Tag: Copenhagen Denmark

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Trentemøller and Mew’s Jonas Bjerre Team Up on Shimmering and Anthemic “Terrified”

Anders Trentemøller’s self-titled eighth Trentemøller album is slated for a November 13, 2026 release through his In My Room Records. The self-titled album’s latest single “Terrified” feat. Mew‘s Jonas Bjerre is a collaboration that finds the Danish artists crafting an anthemic bit of uplift that’s seamlessly blend of shoegaze and twinkling, hook-driven dream pop paired with stream-of-consciousness lyrics.

Throughout the song’s runtime, Bjerre sings lyrics that focus tackling the specter of fear head-on. “When the instrumental was done, I sent it to Jonas Bjerre with a few melody ideas, which he took further while adding new melodies of his own,” Trentemøller says. He then reshaped the track, explaining “‘Terrified’ is probably the poppiest song on the album. In its original form it sounded a bit more shoegazey, but I wanted it to be crisper and clearer, less washed out. So I went for synths that almost sound like human voices, with a magical, otherworldly quality to them.”

“I think sometimes when you dream about things that make you fearful and uneasy, it’s your mind trying to prepare you for any scenario, like you’re processing catastrophes that have not and may not ever happen,” Mew’s Jonas Bjerre says of the song’s themes.

Directed by Jonas Bjerre, the accompanying video for “Terrified” is a mind-bending blend of animation, live action footage and photography that turns the collaborators’ hometown of Copenhagen into a lysergic, brightly colored dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Smag På Dig Selv’s Performs “Total Full Power Extreme Nuclear Confusion 2000” at Better Company

With the release of their full-length debut, 2024’s SDPS, Copenhagen-based jazz punks/acoustic techno trio Smag På Dig Selv (SPDS) — Oliver Lauridsen (tenor sax), Thorbjørn Øllgaard (baritone sax, bass sax, vocals) and Albert Holberg (drums) — firmly […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Copenhagen’s Bending Backwards Shares Yearning “i See You From Here”

Copenhagen-based trio Bending Backwards — Frederik Blæsild Vuust (vocals), Halfdan Stefansson (guitar) and Johannes Østlund Jacobsen (drums) — specialize in a distinctly contemporary take on alternative rock that sees sees the trio moving fluidly between dream pop, shoegaze, grunge post-punk, noise rock and folk.

Thematically, the Danish trio’s work touches upon recurring and uneasy dichotomies: the longing for home and stability and the pull of the outside world, and intimacy and disorientation. Their work also touches on love, especially between siblings, as well as reflections on distance, memory and everyday tenderness. Lyrically, Blæslid Vuust’s lyrics draw on a wide range of literary influences and references, including biblical passages, the work of T.S. Eliot, László Kraszenahhorkai and more.

As part of Copenhagen’s experimental and alternative music scenes, a loosely connected network of band and artists including the Movement Shaped Like A Heart Collective.

The trio’s latest single “I See You From Here” is also the first single off their full-length debut still and quiet, brother, are you still and quiet. Sonically channelling a synthesis of brooding post punk, indie rock and folk featuring Blæsid Vuust’s achingly tender, vulnerable delivery ethereally floating over the arrangement, “I See You From Here” describes the push and pull of an new relationship between two dysfunctional, deeply human people,

Bending Backwards describes the song as beginning with “the image of an apartment in Berlin . . . and a large park just down the road,” where two figures are placed within the scene. What follows is loose yet recurring sequences of events: They meet. They sit in the apartment just down the road rom the park .They took a walk in the park, then separate and return. The song captures that seemingly endless push and pull.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Afterlife Shares Atmospheric and Yearning “Lovers Maze”

Currently split between Paris and Copenhagen, Danish-born Olivia Danielsson is a multidisciplinary artist with a background that spans both music and fashion. Danielsson is also the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie pop solo recording project Afterlife.

With Afterlife, the Danish-born artist’s work reflects a cross-disciplinary approach in which visual and sonic elements are created in parallel. And as a result, her releases exist within a cohesive expanding universe that sees her exploring emotional and existential states unfolding through an intimate inner dialogue. Sonically, her work moves between ambient pop and experimental pop, rooted in an atmospheric, otherworldly quality.

