“One of the songs on the album Songs in the Key of CollaboraRon, the arRsRc PhD product, was cowritten with South African Justine Hansen, who grew up in a home with illness and financial problems, where she was the oldest child in a large sibling group.
– “She grew up with this enormous sense of duty to make sure her five siblings get through their childhood unscathed. When you are shaped by that, it is also the prism through which you see the world, says Martin Høybye. Today, Justine Hansen lives in the more affluent neighborhood of Constantia, as she managed to get an education and subsequently start a business with her husband. Martin Høybye says that Justine Hansen called her home a “sanctuary” – a place where she was able to breathe and where the door is open if others in the family need a roof over their heads.<
The story of such a sanctuary is featured in the song “Freedom is a State of Mind”, which is released today. The song highlights the fact that we need to make sure we protect the places where we can breathe – especially in today’s high-speed world. According to Martin Høybye, the song’s narrative symbolizes both the outer and inner sanctuaries:
– It is a call to protect places where we can be ourselves – whether they are tangible or more indefinable. Protecting them from being slowly taken over amidst the interconnected crises that characterize our time,” he explains.”