Focus on Denmark: Trentemøller

Focus on Denmark: Trentemøller

28 January, 2011 | 7.18AM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: denmark, focus on, trentemoller

He’s one of Denmark’s best known artists, but Trentemøller has never hewed to any particular sound or scene, which makes him an enlightening addition to our series on Danish artists.

After a few years of deep house for labels like Naked Music and Soussol, Trentemoller kicked things up a notch with a string of tight, techy productions for Audiomatique, 3rd Floor Records, and Poker Flat Recordings, home to his huge mid ‘00s hits like “Sunstroke,” “Minimal Fox,” and “Nam Nam.” By his debut album, The Last Resort, he was exploring richer textures and more abstract structures, a path he’s continued to follow with subsequent releases, like last year’s indie-infused Into the Great Wide Yonder and the surf-inflected single ”Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!!”

Read on to find out why he thinks that indie/electronic fusions represent the future sound of Denmark.

To begin with, could you tell us a little about the history of the Danish club scene? Which local clubs, DJs and record labels were most important to you when you were first getting into dance music?

To be honest, I have never really felt like being a part of the Danish club scene, not even when I made more house / electro oriented music. Back then Denmark had only a few small independent labels that did not have much impact on the sound. There was a techno scene, of course, but it was always so fanatically focussed on the minimalistic Berlin sound, and I never really got into that, I was a bit of an outsider, I think. I have never been that much into which labels are hot or not and other techno trends, so I just focused on making club music as I wanted it to sound.

What’s your own history with electronic music—how did you discover it, and how did you come to start making it?

I went to London on a vacation around 15 years ago with my school and discovered drum & bass and trip-hop. I really liked the energy in drum & bass, it reminded me a bit of the same energy I felt the first time I heard punk music. The speedy tempo, the sound of pitched breakbeats and deep basses was sounding so very different from what I had heard before. It felt so fresh and new.

What’s your interaction with the Danish club scene like these days?

I don’t really take part in the techno scene anymore. I think the whole minimal thing killed it for me. But interesting things came out of the dubstep sound I think, people like James Blake and Burial. I also like the way James Murphy mixes elements from the club scene in his music. I mostly like to go to bars that play a mash of indie rock and electronic. My favorite place is called Bakken, located in the meat-packing district of Copenhagen. I also sometimes play DJ sets there. It’s a small place with a capacity of 200, I think.

Is there a “Danish sound”? Anything that typically distinguishes Danish electronic music from music elsewhere?

No, not really. Not as far as I know, but I’m maybe not the right one to ask when we are talking about the electronic genre specifically. It seems like all the interesting things now happen in the crossover between electronic and other music styles. Then we can really talk about a new, self-confident Danish sound. Some music media even calls it “Denmark, the new Sweden,” ha ha… We have a lot of really great Danish bands and artists such as: Sleep Party People, Thulebasen, Giana Factory, Bjørn Svin, Efterklang, Chimes & Bells, Choir of Young Believers and Darkness Falls.

Danish labels which are part of that sound are without a doubt labels like Tambourhinoceros, Tigerspring and Fake Diamond. Check them out!

Are there any Danish festivals that visitors from other countries should be coming to check out?

There’s Roskilde Festival, northern Europe’s biggest and best festival, with a lot of great international and local artists—mainly in rock but also some electronic artists too.  Also, Trailer Park, a charming little underground festival mixing indie music, techno DJs and art. It’s growing each year and getting better and better. Strøm is an electronic music festival that both offers local and international DJs and artists. It’s spread out on different locations in Copenhagen in the summer.

Enough about music: what food should visitors to Denmark seek out?

There are some nice Thai restaurants in the area where I live, Vesterbro, which is actually in the middle of the red light district. If you are into fish you should definitely check out a fantastic fish restaurant called Fiskebaren (the Fish Bar), located in the meat-packing district with Bakken and other bars and some great art galleries like V1 in the same area. Bon appetit!

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