Day In The Sun

Danish guitarist/composer Mikkel Ploug's second solo acoustic guitar record (theß follow-up to his critically acclaimed 2017 Songlines release Alleviation) is one for connoisseurs of the instrument. It again features beautiful compositions and performances ranging across jazz, folk and classical styles and techniques, which he combines in different and innovative ways. This time, in addition to performing on his vintage 1944 Gibson LG-2 Banner, he debuts a newly built flamenco-classical hybrid model from Granada master luthier Manuel Bellido.Ploug is internationally known in the jazz world (three of his groups have featured saxist Mark Turner) and has recorded as a leader for Sunnyside, Fresh Sounds New Talent and Whirlwind. His co-led avant chamber-jazz group Equilibrium has three releases on Songlines. During the early months of the pandemic he became famous online for daily streamed solo performances from his balcony in Copenhagen, documented on the Balcony Lullabies CD. Tunes from Alleviation have now been streamed over 2,000,000 times on Spotify.From the classical world Ploug has studied and been influenced by the piano compositions of contemporary Danish composer Bent Sorensen ("Barcarola" is an interpretation of one of his pieces) and the great Danish composer Carl Nielsen. Ploug writes: "Sorensen's piano nocturnes have a fantastic use of space, counterpoint and melody - I just feel connected to his music like it's the continuation of Carl Nielsen's music from my childhood. So I feel like there's a deep historic and cultural connection there. Nielsen wrote hundreds of short melodic pieces that carry so much weight and beauty."