Journalistic portfolio

Work for clients such as:

– The Copenhagen Post
– The Local Europe
– Yakondi
– Danish Architechture Centre
– Ted Talks

Rob Scotland, TEDxKEA

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article written for TEDxKEA.

The new wave of entrepreneurial creativity and the growing power of the audience

On all levels, certainly in the portrayal given by much of modern media, the world is a grim and unbecoming place. Seek and you shall find however; there are innumerable positives to behold. Whilst there are many who are plagued by concerns over ISIS or Greek financials and long-winded statements by the media, others, choose to see things in a different light.

Meet Rob Scotland – a man with a sense of humour that extends well beyond his positive mind-set towards the world of today and the society of tomorrow. In the midst of all the crises fed to us on TV, Rob stresses the importance of stopping for a second to appreciate the talent and adaptability of our generation.

“Five years ago there was no iPad, 10 years ago there was no iPhone and in the last hundred years we’ve had more innovation than in the last 1000.”  “The next generation is probably going to be the greatest we’ve ever had!”

Rob has spent the last 10 years working in advertising with a client portfolio that includes the likes of Nike, Carlsberg, Telia and Procter & Gamble, where he has ”argued passionately under the guise of creative strategy to turn anthropological understandings of audiences into commercial returns.”

For Rob, radical changes in the manner in which audiences think and feel have brought about a paradigm shift that requires more value-based products, services and ultimately advertising. A graduate of illustration, Rob wanted to be an artist for Marvel comics.

However, as is the case “with most of our generation”, necessity shifted him into other fields – namely magazine sales and later advertising. In this capacity, Rob founded the much revered ad agency, Bandit, in Copenhagen 8 years ago and advised big brands on how best to target their audiences.

Dubbed a ‘modern cultural anthropologist’, Rob has been championing the understanding of modern culture in marketing communications over the past ten years. Our generation often gets a bad rap in the media, but from Rob’s perspective “Far from being lazy, Generation Next’s unprecedented surge of entrepreneurial creativity is what will solve many of the challenges facing this world”.

Mathias Lundoe, TEDxKEA

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article written for TEDxKEA

Monetising Big Data

Big data is the word on everyone’s lips. The exponential growth and availability of data has come to play a pivotal role in the manner in which individuals, companies and society at large operate. So what is big data and how exactly is it a game-changer for consumers and businesses alike?

Mathias Lundø Nielsen, a 26-year old serial entrepreneur with a devastatingly effective track record within international e-commerce, might just have the answer. The youngest-ever Scandinavian to be accepted in to Henley’s MBA programme, Mathias’ latest venture is Nustay.com, a tech startup that has received one of the highest-ever valuations of any Danish tech company prior to launch, based on the sole idea of its business model.

Making a serious case for disrupting the hotel industry, Nustay epitomises what monetising big data is in practice through matching guests with hotels by ranking them using information such as profiles, interests and past consumption patterns.

Advanced algorithms work on producing a match between guests and hotels, creating an experience that is both exceptionally customised and that saves both time and money for customers and hotels alike.

In a world that is replete with data and information overloads, Mathias is determined to demonstrate how and why it makes sense to see big data as a new raw material – a commodity that can and needs to be processed in a way that adds value to our societies.

However, in order to derive advantages from big data, we need to know what we are looking for, Mathias points out: “If you’re drilling for oil, you need to know exactly what you are looking for before you begin.” As is the case with oil, big data becomes a commodity only when you know what you will use it for: “You also need to know exactly what your end consumer wants, you should have a very sound knowledge of what your end product is.”

So the question we need to ask ourselves is how do we use what we know more effectively? How do we utilise the endless data at our disposal in a way that meets global and individual needs in a more cost-effective and less time-consuming manner? Let’s talk big data.

Khaterah Parwani

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article written for TEDxKEA.

A Lifetime Battle to Fight for The Right to Freedom and Independence

Violence against women is a major hindrance to the development of our societies. Whilst measures and organisations are in place to attempt to overcome this problem, many focus on helping the victims and not on nipping the problem at the bud; namely men who indulge in acts of violence against their spouses.

