in brief
30.06.2023

Man må godt spille arty cello på Roskilde

RF 2023: Jules Fischer & Josefine Opsahl: »It doesn’t look like anything to me«
© Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek
© Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek

Fremtidsrejser, utopier, aktivistisk og meget arty anti-hverdag – dét er Roskilde Festival, især her i 2023, og der har Josefine Opsahl selvfølgelig fået plads. I performanceværket It doesn’t look like anything to me (tænk sci-fi-serien Westworld) flåede hun ikke i celloens strenge, men formede langsomt et neoklassisk score med folkemusik fra gamle dage (eller måske folkemusik fra fremtiden?), mens fire performere gled rundt i knæbeskyttere, brød ud i soul, brydekæmpede og fodstampede i rundkreds. 

I midten af det hele, med publikum omkring sig, sad Opsahl, i spidse støvler, den skarpe lydlige iscenesætter – skruede op og ned for ambience, som man gør i værker, der også har en visuel side og et budskab, her kold maskulinitet versus ny sårbarhed. Ikke storladen, mere tilbageholdende, dejligt befriet for unødig svulstighed. Skarpt.

Opsahl passede godt til Roskildes kuraterede eksperimentarium, Platform-scenen, hvor kunstarter blandes og stilles i nyt lys for et nysgerrigt publikum. I en halv time fik hun Dyrskuepladsen til at lytte til cellomusik og se Jules Fischers cool koreografi. Den medrivende totaloplevelse stoppede brat. Det gør totaloplevelser. Efter sidste cellostrøg stod stilheden tilbage. Mange fik en på opleveren. Det var arty. Det må man godt på Roskilde.      

© PR
© PR

It was officially confirmed only recently that Icelandic avant-garde star Björk is visiting Bielsko-Biała today. After keeping it under wraps until the last moment, the organizers of the Wędrujący Festiwal (Wandering Festival) have revealed that Björk is the artist closing out the festival's grand finale.

© Kåre Viemose

»Recently, I discovered that when a couple of thousand people clap their thick gloves in minus 30 degrees, it sounds like the softest techno – a freezing space where the cold air turns into a wave of warmth, and we, in a moment of collective devotion, become one with the rhythm, one with the invisible bond that connects us in the warmth of silence. Music is not just sounds, but a vain attempt to capture the infinite, which has always been and always will be.«

Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek has been the editor-in-chief of Seismograf since 2021. He is also a music critic and cultural journalist at Kristeligt Dagblad and Århus Stiftstidende/Avisen Danmark and has over the years written to publications such as Kunsten.nu, Glissando (Poland), Neural (Italy), Raw Vision (UK), Nutida Musik (Sweden), Kunstkritikk (DK/Sweden), Iscene.dk, B.T., and Jazz Special. He is the author (together with Lars Muhl) of the book HVA' SAA! En guidet rutsjebanetur gennem Aarhus – før, nu og i fremtiden (2024) and has also contributed to the anthology on music criticism Man skal høre meget (ed. Thomas Michelsen and Claus Røllum-Larsen, 2024). He is a founder and partner in the Polish-Danish cultural organization Kultur(a), and wherever there is a piano, he will be there, eager to coax a melody from it.

© Aria Leth Schütze

»For me, music is an opportunity for transformation.«

Aria Leth Schütze is based in Copenhagen and is the creative force behind the music projects Alto Aria and Samler På Dig. They are a co-founder of the record label Rhizome and a co-editor of the music magazine Passive/Aggressive. Their practice brings together electronic and acoustic music in an exploration of transformation.
 

© PR

»For me, music is the art form that – if measured in hours and minutes – occupies by far the greatest part of my life. I cannot sing, nor can I play an instrument, but I can listen – as a happy amateur – while cycling, on the dance floor, and, above all, at the office. I almost always work – that is, write – to music.« 

Mikkel Krause Frantzen (b. 1983) is an associate professor at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, a literary critic for Politiken, and the author of several books in English and Danish, such as En fremtid uden Fremtid (2018), Klodens Fald (2021), and Slutspil (2024).

© Mads Nissen
»Music is what gets my gears turning. It sets both my body and mind in motion – and on a good day, even gets them up to speed. My listening habits are entirely shaped by my mood... and by the musical tastes of my two children, which shift every eight minutes... so the home stereo gets exposed to a bit of everything. In a way, that’s exactly how it should be. Room for everything and everyone.«
 
David Dyrholm (b. 1990) is a food and music critic for Politiken, focusing on jazz – ranging from the traditional to the modern—and avant-garde music. Alongside this, he has worked for the Modern Jazz Days festival, served on the jury for the DMA Jazz awards, and previously released a number of records with the hip-hop collective DoktorDoktor.