Karen Johl has released her debut album, Mother Tongue on UK based multidisciplinary label Inklingroom. The debut piece sweeps through soft sounds, spoken word, glorious vocals and has a strong attention to detail throughout, creating a beautiful album from start to finish.

As the album became available to all, we sent over some questions for Karen Juhl to reflect on. Sparking conversation about how to tell a story, releasing a book that accompanies the album, collaboration and translating the studio album into a live performance.

Why do you believe it is important to use multiple elements to tell a story or express your creativity?

Hmm, I just think that I naturally consider different media and materials and have a lot of fun translating, for example, music into images, text into music, or finding ways to tie it all together in a larger whole. The different elements highlight each other and create a larger narrative that relates to their materials but also transcends them.

What did you enjoy about bringing your mother tongue into the physical format of a book/magazine?

Oh, many things. Being the nerd that I am, I delved into the history of the book – or perhaps more so, the bastardized forms of books like notebooks and magazines that historically haven’t had the same literary status as, let’s say, collections of poetry or novels. It was a starting point for the book to reference analog collage genres, characterized by a kind of warm and direct communication, or a more fragmented form of communication. But then doing it within a digital universe with ready-made images freshly picked from the internet.

I became interested in asemic writing, which is a kind of wordless performative writing form where the act of writing is captured on paper as an image rather than meaningful sentences. I experimented a lot with that. That’s how the artwork was created – from my fragments, which Paw (the graphic designer and book designer) treated as digital images.

Paw brought a wealth of knowledge and vibrant creativity and gave the album a new life. Through our process, I discovered the power of the analog format. It actually meant something when I received the books from the press and could hold them in my hands, flip through them, feel the quality of the printing. All those analog qualities that I probably – as a digital worker – used to underestimate.

You note that you derive some of your core influences from literature. How does literature influence you, and what have been some other influences during your writing and creation process of Mother Tongue?

Yes, Mother Tongue has really been about giving space to the texts – letting them shape the music. I have explored parts of literature, perhaps especially prose poetry, which works a lot with voices. Two Danish authors, Asta Olivia Nordenhof and Theis Ørntoft, have inspired me over the past decade. They manage to describe very complex phenomena in an incredibly simple way. They write critically about systems but from a bodily and emotionally anchored place – that has influenced my own way of writing.

Sometimes I feel a bit like a sponge, constantly absorbing impressions and translating them into new ideas and expressions. At times, I seek out a lot of installation art, which can sometimes feel like stepping into a poem or a piece of music in 3D. It can have the same effect on me as a sacred space – a space not entirely part of reality – or a different form of reality. It nurtures the imagination.

Mother Tongue is diverse in its songwriting and flows incredibly well. How do you approach the writing and production process to create such a cohesive project?

I’m really happy you think so! I try to consciously alternate between fast and intuitive work and slower, reflective periods. Fortunately for me, my co-producer Johan is quite patient and trusts my decisions. I also trust him and his musicality, and he tells me when something isn’t working. Together with a third musician, Laust Moltesen, we have a collective, ROK, where we listen to each other’s work and serve as editors for each other. Our collaboration is good for the music, I think.

I use my analytical skills to keep my intuition in check, I believe. At one point, it became clear, for example, that the lyrics were at the top of the work’s internal hierarchy. I think works have a kind of internal logic – or you find one as a creator – and stay receptive to it to create a whole. And perhaps you need to have the courage to accept that the work will never be a 1:1 representation of the potential expressions you hold.

This project has had the support of multiple people and collaborations with many. How have you found working with a range of platforms and people?

Working with talented people gives me so much energy. Their drive and curiosity rub off on me. Creating can be a lonely job at times, so the collaborative periods are pretty good – both for the work and for me as a person. I could probably convince myself that I would be happier just being in my own space and doing everything myself, but it turns out time and time again that it’s not true.

What is the approach to translating ‘Mother Tongue’ from a studio production to a live performance?

I’ve tried different formats but am currently working with a duo (with Johan Feierskov), where we’ve found a way to handle the interplay between fixed forms and improvised passages present in the music. Translating such a computer-driven work into a live situation can be complicated, and it’s important to me that there is room for dynamics and pauses, for spontaneous music within the framework we set. So, we draw on live performance traditions from electronic music but also from chamber music.

Where do you wish to take your music now that ‘Mother Tongue’ has been released?

I’m working on various projects and continuing to explore the choir format – following my choir performance PARADE from earlier this year. But I usually keep my new project ideas to myself, so I’ll have to end by seeming a bit secretive and mysterious.

Mother Tongue is out now on Inknlingroom, buy here

Karen Juhl perfroms at The Yard in London Thursday 28 of September, buy tickets here