Danielsson’s latest Afterlife single, The Bird-produced “Lovers Maze” is a hook-driven bit of electro pop featuring glistening synth arpeggios effortlessly gliding over a pulsing, Giorgio Moroder-like baseline paired with the Danish artist’s ethereal and yearning croon. The result is a song that evokes the sort of woozy, euphoric haze shared in the intimate moments between lovers with an uncanny, seemingly lived-in precision.

Shot on grainy VHS-styled analog film, the accompanying video follows the Danish artist in a long red dress wandering through a Danish forest. It’s one part music video, one-part fashion shoot.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Britney Freud Shares Broodingly Atmospheric “Feelings For Violence”

Dragut Lugalzagosi is a Copenhagen-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind the emerging solo project Britney Freud. And with Britney Freud, Lugalzagosi explores masculinity, vulnerability, love without focus on gender while advocating for men and boys to be more open about their feelings and emotions. He describes the project’s sound as “tender crooner noise, catchy limbo punk and a fresh take on indie rock.”

The Copenhagen-based artist’s Britney Freud debut single, “Feeling For Violence” is a brooding and atmospheric tune, featuring bursts of shimmering guitars, a supple and propulsive bass line, buzzing bass synths and a wobbling violin solo serving as a lush bed for Lugalzagosi’s achingly tender baritone croon singing lyrics lamenting the difficult end of an important friendship. The song’s narrator admits his complicated and conflicted feelings about the friendship and his friends with an unvarnished, unflinchingly honesty and vulnerability: The sense of hurt, betrayal and love the narrator feels is both palpable and deeply lived-in.

“An important friend relationship went to pieces and I felt lost, so I wrote this song and went to therapy. It helped. I still love him,” Lugalzagosi explains.

Directed, filmed and edited by Pelle Raft Calum, the accompanying video for “Feelings For Violence” follows a burned-out finance bro dancing and vamping on a high school track. He winds up in the woods where he explodes in violent frustration before collapsing from exhaustion. At some point, a disheveled figure, perhaps Britney Freud appears and offers the burned-out finance bro a comforting, understanding hug.

“We men dominate in several discouraging statistics and I’ve known boys and men who have committed violence, self-harm and suicide,” Lugalzagsoi says. “They’ve lacked a language for their emotions and a sense of being seen in a world of sometimes claustrophobic gender roles, norm porn and taboos. I often find it difficult myself navigating in being a man and opening up so let’s just have it: More love between men.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: ssiv Shares Gorgeous, Painterly “all the time”

ssiv is an emerging Danish indie out that features three, individually accomplished musicians:

  • Stephen (bass, vocals), an American-born musician, who recorded and toured for over seven years as a member of Los Angeles-based psych rock band Triptides, an act that has made the run of the global festival circuit with sets at Desert Daze and LEVITATION France. He’s a founding member of experimental pop band Cosmo Gold. And he has a solo recording project Little Rituals.

  • Sasha (guitar, vocals) is a Copenhagen-based multi-instrumentalist, who originally began her career in earnest as a jazz singer, before gradually moving towards writing her own original material, which saw her experimenting across genres and styles. Since then, the Danish-born and-based artist has become a local underground scene stalwart working in a number of different projects singing, playing bass, guitar and piano.

  • Sara (drums, vocals) is a Copenhagen-based drummer rooted in pop and indie music. She is drawn to what she describes as “the living improvisation between musicians — the presence and spontaneity that allow a song to expand beyond itself.” She has played in a number of Danish-based acts including Noras Have, Radiant Arcadia, Højkvist, Kara Moon, Gurli Octavia and Josa Barck. Currently she plays with Ameli Dot and Johanne.

ssiv can trace the origin back to when Sara and Stephen shared a rehearsal room and decided to jam. After some jam sessions, Sara invited her long-time collaborator and friend Sasha to join in. Their first session as a trio, which they recorded, became “a beautiful, 2-hour fluid improvisation,” as they described.

Listening back, they realized that they had many ideas already taking root. They counted meeting, developing fragments from those early recordings and occasionally writing lyrics together on-the-fly. Eventually, the trio decided to call it a band, although they didn’t originally intend to start one. As they explain, “we didn’t want to ruin the magic.”

The band’s name manages to reflect that carefree attitude. “It’s an ‘s’ for each of other names, it means nothing really — a ‘non-name’ for our ‘non-band.'”

