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Mikkel Ploug

Danish guitarist and composer Mikkel Ploug (b.1978) has performed all over Europe, Brazil and the US with his bands Mikkel Ploug Group, Mikkel Ploug Trio and Equilibrium. He has recorded 12 albums for internationally reknowned labels such as Sunnyside Records (USA), Whirlwind (UK) Fresh Sounds New Talent (ES) Songlines Recordings (CA). Mikkel has performed as a soloist with The Royal Ballet in Copenhagen and works with american choreographer and dancer Tilman O’Donnell.

His solo album Alleviation has over 2 million plays on Spotify and his 2018 album “Faroe” was selected for the Grammy category “Best Instrumental Jazz Album”.

He has worked as a sideman in Sean Carpio’s Wowos and for NYC alto player Pete Robbins Transatlantic and performed as an opening act for Wayne Shorter early in his career. Mikkel who started out on drums at the age of four has a master awarded with a distingtion for composition from the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, Holland, he has lived in Berlin, and now resides in Copenhagen.

Performances:

Brazil, USA, Canada, China, Israel, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Holland, England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Faroe Islands. Mikkel has appeared at Elb Jazz Festival, Savassi Festival Belo Horizonte, Northsea Festival The Hague, Brey Jazzfestival, Copenhagen Jazzfestival, Spalicek Festival, United Islands Prague, Musik i Lejet. and at clubs like Pizza Express (London) Jamboree (Barcelona), Sunset (Paris), A-Trane (Berlin), Unterfahrt (Munchen) Oslo Nasjonalscene (Oslo) Jazzhouse (Copenhagen) Moods (Zurich) Singen Jazzclub (Singen) and many more.

Performed as a leader and sideman with:

Mark Turner, Loren Stillman, Bill McHenry, Theo Bleckman, Pete Robbins, Tommy Crane, Joachim Badenhorst, Sissel Vera Pettersen, Jeppe Skovbakke, Rebecca Collins, Marlon Browden, Sean Carpio, Kresten Osgood, Thomas Agergaard, Anders Christensen, Mikkel Hess, Tue West, Niels Lykkegaard, Kenny Wheeler, Eivind Opsvik, Robin Fincker, Simon Jermyn, Jonas Westergaard, Hugo Rasmussen, Kevin Brow, Niels Vincentz, Flin Van Hemmen, Robert Stillman, The Unusual History Of Ether and many more.

Teaching:

Mikkel has worked as an external expert for master exams at University of Basel and the Conservatory of Luzern. He has taught as a guest teacher at Prague International Jazz Workshop, Conservatory of Würzburg, Jydsk Conservatory Stævne Uge, Århus, Odense and Rytmisk Conservatory in Copenhagen.

Lectures:

Mikkel gives lecture on harmonies in human speech. The project is entitled “The Hidden Composition”.

Education:

Mikkel received his master from the royal conservatory of the hague in 2005 and was awarded a distinction for his original compositions. Mikkel originally started out on drums at the age of four before changing to guitar at twelve.

Gear

Gibson, D'Angelico, Newtone Strings, Polytone Amps.


Tags

9
Album Review

Mikkel Ploug: Balcony Lullabies

Read "Balcony Lullabies" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Upset, isolated and frustrated during the early stages of the near-global COVID-19 quarantine, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug did what he does best; he picked up his instrument and started playing. Sitting on his balcony and reflecting on the moment, Ploug set beauty in strings, allowing his sound to hold aloft. His appreciative neighbors listened with rapt attention, applauding at the conclusion of that otherwise personal performance. And so began the balcony lullabies. At 6:15 p.m. every evening, ...

Album Review

Mikkel Ploug: Faroe

Read "Faroe" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Il rapporto artistico tra il tenorsassofonista statunitense Mark Turner e il chitarrista danese Mikkel Ploug è piuttosto lungo e consolidato, avendo i due suonato per circa dieci anni nel quartetto messo in piedi da Ploug dopo il suo arrivo in America nel 2005. E proprio l'intesa prodottasi tra i due è stata lo stimolo che ha spinto quest'ultimo a concentrare tutta l'attenzione sul suono dei soli sax e chitarra, per realizzare un disco in duo, su brani originali la scrittura ...

4
Album Review

Mikkel Ploug & Mark Turner: Faroe

Read "Faroe" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While tenor saxophone heavy Mark Turner has toured with guitarist Mikkel Ploug's quartet for approximately a decade, the unique musical alliance developed between this pair has never before received such a high degree of attention. With Faroe, Ploug presents thirteen original compositions written or rearranged specifically to telescope their bond(s), explore the very essence of the melodic-harmonic communion, and artfully merge the precomposed and the improvised. Opening with the title track, a number that finds Turner's matte-finish melodies ...

7
Hi-Res Jazz

Dálava, Gordon Grdina and Mikkel Ploug: Songs Old, and Sounds New

Read "Dálava, Gordon Grdina and Mikkel Ploug: Songs Old, and Sounds New" reviewed by Mark Werlin


Strangeness--a word that connotes foreignness, otherness, and a sense of unease when confronted by the unfamiliar. The sound of recognizable musical forms may attract us, in the same way we are drawn to familiar faces or voices. The sound of a foreign language may set us on the alert; syllables we do not recognize, meanings we cannot understand. And what if the words cannot always cross the boundary from one language to another, and the meanings never be ...

6
Album Review

Mikkel Ploug: Alleviation

Read "Alleviation" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Alleviation is a fascinatingly winsome document showcasing what occurs when tool serves as muse. While out and about in New York in 2016, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug happened upon a musical curio--a mahogany-top Gibson Banner LG-2. The instrument, essentially a wartime relic made by the (mostly) female work force in Gibson's Kalamazoo plant in the early '40s, was a worn-down wonder, preserved yet clearly put through life's demands. But the personality, quality of sound, and innate character of this guitar ...

53
Album Review

Equilibrium: Liquid Light

Read "Liquid Light" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


This European trio's third release is abetted by Songlines Recordings' pristine audio processes, which is a vital aspect since many of these tracks are quietly penetrating in scope and designed with ethereal atmospherics. The artists' specialty may lie within an artsy, avant-garde schema via a channel of electro-acoustic tone poems, enamored by Sissel Vera Pettersen's luminous and diffused wordless chants. Even though these largely temperate pieces are lithely woven amid the bumps, spikes, valleys, and a hint of new age ...

8
Album Review

Equilibrium: Liquid Light

Read "Liquid Light" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The concept of equilibrium is all about the balancing of opposing forces, actions, or influences; the music of Equilibrium is largely about the same, though some twists, focal point shifts, and ambient sound plays complicate and muddy the concept a bit. Equilibrium--a trio comprised of Belgian clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug, and Norwegian vocalist Sissel Vera Pettersen--quietly yet boldly goes to places unknown, finding and creating the maximum in minimalist settings while blending voices and ...

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1

Recording

New Release By Mikkel Ploug & Lars Graugaard

New Release By Mikkel Ploug & Lars Graugaard

Source: Kaylee Wesley Pearson

Clang has released Ngelo by Danish guitarist and composer Mikkel Ploug and the Danish musical chameleon Lars Graugaard. All tracks on Ngelo are edited improvisations that provide a listening experience that combines the liveliness of the moment with a concise structure, either with a well-defined atmosphere or of a particular compositional aim. The three ballad-style tracks are highly interactive with Lars’ computer generating all accompaniment through real-time analysis of the guitar, including bass-lines and the various counterpoints. A second group ...

“An original voice with something to say…” – Bud Kopmann – All About Jazz (US)

“Mikkel Ploug is the latest sensation in European jazz guitar with a personal voice and sound that shines.” La Vanguardia

“Masterclass – The danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug is on the way into to the champions league of contemporary jazz” – Alex Schmitz – Jazzpodium (DE)

“Mikkel Ploug’s compositions are gorgeous. “Chords” [another Ploug composition] leaves me breathless.” – RVAJazz (US)

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Primary Instrument

Guitar

Location

Copenhagen

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

has taught at conservatories all over europe, teaches online via skype

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Day in the Sun

Songlines Recordings
2022

buy

Balcony Lullabies

Stunt Records/Sundance Music
2020

buy

Faroe

Sunnyside Records
2018

buy

Alleviation

Songlines Recordings
2017

buy

Liquid Light

Songlines Recordings
2014

buy

Equilibrium

Songlines Recordings
2009

buy

April

From: Day in the Sun
By Mikkel Ploug

Videos

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