Anastasia Kristensen is a burgeoning producer who is based in Copenhagen that has a keen sense of what’s going down in her city; no stranger to being surrounded by good music, Kristensen has been hard at work building up her own profile, with her most recent endeavours being a remix on BLD Tape Recordings and a track on Nous Disques’s upcoming compilation.
However, even while she’s busy cracking away at tracks, we at Inverted Audio needed a voice that was prevalent within the city of Copenhagen that could get us to ingratiate ourselves into the sonic culture that’s taking notice within the city. Kristensen took some time to give us a few artists to look out for, as well as some examples, down below.
Photography by Morten Bentzon
Words by Anastasia Kristensen
Music surrounds us, but the best place to always start is what’s directly around you within your local scene. I’m constantly inspired by this in Copenhagen – its simplistic and pragmatic features make it stand out more than most.
The fact that I left my native land of Russia and live here now certainly has an impact on my creative side and – it’s what really “pushed” me into being wholeheartedly involved in DJing and production; from record digging to learning production software – there is no doubt certain artists, venues and moments in this city have taken a big part in shaping my identity here along with what I listen to, where I go and who I consider my fellow peers. So I thought to share with you some of the most inspiring figures in the Copenhagen electronic music scene coming with a little personal insight into things out here.
Bjørn Svin
Danish music veteran Bjørn Christiansen seems being quiet active in electronic music recently. A presence in the Danish and international underground scene is expressed in within his recognizable, expansive productions that are wide in frequency but always welcome an overall complex composition.
His collaboration with Carl Emil Carlsen called as “It’s Probably You” at Click Festival, that yearly takes place in Helsingør (a city in Denmark) was something not easy to describe. A 3-D show, with moving visual elements and a choreography that Bjørn seems to master quite well.
Other than admiring Bjørn Svin’s art, I have been asked to make an artistic collaboration with Bjorn. It is definitely a new level of thinking music-production for me and I am very excited to present our collaboration as a concert by the end of the month.
Nonetheless, the music itself is produced by Bjørn too and could easily be a nice addition to the background of a David Fincher film. However, the best way to experience is to just watch it for yourself.
CTRLS
The Token artist keeps surprising me with his varied sets and rich productions – if you get a chance you may find him at Culture Box or at parties produced by Fast Forward Productions here in town. Also, I find his live sets is something definitely worth experiencing at least once.
Entirely rooted in his own productions, you will not hear the same kick for 20 minutes or a looping detail that your ears will grow tired of hearing over and over. Rather it will go the other way round – a constant flow of energy that dictates every subtle sonic variation with impeccable timing. A sight to see live, Copenhagen can surely be proud of the skillful talents like Troels.
SØS Gunver Ryberg
Other than being a wonderful, and naturally inquisitive person, Søs is doing some extremely rad things here in town. Between her latest release on Contort and her sound design work for video games, Ryberg is one to take a hard, long listen to.
SØS has together with a fellow composer recently figured what sort of soundscapes resonated well within the human skull in order to apply those sounds for the game “INSIDE” developed by PlayDead Games.
Isn’t it just incredible? She performed at STRØM festival this year in the Cisterns, the only active dripstone cave, serving as a museum and venue. The trembling heavy layers of lower frequencies solidly blended with precise, hitting top – is a persistent element in her productions.
DJ HVAD
An avant-garde mixture of dub, beats, oriental motifs and peculiar samples (i.e. – barking dog) is just a very basic sentence that doesn’t come close to what this guy possesses, talent-wise. After digging music for years, and living in Copenhagen for ages, it is hard to find that specific chemical and emotional mixture that makes it works so well.
Hvad performs live, challenges the ongoing conservative sentiment in this small country and while also cutting his teeth as a cutting engineer in the city. Just like the previously two mentioned artists, DJ Hvad shocks the audience at home and abroad.
Soho Rezanejad
Born of Iranian and Danish, Soho balances a beautiful voice with terrific composition. Her music is the merge of magic dark pop, to times melancholic and other times is full of strong attitudes and statements in her lyrics. The texture of every song is ear-pleasing for any electronic music geek. “Idolatry” was definitely a solid solo production in 2015 and for this year Soho has put vocals on the latest album by Croatian Amor.
Anastasia KristensenBjørn SvinCTRLSDJ HVADSoho RezanejadSØS Gunver RybergMonasterioTechno