Palle Mikkelborg "Stille, Hjerte, Sol Går Ned" feat. Jakob Bro (Offical Video)

Recording Session with Palle Mikkelborg playing "Stille, Hjerte, Sol Går Ned" feat. Jakob Bro.
Filmed by Andreas Koefoed.

Palle Mikkelborg "Light"
Release date: January 30, 2026 on LP/CD/digital.
Limited edition LP comes with nine prints by Tal R

Pre-order: shop.jakobbro.com
Listen: lovelandcph.bandcamp.com

Palle Mikkelborg (b. 1941) - a spiritual jazz legend, acclaimed composer, trumpet player and electronic music pioner - is back in the studio recording his first studio album in more than 20 years. Working with him as a producer is Jakob Bro, with whom he has recorded the great ECM albums "Returnings" and "Strands".

The first single by Palle Mikkelborg feat. Jakob Bro and Helen Davies "Stille, Hjerte, Sol Går Ned" (an old Danish folk song by Thomas Laub) is released on April 11, 2025. The full length album is coming in January 2026 on Loveland Music.

"Stille Hjerte is a beautiful poem by Jeppe Aakjær written in 1912 to celebrate Rebild Bakker being categorized as a National Park. In 1915 Thomas Laub composed the melody. From childhood, Jeppe Aakjær was, as he says in his own words, “familiar with the silence in nature and in human life.” He would experience the silence by walking in the meadows and on the banks of Karup River; but he especially encountered it on the heath.

As a child my mother and father would sing different songs from the “Singing Together, A Danish Songbook” when tugging me and my siblings to sleep. We would also sing songs from the same book when we were celebrating Christmas, birthdays, funerals, baptisms and other holidays.
From the age of 4 I played the trumpet in my father’s big band. Besides Duke Ellington, Count Basie and numerous other big band arrangements, my father just absolutely loved the trumpet and the Danish Songbook. So, I played psalms and hymns as well as Danish folks songs on my trumpet together with my father, primarily in school and in church, to mark the different holidays. One song I remember dearly is Silent Heart, Sun Sets. It’s a haunting melody and I love the lyrics too.

Every night when I tug my kids to sleep I sing this song to them. It’s a very natural way of passing on the tradition from generation to generation here in Denmark and it gives you a deep connection to this folk music. On a sidenote, my father had two heroes in his lifetime; Louis Armstrong and Palle Mikkelborg. It’s very special for me to play this composition with Palle now. Like having so many roads meet." – Jakob Bro

Credits:
Palle Mikkelborg (flugelhorn, piano)
Helen Davies (harp)
Thomas Li (soundscape)
Jakob Bro (guitar, effects)

Composition: Thomas Laub, 1915

Recorded and mixed at The Village Studio, Copenhagen
Engineer: Thomas Vang

Mastered at The Village Studio B
Mastering Engineer: David Elberling

Produced by Jakob Bro
Film by Andreas Koefoed
Photos by Søren Lynggaard.

Thank you to The Danish Arts Foundation