Sonically, the trio work in a trust-based space between dream pop, psych pop and indie folk, rooted in collective improvisation and strict limitations with arrangements anchored around guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and drawing from the likes of Galaxie 500, Low, Yo La Tengo and Big Thief. They view their work as quietly human in a cultural moment increasingly defined by generative AI systems and perfectionism.

The Copenhagen-based trio’s debut EP, 2024’s ssiv 1 drew from their first jam session, while their sophomore effort, between 1 and 2, which was released earlier this year was “made from spontaneous improvisations from another gathering.”

Their latest single “all the time” is a gorgeous, painterly tune that seemingly channels Slowdive and Forever So-era Husky that feels both improvised and deliberately crafted while showcasing their equally gorgeous harmonies.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: SPDS Returns with Trance-inducing Banger “Like A Word I Never Knew”

With the release of 2024’s full-length debut, SDPS, Copenhagen-based acoustic techno/jazz punks Smag På Dig Selv (SPDS) — Oliver Lauridsen (tenor sax), Thorbjørn Øllgaard (baritone sax, bass sax, vocals) and Albert Holberg (drums) — firmly cemented their reputation as one of most boundary pushing groups in the contemporary Danish scene. With a sound that’s an explosive, party starting mixture of acoustic techno, punk energy, jazz and 90s EDM, the Danish trio have begun to make the round of the international festival and touring circuit, playing sets at Roskilde Festival, SXSW, The Great Escape, Eurosonic, Winter Jazzfest NYC and Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage. 

SPDS’s highly-anticipated sophomore album This Is Why We Lost is slated for a March 2026 through Stunt Records. The album will feature the previously released, TMI Tammi-produced “Let’s Go!,” “Vik’s Rawcore,” which sees the trio collaborating with vibraphonist Viktoria Søndergaard, and the album’s fourth and final, pre-release single “Like A Word I Never Knew.”

Arguably one of the darker songs on the album, “Like A Word I Never Knew,” is a trance-inducing and forcefully propulsive club banger paired with a modal-era Miles Davis-like introspective lyricism. Recorded during the final phase of album sessions, “Like A Word I Never Knew,” captures a moment of transition. As summer inevitably faded into yet another autumn and the band wrapped up their final shows of the season, they entered the studio with a noticeably calmer, more introspective energy. And the result is a track driven by focus, restraint and deep emotional weight.

For the band, the song reflects the core ambition behind the forthcoming album: to create music that can exist within a trance or club-orientated setting while still carrying a strong melodic and narrative arc.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Dam CPH Shares Yearning and Anthemic “Whisper Desire”

Dam CPH is a Copenhagen-based producer and songwriter, who crafts emotional, melody-driven music ranging from intimate, cinematic pieces to neon-lit 80s-styled synth pop.

The Danish artist released their full-length debut, Roots and Wings earlier this year. Roots and Wings saw Dam CPH exploring organic, orchestral arrangements. His sophomore effort, the recently released Whisper Desire sees him diving into sensual, dance synth pop featuring both male and female vocalists. With both albums, the common thread is his knack for catchy hooks, a blend of Nordic melancholy and hope and storytelling as song-driven lyrics.

Whisper Desire‘s latest single, album title track “Whisper Desire” is slow-burning and cinematic, 80s-styled synth pop ballad featuring a sultry and yearning vocal over glistening and oscillating synths and big, rousing hook and chorus. Seemingly channelling acts like ACES and others, “Whisper Desire” is the sort of song you want to slow dance with that love interest or situationship that you want more from.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Trentemøller’s Atmospheric Take on “Silent Night”

Copenhagen-based producer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, electronic music artist and Trentemøller creative mastermind Anders Trentemøller has a long-held reputation for creating extraordinarily memorable melodies paired with brooding and dark soundscapes. Throughout his career, the Danish artist’s work has frequently explored contrasts, paradoxes, reminiscence and remembrance — but while eschewing overt nostalgia.

Trentemøller’s sixth album, last year’s 10-song Dreamweaver saw the acclaimed Dane meshing elements of shoegaze, darkwave, komische musik and noise rock with somber, introspective takes on dream pop — but in a decidedly immersive and psychedelic fashion that’s perfect for repeated listens on headphones. Icelandic vocalist DiSA contributes vocals on nine of the album’s 10 tracks.

