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Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen (1971-2026)

Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen has died. With Thorbjørn’s passing, the art music community has lost one of the Nordic region’s most significant producers, curators and cultural leaders.

For more than two decades, Thorbjørn worked at the intersection of contemporary music, sound art, festival management and Danish-Norwegian cultural cooperation. From 2000 to 2006, Thorbjørn was manager of the Norwegian Cikada Ensemble. In 2009, he became director of Art Music Denmark (then Snyk), a position he held until 2017, when he returned to the Norwegian cultural scene as director of the Ultima Festival. In the final years of his life, Thorbjørn served as a board member of the Foundation for Danish-Norwegian Cooperation.

Thorbjørn was a well-liked and visionary cultural leader who left an indelible mark on the music scene. I, like many other Danish artists, probably remember Thorbjørn best for his inspiring and courageous projects, such as the G((o))ng Tomorrow Festival (formerly Wundergrund). Thorbjørn was never afraid to give young and emerging artists a chance to perform, and I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that, for this reason alone, Thorbjørn had an impact on an entire generation of Danish artists.

I was still a young composition student when I first met Thorbjørn. It must have been around 2008. At the time, Thorbjørn was a project manager at Art Music Denmark, which was in the midst of developing G((o))ng Tomorrow. A festival that mixed genres and crossed artistic communities, Thorbjørn explained – a radical concept in Denmark at the time. The next thing I knew, I was standing on the G((o))ng stage at Råhuset with a group of wild young artists – musicians and composers, from both classical and rhythmic traditions, with vastly different artistic expressions and working methods. The concert that followed was hardly an artistic revelation, but the conversations, friendships and nights at the bar with a group of artists I would otherwise never have encountered opened my eyes to an entirely new way of collaborating – both artistically and in terms of cultural production.

Over the years, Thorbjørn developed many international friendships with artists and institutions from near and far. Thorbjørn and G((o))ng Tomorrow introduced countless exciting artists to Denmark while also opening new doors abroad for Danish artists. For many years, Thorbjørn was almost synonymous with Danish art music abroad and an exceptionally important link between artists, venues and festivals.

This is how I believe many people remember Thorbjørn: as an inspiring figure with forward-looking ideas, curious and courageous, and with a strong understanding of the value of international musical exchange.

The Danish music scene would not be the same without Thorbjørn. The same can be said of Art Music Denmark. Our small genre organisation has changed considerably since Thorbjørn was its director. Nevertheless, I am proud of the organisation I myself took over, and where the fundamental values from that time are still very much alive. An organisation that works to create new opportunities for artists. An organisation with a strong international network and a focus on international musical exchange. I do not believe this would have been possible without Thorbjørn’s immense and tireless groundwork.

Thorbjørn Tønder Hansen has died. He will be deeply missed, not only by artists and the cultural community across the Nordic region, but also by his many friends and collaborators around the world. Thorbjørn created connections, ideas and visions that continue to shape today’s cultural landscape. I have no doubt that his impact on the cultural life of the Nordic region will live on.

My warmest thoughts go out to Thorbjørn’s family and loved ones at this difficult time.

May Thorbjørn’s memory be honoured.

Regin Petersen
Director, Art Music Denmark

playlist

20.12

My name is Lars Hannibal – would you like to see my playlist?

Lars Hannibal. © Søren Solkær

»Making a playlist is not an easy task for me. Music occupies most of my waking hours. It is a condition that began to grow when I was a teenager. If I am not playing myself, or working with the music I release or compose, music is still present, reaching out to me. I have always found it difficult to experience music in boxes or genres, so I listen very broadly and take pleasure in any music I can feel and that moves me. Music is a condition of life, and expressing oneself through music is a gift – but being able to experience music with openness is perhaps an even greater gift. I have chosen a list in which the guitar plays a part.«

Lars Hannibal began – like many others of his generation – playing folk and rock guitar at the age of fifteen. But when he heard the Spanish guitar master Andrés Segovia perform the gavotte from Bach’s Partita in E major, his musical life took a new direction, and he decided to devote himself to the classical guitar.

Since the early 1970s, Lars Hannibal has also composed songs and instrumental works. Today he performs primarily as a member of the Petri/Hannibal Duo and works alongside this as managing director of the record label OUR Recordings, which he founded together with Michala Petri in 2006, as well as a consultant for Edition Borup-Jørgensen.

in briefrelease

15.12

Uncompromising Vignettes of Silence and Sighs

Hildur Guðnadóttir: »Where to From«

Deutsche Grammophon, 31.10

Simon Heggum

It seemed to come like a bolt from the blue when the Icelandic cellist and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir broke the sound barrier with an uncompromising, inward-looking sound situated between contemporary classical and experimental music – most widely recognised through her suffocating soundtracks for Chernobyl and Joker.

