Dream Theory – A bracing weekend retreat
Reportage by Ivna Franić. Photos by Caroline Bittencourt.
Following a train and bus ride through heavy rain, sunshine, gray clouds, a shower, and clear skies — in typical Danish summer tradition, all within barely two hours — the island of Møn finally came into view. Hidden from the road behind a small parking lot, nestled in Askeby’s bucolic landscape, Kunsthal 44Møen was already welcoming visitors for Dream Theory, a “two-day sound ritual” that took place on the first weekend of August.
Like the rest of this year’s Kunsthal 44Møen program, curated by South into North, Dream Theory was envisioned as an exploration of the permeability of “thin places” — the delicate boundaries between the earthly and the spiritual. Put together by NERO, a Rome-based international publishing house focused on contemporary art and theory, the festival set out to question the boundaries between the organic and the synthetic, between physical reality and the dream state through a predominantly musical program.
The conceptual framework relied, in part, on the concepts outlined in the NERO Magazine piece, “The Synthetic Sacred,” by researcher Lucy Rose Sollitt, who opened the program with a relatively restrained lecture that outlined the festival’s themes. Balz Isler’s long-distance online performance, “A-Proxy-Mentally,” gave those ideas a more tangible form by layering and reassembling video and sound fragments into a cacophonous phantasmagoria of processed information, thoughts, and reactions, probing the thin line between the material and the oneiric.
In the clear
Thunderstorms threatened the outdoor performances, but the sky cleared just in time for a hybrid set by Felisha Ledesma, a US artist who has slowly but surely become a regional household name in dreamy ambient music since relocating to Malmö some years ago. The audience took to the tree stumps and benches in the field outside Kunsthal; beyond the stage, the ever-flat Danish landscape offered a view that stretched for days, while waves of sound from the speakers swallowed everything in their path. The mood seemed to change together with the weather, the set becoming progressively more assertive as the clouds drifted further away until they had entirely cleared by the end. As it later turned out, the potentially awkward 6 p.m. time slot was actually a sort of headliner spot, where daytime museum visitors converged with weekend festival attendees.
Back inside the hall where we had previously seen the lecture and online performance, the crowd was already deep in the zone. The collaboration featuring CTM on cello, Mija Milović on keyboards, and Rune Kielsgaard on drums exuded the impression of a seasoned, full-fledged band. Channeling ’90s slowcore vibes combined with Danish scenes’ distinct offbeat avant-garde leanings, the trio confidently settled into a richly layered sound, creating a slow-moving, lucid haze.
Mu Tate, Latvian expat known for his weightless productions, led us gently into the night. He closed out the field stage program for the day, setting the foundation for the intimate indoor party spearheaded by Lee Gamble. Although the UK producer was arguably the biggest name on the lineup, the festival seemed unconcerned or outright opposed to establishing any sort of hierarchy among the acts. The party possessed the particular charm unique to small-scale festivals and, regardless of the impression the modest but enthusiastic crowd had from his side of the DJ table, I hope Lee Gamble could tell that we were all having an absolute blast. There was not to be an after-party at the Kunsthal – the hosts’ authority was unyielding, and besides, we were in the middle of nowhere, left only to our own conversational devices.
“(…) it was greatly satisfying that organizers didn’t resort to the low-hanging fruit of hosting an all-night sleeping concert at a festival called Dream Theory.”
The only suggested addition to the day’s lineup arose from the slightly inebriated idea that they could have booked an astronomer to wrap up the evening by having us lie in the field and pointing out what we could see in Møn’s crystal-clear, unpolluted night sky. But perhaps that came from a personal memory of visiting an observatory with a guide who had the softest, most soothing ASMR whisper, which fit perfectly with talk about the stars — and which would fit right in here. In any case, it was greatly satisfying that organizers didn’t resort to the low-hanging fruit of hosting an all-night sleeping concert at a festival called “Dream Theory”.
Daytime sound rituals
The morning sky was decidedly less clear, with rain pouring mercilessly from the early hours, creating ideal sleeping conditions but raising questions about how the second day of the festival would pan out. Thankfully, the plan seemed to be in order, and a trio consisting of Heidemann, Mingot, and Klint was already set up in the indoor hall; all the big doors sat open, inviting the still-drowsy, rain-soaked audience to take a seat, coffee in hand.
This was not the first time that Villads Klint — perhaps better known by his Minais B moniker — and Frederik Heidemann, a composer, artist, and The Lake Radio fixture, joined forces with artist Victoria Mingot. However, it was a rare and welcome appearance for the trio. A perfect start to a befuddling late morning — Klint’s gentle repetition of tones on the keyboard provided a backdrop for Heidemann and Mingot’s equally delicate interplay on the flute and zither.
“Experiencing a show soon after waking up provided a completely different type of emotional and atmospheric context than usual evening concert times.”
