Hess is more

Hess Is More revisits the Apollonian circles at Copenhagen Distillery.

Hess Is More explores the framework for a concert when the successful cross-aesthetic project Apollonian Circles is staged in a new edition at Copenhagen Distillery during Copenhagen JazzFestival 2022.

Over five days, the audience can experience the circular ensemble staged by theater director Tue Biering, set designers Christian Friedländer and Dicki Lakha, and designer Henrik Vibskov with visits from selected musical guests Together with a team of exciting musicians, drummer, composer and singer Mikkel Hess is ready to let his circle-shaped group occupy the unique setting at Copenhagen Distillery for a new set-up of Apollonian Circles. Hess Is More is a transatlantic group with both European and American members. In recent years, the band has performed under the Apollonian Circles banner, which is also visited by a number of yet-to-be-announced guests. Apollonian Circles is a total musical experience, where scenography, costumes and lighting design are guided by the underlying dramaturgy.

From the moment they arrive, the audience is transported to a mysterious, dreamlike parallel universe that is independent of time and place - where anything can happen. In the center of the room stands a large, well-set table decorated with otherworldly artefacts and ornaments. The musicians approach the table together with the audience, and along the way use it as the final stage, from which the music is played out into the room. Apollonian Circles was originally created for the Apollo Kantine at Kunsthal Charlottenborg during Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2019, where over 1,000 audiences experienced 10 concerts with the band and changing themes and guest musicians. The project was then reinstated in its "black" version as a kind of mirroring of the summer's performances - this time at Xenon iHuset during Winterjazz 2020 with four concerts and over 500 audiences and as an ambitious online project in autumn 2020 with simultaneous livestream from Copenhagen and New York.

In the summer of 2021, Apollonian Circles took over the Copenhagen Distillery project with 4 sold-out concerts. Hess Is More began in its time as an electronic solo project for Mikkel Hess and through eight studio albums and hundreds of concerts has developed into a full-fledged circular ensemble that includes members from New York, Berlin and Copenhagen. Hess Is More's live performances have achieved almost cult-like status and the band has several times been on various "Best Live Band of the Year" lists.