Jørgen Teller is an insanely (multi) talented Copenhagen musician who is probably most known, to the rock scene, for his Empty Stairs trio and shows with Sunburned Hand Of The Man's Ron Schneiderman and Causa Sui.
But Teller has been around for 4 decades and besides improv free-jazz raga no wave noise he has also been, and still is, involved in theatre, performance dance, choreography, electronic music etc. I got to know him through Christianshavns Radio some years ago, and I've always been curious about his many projects, both past and present. This interview will hopefully shred some light on his long and eclectic career, as well as his unique approach to music and art in general. Mucho thanks to Tobias Kirstein for helping out with questions and Teller's musical history.

LC: Your 50th birthday at Byens Lys, Christiania, was quite a spectacle with people you work and have worked with during the years? 

Jørgen Teller: Oh yeah, that's for sure! I wanted it to be! It was a pure foldback moment in life I could never have anticipated would arrive. Of course the 2nd set where everything just blew out of a stony drone with the audience drumming etc. really opened senses of alot of us into what it really was about. It’s coming out on vinyl in the fall! 

JT: I think specially not knowing what the hell expectations was. But first of all jamming and listening to acid music. Plus at that time the best jamming local bands was Dr. Dopojam, Masala Dosa, Alrune Rod, Midnight Sun, V8, Soul Service, Buki Jamaz, Svend Asmussen, Tchicai/Dørge - well that’s all in 1972-75!!!! Later when i started to define my free-form guitar playing my real focus was more Brötzmann/Eno/John Cage/Fela Kuti and dub. 

LC: You're originally a carpenter by trade? 

JT: Yes I dreamed of becoming a guitar-constructor! Instead of studying Math for 7 years and then just choose something else to do. So i did 3,5 years carpentry apprentice and quit for music and performance. 

LC: From 1985 to 1990 you lived in Paris? 

JT: I fell in love with a unique punky dancer and I moved, it was in those years the French new dance exploded. I learned more in those 4-5 years about stage, impro, music and art than I could've dreamt of. Paris is a very spiritual place - and a black hole you need to get away from.

LC: You have a lot of contacts outside Denmark? 

JT: I have roots in and outside DK and I believe the Danish spirit is summed up in “Ole Sad På en Knold og Sang”. In the eighties I was fighting Danish slavery in a intensely traveling duo called Tzarina Q Cut. We won! 

LC: How was it working with David Thomas (Pere Ubu) on the "Bay City" album? 

JT: It’s 13 years ago! He is such a great singer, poet and performer - the best I have seen in the “rock-world”. Working with him? He played his part and was a pain in the ass. I wanted to make an impro-recording. And it was just about tracking and endless re-takes.... eventually I learned a lot. We started on a 2nd album...nobody knows. 

LC: Many like me in the Copenhagen 'rock scene' first saw you with The Empty Stairs. It started out as a duo, then a 3-piece? 

JT: That’s it! I had written a heep of songs from 1994 and on, but it took years for me to learn to play guitar and sing simultaneously. We released 2 records of a very art beat/no wave informed kind - and then for the 3rd record wanted to discover my way of alternate tuning = Tuning of The Day. It kinda blew the song-thing totally and became what we are known for now. It’s a crazy raga that meets post punk and free melodic playing. 

JT: Yeah, it’s probably the best concert we ever gave. Very deep shit. Some more live stuff will appear soon too. Some of it is already circulating on CDr. 

LC: You played a couple of times with Causa Sui, and Ron Schneiderman (of Sunburned Hand Of The Man). 

JT: It was the greatest invitation I received! Thanx to Troels Mads. I met Ron. He is incredible. We created Coal Hook and BOST-X. We did a lot together after the initial gig at Byens Lys - check his site for CDr’s. I also loved the Causa Sui first meeting...a strange match. 

LC: You are not only working with music, but also with performance, theater, dance, poetry etc.? Is it all connected, or do you just need a break from each artform at times? 

JT: I am an improvisor. And I believe improvisation is interesting and deeply involved at all moments of life, love, bizz, thoughts etc. I see circuits and spaces. I visit them and come with fresh material. It goes both ways. It’s about creating experiences that reaches out and makes us shiver. As a performer/choreographer i did a series of productions 1987-1993 ao. “What’s on Ya Telly ... GOLDFARB ?” - a version of Hubert Selby Jr.’s Requeim For A Dream for 2 dancers, 2 videoscreens and my music. 

LC: You master different instruments, but I'm only familar with your guitarplaying. You don't seemed interested in straight rock'n'roll chords, and from what I've seen, you never play the same way? 

JT: Electric guitar is the best thing that happened on earth! And sure I do like the keyboards, synths, laptops, radios, percussions, the sound studio and a lot of speakers too. Just listen to the 2 first records with JT & The Empty Stairs. That’s chords and riffs. And I have loads of demos for songs waiting. About the guitarplaying you have heard; it’s Le Bastard - a 2 bass-string and 3 guitar-stringed Höfner. I constructed it in 1990 for Tzarina Q Cut to have bass in our wilder music. Later I discovered all the fun there is in retuning the instrument in the middle of a concert or a piece of music - just because: ALL YOU NEED IS CHANGE! 

LC: Do you have like a 'philosophy' regarding music, improvisation seems to play a major part in your approach? 

JT: Hmm. I was raised on the old-school philosophy : PLAY YOURSELF - coming from the free-form-jazzers. I later adapted a kind of speedy zen-feel from a Beatles song on Abbey Road; “Step on the gazz and wipe that tear away”. I love that passage! There’s a lot of truth in it. 

I also love George Clinton’s album title: “How Late Do U Have 2 B B 4 U R Absent?” It’s almost Shakespearian. Thing’s must have a kind of mad humour inside and a gypsy-twist to work for me. 

LC: You have like a university degree in math, as well as a degree in electronic music? 

JT: No, not exactly degrees, but Math 1 from Medialogy and a Master in Electronic Music. I am really interested in frequencies, tunings, synths, modulators, FFT and all that. I have done a lot of expanded drone-work. A drone is a drone and then there’s alot worth trying out in that neighbourhood. Early on I researched Schillinger, mathematics and african rhythm. 

LC: Currently you're working on a dance performance, "Don G", at Plex? 

JT: It’s a co-written thing with genius choreograper Ari Rosenzweig. It’s a Mozart/Casanova thing with 5 dancers and Ingen Frygt and Moonspoon Saloon doing the set and costumes. Very interesting Don Giovanni-opera inspired proces. Seduction and creation. It’s like concept albums in the old days - right on stage. 

LC: Anything to add?

JT: Hubert Selby Jr said; Life’s a joke and the point is You.

http://www.alteration.dk

http://www.jorgenteller.dk/