what we immerse ourselves in

The Royal Danish Opera Has Its Finances in Order – Now It Must Invest in the Future

© Camilla Winther

While the new opera scene is flourishing beyond the walls of the Royal Danish Theatre, the national opera house is playing it increasingly safe. With its finances back in balance, the time has come to invest in the next generation of opera.

By Jakob Gustav Winckler

What Is Ambient When Everyone Is Making It?

© PR

Three days at a conference on ambient music prompted me to reconsider the genre’s old heroes, its relationship with AI, and its strange journey from niche to ubiquitous background music.

By Kristoffer Møllegaard

© PR

Irony Is Not Dead. It Has Just Got Feelings

For a long time I scoffed at metamodernism. Now it has made the last 30 years of composition music hang together. But it is misleading when music scholars call metamodernism a school.

By Jakob Gustav Winckler

comment08.07

Out of Utopias and Down to Earth

From Old Testament wisdom and hippie dreams of community to erotic nightclub atmospheres and dark, rumbling techno. Roskilde Festival 2026 is a wild ride through eras, genres and mental geographies – and a good place to practise carrying dreams carefully through the extreme conditions of our time.

By Rasmus Steffensen
comment21.12

Let’s Finally Drop the Rhetoric of »forgotten« Women Composers

Women opera composers of the past have returned for good. But how do we break the closed circuit of opera history?

By Jakob Gustav Winckler
comment13.08.2025

I Most Certainly Will Not Stay Away From Your Theatre

A few days before this year’s Copenhagen Opera Festival begins, I, as a critic, have been asked to keep away from one of the festival’s most experimental performances at the theatre Sort/Hvid. This is a complete misunderstanding of the role of criticism.

By Sune Anderberg

comment07.07.2025

Roskilde as a Battleground of Sound

Roskilde Festival insists on ecstasy and togetherness, but the most beautiful moments arise in the dark, where the curious still dare to listen.

By Rasmus Steffensen & Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek

comment16.05.2025

The Anti-Heroes Take the Stage – And It Suits Spot

The 30th edition of Spot Festival became a sonic laboratory and cultural mirror, where experimentation, genre-defying music, and raw emotional intensity were given free rein.

By Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek
comment19.04.2021

Sublime ghosts and capricious categories

To reach its potential music criticism needs to go beyond opinion. Macon Holt suggests the critic must grapple with the ethics and politics of the music.

By Macon Holt
comment18.12.2018

Not so diverse after all

The Nordic Music Days in Helsinki failed to deliver on its promise of diversity, even if seen from a strictly stylistic point of view, writes participating composer Tine Surel Lange.

By Tine Surel Lange