Jakob Lindhagen - Stages Of Change (Full Official Video)

Jakob Lindhagen presents ”Stages Of Change” – an audio-visual, genre-bending piece divided into six tracks with a stop-motion animation accompanying from beginning to end, arguably his most ambitious work to date.

No stranger to working with concepts, the Stockholm-based composer drew inspiration from reflections on large-scale, collective changes on a societal level (sparked by certain pandemics and current military conflicts), and their correlation with personal shifts.

Introducing a melodic theme that starts softly then gradually develops, the theme journeys through intimate, minimal piano, a heart-wrenching string quartet via intricate sound experiments to the pairing of 5/4-rhythms and backwards solo trumpet, and finishes off with a lushious, multi synth-layered finale.

Along with the music, his longtime artistic collaborator Vargkvint (Sofia Nystrand) has made an accompanying stop motion-animation that follows the entire EP, from beginning to end.

”I wanted it to feel like a journey pulled forward by polar opposites”, the composer says. ”As it represents changes both in the past, present and future, I wanted it to feel both old and new, human and artificial, familiar and strange.” - Jakob Lindhagen

"When Jakob first told me about his idea behind the music - large-scale, collective changes - I became very inspired and so many visual ideas popped into my head. Right then and there I decided to commit to this overwhelmingly ambitious project that took up the main part of my last six months.

As a species I believe that our adaptability is our biggest strength and that, for example in regards to the climate crisis we are all inevitably facing, that we actually can change if we really want to. With this in mind I wanted to bring in the more hopeful aspects to it, and work with the idea that small changes over time can become big ones, if we all open our minds to the idea of change and what that could be." - Sofia Nystrand