His first single since the release of Dreamweaver sees the Copenhagen-based tackling the classic and beloved Christmas carol, “Silent Night.” The Trentemøller rendition of “Silent Night” features his girlfriend Lisbet Fritze, whose ethereal delivery sings the song’s beloved melody paired with a wintry arrangement of churning guitar, twinkling bells, drum machine-driven beats and atmospheric synths. The song evokes both Christmas time generally and what Christmastime would look like and feel in his native Denmark — cold winters, fireplaces, ice skating, carolers, Christmas markets and the like, but with mix of gentle, sepia-toned nostalgia and a modern sensibility.

The cover is extremely fitting. The acclaimed Danish artist has always loved Christmas. Since childhood. the season has held a special place for him, and for years he wanted to record his own version of one of the great Christmas songs. He chose Silent Night for his timeless melody, which for him captures the essence of Christmas.

Originally written as a lullaby, the song took on new meaning after Trentemøller became a father. Lisbet Fritze’s vocals and the single’s cover art, a Christmastime photo of a young Anders Trentemøller with his mother give the single a deeply personal yet universal touch. After all, with the coming of a new year, many of us look simultaneously back into the past remembering moments with loved ones no longer with us and into the future, hoping for long-lasting peace, love and understanding for all.

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Smag På Dig Selv Teams Up with Viktoria Søndergaard on Thumping “Vik’s Rawcore”

With the release of last year’s full-length debut, SDPS, Copenhagen-based jazz punks Smag På Dig Selv (SPDS) — Oliver Lauridsen (tenor sax), Thorbjørn Øllgaard (baritone sax, bass sax, vocals) and Albert Holberg (drums) — firmly cemented their reputation as one of most boundary pushing groups out on the contemporary Danish scene. With a sound that’s an explosive, party starting mixture of acoustic techno, punk energy, jazz and 90s EDM, the Danish trio have begun to make the round of the international festival and touring circuit, playing sets at Roskilde Festival, SXSW, The Great Escape, Eurosonic, Winter Jazzfest NYC and Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage. 

SPDS’s highly-anticipated sophomore album is slated for a March 2026 through Stunt Records. The album will feature the previously released, TMI Tammi-produced “Let’s Go!,” a mix sneering, in-your-face punk attitude, ambient electronics, pulsing beats, thunderous Viking drumming and modal-influenced jazz that’s mind-bending, mischievously unhinged yet accessible and dance floor friendly. 

The album’s third and latest single, “Vik’s Rawcore” sees the rising Danish trio collaborating with vibraphonist Viktoria Søndergaard on a track that’s a mischievous blend of jazz lyricism and the relentless, industrial-inspired club rocking thump of drum ‘n’ bass while adding a gorgeous sense of counterpoint and texture.

The composition was inspired by Oliver Lauridsen’s time in Holland, where he became immersed in the local underground scene.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Denmark’s Catcase Shares Brooding “Technicolored Eyes”

Initially, founded by Danish singer/songwriter and guitarist Lasse B. Beck, who also split time in Syringe and The Love Coffin, as a bedroom project that’s the culmination of years of tormented sensitivity, frustration and self-reflection, Catcase expanded to a full band last year with the addition of Beck’s brother Niclas Berg Christiansen, a member of Shiver Less and The Road to Suicide; Deadpan‘s and Sanderson & the Charabancs‘ Max Cosiner; Chopper‘s Josephine Alicia; Jane’s and Chopper’s Jason Lee Cameron; and Leizure’s, Tugboat‘s and Sanderson & the Charabancs’ Mathias Gørtz, who were enlisted to flesh out Beck’s artistic vision.

Sonically, the band draws from an eclectic array of influences: Australasian post-punk, sophistipop, jangle pop and dream pop with nods to Spiritualized, The Go-Betweens, Rowland S. Howard, Xiu Xiu, Prefab Sprout and My Bloody Valentine. And yet, the Danish sextet claims kinship with contemporaries like Strange Ranger, Bleary Eyed and Nyxy Nyx among others.

Slated for a February 20, 2026 release through Pink Cotton Candy Records, the band’s Kristian Alexander-produced full-length debut, As It Reels was recorded earlier this year at Copenhagen‘s Royal Danish Academy of Music. As It Reels‘ first single “Technicolored Eyes” is an eerie and brooding bit of art rock that channels Priest = Aura-era The Church with subtle dream pop and grunge-inspired flourishes that showcases the band’s ability to craft a rousingly anthemic hook and chorus, while being anchored earnest, lived-in songwriting.

