Name: Grammofon
Members: Niels Oldin, Jakob Frandsen, Victor Dybbroe, Torben Westergaard
Interviewee: Jakob Frandsen
Nationality: Danish
Current Release: Grammofon's new album Fabelagtige Forviklinger is out April 24th 2026 via Zack's Music.  

If you enjoyed this Grammofon interview and would like to know more about the band and their music, visit them on Instagram.



What were some of your earliest collaborations? How do you look back on them with hindsight?

The collaboration between me and Niels Oldin started in 2001. We formed a jazz duo, playing gigs around Copenhagen. Later on we were three in the band, and finally four in the band for the last couple of years.

We ended up wanting to try something new. We recorded an all acoustic album (except for the electric bass). It's all original compositions.

There are many potential models for collaboration, from live performances and jamming/producing in the same room together up to file sharing. Which of these do you prefer – and why?  

We always prefer live performances, but not without working on the material prior to that. That’ll be rehearsals, jamming, working on the tunes together.

How did your collaboration come about?

We wanted to make acoustic music, still with a  jazz approach to improvisation, but all the while using the melodies and instrumentation to show more than just a chord based tune with solos.

What did you know about each other before working together? Describe your creative partner in a few words, please.

Niels Oldin and I have known each other since our music studies at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague in the 90s. At that time we only played together a few times, but a friendship grew.

Niels is a hard working musician/composer who’s loyal to the legacy of the jazz masters. He’s very creative and always looking for new ideas.

What do you generally look for in a collaborator and what made you want to collaborate with each other specifically?

In this collaboration, we both brought tunes to record. I think it's clear that we write very differently. It's part of the fun and creative process to try to dig deep into someone else’s music as much as your own.

I'd always look for the differences to collaborate with.

Tell me a bit about your current instruments and tools, please. In which way do they support creative exchange and collaborations with others?  

On Fabelagtige Forviklinger I used three different guitars. All acoustic. One nylon string which has become my most used the last years. It's good for the Latin inspired things, but I found it particularly good on the jazz ballad “Ella”. For some of the songs I switched to steel string. The steel string has a much longer sustain and it worked great with a tune like “De muzen.”

On “Backwards,” I used an old rusty guitar with really old strings. I first tried with another guitar with new strings, but how the tune required something else.



Niels uses three horns on the album. Tenorsax, clarinet and bass clarinet.

It’s really great to work with our instrumentation in a way that we can try all kinds of combinations between the instruments to find what we like the most.

Is there a piece on Fabelagtige Forviklinger which shows the different aspects you each contributed to the process particularly clearly?

I could mention two songs. “Backwards”(Jakob Frandsen) is a quite simple melody with a strong chords progression. Its almost as though if you were to change one chord, the tune misses some of its magic. Melody and chords are strongly connected.

“Contempo”(Niels Oldin) is nearly the opposite of “Backwards” in that sense that, its a really strong melody with long fast phrases, and just two chords underneath, and a short b-part with two extra chords.



What tend to be the best collaborations in your opinion – those with artists you have a lot in common with or those where you have more differences? What happens when another musician take you outside of your comfort zone?

It's hard to answer, but I seem to work best when I get complete freedom to make my ideas come alive. It can be my own music or someone else’s.

Working with Niels Oldin is great. He’s very open to ideas, chord suggestion, ending etc. With him, I can just unfold whatever comes to my mind.

So I guess the correct answer is, not to come to much out of the comfort zone.
 
Was/Is this collaboration fun – does it need to be?

Music is fun. Serious fun.