Yet on her Deutsche Grammophon debut Where to From, it is the personal spaces we are invited into. The instrumentation is pared right back to a chamber ensemble, voices, and extended passages of near-absolute silence. The result is often achingly beautiful – and deeply affecting.

The work unfolds in small vignettes, rarely lasting more than a couple of minutes, before vocals are introduced in the album’s second half – most notably in »Make Space« and the exquisite a cappella hymn »I Hold Close«. The equally beautiful »Melody of Not Knowing« explores the cello’s darkest registers, striking blue midnight tones in the echo of the heart, especially as it glides into »All Along«, where voice and strings merge.

Where to From is a powerfully mood-saturated work that moves effortlessly between chamber music and neoclassicism, finding its uncompromising character in the quietest, most intimate sighs between human and instrument. It is neither too little nor too much – always precisely measured. And for that very reason, Guðnadóttir remains such a compelling musical presence.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek

in briefrelease

09.12

Minimalism for Patient Ears

Lukas Lauermann: »Varve«

col legno, 24.10

Marta Bo

Varve – from the Danish varv – refers to the annual layers of sediment, a quiet geological archive of time’s passage. Lukas Lauermann’s album carries this meaning into its very sonic core. Here, organ and vocal samples taken from worn cassette tapes meet an inquisitive, almost ascetic cello that moves like fine strokes across a flickering, dust-filled soundscape.

The cello is restrained but never passive. It slips in and out of the cassette’s white noise, of fragmented voices and the organ’s gentle currents of air, until all elements ultimately merge into a single, organic texture. Lauermann himself describes the music as a depiction of irregularities, and it is precisely in these small shifts that Varve finds its quiet strength. The album’s idea of sonic sedimentation becomes an image of our longing to reconnect with nature’s tempo. The compositional motifs seem repetitive, yet they never repeat themselves entirely; they build layer upon layer, like organic growth. As a listener, one becomes witness to microscopic changes slowly unfolding – a process that can bring about an almost meditative state.

Varve is an album for those who prefer listening experiences at an unhurried pace; for those who find Hans Zimmer too grandiose and would rather follow the patient growth of grass than an orchestra’s emotional climaxes.

playlist

05.12

My name is Gintė Preisaitė – would you like to see my playlist?

Gintė Preisaitė

»Music for me is the purest transformation of any energy hiding inside. Through the sound it can become anything we need. It is a form of a bond and connection, it's subtle and it is direct at the same time. For me it was always the biggest exploration machine I could learn about myself, people and environments.«

Gintė Preisaitė is a Lithuanian artist based in Copenhagen who works across piano, electronics, composition and improvisation. Classically trained, she has moved steadily toward electronics, noise, free improvisation and jazz, performing in numerous constellations in recent years.

Working with prepared acoustic instruments, electronics and tape, she bridges her classical background with contemporary sonic experimentation. Through shifting timbres, textures, collaged melodies and percussive figures, she seeks to push acoustic and electronic sound into a space that feels both personal and deeply connected.

Last year she released the EP Spring Mass under the name Baraboro, followed this September by Kaiko, her trio release with Amalie Dahl and Jan Philipp Treen. She is currently developing a new project under her own name for release next year. Gintė performs widely as both a solo artist and a member of various ensembles in Copenhagen and abroad.

in brieflive

05.12

Anna von Hausswolff: The Path to the Organ’s Modern Resurrection

Klara Lewis, Anna von Hausswolff

Vega, 04.12

Martin Funder

The organ, one of Christianity’s most powerful liturgical markers, runs like a red thread through Swedish artist Anna von Hausswolff’s work. But on her latest album Iconoclasts, the long, piercing drones are toned down in favour of a sharper, driving energy. It was an energy that came through strongly at Hausswolff’s concert in Vega last night, where she was, as usual, joined by a large band. The evening opened with Swedish noise musician Klara Lewis, whose mumbling cassette-loop textures set a brutally atmospheric tone from the start.

Hausswolff’s band was this time expanded with saxophone and percussion, both central on Iconoclasts and both contributing to the slight eurodance tinge that colours several tracks. Unfortunately, the saxophone was at times swallowed by the dense soundscape. Fortunately, Hausswolff’s radiant voice cut through clearly. So did the small organetto – a kind of bellows-driven organ with long pipes. It stood like a totem at the centre of the stage and was almost embraced by Hausswolff whenever she played it. A piece like »The Whole Woman« (a waltzing duet with Iggy Pop on the album) became, in concert, a touching love ode, carried by the organ’s gentle breath as its pulse.

In recent years, a number of musicians have used the organ’s distinctive resonances to wrest it free from the weight of Christian liturgy, giving the instrument an almost iconoclastic status. Despite a slightly muddy sound mix, Hausswolff’s concert was a clear example of this contrast – still deeply rooted in ecclesiastical connotations, yet now an accomplice in large-scale modern productions and a central instrument on major stages.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek