On 6 February, a new album by Mads Emil Dreyer is released. Miniatures presents a series of seemingly simple electroacoustic works in which ghostly echoes emerge just beneath the surface.

There is always a mixture of light and dark in Mads Emil Dreyer’s music. At first glance it may appear innocent but hidden beneath the surface are unsettling shadows and subtle distortions. Miniatures is released by Dacapo Records and features world premiere recordings by Scenatet, EKKI MINNA, and Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen.

Mads Emil Dreyer (b. 1986) often works in series. The works in his Miniatures series range from intimate chamber settings to sinfonietta format, but all are built around the same setup: toy glockenspiels paired with small electronic keyboards.

Dreyer has developed a technique in which the keyboard sends sine tones to a small speaker (transducer) attached directly to the glockenspiel. When a note is struck, the sine tone is heard both as an electronic sound and as a resonance within the metal bars of the glockenspiel itself.

“You could describe it as a kind of electroacoustic chamber music,” says Dreyer. “It grows out of my experiments with toy glockenspiels and very discreet electronics. The music is very quiet and perhaps a little nativistic.”