Teitur Lassen

52
Teitur Lassen bigraphy, stories - Faroese musician

Teitur Lassen : biography

4 February 1977 –

Teitur ( born Teitur Lassen 1977 in Hoyvík) is a Faroese singer-songwriter. On 3 March 2007, he was awarded Best Male Singer at the Danish Music Awards, and two years later his album The Singer was awarded Singer/Songwriter Album of the Year at the Danish Music Awards 2009. (in Danish)

Teitur started out in the Faroese pop/rock band Mark No Limits as its lead singer and songwriter. After quickly gaining a reputation at home, Teitur left the Faroe Islands for Copenhagen at 17, finding both his voice and a succession of helping hands all over Europe and North America. He dedicated himself to playing and writing music in English full-time, and soon caught the attention of former BMI executive Christian Ulf-Hansen at the Danish music festival, SPOT, who quickly signed on as manager.

Homecoming record

According to a 12 October 2006 article in the Faroese newspaper Sosialurin, Teitur’s next album would be in the Faroese language, and will be released only in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It is planned that Teitur will tour each corner of his tiny motherland in its support. Portal.fo, 12 October 2006 (in Faroese) The album was licensed to and released on the Faroese label Tutl on 14 May 2007 under the title Káta Hornið

Other works

In 2005 Teitur sang the track "Syner" on the 2005 "Andersen’s Drømme" album, produced and compiled by Danish producer, Nikolaj Norlund. Norlund went on to produce Teitur’s version of "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" for the Danish Christmas album, Fra Danske Hjerter (Translated as From Danish Hearts)in 2010.

Teitur produced and arranged the album "Le Cheshire Cat et Moi" in 2009 for French superstar Nolwenn, recording in Sweden, the Faroes and France, also co-writing four of the songs and writing another on his own. Nolwenn credits Teitur for the brave musical direction which allowed her to develop musically, reflected in this album and again in her subsequent follow up, the No.1 album, "Bretonne".

In 2010, the Italian legendary singer, Mina, recorded Teitur’s song "You Get Me" as a duet with Seal, which was the first single from her album "Caramella", which went top 3 in Italy. Seal went on to record the song again, with David Foster producing, for Seal’s album "Seal-6-Commitment", which charted in 12 countries, also recording it as a duet with Buika (Spain), Tinkabelle (Switzerland) and Anna Eriksson (Finland).

During 2011, Teitur wrote a seven piece song cycle called "Weekdays", for Choir and Orchestra, which was performed in late 2011 by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the DR Girls choir in Copenhagen.

In 2012, Teitur performed live across the Netherlands with the Netherlands Blazers Ensemble, while a film was shown which he commissioned and composed the score to, directed by Thomas Koba, under the title "Everyday Song", with additional music composed for the live show by Trondur Bogason. They also performed in Copenhagen, as part of the CPH:Dox Festival.

During 2012, Teitur composed the music for the yet to be released indie film "The Load" directed by Kristian Sonderby.

Changing gears

On 20 April 2006, Teitur’s management issued a statement that he had dropped Universal as his record label following months of legal problems and creative differences, and from then on his records would be released on Arlo and Betty Recordings, a new label, run by his manager, and named after his two vintage Gibson guitars. His second studio record Stay Under the Stars, produced by Martin Terefe (Jason Mraz, Ron Sexsmith, KT Tunstall, Train), was released in May 2006 in Scandinavia on Arlo and Betty, licensed to the indie label Playground Music. After spending several months in the Danish Top-40, the album was released in the U.S. and Canada on 5 September 2006 on the newly formed Equator Records, and on iTunes on 8 September 2006 and Edel Records in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.