“An outstanding talent, and not just by German standards.” Focus
Releases
Yesterdaze
Watch & Listen
Story
The wolf in sheep’s clothing or rather the sheep in wolf’s clothing? Anyone who knows Jesper knows that both are true. Two years after his highly acclaimed cover album “Taped Heart Sounds”, Jesper Munk is now opening a new chapter: With well-matured original compositions on his producer debut, he finally returns as a composer and lyricist to the delight of all his loyal companions. “Yesterdaze” is both a rapprochement and reconciliation with his early work as well as a mastery of various themes ranging from stardom to depression, from cliché-ridden escapades to relationship crises, from criticism of capitalism to human alienation, but also from appropriate, absolutely necessary escapism as well as unconditional love and a little confidence in life as such. Jesper also processes the last four very intense years in his adopted home of Berlin, where the Munich-born German-Dane has lived for just over eight years. It was a wild ride through a time in which he mainly devoted himself to his two post/noise/art-punk projects Public Display of Affection (P.D.O.A. for short) and Plattenbau, with which he toured all over Europe and sometimes even North America, adding a few more releases to his personal discography.
His new solo album “Yesterdaze“, like “Taped Heart Sounds”, was recorded on tape with his backing band The Cassette Heads – the Tascam 488 MKII, by the way, which Mac DeMarco also enjoyed working with. “I wanted to be producer has to eliminate the screen during our live recording sessions.” A purely precautionary measure, he adds with a wink, “to be able to concentrate on the essentials despite various lapses in concentration .” The focus was the essential. That soulful, all-consuming spotlight on the music, the lyrics and the vibe became the secret recipe for “Yesterdaze”. And, Jesper continues: “Getting to know the Cassette Heads felt like coming home to me … I felt better than that. musical to be honest still never felt.” His beloved companions Tim Granbacka (keys, synth, guit, backing vocals), bass player Hal Strewe and drummer Ziggy Zeitgeist come from the Berlin session scene, but – whether with or without Jesper – also act as composers and producers in their work as creatives and are therefore all the better able to implement Jesper’s ideas in a targeted, sometimes virtuoso manner, but always with a lot of heart, skill and warmth: Modern neo-soul, kissed by jazz, plus chanson, R’n’B, bluesy crooner ballads and delicate indie pop through to slow wave, are the cornerstones that “Yesterdaze” is probably the best way to describe it. Whereby pigeonholes and labels do not influence Jesper’s thinking at all. No wonder with someone who first had to wash his hands of the “blues wonder boy” or “blues innovator” label, which people tried to categorize him as at the beginning of his career somewhere between the White Stripes and The Black Keys with his indie debut “For In My Way It Lies” and the subsequent major debut “Claim“. He was just 20 years old at the time, so it’s no wonder that a lot of things went against the grain.
Now, 12 years later, Jesper Munk – who has completely reinvented himself in 2024, and not just in terms of his environment – impresses with his uncompromising independence. It is freedom that drives him. Without any major pressure and miles away from conforming to any market mechanisms, which is also expressed in his rare social media activities.
Anyway, Jesper Munk (& The Cassette Heads) are more of an album and live thing anyway. You have to hear (and see) them, you have to experience them, and yes: also feel them physically and psychologically, somehow… Emotions, sweat, tears, accompanied by cozy-warm, but always surprisingly edgy feel-good sounds. Plus a bit of swaying, dreaming, running away… and the icing on the cake, so to speak: lots of soul in the voice and music. By the way: “Yesterdaze” is certainly not an easy album, possibly not even catchy at first. It takes time to fully appreciate all the facets, all the loving arrangements and all the calm and balance that underlies all the songs. Demanding? Yes! And: No! At least not in an academic, pretentious sense. Jesper says: “I see music as a universal language where any kind of exclusion feels wrong.”
In any case, the new Jesper Munk is one thing: touching. But in order to let yourself be touched, you have to learn to surrender again. Allow yourself to be idle and try to stop the everyday carousel for a moment, even if only for the duration of “Yesterdaze“. Out of the dystopian disaster loop – into the magical world of that peace-loving sheep in wolf’s clothing called Jesper Munk, who sings with his tender, effortless songs about love, the misunderstandings that often arise as a result, empathy, humanity, justice, the longing for the good in this world, all those desirable things that we all long for so much.