in brief

03.08.2021

Hovedspring i containeren

Støberiet: »Sa(l)vages«

Ensemble K!ART havde kurateret koncertinstallationen »Sa(l)vages« på Støberiet på Nørrebro. © Gert Sørensen

Jakob Gustav Winckler. © Jakob Gustav Winckler

I hjørnet af Støberiets forsamlingslokale hænger en brudekjole af det pureste hvide plastik. Den tilhører POSY aka. James Black som bizar runaway bride i et multikøn af pap og PVC. På en skærm ses POSYs trivielle hverdag sløjfe sig som korte modløse Instagram-videoer. Hurtige sprittuschtegninger på væggen tilføjer en orakelstatus til Blacks vidunderligt mærkelige karakter – i denne installation går det trivielle og det sensationelle i hårdknude.

POSY II – The life of POSY er del af koncertinstallationen Sa(l)vages kurateret af det entreprenante ensemble K!ART. Fem solooptrædener kredser om begrebet affald/spild. To af komponisterne spiller på hjemmelavede skraldeinstrumenter. Emil Vijgens trækasse med fjedre spændt på toppen har klanglig dybde; formen efterlades dog lovligt søgende i Spring Pastludes, og Kristin Warfinges Space Junkyard taber mig omvendt i brugen af loop-sekvenser. Nærværet sættes over styr.

Neli Pantsulaias højttalerværk Just the Simplicitity of Life er et spøgelsesopkald fra 00’erne: En gruopvækkende surftur på bilradioens FM-bølger med Britney Spears og sælgerstemmer monteret med nødopkald og elektroniske støjeffekter. Before, Behind, Between, Above, Below af Connor McLean lyder også hacket. Mikkel Schou agerer cyborg: Autotunet til at være out of tune med sin westernguitar plastret til med slimede effekter.

Aftenens højdepunkt var Rob Durnins trommesæt-etude these gizmos are totally ill-suited for my birthday bash, mom: Hsiao-Tung Yuan udstyret med de underligste trommestikker i form af asiatisk snakkende højttalere, som bragte barneleg ind i en stiliseret afmontering af den kultiverede trommeslager.

Summa summarum om Sa(l)vages: Der er spildmateriale derude, som ikke må gå til spilde. Spændende idéer og lyde materialiserer sig ofte i randområderne af objekternes egentlige intention. Men jeg savnede noget mere skrald i affaldstematikken, der kun glimtvis bed fra sig.

playlist

07.04

We are DØGNKIOSK – would you like to see our playlist?

»Music for us is the perfect language that we love to speak. A language where it is the individual's feelings and imagination that determine what is right and wrong. Everyone can speak the language. You don't have to be able to write or understand, but just listen. Some music requires that you listen carefully and maybe hear it several times. A bit like when you talk to someone from Norway or Sweden, you also have to listen a little extra.«

DØGNKIOSK is a Danish punk band consisting of four middle-aged musicians with roots in the Central Jutland underground. The band plays a raw and energetic form of punk, where a naked and explosive sound is accompanied by lyrics that are significantly prominent in the soundscape. Their expression is inspired by 1980s punk and characterized by a punk poetic approach, delivered with a clear dialect. In April, DØGNKIOSK will release the album Tæt på kanten. The band's music generally revolves around challenging fixed patterns and insisting on personal freedom.

in brieflive

07.04

PowerPoint Against the Dark

Laurie Anderson with Sexmob: »Republic of Love«

DR Koncerthuset, 05.04

Martin Funder

With her characteristic curiosity, Laurie Anderson opened Sunday’s concert in DR’s concert hall with a political statement and the remark, »Thank you for your attention to this matter.« The theme of the evening was a heavy political climate, to which Anderson – like a professor emerita of the avant-garde – offered a musical framing narrative of music, slideshow, and quotes from thinkers and artists who, each in their own way, nuance an increasingly dark world. A framework in which every piece of music had a clear purpose: to evaporate any residue of convention.

Slide by slide, the audience was guided through curious glimpses of the totalitarian and the conventional. The long list of words deleted from government documents by the Trump administration, for instance, served as an introduction to »Language Is a Virus«, inspired by writer William Burroughs, who also appeared on the screen behind Anderson and the band Sexmob. So did Lou Reed, Anderson’s late husband. Dressed in a glittering jacket that, like a kind of magical Kraftwerk, triggered sounds of drums, foghorns, and cash registers, Anderson shared the couple’s three life lessons while playfully dancing and narrating.

I don’t think I’ve ever attended a concert where the entire production team – both on and off stage – was credited with rolling end titles. Yet it felt like a completely natural conclusion to Anderson’s slightly dry and remarkably hopeful PowerPoint concert. A performance that, as a delightfully deconstructive reminder, united the experimental and the concrete in a hands-on first aid kit against tyranny and oppression.

playlist

06.04

My name is Håkon Berre – would you like to see my playlist?

»Music for me is a world full of sound that you can explore, juggle with, systematize, be inspired by and form a starting point for meetings between people across cultures and generations.«

Håkon Berre (b. 1980) has made his mark as a central figure on the Danish improvised music scene. His practice is characterized by an expanded approach to percussion, where both traditional instruments and everyday objects – such as doorbells, tin plates, chains and kitchen utensils – are included in a nuanced and often unpredictable sonic expression. He has performed at clubs and festivals internationally and collaborated with a wide range of notable musicians, including Peter Brötzmann, Phil Minton, Axel Dörner, John Tchicai, Jamie Branch and Otomo Yoshihide. Berre contributes to an extensive discography with more than 40 releases, many of which on the artist-run label Barefoot Records, which he co-founded. He has also composed and arranged music for theatre and exhibitions, and worked on interactive sound installations shown in museums in Denmark and Germany. He is active in a number of ensembles and collaborations, including Ytterlandet, TEETH, VÍÍK and Mirror Matter, as well as in various duo and quartet constellations.

playlist

03.04

My name is James Black – would you like to see my playlist?

»Music is a deep, but not serious, spiritual practice, in which creator, collaborator, and consumer alike are their own personal pope.«

James Black (b. 1990) is a composer, performer, and artistic director of Klang Festival – Copenhagen Experimental Music. Originally from Bristol, England, they moved to Copenhagen in 2013. Black's works have attracted a large amount of attention both nationally and internationally for their signature combination of artistic courage and vulnerability, described by the Danish Arts Council as »a universe of real madness where everything goes«. Their work is a deep and personal exploration of topics such as religion, loss, and queer identity, that is unafraid to be stupid or serious in any direction.

playlist

02.04

My name is Christian Juncker – would you like to see my playlist?

»Music is just something for me.«

Christian Juncker is a Danish musician and songwriter who has released a number of Danish-language albums. He debuted in 1995 with the band Bloom. Together with his friend Jakob Groth Bastiansen, he formed the duo Juncker in 2002. He is also behind the Christmas carol »Luk julefreden ind« from 2024.