I en serie af mini-interviews spørger Seismograf/DMT forskellige aktører på musik- og lydkunstscenen til aktuelle anbefalinger af værker eller events. Se her denne anderledes og personlige værkanbefaling fra den ene af initiativtagerne til LYT TIL KBH og manden bag kunstnernavnet Krishve, Kristian Hverring.

1) Hvilket værk vil du gerne anbefale til andre?
Jeg bliver nok nødt til at vælge en drøm, jeg havde for noget tid siden. En koncert i et gammelt nedlagt biografkompleks i Bruxelles. På scenen var medlemmer af The Residents, Coil, Slayer, Velvet Underground, Guns N’ Roses og Einstürzende Neubauten. Cash, Bowie og Derbyshire gjorde også et eller andet. Arvo Pärt kom ind på scenen, men gik ud igen med det samme. Så Ligeti og Lemmy i baren. Over scenen svævede en sky af helikopterkatte. Lee Hazlewood, Scott Walker, Laurie Anderson og Ronettes sang kor. David Lynch dirigerede. Hans bidrag bestod i forundrede smil og flagrende håndbevægelser i retning af John Cage, der ved et komfur strøg en fjer mod en kogende kedel. Lars von Trier lavede lyd. Sublimt dårligt. Med vilje. Inger Christensen skammede sig bare. På alles vegne. Musikken var en kakofoni af knækket selvværd i HD. Uimodsigelig som en naturkraft, asiatisk i sin vælde, grum som et K-hole. Jeg vågnede med en underlig tilfredsstillelse i kroppen. 

2) Hvorfor er dette værk særligt?
Det er vigtigt at drømme. Og sove, hvis man kan. Det er godt for hørelsen. 

3) Hvad arbejder du selv med lige nu?
“1 + 1 = 3 [30 sekunder]” er en serie af improviserede 30 sekunders duetter med skiftende samarbejdspartnere. Det har stået på siden 2009 og viser ingen tegn på at gå væk. Kan opleves på film eller live. Er samtidig ved at tyde konturerne af to nye udgivelser. Den ene bliver en kortere ting, den anden længere, og på vinyl. Jeg glæder mig meget til at møde dem begge. Man kan se med på min hjemmeside www.krishve.com.

LYT TIL KBH er et samarbejde jeg har med arkitekten Jakob Oredsson. LYT TIL KBH bor på hjemmesiden www.lyttilkbh.dk og kan antydes med disse korte instrukser: 
 - Gå ud i byen
 - Placer dine hænder bag ørerne
 - Lyt til byens lyde

På hjemmesiden finder man en mere uddybende beskrivelse af intentionerne bag, samt binaurale optagelser fra forskellige steder i København. Vi arbejder i øjeblikket på næste trin. LYT TIL KBH er kun lige begyndt at vise sig, og vi planlægger en lang rejse.

Læs mere om Seismografs omtale af projektet.

Jeg er også involveret i et par nye projekter med Hotel Pro Forma, som jeg efterhånden har samarbejdet med i tre år. Derudover arbejder jeg på lydsiden til en udstilling på Nordatlantens Brygge til efteråret. Det lover godt for drømmene, men varsler ilde for søvnen.

© Christoffer Askman
© Christoffer Askman

From the Culture Yard in Helsingør, ships glide past Kronborg Castle through the narrow waters of the Øresund – a reminder of the trade routes that, for centuries, have carried goods, people and power between the Nordic region and the wider world. It is an apt point of departure for the Passage Festival, and for Marie Dahl's vocal work Silk. Sugar. Sand, which explores the intertwined histories of three materials.

Silk. Sugar. Sand is a vocal performance in three acts tracing the historical journeys of these materials through colonialism, the global economy and geopolitics. Five singers from Ars Nova Copenhagen perform within a minimalist scenography consisting almost entirely of coloured light and three sets of costumes that transform throughout the performance: first silk dresses, then crinoline-like structures evoking sugar loaves, and finally grey stone-like forms suggesting accumulations of sand.

The work's central device is to translate the physical properties of these materials into vocal expression. At one moment, the elasticity of silk becomes soft, flowing polyphony; at the next, a cocoon-like electronic crackle. Sugar's crystalline structure is rendered as sharp vocal attacks – brief, whip-like cracks – as well as sweet, intimate whispers, while sand creaks and rustles, resonating with a libretto about economy and domination, violence and desire.

