Review of Fading With Birds
by Michael Svennevig
Is Fading With Birds a swan song? Is this the last release by the Finnish/Danish composer and musician Tom Sonntag? He writes that it is about “the ending of time.”
He is a wheelchair user and lives with muscular dystrophy, so the future is not limitless for him. These are the cards he has been dealt in this life.
The music carries a quiet resignation and an apparently effortless sense of acceptance. The meditative quality is clear when he describes it as:
“a sound reflection of my wondering about the ending of time… Not with fear, but as a relief from pain and distress. A strong hope to transcend into a state of ease… Courage to let go and fade away with birds…”
Like a musical testament – a melodic farewell to life and to nature, carried by a spiderweb-like lightness combined with Finnish melancholy.
The album consists of 75 minutes of music divided into 11 tracks. The artwork on the cover and inlay, with photographs by Michael Dam and design by Christian Grønne, carries the same aesthetic lightness.
In the old forest
It begins with piano, as a soft violin enters in long tender strokes. The notes fall like raindrops. Introduced with the words:
“My self perishes when I listen to you in the old forest.”
Tom sings and speaks with a quiet, cracked voice – shifting between singing, whispering, and speaking. Lucy Bannon’s violin is weeping. A wise and honest song that hurts to listen to.
Fragiles
Opens with the sound of rain. Piano notes gently fall upon us.
“As fragile children we drift unsure but still true like mists in the forest.”
Soft harmonica tones blend in. Once again, we stand at the gate of eternity.
Kneeling Aura
More cheerful in tone – perhaps daybreak. Jungle sounds, melodica and airy notes, interrupted by thunder that never becomes violent.
Child
Tom’s and Poul Poclage’s voices circle around each other – almost inaudible – before Tom whispers:
“Look up with an elder’s sight / Step out with a child’s mind.”
The essence of the album: songs of death that could just as well be songs of life.
Parallel Waves
The rain continues, now persistent. Large cinematic soundscapes – dreamy and insistent.
Ravenows
Sandy Chatterjee’s voice takes us to India. Bells evoke temples while ravens fly into the night. Deep drums enter. A refined and blissful sonic bath.
From Water
Pure daylight – gone is the darkness. The melodica leads the way, a child’s voice brings naivety and brightness.
Distant Memories
William Hoydal Nikolajsen’s boy soprano breaks through – one of the album’s most beautiful moments.
Fading With Birds (title track)
Lucy Bannon’s bright voice sings with the birds. A raven croaks. Tom sings with a tone reminiscent of Finnish forests – melancholy among the trees.
Through A Window
The longest track (13½ minutes). Opens with a Jan Garbarek-like saxophone sound. Sandy Chatterjee plays guitar and percussion. Magnificent soundscapes, gigantic and intimate – a journey towards light.
Storm Song
Closes the album. Poul Næs on double bass.
“Finding home / In this storm / Finding home / Outside time.”
The circle is closed – the melancholy has lifted. Something has been fulfilled.
Album details
FADING WITH BIRDS
by Tom Sonntag
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11 tracks
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74 minutes
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Production, recording, mix & mastering: Tom Sonntag / sonnMusic
Guest musicians/vocalists:
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Sandy Chatterjee: guitars, udu, vocals
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Lucy Bannon: violin, vocals
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William Hoydal Nikolajsen: vocals
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Poul Poclage: ukulele, vocals
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Poul Næs: double bass
NOW TIME – Review (Michael Svennevig)
NOW TIME by Tom Sonntag – at Brønshøj Water Tower
“Time was created gradually
Created as a gift for mankind
As man had destroyed eternity on earth”
NOW TIME is an hour-long sound work, premiered last night at Brønshøj Water Tower. It is composed by Tom Sonntag, a Finn living in Copenhagen.
Seated at the piano in the center, Tom held together his vast composition, performed by 10 musicians positioned around him. It is a large and impressive work, spanning from light and airy, almost meditative, to screamingly intense.
The acoustic of the tower added a mystical dimension, giving the impression of time suspended. The voices, instruments, and electronic layers merged in a monumental space of sound.
The work feels like a ritual – an exploration of the mystery of time, its creation, and its inevitable dissolution.
CD review by Michael Svennevig
THE MAN WHO SLEEPS UNDER TREES – by Tom Sonntag
“An invitation to find your own path inside this whispering mystic, comforting forest.”
The great Finnish forests are an important inspiration behind Tom Sonntag’s 6th album The Man Who Sleeps Under Trees. It is a deeply atmospheric work that invites the listener into a dreamlike and meditative state.
Through delicate instrumentation and spacious soundscapes, Sonntag evokes both stillness and movement – as if we are lying beneath the trees, listening to the forest breathe.
CD review (Michael Svennevig)
VIEW – by Tom Sonntag
Listening to Tom Sonntag’s album View (2017) is like traveling with him through vast landscapes. The soundscapes are expansive and the music highly visionary.
There is both clarity and mystery here – an openness that invites the listener to step into the music and let it carry them forward.
Review (Anders Storbacka, SE)
“sonn” – SONNCD04
A complete work of art.
Tom Sonntag’s album sonn is an integrated artistic whole. Not only the music, but also the artwork, concept, and atmosphere form a total experience. It is rare to encounter such coherence and depth.
Portrait article (Elsa Kemppainen, SE)
He is a wild soul in a still body
NATURE’S CHILD. One summer, Tom Sonntag returned to the site of the blue house his parents had built for him. He was no longer a child, but still he carried with him the spirit of nature, freedom, and creativity that had always shaped his life.
Confined to a wheelchair, yet free in mind and spirit, Sonntag creates worlds of sound that transcend limitation. He is, as one listener once said, “a wild soul in a still body.”