Add context to this within the frame of the society in which we live in, here in Denmark, and you will find that violence against women of ethnicities other than Danish tends to be both more common and harder to uproot.

Khaterah Parwani is the vice-chair, legal adviser and ambassador of the Exit Circle, an organisation that engages victims of physical violence, social control, bullying and radicalism in a dialogue.

A victim of violence herself, both in childhood and adulthood, Parwani has spent the last few years channelling all her time and energy into helping those deprived of the rights to freedom and independence, using her background in law and a deep-seeded passion to make a difference in the lives of others.

Parwani’s work also focuses on the brothers and fathers involved in the circle of violence and social control. Understanding the underlying social circumstances that explain why, for example, the percentage of uneducated or unemployed men with Muslim backgrounds is as high as it is represents a key point of focus for Parwani: “It is harder to become integrated or accepted in Denmark when you are a brown man with a Muslim name than when you are a woman.

A lot of these men feel marginalised.” Similarly, over and above violence and the need to understand why it happens, Parwani is of the opinion that it is more important to comprehend and work at disrupting mechanisms of social control and cultural radicalisation amongst minority societies.

An ardent debater and orator, Parwani has represented her views across numerous media such as The BBC, Der Spiegel, TV2 news, DR1 and Radio 24/7.

Denmark’s ten must-see concerts in October

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article written for The Local Denmark, available here

The October concert calendar has plenty to entice you out of your house before the winter’s dark and cold fully descends upon us.

October in Denmark is often a month of Indian summers and sunshine surprises before the big chill sets in. This time around, Copenhagen music venue Pumpehuset has secured several mammoth bookings whilst Vega have acquired a curiously mainstream sensibility for the next month (bar Of Monsters and Men and The Tallest Man on Earth both of whom are, with good reason, sold out and thus not included here). Here are The Local’s picks for the best gigs in the month of October.

Youth Lagoon
Jazzhouse, October 4th at 8pm
Trippy and psychedelic, Youth Lagoon’s music is a bit of an opinion divider. Like fellow psychedelic enthusiasts Animal Collective, theirs is a universe of bright, radiant colours, strange clangs and faraway thuds from faraway places.


Gramatik
Amager Bio, October 10th at 8pm
Slovenia’s Gramatik is all about experimentation. It’s electronic music wed with the wildness of hip-hop in the church of funk. The result is something you have to see for yourself.

The Waterboys
Pumpehuset, October 13th at 7 pm
Vintage rock fans take heart! The mercurial, seminal Waterboys have been around for over 30 years, during which time songs like ‘The Whole of The Moon’ have made big waves in the ocean of quality music. Interpretations by the likes of Ellie Goulding and Prince are a testament to their quality.

The Vaccines
Pumpehuset, October 15th at 8pm
English rockers The Vaccines will wring you inside out with their feisty, high-BPM infusion of The Clash meets The Ramones. Armed with a newly dropped album that has already got the attention of many a critic, The Vaccines are on top form currently.

TopGunn
Store Vega, October 15th at 9pm
Cheff Records kingpin TogGunn has an indefatigable grip on the Danish music market, commanding millions of views on YouTube. Digital age stats aside, his ability to capture the hearts and minds of the young public he attracts is admirable.

Atmosphere
Pumpehuset, October 16th at 8pm
The godfather of Minneapolis’s underground hip-hop scene, Sean Daley, aka Slug, brings his energising stage show to Denmark yet again. With eight studio albums stretching back to 1997, Slug and his partner Ant may no longer be on the cutting edge, but there is no doubting Atmosphere’s ability as entertainers of the people.

The Orb
Pumpehuset, October 24th at 8pm
The Orb are a slice of music history in themselves, as chief purveyors of the genre of ambient-house – acid house’s younger and more pleasant little sister. Expect gorgeous snippets of Brian Eno-esque sound universes merged with sedated Chicago house influences that will keep you ticking for days to come.