The performance has no conventional narrative, and the five singers portray no distinct characters, moving somewhat stiffly across the stage, as performers often do when their primary focus is on the voice. Comparisons with Hotel Pro Forma's Flammenwerfer are difficult to avoid. There, the production's rigorous aesthetic was counterbalanced by C.F. Hill's wildly expressive visual universe and Blixa Bargeld's deeply vulnerable stage presence. Those qualities are missing from Marie Dahl's carefully controlled staging, which could have benefited from more of the sensitivity and chaos that also form part of Kirsten Dehlholm's artistic legacy.

© PR

»To us, music is a primal, elemental force that allows us to shed our inhibitions.«

Leizure is a Copenhagen-based quintet operating at the intersection of post-punk, no wave, and experimental rock. The band’s sound is characterized by atonal vocals, piercing saxophone, hypnotic guitar riffs, and a rhythmic foundation that oscillates between tight precision and raw intensity. 

The band’s upcoming album, The Guillotine, explores themes such as societal decay, upheaval, and the challenging of established structures – all conveyed through a direct and high-energy musical style.

© Robin Skjoldborg
© Robin Skjoldborg

Danish musician, author, and artist Martin Hall has died at the age of 63. According to his family, he passed away from a heart attack at his home in Frederiksberg on Tuesday, 21 July.

Since the early 1980s, Hall left an indelible mark on Danish music and cultural life – first with Ballet Mécanique and Under For, and later through an extensive solo career that moved effortlessly between experimental music, electronic pop, poetry, performance, and literature. He leaves behind one of the most substantial discographies and bibliographies in Danish cultural history.

© Kåre Viemose
© Kåre Viemose

Seismograf is heading off on summer break to check out the ocean's deep vibrations.  🌊🤿  See you in August. Have a great summer!

in brieflive
15.07

Noise in the White Cube

Aros: »Unruly – the Body in Punk«
© Karen Knorr & Olivier Richon, Vortex 6 from the Punks series, 1976 - 1977, gelatin silver print on paper,18,7 x 28,2 cm, Tate. Courtesy of the artists.
© Karen Knorr & Olivier Richon, Vortex 6 from the Punks series, 1976 - 1977, gelatin silver print on paper,18,7 x 28,2 cm, Tate. Courtesy of the artists.

The first thing that hits you at Aros' Unruly – the Body in Punk isn't dog collars, leather jackets or fishnet stockings. It's the sound. It rumbles through the galleries. After all, what is punk doing in a museum? Punk was never made for museums. It's dirty, loud and ephemeral. It thrives on amateurism, mistakes and resistance. One might fear that the white cube would turn three-chord fury into cultural history and noise into background music. Curator Marie Arleth Skov has created an exhibition in which sound doesn't merely illustrate history – it propels it. Raw guitars, piercing saxophones, flickering Super 8 films and concert footage merge into a rush of noise, images and bodies.

Unruly is not a comprehensive history of punk but a sharply focused snapshot of a culture in which sound and the body were inseparable. Punk's godmothers appear alongside Danish bands such as Lost Kids, Pussy Punk and Sods in previously unseen footage from a legendary punk happening in Copenhagen. A leather drum kit by Käthe Kruse of Die Tödliche Doris stands as a sculpture bearing the dry title In Leder, while Cornelia Schleime's video reveals the vulnerability and poetry that also inhabited punk rebellion. The contrast with Erik Satie's stripped-back piano music is exquisite. Walking through the exhibition feels like stepping inside a three-dimensional fanzine. Everywhere, it celebrates misfits and those who never asked for permission. Leopard-print cushions, raw materials and tactile installations make you feel as if you could almost touch punk itself.

In art museums, sound is often reduced to atmosphere. Here, it becomes a material on equal footing with fabric, video and the body. Noise is treated as an artistic method rather than a soundtrack. Fifty-year-old noise still sounds astonishingly contemporary as it resonates with the exhibition's newer works. You feel it vibrating through your body. Instead of muting the world, the museum becomes an amplifier.

Can rebellion survive inside a museum? Unruly shows that punk's energy does not necessarily disappear when it enters an institution. Only two things are missing: the chance to experience the exhibition at four o'clock in the morning – and a lavish catalogue bound in latex.

English translation: Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek