Martin Hall

Singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and author, born April 26, 1963, Denmark. Began his musical training at the age of ten at the Piano and Music Academy of Copenhagen. First record release at the age of 17 as singer and composer in the avantgarde ensemble Ballet Mécanique whose debut album The Icecold Waters Of The Egocentric Calculation from 1981 is regarded as a cornerstone in contemporary Danish music history. Since then MH has released a series of albums ranging from industrial music to neo-classical recordings, a line of books on major publishing labels as well as several magazines and anthologies. His literary debut from 1983, Genopbyggelsen Er Større End Selve Skabelsen (The Recreation is Greater than the Creation Itself), aroused equal amounts of excitement and furore. Studied at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen for a short period between 1984 and 1985 and designed most of the covers to his record- and book releases throughout the eighties. Worked with several Danish theatre groups during these years as well as writing and directing multi-media projects and theatre performances with his own ensemble The Art Ensemble Of Copenhagen. Performed several concerts for The Danish National Radio as well as conducting his own Requiem in the Taksigelses Church in Copenhagen. Established his own label, Mind And Media, in 1989. Received the Honoury Award of DJBFA (The Danish Association Of Composers) in March 1995 as well as the very prestigious 3-year grant from The National Fund for the Endowment of The Arts in April. Released his long awaited solo album Random Hold in February 1996, an album regarded as his best record during the nineties (the title continues to figure on various encyclopedian lists over the most important Danish music releases during this decade). During 1999 and 2000 MH wrote the music for the Danish theatre ensemble Operanord's performance Gilles' Requiem, the score for Gud Bevare Danmark by Ole Bornedal (writer and director of the Hollywood film 'The Night Watch') and the music for Danish director Claus Bohm's film Digter (Poet). In March 2001 he released his highly acclaimed diary Kommunikaze concurrently with the album Metropolitan Suite. In September MH was given the honour to write the music for the opening of the Swedish artist Ingvar Cronhammer's grand scale building work Elia in Herning (a Danish city), and in October he created the exhibition A Hospital Room at Ystads Konstmuseum (Sweden), a sound- and image installation based on a series of conversations with a dying hospital patient. Wrote and produced the score for Gladsaxe Teater's major 2002 launch, the theatre version of Lady of the Camellias, Camille (Original Soundtrack), which was proclaimed as one of his finest works ever by an unanimous press. Included in Kraks Blaa Bog (Krak's Blue Book) in May 2003, a prestigious book of summation of the most important people in Danish art and culture. Founded his new label, Panoptikon, the same year on which he released Das Mechanische Klavier in 2004, a piece of work combining songs performed by the mezzo-soprano Andrea Pellegrini and narratives read by the German scholar Herbert Zeichner. Released his long awaited major novel Den Sidste Romantiker ("The Last Romantic") in August 2005, a monumental 700-pages piece of work reflecting a young man’s journey from the summer of 1980 up until present day. Apart from getting brilliant reviews, the book also constitutes Hall’s literary breakthrough. In February 2006 MH launched one of his principal works, his first solo-album as a singer in seven years, Facsimile. In Denmark, the album has been met with astounding reviews, praising it as finest work in 25 years. Major parts of MH's works have been released in Germany, Holland, France, England and Italy. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.