The Dust Would Not Settle on the Organs

Organ Sound Art Festival: Mads Emil Dreyer, Gamut inc., Aron Dahl & Mija Milovic

These days, Organ Sound Art Festival is taking place in its familiar setting at KoncertKirken, and yesterday marked the festival’s second day. The concert opened with revivals of Mads Emil Dreyer’s Vidder 1 and 4, along with a newly composed interlude for pump organ, house organ, keys, and bass flute – all instruments amplified. In this way, Dreyer obscured the sources of the sounds and created a beautiful interplay between the acoustic, the amplified, and the played-back. Was it the flute or the organ I was hearing? And did the sound come from an instrument or a loudspeaker? The music bore the mark of drone music, with beautiful dissonances and a tonal development that occasionally peeked through. Enchanting and compelling.

In the next performance, the German duo Gamut inc. had fitted the church organ with two robots, allowing a computer to control the instrument. Unfortunately, I was left wondering whether the robots were properly calibrated, or whether the music had been composed for a church space with significantly more reverberation. In any case, it sounded »MIDI-dead« – a bit like a silly »piano roll« video of an obscure serial work.

The duo Aron Dahl & Mija Milovic concluded the evening with music whose tenderness and honesty might recall The xx – if the British indie rock group were playing on out-of-tune house organs. Still, the music became somewhat monotonous, and their setup appeared underutilized.

The slightly mixed experience of the evening’s program does not change the fact that Organ Sound Art Festival is an atmospheric and ambitious festival that dares to take chances when presenting us with new works for an instrument that many still associate with bygone days. This Copenhagen-based festival is anything but dusty.

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.

playlist

01.04

My name is Idan Elmalem – would you like to see my playlist?

»Music, for me, reveals the emptiness of boundaries and definitions – in consciousness, in space, and in music itself.«

Idan Elmalem is an oud player and composer working across world and popular music, now presenting his debut instrumental EP and live performance project. Following years of collaboration within the Israeli music scene, he turns toward a more personal and intimate musical voice, blending traditional oud with a contemporary sensibility. Influenced by his studies with master Nissim Dakwar, Elmalem’s music explores the space between tradition and innovation. His debut EP, Time, features three live-recorded pieces that move between past, present, and future, combining classical Arabic and Persian elements with jazz, minimalism, and cinematic sound. Based in Tel Aviv, Elmalem draws on his Moroccan-Danish heritage in his work. He is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Ethnomusicology at the University of Haifa, alongside his work as a player and composer.

31.03

Local Forces Behind New Electronic Festival in Aalborg

On May 29, the Aalborg-based collective Datahaven9000 takes over the venue Skråen, transforming its main hall into a concentrated one-day festival of electronic music. The event is part of the concert series Bystanders #3, where the stage is handed over to local scenes rather than the venue’s in-house programming.