Jedi Mind Tricks
Store Vega, 29 October at 8pm
Philly rap duo Jedi Mind Tricks are some of the most technically astute rappers in the game – waxing lyrical in a rapid-fire tirade backed by dramatic beat landscapes that set the stage for a heavily critical narrative. Expect to be blown away.

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats
Amager Bio, October 30th at 9pm
This booking seems tailor-made for Halloween. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats’ mix of classic metal riffs and psychedelia is paired with imagery that looks like it has been pulled straight out of 70s horror films. Throw in references to notorious killers like Charles Manson, and if you got the workings for what is sure to be a ghoulish time.

The Local’s top ten Roskilde concerts

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article published in The Local Denmark

Roskilde Festival 2015
Whether it was at the expansive Orange stage or one of the festival’s more intimate settings, there were no shortage of good concerts. Photo: Sophia Juliane Lydolph/Scanpix

The Local’s top ten Roskilde concerts

The Local sent two writers with distinctively different musical tastes to cover this year’s Roskilde Festival and tasked them both with selecting their five favourite concerts.

Roskilde Festival has once again come and gone, leaving a trail of smiles, laughs and memorable experiences in its wake. This year’s lineup was more commercial than previous years, with less rock and metal on the billing, but there was still more than plenty to satisfy all musical tastes.

A testament to the Roskilde Festival’s diversity can be found here in our picks for best concert. Our two writers, Justin Cremer and Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk, have quite different tastes and there isn’t a single repeat among their respective choices for the year’s five best performances.

Justin Cremer’s top five 2015 Roskilde Festival concerts:

5. Africa Express
Arena, July 4

I caught parts of 28 different concerts at this year’s Roskilde Festival, so getting it down to five picks is no easy task. Several others could have just as easily taken this spot – Dolomite Minor, Father John Misty, The Gaslamp Killer Experience or Mastodon, to name a few – but Africa Express gets the nod as it is where I closed out the 2015 Roskilde Festival, surrounded by good friends and treated to an impressive international jam session that had been going strong for nearly three hours when I packed it in.

4. St Vincent
Arena, July 2

I knew basically nothing about St Vincent before strolling in to the Arena stage on Thursday afternoon and when I left I wasn’t quite sure how to describe what I’d just seen. I think my feeble attempt to explain it to a friend later was something along the lines of “robot pop-rock” and perhaps that’s as good as anything. This was a tightly-performed – even occasionally choreographed – and very high-energy performance, highlighted by a final song played on the shoulders of a security guard with St Vincent sporting an ear-to-ear grin that revealed that she had just had as much fun as the audience.

3. Chelsea Wolfe
Gloria, July 4

The intimate Gloria stage was the perfect setting for an absolutely hypnotic performance by Chelsea Wolfe. Her particular mix of dark folk mixed with occasional blasts of rage may have on the surface been a strange pick for a hot and sunny day at Roskilde, but the enchanting Wolfe delivered one of my best musical experiences of the four days.

2. The War on Drugs
Arena, July 1

This was the show I was looking most forward to heading in to the festival and Adam Granduciel and company certainly did not disappoint. The setlist was very heavy on last year’s stellar album ‘Lost in the Dream’ with the performance putting just enough new nuances into the songs to really bring them alive. This was a powerhouse rock ‘n’ roll performance.

1. Goat
Friday, July 3

It is perhaps fitting that I don’t have a particularly good photo to go along with my top choice. The late night performance from these costume-draped Swedes who mix experimental psychedelic rock with African beats didn’t seem to be on the radar of too many, but those of us who were there were treated to what felt like a blissful mix between occult ritual and raging dance party. In a Roskilde Festival full of unexpected musical surprises, this one was the best.

Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk’s top five 2015 Roskilde Festival concerts:

5. Timbuktu
Arena, July 1

Consistent, calm, confident. Those are the words that underline the show of veteran Swedish rapper Timbuktu. It’s never easy for Swedes to perform at Roskilde and earn critical acclaim, but Timbuktu put on a solid show good enough to scrape into our top ten anyway.

