn't want to take the direct route and changed the pieces.

Photo: Simon Chmel

Your band is called Emmeluth's Amoeba. Amoebas are single-celled creatures. What connection do you see between amoebas and your music?

It was actually a coincidence that we chose the name. I've always found science fascinating - it's super cool that all these things can be so tiny and still have so much in them.

But the band name makes more and more sense in retrospect. The band has been around for eight years now, and because we've played and experienced so much together, it feels like we're becoming more and more one. I like the idea that there are not just four instruments or four voices, but that we are four different sides of the same thing - that we are one.

With Emmeluth's Amoeba you improvise very freely. At the same time, one can hear that there are fixed structures and themes that you all play in unison. What is the relationship between improvisation and composition in your music?

I write songs for this band, but we don't have a setlist for concerts. We have a selection of about seven to ten pieces that we all know well, and we choose freely from them for concerts. But we see the composed material as changeable. So sometimes we only play the B part of a song and leave out the rest. Instead, we follow the theme of track number five, for example. It's like having building blocks with which you can create different things.

Just because something is composed does not mean that it is static. You can be flexible with it and adapt the material to the form the music takes. I don't want the composition to dictate the form. Because for me, composition and improvisation are in some ways equivalent. The only difference is that some things are pre-planned and some things happen in the moment. But basically it's about expressing where the music takes you.

Normally plays have a certain line of development, a dramaturgical arc. But sometimes this arc breaks. Then this part, which is normally very strong or very dense, is suddenly very small - which creates a completely different mood in the music.

This is certainly also very challenging as a player and demands a lot from you.

I find it particularly exciting when you really have to interact in the moment. It's not always predictable what will happen, you have to be open - and we as a group have to coordinate and be ready for what the music demands of us.

Personally, I also find it interesting to not only play beautifully, but also a bit ugly or something. It's usually all about perfectionism - especially in jazz. You're always supposed to play conspicuously and virtuosically. I like working and I love rehearsing and developing things. But I find it kind of one-dimensional to only strive for the particularly sophisticated or refined things.

You play in many different projects. Is there something that is important to you for all your projects?

It's very important to me that it's not about me. I create a framework in which we can all express ourselves. Of course, there are some things I like to be very specific about, but I also try to be very open to other people's suggestions - and how they play what I've written. It's super important to me that we can just come together and create something together.

The way I work is different for every project. It's important to me that you're involved in the creative part - that you don't just get a piece of paper and then play. I think that can be a bit boring.

You're originally from Denmark and then went to Norway to study after finishing school in Sweden. What is special about the scene there?

I would say the Norwegian scene is made for me. I can't really say much about the Danish scene because I'm not part of it. I moved away from Denmark back in 2012. Back then I just couldn't find people like I found in Sweden or Norway. In Norway, the scene is simply more about what interests me. There are people who work at the interface between composition and improvisation and don't play with the typical traditional jazz expression.

You still studied jazz first?

I studied at the Jazz Institute in Trondheim, a very open university. The lecturers made their knowledge available, but we had a lot of freedom. If you wanted to do your own thing, you could. I had a lot of time there to practice and work on my own projects.

How did you get into music?

I started playing the piano when I was six - like my sister. But after a few years, I didn't enjoy it as much anymore. When I was ten, we had a teacher who played the saxophone during morning assembly at school. I thought: Oh, that's great! So I went home to my dad and said: I want to play the saxophone. He said: Okay, cool, I'll talk to the local music school. Then I started playing the saxophone - and it just suited me really well.

As a child, I came into contact with theater, opera and concerts quite early on. I also decided quite early on that I wanted to be a musician - at the age of 14 or 15. I thought to myself: that's what I'm going to do.

Did you already know back then that improvisation was for you?

Improvisation has always been something very intuitive for me. But I never felt at home in typical jazz, even though I was originally trained in jazz. I remember getting to know Ornette Coleman's music during a seminar - and I was like: Oh my God! That's great! That's when I learned that you can play in time, without changes or anything like that.

I was at a school in Sweden at the time. I soon found people there who thought like me - and gradually the things I did began to make sense.

In the meantime, you have already won several grants and prizes, including the Spellemans Prize. To what extent do grants and prizes influence the way you work?

I don't tailor my music to win prizes - no! But a big advantage in Norway is that there is a pretty good cultural budget, so there is funding available for cultural projects. This means that artists can devote their time and energy to their artistic and musical work.

If you have to work on something else for eight hours a day and only then get around to rehearsing or composing, then it's a completely different situation. You can't just sit down and then an idea comes to you. It's like a job where you go regularly and make hundreds of ugly pancakes - and then suddenly one is good.

Your concert calendar looks very full at the moment. How much time do you have for composing?

It really depends on how many concerts I play. Next year I will start a new composition project similar to Banshee, to be performed in 2027. That will take a lot of time, because I have to write music for eight people.

I tend to say yes whenever I have time - but I need to get better at saying no sometimes. Because it takes a lot of time to develop music, and I don't want to just do anything, I don't want to deliver half-measures.

You have to take yourself and your art seriously so that others will take you seriously too. For me, this means that I pay very close attention to what I spend my time on. Not that I'm always doing something meaningful - I also watch bad series and do totally boring things - but during my working hours I want to concentrate a bit.

Photo: Simon Chmel

What are your wishes for the future?

I hope that people and politicians willrecognize the value of culture again. If you look at all these autocracies and dictatorships, you realize that they always target intellectuals and artists firstin order to numb and silence people.

I think it's really very easy to forget how important culture is for society. It's often neglected and there's so much talk about how the rich need to get richer and all that. I'm quite frustrated with the general social situation at the moment.

I really hope that people don't forget how important culture is. Because I think it is something very fundamental for us as human beings and for our coexistence in a society. We need these places and situations where we can come together as people and experience things together - despite our differences. I think that's so important!