“All the deer has to do is blink” – David Thomas and P.O. Jørgens at Jazzhouse

A small, select crowd had gathered at Jazzhouse in Copenhagen to witness a rare constellation: the experimental Danish percussionist P.O. Jørgens performing with iconic vocalist David Thomas. Since the 1970s, Thomas has been the frontman of the American rock band, Pere Ubu. The boundary-pushing outfit still exists today – but Thomas is never shy about lending his unique vocal delivery to other projects.

The evening’s concert showcased an album made up of five-year-old recordings by the Danish-American duo – only just now released. So very few could have known exactly what to expect – but an evening with Thomas is rarely wasted.

The album Live Free or Die consists of a series of small vignettes from remote corners of the USA. Two entire songs are dedicated to the eccentric Jeff McKissack, who spent years of his life building a bizarre junk playground for adults in Houston – called The Orange Show – and died of heartbreak when it failed to become the attraction he had envisioned.

Thomas tells his stories in a sort of Sprechgesang – blurring the line between speech and song, playing with every nuance of the human voice’s expressive range. Only rarely does he launch into the hysterical falsetto familiar to Pere Ubu fans – more often, his deep, rasping recitations evoke another great American original – the late Captain Beefheart. The performance borders on “jazz and poetry”, with clear traces of early Americana – that primordial folk music from long before the days of country and western.

P.O. Jørgens commands an overwhelming arsenal of percussion – from drum kits and various scrap metal to melodic instruments like marimba and zither. From song to song, the sonic landscape shifted from clattering noise to soft, harmonious textures.

There are two kinds of extraordinary musical experiences: One is hearing something unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. The other is not being bored for a single moment. It’s rare that I can tick both boxes.

But on Thursday night at Jazzhouse, I could.