Black’s work consists of a deep and personal exploration of themes such as queer identity, Catholicism, trauma, grief, and loss. Unafraid to be serious or silly in any direction, Black’s works have attracted a large amount of international attention with their signature blend of courage, vulnerability, and insanity. Black has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Carl Nielsen Talent Prize and the large working grant of the Danish Arts Council. In 2022, Black was appointed artistic director of Klang festival, Denmark’s largest experimental music festival.
The renowned composer of exquisite, painful excess
Seismograf, 2022
…moves in a space that no longer needs distinctions between tonal or atonal, composition or liveperformance, pop or experimental music, but moves incessantly in all conceivable directions
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 2017
With James Black, you encounter a universe of real madness where 'everything goes'. Where DIY video, hopeless choreographed performances, and accurately notated score … in a deliberately unsightly mix make up the work. The impossible is a deliberate dogma resulting in a unified expression, which is chaotic and almost gallows humorous, but where one senses a composer who ultimately has complete control over the final result.
Danish Arts Council, 2020