Marching Church

Elias Bender Rønnenfelt of Iceage conceived Marching Church while drawing influence from an eclectic array of commanding figures that includes James Brown, David Bowie, and David Maranha. Although he launched the project in 2010, focused development did not begin until late 2013, only months ahead of a planned performance alongside Pharmakon. To realize his concepts through open-ended improvisation, Rønnenfelt assembled a circle of musicians that comprised Kristian Emdal and Anton Rothstein of Lower, Bo Høyer Hansen of Hand of Dust, Frederikke Hoffmeier of Puce Mary, and Sonja La Bianca of Choir of Young Believers. Their 2015 debut album This World Is Not Enough, issued jointly by Posh Isolation and Sacred Bones, emerged from these sessions. The rapport among the participants proved durable enough for Marching Church to solidify as a permanent ensemble, retaining Emdal, Rothstein, and Hansen while adding Iceage’s Johan S. Weith and trumpeter Jakob Emil Lamdahl. Puce Mary, CTM, and Nils Gröndahl participated in the 2016 release Coming Down: Sessions in April, a twenty-one-minute free-jazz piece distilled from a two-hour improvisation. That same October the group delivered its second album, Telling It Like It Is, a comparatively cohesive statement that incorporated contributions from La Bianca and members of the Stargaze Orchestra.