4. Kendrick Lamar
Orange, July 3

Kendrick Lamar epitomized the booking policy at Roskilde this year: bombastic, commercial and appealing to the youth. Orange stage host Per Vers introduced him as the man he thought is the best rapper at the moment before his show and whilst some of us may disagree with such a grandiose claim, Kendrick did put on a top-notch performance before a packed Orange stage.

3. Mew
Orange, July 3

Danish rock band Mew played at Roskilde’s Orange stage missing one of their frontmen, guitarist Bo Madsen, who left the group just last week after 20 years. On their sixth appearance at the festival, this time as a trio, Mew were brilliant and endearing, backed by the solid Danish following that they’ve built over the years.

2. Die Antwoord
Orange, July 2

South African duo Die Antwoord brought the Orange crowd to its knees with an emblematic, raucous performance that few expected would be as good as it turned out to be. Given that they are not well-known locally, their psycho blend of Afrikaans rap and trashy shrill vocals proved to be an even bigger hit. Frankly, Roskilde has rarely seen something of this nature.

1. Florence and The Machine
Orange, July 2

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – not only is that the title of indie band Florence and The Machine’s remarkable new album, it’s also a good descriptor of their show at Roskilde’s Orange stage. The voice of Florence Welsh, the singer at the forefront of the band, is a force to be reckoned with – she found herself at home at a packed Orange stage, with the big, blue beautiful sky above a sea of smiling fans.

Rf15: Sustainability never tasted so good

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article published in The Local Denmark

The Roskilde Festival food experience used to be best defined by eating canned tuna in a hot tent but a strong focus on food and sustainability in recent years has led to numerous high-quality, value-for-money organic food options around the festival.

Roskilde Festival 2015 reaches its closure on Saturday for one last day of revelry under the summer sun. Temperatures will reach their highest point of the festival and this year’s biggest name, Paul McCartney, will lead a massive sing-along on the Orange stage.

After three full days of music, we’ve seen acts like Pharrell Williams, The War on Drugs, Goat, St Vincent and Sarabi play to popular approval whilst others like Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Mastodon have disappointed somewhat.

But Roskilde is more than just music, as the organizers of the annual event constantly reaffirm.

One of the increasingly important aspects at the festival is its focus on quality food and beverages. Last year’s event saw 700,000 kilos of food and approximately one million litres of beer sold. Given Roskilde’s environmental focus, the organizers of the event have become stricter when it comes to the sorts of food products that are sold on the festival grounds.

According to Mikkel Sander, Roskilde Festival’s sustainability leader, the festival has for many years “explored different avenues and set higher demands with regard to sustainability initiatives.”

This has entailed an inclination to donating leftovers to charities, in an effort to curb waste. Last year alone, over 27.5 tonnes of food was donated to the homeless in the form of 65,000 meals – an initiative that earned special praise at the European Festival Awards.

See also: Leftover festival food feeds thousands

At least 45 percent of the food stalls at Roskilde Festival sell organic food. This figure is set to rise to 90 percent by 2017 and as you may expect, is easier said than done. Organizers say that it is harder to procure organic products and suppliers than traditional ones. This is is especially true of beer, one of the most consumed products at the event.

In addition to its ambitious organic agenda, Roskilde has also made an effort to integrate the consumption of food and beverage into the overall festival experience. To this end, the festival has staged several food events, from a communal street kitchen during the warm-up days to educational palette-tickling experiments by Michelin-star chefs. The Local was particularly impressed with the Food Jam in the centre of the East city. Now a fixture within the Roskilde experience, the food jam presents an opportunity for groups and individuals to cook together, using high quality organic ingredients and costing a mere 50 kroner.

Roskilde’s organizers were kind enough to take us on a guided tour of some hand-picked initiatives at the festival. Here is some of what we saw on our culinary foray:

Dixie Burgers: Lean production gurus Dixie Burgers are located in the food area by the music stages. With over 315 volunteers, they produce up to 12 burgers a minute. The profits generated from sales at stalls such as these are reinvested into the association that staffs them. One of the challenges of meeting the organic demands at the festival is that most associations contract volunteers to operate their stalls. These volunteers, while incredibly hard working, tend to be less experienced than food industry professionals, which can complicate matters when it comes to ordering exact quantities of organic products.


