Kick The Ladder

Kaktus wrote the album in Iceland, then developed its sound in Copenhagen in collaboration with French prepared piano experimentalist Thibault Gomez. “I was using my knowledge of extended playing techniques and the contemporary repertoire, and getting them into my pop music,” he says. “We replaced synths with acoustic sounds that are familiar, but unfamiliar in many ways. It’s all organic, there are no artificial effects: we created all the effects with this one instrument, the grand piano. We tried it for every situation. To build up tension and suspension in songs and sounds we would scratch, e-bow and regular bowing the strings inside of the piano for example, and even play with brooms on the belly of the grand
piano. Used it even as a drum machine!”
The result is a profound, melodic record with an expansive and innovative sound. The album also sees Kaktus evolve as a vocalist and lyricist. “Every song on this album is a love letter to my environment, and my surroundings,” he says. “Some of the songs are a dialogue between two people, others might be written to nature, and what is happening to our planet.”