Chop Chop - Body Rhythm Factory
Chop Chop is the first of five low-budget videos we are releasing with the trio
Body Rhythm Factory during the winter/spring of 2026.
The financial framework for each video production has been strictly low budget, limited to DKK 15,000 to 18,000 per video. The project is supported by Koda Kultur and the Danish Arts Foundation.
Within the trio, we have taken turns acting as project managers for the five videos. This was done partly to avoid internal disagreements about artistic choices, but also to ensure that each video would have its own distinct expression and character.
Peter was the project manager for Chop Chop.
Chop Chop was composed and rehearsed immediately before we entered the studio to record it. It was a collective compositional process, where we set aside a few days in Sune’s rehearsal space to build our setup, develop ideas, and practice playing the piece.
The composition is basically built around an ostinato played on boomwhackers (plastic tubes with different pitches), combined with a melody played on handbells, as well as beats played on various percussion instruments.
It is a kind of musical puzzle. First, we distributed the boomwhacker notes among us and practiced playing the ostinato cycle. Then we divided the handbells between us according to who happened to have a free hand when a melodic note needed to be played. Finally, we created a supporting beat, again based on who had a free hand to hit a bass drum, snare drum, cowbell, etc.
It’s a ridiculously complicated, but also extremely fun and challenging way of making music. The biggest challenge is getting the music to groove when the musicians constantly have to switch between playing just one or at most two notes at a time. You become completely dependent on everyone performing every single hit with precision and presence.
For that reason, we ended up doing quite a lot of takes in the studio before we were satisfied with the result. Everything is by the way handplayed and there are plenty of small imperfections, and no quantization has been applied to the sound afterward.
Peter chose Thomas Vang’s studio, “The Village Recording, Copenhagen,” as the location. The studio offers both sound recording and video production. The main priority was to achieve great sound for all the acoustic sound sources in our music, and then to film the setup that was built in the studio as a kind of documentary scenography.
I hope you enjoy the video
Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question about it !
I’m really curious to hear how you experience it 🙏
And dont forget to sing up for my news letter
https://rune-thorsteinsson.sleeve.fm
Chop Chop Credit:
Composed and performed by Body Rhythm Factory
Sune Skuldbøl, Peter Stavrum, Rune Thorsteinsson
Recorded Live at The Village Recording, Copenhagen
Recording Engineer & Mix: Thomas Vang
Camera & Video editing: Jonas Lyngdam
Additional Camera: Magne Thorsteinsson
With Support from: Statens Kunstfond & Koda kultur
Copyright Body Rhythm Factory
Bonus:
My son Magne was in the studio filming a bit of behind the scenes atmosphere.
This little teaser came out of it.
