Artist Profiles: Mikael Jorgensen

“The Nord Stage is a welcome addition to the world of professional keyboards.  Instead of catering to the workstation crowd, the Nord Stage appeals directly to the keyboardist who appreciates the delicate sounds of vintage, and often fragile, keyboards of the late 20th century.  Each section of the Nord Stage is respectful and near-effortless to navigate.

The Nord Stage is immediate.  Want to wash out a piano sound in a reverb wash?  Push the reverb "on" button and rotate the knob fully clockwise.  Many other performance based effects can be easily accessed and changed and assigned to foot controllers, aftertouch, etc..., incredibly quickly. In a world of soft-knobs, its refreshing to be able to reach for a dedicated knob or button during a show and adjust it, and then save the whole setup mid-song without interrupting the audio.” - Mikael Jorgensen, keyboardist for Wilco

Gear:Stage EX 88, Lead 2X

Bio:
Mikael Jorgensen is lead pianist and keyboardist for the band Wilco as well as a member of the band Pronto. He first appeared on Wilco's 2004 release, A Ghost Is Born. On that album, he received songwriting credit for "Hell is Chrome" and "Theologians".

Jorgensen, an ex-Chicago-based engineer and now full time musician initially came aboard to perform real-time sound manipulations on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tour, sitting just off stage left, triggering the samples and sonic flourishes required to bring the YHF material to life. As the tour rolled on, Jorgensen gradually moved onto the stage itself, manning his laptop as well as taking on more and more keyboard duties. Since his days in Chicago, Mikael has relocated to Brooklyn, NY, where he currently resides.