Af Ida Selvejer Faaborg

Pernille Abd-El Dayem udgav tidligere i april sin anden bog, “June”. Det er socialrealisme, af den drømmende slags, om relationer, ensomhed, kærligheden til det ødelagte og ønsket om at kunne holde sammen på sig selv. Et par uger inden udgivelsen af “June” blev noget så bemærkelsesværdigt som en titelsang til bogen offentliggjort. Sangen ”Beige Mur Med Z” er lavet af June Orchestra og udkom via det københavnske selskab Visage. Her bliver der gjort brug af klassiske instrumenter som klaver, violin, fløjte og horn, hvor hvert instrument indtager en meget selvstændig plads i sangen og leder tankerne hen på kammermusik. Lyrikken i sangen, der bliver sunget flerstemmigt (men af den samme stemme), er en parafrase af et teksten “En Beige Mur” fra romanen.

Bogen bevæger sig i mellem to tekstspor. Det ene spor kredser om den unge Junes ferieophold, hvor hun dagdrømmende og ensom vandrer rundt i den italienske by Porousa og bl.a. møder den fascinerende og mystiske kvinde Z, som hun famlende indleder et venskab med. Det andet spor indeholder glimtvise erindringer om Junes barndom og opvækst i boligområdet Engrylehaven, med den bestemte mor, den lettere grænseløse morfar og onklen, der er heroinmisbruger og ikke kan holde sammen på sig selv.

P/A mødte Pernille Abd-El Dayem til en snak om romanen, idéen bag titelsangen og om hvad disse to værker gør for hinanden. Læs resten

By Simon Christensen – Photo: Stole it from your Facebook, sorry!

Contributing to a warm and immigration friendly climate in the musical underground, the electronic- and avantgarde-scenes of Copenhagen have been a hub for a lot of great people stopping by Denmark for longer or shorter periods of time. It’s not necessarily a public secret, but, to me at least, it’s something to bear in mind, when I choose my parties.

One of the more overlooked Copenhagen-based organisers is the open collective called ZONE, run by musicians and art school-friends Toby Ridler and Lorenzo Tebano. Toby still lives in Berlin, but is moving to Copenhagen this summer. Zone Collective have been setting up concerts and club nights in Glasgow, London, around the UK, and during the past year touring Europe out of the Copenhagen-base, where Mayhem has been their main playground in public. Læs resten

Rewire Festival, The Hague, Netherlands, April 6-8 2018 – live report by Mette Slot Johnsen. Photo by Pieter Kers, Rewire.

In its 8th year Rewire Festival – The Hague’s festival for adventurous music – is adding a new concept to the already progressive programming. The Artist In Focus strand is the festival’s attempt to go further in-depth with two selected artists; a headliner and a New Artist in Focus, i.e. an upcoming artist. Each artist participates in talks and performances and has several works presented in various forms throughout the weekend.

This year’s Artist in Focus is befittingly Laurie Anderson. Crossing decades, music genres, and art forms she makes a perfect – and very popular – first pick. She hits squarely in the musical heart and head of the Rewire audience. Læs resten

Af Alexander Julin

Intonal Festival startede i 2014 med en hjælpende hånd fra bl.a. CTM Festival og Unsound. Festivalen er med årene blevet et mere selvstændigt foretagende, hvis kuratering vidner om en særegen profil, der ikke blot er sammenfaldende med de aktører, der i sin tid bidrog til at etablere Intonal. For fjerde år er Intonal med til at sætte Malmö på landkortet og derved gøre op med enhver given antagelse om, at de mest interessante kulturelle begivenheder nødvendigvis finder sted i eller omkring hovedstadsområdet. Læs resten

Reportage from The Empire Line, Varg, Croatian Amor, Vanity Productions at Blå, Oslo, 22.03.2018. Text and images by Cameron Pagett.

There is a river which runs through the heart of Oslo. Beginning in the mountains and trickling its way down from the Artic sea on the northern tip of our continent, past fjords and craggy peaks which carve the stocking shaped country’s landscape into an epic, serene and quiet place. The sun is out and snow covers most of the hilly and forested terrain as we begin our final approach into Oslo. The closer we get to land the more visible the open spaces cutting through the trees reveal themselves as ski slopes and the entire country begin’s to resemble one giant ski resort. It’s early afternoon when we land, and I am seated some way behind Posh Isolation founders Christian Stadsgaard and Loke Rahbek, who after a decade of releasing music out of a DIY-ethic in Copenhagen are now traveling with international acclaim. It’s my own first time in the country and for Stadsgaard his first in 11 years, and a first ever showcase here for Posh Isolation. After a brief rendezvous at a convenience market in the airport we separate without words to our lodging places beginning what would be an interesting evening in the last major city of the North. The sun is shining, the snow is melting and the river runs with momentum along the clean and well manicured banks before meeting the inner fjord on which the city stands. Somewhere near the end of the river is a brick building covered in graffiti named Blå. Now an establishment, and opened since 1998 this river-side, somewhat historic and unassuming space would be the host for our evening.

Children step into the train with ski’s and snow-suits (quite regular I hear) as I exit into the city centrum and head to my Airbnb. There are a few hours to spare before the show, and walking around feels like visiting an old friend in a new place. Passing the Nobel Prize house and the Museum for Surrealist Painter Edvard Munch, I get the idea that this place holds everything I have heard about but couldn’t locate from first-hand memory. Slinking atop a small table in the dark my Airbnb host who closely resembles an opiated railway worker from the 1800’s crossed with mid-life Gollum looks at me suspiciously when I arrive. After some convincing that it was me he was hosting, he asks me if I can just come back later because he is not ready. I am not too fond of the idea, and I am put in a made-over closet for the night. Luckily the bed isn’t half bad, and even though he won’t stop staring at me from his table-top perch by the corner near the door I feel happy that the night will soon begin. Oslo is a small city, smaller then Copenhagen, I am staying on the opposite end of the city from Blå and its only a 20 minute walk. Camera is in my backpack, time to move, it will be a tale of two or possibly an endless night. Læs resten

From minimalistic set up to extraordinary executing on the stages. This year’s edition of the annual festival MaerzMusik in Berlin was a hydra of different kinds of political critique of modern culture through contemporary music and sound. Sandra S. Borch highlights a carefully selected set of key performances during the 10-day long festival.

Læs resten

Yves Tumor, Khalil, Scandinavian Star and Soho Rezanejad hosted by Lowlife Scum and Knife Magazine at Mayhem 23.3.2018. Review and all photos by Cameron Pagett.

“Don’t fuck with my shield! Don’t fuck with my shield! …”

It’s the fourth and final set on a crowded Mayhem night and the headliner Yves Tumor has broken or rather, ripped his way through his plastic cage which had separated him from the audience for much of the first portion of his set. The music, or rather the drilling, cerebral, sordid symphony of siren like noise complete with jackhammering, invasive vocals called from the fog for a sense of security. Young men scurried from the imaginary room once partitioned by painter’s plastic which still adorned the majority of empty wallspace in the room.

“Don’t fuck with my shield! Don’t fuck with my shield!” Cries for respect in the midst of full body assault sound filled the space momentarily. Yves stares into a young woman’s eyes standing beyond the table with his controls resting on it. Stares into her eyes possessed with the same madness jolting from the speakers. This is aggressive. Engage or leave.

Mayhem. Læs resten