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.
The concept behind Bystanders is simple: local actors are given the keys and decide the content themselves. This time, Datahaven9000 curates the evening with a program that ranges from emerging North Jutland artists to international profiles from the experimental club scene.
In total, 11 acts will be presented, including British producer Proc Fiskal, known for his distinctive take on grime and deconstructed club music. From Iceland, Knackered.xyz joins the lineup, having established herself as one of the country’s strongest live performers.
On the Danish front, the program features artists such as Band Ane, who moves freely between pop, experimentation, and performance, as well as Gelwane, whose sonic universe explores the intersection of technology and sensuality.
In addition, a range of local names will be presented, reflecting the breadth of Aalborg’s electronic underground.
Datahaven9000 is a growing artistic community working with concerts, workshops, and events, driven by a desire to strengthen an alternative electronic music scene in the city.
»Expect to dance and cry on this beautiful day,« the organizers state.
Line-up:
Proc Fiskal (UK)
Knackered.xyz (IS/DK)
Band Ane (DK)
Gelwane (DK)
Legobygger123 (DK)
Narkovrag27 (DK)
Plante06 (DK)
JARL (DK)
Granit (DK)
Cursemaster (DK/NO)
DoomedCloud (DK)
»For us, music is a lifelong fascination – something you can never fully get to the bottom of. You can study the mathematics, the rules, and the logic. But music also contains an element of magic – that aspect which creates an emotional resonance between the creator and the listener, transcending place, time, and language.«
Inspired by the playful, off-kilter alternative rock of the 90s, Inventory has forged a distinct sound comprising equal parts pop hooks, dissonant tension, and jazzy textures. It is guitar-driven music that embraces the unexpected, the quirky, and the soothing – navigating the space between the immediate and the challenging. Inventory is set to release their debut album, People Pyramids, in early 2027.
A Recipe for Ecstasy and Despair
If a meal is good, it’s worth making twice, right? That’s the approach taken by Krzysztof Wołek on his latest album Cookbook for the Modern Boygirl, where the song cycle is interpreted twice. The ingredients are straightforward: one girl (Agata Zubel), one boy (Chad Sloan), and a variety of electronic elements carefully assembled not simply to complement but also contradict each other. As for the recipe, that comes from poet Bunny Morris, in the form of seven texts exploring the body as a site of vulnerability and conflict.
Desire versus repulsion is the central tension running through the song cycle. Wołek accentuates this by atomising the vocal part, which doesn’t so much sing as gasp and stammer, its never-ending contortions enclosed in an atmosphere that pressurises the voice as much as it allows it to radiate.
Eruptions of sharp glitch fragments sound as both celebratory fireworks and shards cutting into flesh, playing into the songs’ continual blurring of food allusions with animalistic reflections on the body’s limbs, processes, sensations and fluids. As if to counter the challenges, the voice often resorts to overelaborate ornamentation, elsewhere receding into hissing whispers as if to hide from them.
The two interpretations are strikingly individual, Zubel leaning into frenetic histrionics, like an unhinged bird, Sloan into impassioned lyrical agonism. Though seemingly emanating from parallel universes, both versions unite in the impossibility of knowing what’s desperation or ecstasy, epitomising the fundamental instability of identity at the core of these dazzlingly visceral songs.
»For me, music is where all my books begin. I hear a track, visualize a scene unfolding in my mind, and then I simply write the rest of the book around it. More or less. My imagination takes root in music. This playlist serves as the mental soundtrack to the work I am currently finishing.«
Dennis Nørmark is an anthropologist, an internationally bestselling author, and a professional speaker. While known for his books on working life, he achieved his breakthrough as a fiction writer with the thriller Harare, which won the award for Best Danish Crime Novel in 2025, as well as the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel in 2026. He lives north of Copenhagen and is a father of five.