Big A’s Diner: It may lack the Pulp Fiction-like diner seating, but Big A’s is about as good as it gets when it comes to the American culinary experience at Roskilde Festival.  This stall, located by the Avalon stage, is run by professionals from the food industry and outsourced to 140 volunteers. Fries, deep fried chicken and milk shakes are some of the items on their menu. A good place to grab a bite on Saturday, which in addition to the final day of the festival is also the major US holiday Independence Day.

Bus Bus: Located near the Orange stage, Bus Bus serves traditional Danish meals such as the revered Flæskestegssandwich (roasted pork sandwich). Their version has been heralded by several foodies as being the festival’s best. Our insider tip is to queue in the line on the left-hand side of the building (looking away from the Orange stage) as it moves way quicker than the one on the opposite side.

The Food Court: Offering a lot of different food concentrated in one place, the food court houses 18 stalls and two bars. Of these, two are Michelin-star eateries, a fact that takes Roskilde a cut above many other European festivals, The organic produce demands in this particular area of Roskilde Festival are higher than the overall demands: 60 percent of the ingredients used by each stall have to be organic.

Peter Larsen Coffee: Located in the food court area, the folks behind Peter Larsen Coffee are masters in the coffee department. One of their specialties is their cold brew coffee, pictured here. Originally from Japan, cold brew coffee contains twice as much caffeine as a can of Red Bull. And as anyone out here at Roskilde with us can attest, a heavy dose of caffeine can be just what’s needed to clear out the preceding night’s cobwebs and get you ready to face another full day eating, drinking and making merry.

The Local’s ten must-see Roskilde gigs

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article in The Local

The Local’s culture team will be at the Roskilde Festival – Denmark’s biggest annual party – catching a glimpse of the action over the next few days. Here are some of the many acts we’re most excited to see.

The month of June has been quite a ride. With Distortion, Tinderbox, Northside, Copenhell and the general election now in the rear-view mirror, July is finally upon us, and with it comes the summer’s highlight for many, the Roskilde Festival.

Musically, Roskilde has shifted from its rock and metal roots to a more commercial programme this year with a lineup that’s heavy on the hip-hop. There is no doubt that its headline acts in the past have been grander, but there are still several exciting names to look out for and surely a few surprises lie in wait as well, as they do every year.

We’ll be covering this year’s edition, enjoying what promises to be the summer’s best weather thus far and maybe even contributing to future beer. With 169 acts catering to pretty much every musical taste, the Roskilde Festival will have something for everyone. Here are ten gigs that we are particularly looking forward to:

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
July 1 at 8:30 pm, Arena
Although Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’ continues to be a karaoke bar staple, the Gallagher brothers’ days as a duo are now long gone. The feuds of Noel and Liam Gallagher are well-documented and both have tried their hands at solo projects. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are musically not all that different from the seminal Britpop sound that he helped cultivate in Oasis’ 90s heyday. If anything, there is a more mature, comforting appeal to it – make no mistake, if Gallagher can recapture some of his previous magic, this has the potential to be one of the best concerts at Roskilde this year.

Young Fathers
July 1 at 8:45 pm, Apollo
Young Fathers hail from Edinburgh with roots in Nigeria, Scotland and Liberia. Having won a Mercury Prize last year, Young Fathers are steadily evolving into a force to be reckoned with. Flying the flag for British experimental music, Young Fathers draw on trippy universes flanked by a blend of sharp hip-hop lyricism and epic choruses. Their sound that draws quite a few parallels with the music of trip-hop artist Tricky combined with a witty dosage of J Cole-esque influences.

The War on Drugs
July 1 at 11pm, Arena
Some music seems like it was tailor-made for a summer night in Roskilde. Such is the case with The War on Drugs, whose particular brand of American rock mixes a retro feel with indie cred and sprawling sensibilities. Their 2014 album Lost in the Dream was hyped to the heavens with very good reason and should sound even better when infused with Roskilde’s famous ‘orange feeling’.

