Hess Is More

Hess Is More serves as the main creative outlet for Danish composer and multi-instrumentalist Mikkel Hess, who fuses jazz, electronica, Scandinavian folk, soundtrack music, and classic pop into a style marked by playful melodies and a distinctly humorous tone. Born into a musical Copenhagen household, he received his first drum kit at seven and later studied at the city’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory, where jazz legend Ed Thigpen was among his teachers; he completed his studies in 2002. While sustaining work as a jazz drummer, Hess simultaneously composed for prominent Danish film, theater, and television productions. His debut release under the Hess Is More name originated as music written for a stage adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, issued in 2003 by the interdisciplinary art collective BoinkBox, which he helped establish; the material was subsequently expanded with additional tracks and reissued in 2005 as Tip Top Dynamo on the Music for Dreams label. The 2006 album Captain Europe marked his first use of vocals, highlighted by the duet “Yes Boss” with Vietnamese-Norwegian singer Bang Chau, which also appeared as a remix 12". Subsequent projects included a score for Rosenkrantz & Gyldenstjerne Er Døde and a limited live recording made at the Wood Wood record store that supplied the foundation for the 2007 single “Would Would You Like to Disco.” In 2008 Hess released the three-part conceptual album Denial, which yielded the successful Danish radio single “Ssshhhh,” followed in 2009 by the career-spanning compilation Hits, issued in the United States by Nublu Records.