arbitrary presents the third in the “Black Box” series of releases by Mads Emil Nielsen. The release, which showcases a more sample and grid-based side of the Danish musician/composer’s work, is part of a sequence of publications with music and audio originally made for theatre, radio soundtracks and more.

“Black Box 3” is based on sound pieces produced for “Sprækker (Cracks)”, a dance performance & installation in Denmark, 2021. The starting points for these pieces are improvisations recorded with contemporary dancers, in which Nielsen guides the listener through a corpus of synthesizer recordings, everyday sounds and radio archives. These original recordings were reworked for this LP and edited into the six tracks in early 2022 – “Black Box 3” (arbitrary14) is now released on 12" vinyl + DL.

Written & produced, recorded and mixed by Mads Emil Nielsen, Copenhagen, 2021 / 2022. Acoustic sounds on Installation – 2 by Victor Dybbroe. Mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin. Graphic design by Mads Emil Nielsen.

Release date: 9 December 2022