#2 Jens Lekman

Jens Lekman the delicate, who whistles to himself as the sun sets. Jens Lekman with his orchestra of girls in a gymnasium under construction. This is the second episode of Take Away Shows.

Behind a door in the Star Trek room, there was a hallway that ran alongside a terrace. Outside, the sun was setting; it was getting dark, and we couldn’t find where to turn on the lights. Jens didn’t say anything. He held his small guitar by its neck, waiting for us to find the light switch. We never found it. Jens leaned against a guardrail—he had had a hard day—and began to sing “F-Word”. Our assistant Vincent held Vincent Moon by the ankles, and Moon balanced there, filming Jens. There was a slight breeze, and I was crouched, holding my microphone at arm’s length. You can hear Jens and the wind; they sang a duet. This moment was magical, like all of this session: the session during which the singer never said anything, complied with directions, sat there, left to find his saxophonist, started a song, raised his voice and stopped time. We were alone in a large gymnasium, and he filled up the room, entirely on his own. Just look: the camera is dumbfounded.

Translated by Caitlin Caven