Lyrically, the song evokes a liminal state familiar to my fellow night owls out there: The often lonely trip home after a night out of hijinks and adventures as the sun rises. And if you’re as familiar with it as I am, that trip home is throbbing mass of impressions, informed by nostalgia, loneliness, drunkenness.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Copenhagen’s Smag På Dig Selv Shares Pulsing, Dance Floor Friendly “Let’s Go!”

With the release of last year’s full-length debut, SDPS, Copenhagen-based jazz punks Smag På Dig Selv (SPDS) — Oliver Lauridsen (tenor sax), Thorbjørn Øllgaard (baritone sax, bass sax, vocals) and Albert Holberg (drums) — firmly cemented the trio’s reputation as one of most boundary pushing groups out on the contemporary Danish scene. With a sound that’s an explosive, party starting mixture of acoustic techno, punk energy, jazz and 90s EDM, the Danish trio have begun to make the round of the international festival and touring circuit, playing sets at Roskilde Festival, SXSW, The Great Escape, Eurosonic, Winter Jazzfest NYC and Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage.

SPDS’s highly-anticipated sophomore album is slated for a March 2026 through Stunt Records. The album’s second and latest single, the TMI Tammi-produced “Let’s Go!” The track is a mix of sneering, in-your-face punk attitude, ambient electronics, pulsing beats, thunderous Viking drumming and modal-influenced jazz that’s mind-bending, mischievously unhinged yet accessible and dance floor friendly.

“Let’s Go!” was composed last October. The band retreated to Albert Holberg’s 200 year-old summer cottage in the idyllic landscapes of North Zealand for a weeklong writing session. Originally, the plan was to create techno, but the autumnal, Bon Iver-like atmosphere shifted the overall mood. Instead, the trio leaned into simply being a band, playing together n silence and letting the music speak. And what would up emerging was a compromise between their initial intentions and a newfound urge to explore the idea of “ambient Viking band” — brought to life with TMI Carmen’s swaggering, maximalist production.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Copenhagen’s Young Couple Shares Brooding “As the Leaves Unfold”

Copenhagen-based art rock/experimental art rock outfit Young Couple — Jonas Tøibner (vocals, guitar), Mikkel Kruse (bass), Eigil Fauerskov (guitar), Jens Brøndum (saxophone), and Christian Hafdrup (drums) — have crafted a intimate and unpredictable sound that sits within the intersection of post-rock, dream pop and neo-psychedelia featuring complex rhythmic structures, glitchy electronics, shoegazer like guitar textures and brooding sax lines paired with yearning vocals singing abstract lyrics full of fleeting, evasive images, describing an emotional landscape where love, dreams and friendships often intertwine.

The quintet have made a name for themselves in the Danish underground scene, playing shows with Jenny, Himmelrum and Bishbusch while members of the band have also played with Martha Elisabeth, Niko Corlin and Vakt. Building upon a growing profile in the Danish scene, Young Couple’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, yc is slated for a November 7, 2025 release through Pink Cotton Candy Records.

yc is the culmination of years of close friendship, extermination and musical exploration that reportedly sees the band pairing warm, organic instrumentation with layers of processing and effects. While drawing from shoegaze, post-rock and experimental pop, yc‘s material pushes the boundaries of those genres into something simultaneously familiar yet new. Thriving on contrast, texture and space, the Danish outfit’s full-length debut evokes a nocturnal, urban atmosphere perfect for listening on headphones late night.

yc’s first single “As the Leaves Unfold,” is a slow-burning and brooding tune that draws from and meshes elements of post rock, art rock, post punk, indie rock and shoegaze that captures an uneasy tension between the inner and outer worlds of its narrator with a precise attention to psychological realism. According to the band, “As the Leaves Unfold” is an exploration of “the small mysteries of everyday life,” and an optimism rooted in the belief that the most profound discovers of our lives can hide under the smallest of stones.

Adhering to long-held DIY ethos, the band accompany the new single with a completely self-made video, that features snippets of every day life full of symbolism — sunset at the beach, a major bicycle race, a boat ride in Arctic-like waters and more.