Following the brilliant PEEP EP, the spectral Pinkunoizu are set to release their debut album, Free Time!, on Full Time Hobby. Named after the Japanese word for “pink noise” and based in Copenhagen and Berlin, multiculturalism is at the forefront of this band’s world – they play an exotic mixture of lo-fi, high-life, nu-folklore, ’60s Asian pop and post-apocalyptic future rock. “Most of what I write comes from picking up exciting words or phrases from wherever I stumble upon them,” says chief songwriter Andreas Pallisgaard. “Or maybe it simply comes from floating around like some empty receptor, open to letting the language of the world flow through me.”
Self-recorded in the rehearsal rooms in the German and Danish capitals, Pinkunoizu’s debut album is a meditation on the concept of time filled with hazy pools of feedback and repetitive beats. “We were trying to look into alternative experiences of time as something elastic, expandable, modal,” says Andreas. “Aspects of remembrance are of course connected to this theme, and runs like a disturbed signal through most of the record as well.” It’s been a constant theme in the band’s work since the first song they penned together, Time Is Like A Melody, which opens the album. “It connects the listener to one of the most incomprehensible mysteries of being,” says Andreas. Elsewhere, songs deal with subjects ranging from the Arab spring to cyborgs and feminism – the country twang of Cyborg Manifesto.
An unpredictable, involved but nonetheless ear-friendly listen that establishes deep, immersive grooves, Free Time! represents the far-ranging recording processes of this unusual band. “I like the idea of taking little snatches from the world that surrounds us and putting those into the music,” says Andreas. “We’ve recorded random sounds from around our homes and used them as textures.”
Comprising Jaleh Negari (drums), Jeppe Brix (guitars) Andreas Pallisgaard (guitars, vox) and Jakob Falgren (guitars, keys, foot pedal bass), the four members of Pinkunoizu formerly played together in the acclaimed Danish post-rock group Le Fiasko. With eight people in that band, improvisation was difficult. In Pinkunoizu, the foursome form a flexible core. “Starting Pinkunoizu was a great relief for us, since we could feel that we were nurturing a space where we could play music for real and have a great say – all four of us,” says Andreas. It allows room for guests, such as Nils Gröndahl, who plays violin and bowed saw, and reflects the prevailing scene in Copenhagen. “Copenhagen people tend to play music with each other in temporary constellations, and some of that old-fashioned band structure has withered away a bit,” says Andreas.
Outside of the band, Andreas and Jaleh are preparing to do a soundtrack for a documentary on the Danish artist Das Beckwerk. Aside from that, “Some are working, some study, some have studied, some have worked, some are looking for work to do to earn money. Some like to play ping pong.”