Sarabi
July 2 at 12pm, Pavilion
Sarabi (a Swahili word for mirage) hail from the Eastlands slums of Nairobi, Kenya and are one of Roskilde’s wildcard entries this year. Socially-critical lyrics alongside well-strung instrumentation and a talismanic lead singer with an exceptional work ethic on stage are what you can look forward to when they take to the Pavilion stage at noon on Thursday.

Steve Gunn
July 2 at 4pm, Pavilion
One of the lesser-known names in this year’s lineup, Steve Gunn’s music is artistic acoustic wizardry at its best. The sorcery behind it lies in complexly-woven guitar motions drowned in a dark tunnel with strange echoes and ticks flanked by comforting vocals every now and again. Gunn is a deft guitarist and his vocal techniques have a Bon Iver-type quietness to them; music for a more tender, comforting moment at Roskilde.

Mastodon
July 2 at 8.30pm, Arena
Roskilde Festival always delivers the goods for metal fans and this year is no exception. Perhaps the biggest name among the metal acts at this year’s festival is the mighty Mastodon, who should be coming with something to prove. Their 2011 performance on the too-big and too-sparsely-crowded Orange stage was something of a letdown and didn’t come near to the powerful performance they deliver in smaller venues. Better placed at Arena this year and having taken a trippier and softer turn since their last appearance, the progressive metal veterans are sure to be a tour de force.

Disclosure
July 3 at 10.30pm, Orange
The last time Disclosure played at Roskilde, they were billed as an interesting act to look out for. After countless gigs around the world since, the two brothers from London are now established festival headliners despite having a rather slim repertoire of their own music. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Basement Jaxx and Faithless, Disclosure have taken UK garage and dance music back to the top of the charts, which in an age dominated by trashy EDM is a welcome addition of quality to the electronic music narrative.

Chelsea Wolfe
July 4 at 8.30pm, Gloria
Chelsea Wolfe is something to the antithesis of Nicki Minaj, who will be playing Orange when goth queen Wolfe takes the stage on Gloria. Her music is both incredibly dark and beautiful and will take listeners on a journey that goes throws blasts of crushing rock into quiet and eerie soundscapes. Her unique style of gothic folk has been embraced by underground rock and metal fans and she earned herself wide exposure when her track ‘Feral Love’ was used to soundtrack the season four preview for Game of Thrones.

Paul McCartney
July 4 at 10pm, Orange
At 73 years of age, Paul McCartney is surely past his prime, if you ask most. Then again, once you’ve sold over 100 million records and won 21 Grammy awards, surely things are only supposed to go downhill from there. The only former Beatle to return to Roskilde’s Orange stage, Knight McCartney has recently collaborated with the likes of Rihanna, Kanye West and Nirvana and is back to touring the world. The Orange scene will be all his come prime time on Saturday.

Africa Express
July 4 at 11pm, Arena
Africa Express is a terrific example of how cultures can be brought together through music. Featuring a varied palette of artists from Africa and Europe, their shows have seen artists like Fatboy Slim, Amadou & Mariam, Paul McCartney and Rokia Traore perform in various venues around the world. Befittingly, this year, Africa Express will be closing Roskilde on Saturday, with names such as Trentemøller, Damon Albarn, Spoek Mathambo and other unannounced acts lined up for what should be a memorable performance.

Sónar festival makes successful Danish debut

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article written for The Local Denmark, available here.

Barcelona’s renowned Sónar festival has thrilled millions over the years since its inception in 1994. Over the weekend, the festival came to Denmark for the first time.

Copenhagen was treated to a taste of Barcelona this weekend as the first installment of the renowned Sónar brand came to town.

Located at the pristine concert hall at DR Byen, Sónar’s debut on Danish soil gathered over 30 acts within the electronic music spectrum for two days of innovative festivity.

Click here for photo highlights from Sónar Copenhagen

Comparisons with the larger, more-established Sónar festival in Barcelona are premature but it is clear that the potential to stage marquee electronic music events in Copenhagen is substantial.

The Local was on hand to capture some of the best moments of the marquee event.

