Photo: Kristian Dugstad
Jakob Glans does everything he can to capture the audience's attention during the concert experience. In that case, it's actually better for the music to be useless than uninteresting.
/ 12/12/2025 / Kristian DugstadWhat makes a composer use leather jackets as a percussion instrument and mix emo aesthetics with choral tradition? Jacob Glans is all about avoiding what he believes is the greatest threat to art: indifference.
He writes music to keep the audience awake, present and moving.
"Boring is the worst thing I know. I prefer something to be really bad rather than uninteresting," he says.
Glans' musical background is a complex journey. He grew up with metal and electric guitar, while also frequenting the Oslo Opera House. That combination of raw energy and classical style would later become one of his trademarks.
A breakthrough came when he heard Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring as a teenager.
– It shattered all the ideas I had about what music could be. I realized that the intensity I was looking for in metal was also found, and perhaps even stronger, in orchestral music.
At school he gained access to notation programs that made it possible to write music he couldn't play himself.
– It was absolutely invaluable. I realized that I could compose for anything, not just guitar.
From there he went to Toneheim Folk High School, continued to composition studies in Gothenburg and as an Erasmus student in Warsaw. Since 2021, he has made a living composing.
Glans' music is known for high energy, fast tempos, brutal contrasts and a theatrical playfulness that draws as much from metal as from humor and performative moves.
– I want to entertain and engage. You're not really allowed to say that as a contemporary composer. But musical narrative and audience experience are absolutely central to me.
He describes his work as a fight against mediocrity.
– If you get three men to beat on a leather jacket with drumsticks, you know it also has a humorous effect. I use surprises all the time. It's all about keeping the audience's attention.
The same perspective lies behind his fascination with the genre freedom of contemporary music.
– There are almost no limitations. The most important thing is that the music is written by one person for others to perform. Everything else is open.
Glans usually lives in Warsaw for much of the year, but he recently spent two intensive weeks in Oslo performing bloodshotEyes Requiem. The work, written for male choir, accordion, percussion, electric guitar, is based on text and musical fragments left by Geir Barstad, known from the YouTube channel "metalrr5".
– I was very moved by his story and the words he left behind. I had to get his family's approval before I could move forward. Once that was in order, the work began to take shape.
Musically, the work stands in a more emotional universe than much of Glans' previous production.
– The musical idiom is influenced by emo bands and what Geir himself listened to. It is contemporary music, but with a clear emotional imprint.
During the premiere performance, Barstad's own electric guitar was also used.
– It felt right. This work is about facing a story seriously, not commenting on it from a distance.
Contemporary music in Norway is broader than many people think, says Glans.
– There is more openness now than before. You can write tonally or atonally and everything in between. Before, there was a greater expectation that contemporary music should be extremely experimental.
Audience numbers vary, but he believes the quality of the environment is high.
– There's a lot going on. A lot. And Norway is one of the few places where you can actually make a living from this. In Poland, where I live a lot of the time, the conditions are completely different.
Glans also points to the role of contemporary music in driving the entire musical ecosystem forward.
– The most experimental ideas often started here, long before they appeared in pop. Electronic music is a good example. Many forms of club music would not have existed without experimental composers.
He has a simple answer:
– My audience is anyone with a shred of interest and curiosity. You don't have to understand everything. You just have to be willing to be there in the moment.