It was somewhere early in their set that the festival concept had fully clicked. Clearly, kicking off the second day immediately in the morning was more than a practical decision to ensure that people could leave the island in good time before Sunday evening. Experiencing a show soon after waking up provided a completely different type of emotional and atmospheric context than usual evening concert times. You’re caught in a more vulnerable, unprepared state, poised to fully absorb the vibe the artists project. Having Heidemann, Mingot, and Klint concoct such a lovely, delicate mood over the course of their hour-long fluent exchange only added to the enchantment.
Over at another semi-indoor spot overlooking the field stretching from the Kunsthal’s grounds, the next few sets offered a more dramaturgically structured exploration of the porous border between the soporific and the dissolving reality. Lara Rix-Martin’s ambient IDM project Meemo Comma deftly navigated the abrupt shifts in mood and style between lush melodies and vibrant beats, while Berlin-based artist Pyur methodically built the gradual energy flow from ambient crackles to a blissful trance, capped off by an actual butterfly landing on her. To top it all off, Flora Yin Wong’s set ebbed and flowed between layers of noise, brief rhythmic sections, and an almost pastoral ambiance, with vocal samples dissolving into the ether. Loops, reverb, and smoke machine haze maintained the disorienting feeling of a gray Sunday.
“The setup of the performance single-handedly justified Dream Theory’s tagline as a two-day “sound ritual” (…)”
Coming full circle with a multidisciplinary performance, the two-day gathering culminated in “MA HA WISU, Meet Me at the Crossroads,” a collaboration between electronic producer and DJ Nkisi and transdisciplinary artist Joshua Woolford. The sound of an alarm, presumably triggered by a smoke machine, fit neatly with the beginning of the performance. It took the audience several minutes of ear-piercing sirens to realize that it was not part of Nkisi’s sound design. After a brief break to resolve the situation, we reconvened for another attempt, this time successful.
The setup of the performance single-handedly justified Dream Theory’s tagline as a two-day “sound ritual”, with black candles lit in a circle around Nkisi and small piles of sand interspersed throughout. The sound slowly unfolded from blurred chants backed by noise and percussive elements into sharper beats and singing. Meanwhile, Woolford moved around the space, interpreting body movements as purposefully exaggerated by a Eurocentric lens, changing costumes, and ultimately delivering a powerful spoken-word piece.
Fleshing out the uncanny
It was a strong finale to the festival that also served as a reminder of the gaping hole left by the uncertain dissolution of Helsingør’s Click Festival. This was a rare opportunity to experience cutting-edge music and performance art together, tied together by a unifying conceptual framework. Achieving more than many other festivals with vague theoretical foundations slapped onto their press releases, Dream Theory exuded confidence in its program every step of the way. Each set flowed almost perfectly into the next, with ample time allotted for every performance. It gave everyone enough time to build their set slowly, with most of them flowing freely around the one-hour mark rather than being crammed one after another into the usual limited-time festival slots.
Quality curation can elevate a festival from a mere opportunity to see some of your favorite artists in one place over a limited period of time to a compelling, cohesive experience. In a time when promoters and bookers casually promote themselves into curators without substantially modifying their roles, it’s refreshing to experience a festival dedicated to its conceptual framework that avoids the pitfalls both of adhering to trends and of becoming overly esoteric and self-indulgent.
Looking at the lineup, aside from the fact that it included many impressive names, it wasn’t immediately obvious how or why these particular artists were grouped together. They aren’t necessarily part of the same labels or scenes, and you wouldn’t typically find one of these artists referenced in a review of another’s work. What’s more, hardly any of them are currently touring to promote new releases. Taking in all the performances over the two days of the festival, however, clearly revealed common threads among the artists and their practices.
Their focus on the physicality of sound in fleshing out the uncanny is but one of the ways they provide warmth and groundedness to the weightless, hypnagogic moods, and presence to introspection. The often nature-inspired sounds of field recordings (dis)placed into an actual natural habitat bring out an additional layer of the sound image through the immediate physical context. The tranquility here is not to be mistaken for complacency, as the experimental, ambient-leaning soundscapes presented at Dream Theory sought to engage with the increasingly bleak reality by probing the liminal space rather than offering an escape into a delusional utopian fantasy.
The festival’s intimate setting proved to be another key aspect of the immersive experience, and not merely a byproduct of the challenges of attracting a large crowd out to the countryside. The festival’s entire setup emphasized this, eschewing spectacle and insta-worthy backdrops in favor of focusing on firsthand experience, the local audience, and the opportunity for everyone — artists, organizers, and audience members — to mingle and connect. This, in particular, is an impression that has become extremely difficult to achieve, often due to the challenges of securing funding and the subsequent demand for quantitatively measurable investment value.
Here’s hoping the team behind Dream Theory conjures up another one of these gatherings next year. While the Danish summer festival landscape is increasingly packed with content, there also seems to be ample room for a well-thought-out niche event such as this one.
Info: Dream Theory took place at Kunsthal 44Møn on August 1 and 2, 2025.