Click here for photo highlights from Sónar Copenhagen

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Above & Beyond, Store Vega Jan 2015

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article published for Mediazink, available here :

Store Vega, 22nd January 2015

5 0ut of 6 stars

Trance trio Above & Beyond brightened an otherwise dull and insipid Thursday evening with a furore of a party that attested to why they are as highly ranked an outfit as they are.

Playing to a capacity – packed Store Vega, Jono Grant, and Tony McGuinness put the loyal crowd into hysteria with wave upon wave of cathartic anthems, punctuated by epic, beat – free pauses that have come to demarcate the trance genre. And whilst the third member of the project, Paavo Siljamäki was absent from the festivities, if he was missed on stage, it certainly did not show.

Skærmbillede 2015-01-26 kl. 19.20.58

Above & Beyond: Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness and Paavo Siljamäki . Photo – Dj Mag California

Above & Beyond’s latest album, We Are Are All We Need provided some of the evening’s fodder and went down well with the jubilant crowd. This is a work that has been well marketed, in keeping with the strong marketing backing that the trio are flanked by in all that they do. And whilst there are certainly several gems on the album, such as the eponymous ‘We Are All We Need” track featuring the talented Zoe Johnston, I personally find myself more inclined to some of their older material such as Tri – state, from as far back as 2006.

The electronic music world finds itself increasingly dominated by the EDM sub-genre and the nefarious showbiz fascination that it pulls in its wake and much to many’s dismay, it is clear that no genre, trance included, can escape its clutches- as much of the material on the latest album demonstrates. This notwithstanding, the music of Above & Beyond has consistently stood out for its sentimentality and thoughtfulness; two elements that are are in abundance on We Are Are All We Need, as they were at Thursday’s show.

Amping the experience, a beautifully -strung light show and massive background imagery turned Store Vega into an amphitheater of dreams; propelled by the pulse of life and the tick of the soul. A monumental confetti burst towards the end summed up the feeling of ethereal nonchalance that the concert created; a sheer elation of being in a very, very comfortable place and a wistful longing for more of the same. . Above & Beyond exited as they’d come; playing softer material that left space for contemplation and unobscured imagination.

The Local’s Roskilde festival wrap – up

/ Alan Kortbaek / Leave a comment

Original article here :

The Local Denmark

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Pics: Bobby Anwar

The grounds at Roskilde Festival resembled an apocalyptic scene out of a futuristic dystopian fairytale as The local bid a fond farewell to this year’s event. Ripped tents, bulky heaps of air mattresses and cans of mackerel and tuna lay strewn like stardust across miles on end of now derelict camping areas patrolled by a niche section of die-hards riding the wave to its very end.

The story of 8 days of pure freedom- broken norms and mended souls summarized in a seemingly unappealing pile-up of junk.

Look beyond the veneer of all things apocalyptic and anarchic epitomized by this scene and you’ll find the success story of a festival that gathered over 100’000 people together for concerts by 166 bands from 30 different nations, generating an expected profit of between 200 and 270’000 Euros that will be donated to charity.

Predominantly dry conditions that were interrupted by the odd shower every now and again made it all the more memorable, as did an astute band schedule that raked in every one from golden oldies for The Rolling Stones to tweak-obsessed kids for Major Lazo’s emblematic performance.

Where some, like Danish deejay supremeo Trentemøller, failed to create a stir, there were others, such as Deftones, Darkside, Outkast, Stevie Wonder and not least of all Manu Chao, who all conjured up performances that charmed reviewers, established fans and new aficionados alike.

Beyond music, the art scene around the Orange stage basked in the aura of its ever-increasing popularity and both Game city as well as Street city on Roskilde’s Western wing provided apt alternatives to the full-throttle party vibe.

All in all Roskilde was well-organized and co-ordinated this year and there can be few complaints of poor concerts, a fact epitomized by the cancellation of Sunday’s Orange stage star act, Drake, who was replaced by the totally different Jack White. Whilst younger fans of r & b were left disappointed, for the omnivores and rock fans, Jack’s show was a sight to behold.