Ukendt Under Andet Navn "Glade dage i St. Vemod" (2014)

Glade dage i St. Vemod
release date: Apr. 3, 2014
format: cd (ukendt 003)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,52]
producer: Troels Bech & Henrik Olesen
label: non-label-release - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 2. "Drømmen om et liv" - 3. "Glade dage i St. Vemod" - 6. "Hjertet" - 7. "Drone" - 9. "Nat falder" - 10. "Skridt" (4 / 5)

Full-length studio solo debut by Ukendt Under Andet Navn (aka Henrik Olesen) is produced by Troels Bech together with Henrik Olesen and is like the mini-album Ekskursion (2012) another non-label release. Co-producer Troels Bech is also credited for several instruments on this, and the album also features songwriter Solveig Sandnes on vocals. All songs are credited Henrik Olesen, except track #2, "Drømmen om et liv", which has words by (the late) Danish poet Morti Vizki, who also gave name to the final album by Olesen-Olesen, on which the song appears with slightly different musical arrangement - also by Henrik Olesen.
Without being over-produced with multi-layering, the album is more orchestrated than the first two releases by Henrik Olesen, and the album also contains two tracks that are found on his ep debut from 2010, "Hjertet" and "Skridt", however, both have been altered, lengthened and also improved. Especially, the end-track "Skridt" with its repetitious / droning form is quite successfully transformed.
The album received some fine reviews but failed to attract any interest from national radio stations and sales numbers - also as a consequence of being a non-promoted self-release, which is sad, 'cause it contains some fine compositions and deserves far more recognition. That said, it doesn't appear much as a full-coherent album. Some songs are quite introspective, some are light-weight indie-pop songs, which makes me think of early releases by Radio Dept. and another Swedish band, the duo-project Paus by Joakim Berg of Kent and Peter Svensson from Cardigans, and yet other songs are slower compositions with a bold ambient style. The strongest tracks are musically driven progressive compositions, whereas the weaker ones focus more on a lyrical force that lacks the poignant weight, imho, but it's altogether a very fine and also highly original collection of songs.
[ Gaffa.dk 3 / 6, Berlingske 4 / 6 stars ]

Ukendt Under Andet Navn "Ekskursion" (2012) (ep)

Ekskursion, ep
release date: Jun. 12, 2012
format: cd (ukendt 002)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,36]
producer: Troels Bech, Henrik Olesen
label: non-label - nationality: Denmark

Track highlights: 2. "Håb i respirator, drømme i drop" - 3. "Centralnervesystem" - 5. "Far vel hjem" - 7. "Sangen synger sig selv"

2nd solo ep by Henrik Olesen (from Olesen-Olesen) under the moniker of Ukendt Under Andet Navn is a 7-track ep with a running time at just under 18 minutes. All songs are played by Olesen and Bech (who also produced for Olesen-Olesen for their 2003 album), and Thomas Thomsen participate and is credited as co-producer on three songs (tracks #4, #5, and #7).
Musically, it's different from the ep-debut from 2010 by being darker and with a certain post-punk feel - either thanks to electronic drums and / or synthpop keyboards and a simplistic melodic drive (especially tracks #2, #3, and #7).
The simplicity, or: minimalist production is a trait the album shares with the 2010 debut, but apart from that it has a different feel and soundscape, which makes me think of inspiration from early New Order, Depeche Mode and late Joy Division - bands that also were formative in creating Henrik and brother Peter H. Olesen's earliest bands, Sort-Hvide Landskaber and Greene, and a few tracks sound as if they could have been included on the Greene debut from 1992 or the Olesen-Olesen debut Indenlands udenbys from 1997.
A short but altogether fine collection of original compositions where the music feels like the dominant part.

Ukendt Under Andet Navn "Ukendt Under Andet Navn" (2010) (ep)

Ukendt Under Andet Navn, ep
release date: Jun. 1, 2010
format: cd (ukendt 001)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Henrik Olesen, Thomas Thomsen
label: Melodika - nationality: Denmark

Tracklist: 1. "Skridt" - 2. "Korsvej" - 3. "Det gamle, det ny" - 4. "Hjertet" - 5. "Alt som det skal være"

Studio solo ep debut by Henrik Olesen released under the moniker Ukendt Under Andet Navn is a 5-track ep with a running time just below 14 mins. Together with older brother Peter, the two played and released music over a decade from 1997 to 2007 as Olesen-Olesen, and now as they have split, primary songwriter Peter has been occupied as an author, and Henrik has taken up his musical collaboration work with Solveig Sandness in the duo-led musical project Er De Sjældne together with Lone Hørslev. With Sandness, Henrik had taken part as guitarist in the early formation of the Danish / Swedish / Icelandic band Lovebites from 1995 to 2000, while still focusing on his music-project with Peter. In the band Er De Sjældne, he contributes on various guitars whereas the songs remain credited Hørslev (lyrics) and Sandness (music), in collaboration and perhaps this led him to establish his own musical project. Here, he is in complete control - handling all instruments except cello, and he's credited as composer of all music.
Musically, it's like a combo of all his musical engagements throughout the past decade. Tracks #1, #3 and #4 in particular share the musical foundation with Olesen-Olesen with a strong singer / songwriter and subtle folk rock approach, tracks #2 and #5 have a harsher tone bonding more with the post-punk sound that was heard in Greene, where track #5 also reflects an influence from the more pop-shaped universe of Lovebites, but altogether it's still a rather coherent collection of fine and almost minimalist compositions.
Henrik has always represented the lighter tone of the brothers Olesen, and on this, he also demonstrates that he is a talented songwriter, although, the strongest side to the five songs is the musical dimension. This short album serves as a nice document of the musical qualities of at least one half of the brothers Olesen, and then it leaves you with a taste for more.
[ Undertoner 4 / 6 stars - review from diskant.dk ]