A quick vox pop.
Sweden had Abba, Norway had A Ha and Finland has Lorde and more metal bands than any country in the world. But Denmark has a far lower profile. If I were to ask about your favourite Danish piece of music or musician, what would spring to mind? Lars Ulrich from Metallica, Sinne Eeg’s exquisite jazz vocals, Little Donkey Hitmakers Nina and Fredrik, Mew’s classy progrock, AW pin-up girl Agnes Obel, The theme tune from The Bridge, Aqua’s Barbie Girl, …. Or?
Denmark has been very much flavour of the week here in Kaisfatdadaville.
I recently returned from the Roskilde Festival where several Danish bands (none of which I’d never heard of) did some stupendous shows. And then there was the news that Afterworder @neverflown is relocating to Copenhagen. I promised to do a playlist of Danish favourites but first I would like to pick your brains.
Do any of you have any favourite Danish artists?
All genres welcome. Jazz, folk, electronica, pop…..
‘
And now a story that fascinated me.
You would think that singing in the notoriously incomprehensible Danish language would be a barrier to international success. Not always. I just learnt that a great favourite of mine, singer-songwriter, Anne Dorte Michelsen, was Big in Japan.
Her popularity there is due to her track “Fortrolighed” being used as the title song on a popular TV-show. Japanese listeners can’t have had a clue what she was singing about. However the very Scandinavian melancholy of the tune struck a chord with the Japanese audience.
Perhaps it is not so odd. I don’t understand the lyrics of, for example, Salif Keita, Julie Fowlis, Caetano Veloso, Motörhead or Värttinä, but enjoy their music enormously anyway.
minibreakfast says
Finland has Lorde? Isn’t she from New Zealand?
JustB says
Yes.
hubert rawlinson says
I replace e
From Lorde
to Lordi.
From NZ to Finland.
pencilsqueezer says
I was going to suggest Aqua but in the end with enormous reluctance I’ll plump for Agnes Obel.
minibreakfast says
I can only think of Alphabeat, and er, Whigfield.
Andrew says
How about I Got You On Tape? I heard one of their songs in the background of an episode of the Danish drama The Legacy.
Kaisfatdad says
I enjoyed that. I’ve seen their name on the line up at Roskilde but have never given them a listen.
Season 3 of The Legacy is on TV here right now and is rather good. The success of Danish TV drama must have been a gift to some Danish bands. Not least Choir of Young Believers…
mikethep says
We ran out of steam with The Legacy, having been absolutely glued to series 1. Watched a couple of episodes of series 2 and then gave up, not sure why.
Kaisfatdad says
Oh lawdy! Oh Lordi! Oh Lorde!
Bottom of the class again!
I can’t tell the difference between a charismatic Kiwi chanteuse (who incidentally was wonderful at Roskilde)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG2vfLu7G9s
and a Finnish monster man
A visit to the optician is called for!
Kaisfatdad says
Have any of you jazzers hear of Sinne Eeg? I discovered her recently and am very impressed. She does standards and her own material, all with great finesse.
ganglesprocket says
Literally the only Danish related music I can think of…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjTJXwLi2bw
Kaisfatdad says
Aaaaaargh!!!!!!
I need to hear some vintage Danish prog to get over that.
retropath2 says
What about Vunderful, Vunderful Copenhargen….
Sniffity says
How could anyone deny this piece of postmod Denpoppery its moment?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmCsdqs-lLU
Kaisfatdad says
Impressive! You really have been digging the in the vaults, Sniffity.
Now for some toe tapping, catchy modern pop.
Fallulah
Oh Land
MØ
Marie Key – not so toe tapping but extremely popular and a gorgeous song.
Kaisfatdad says
Enigmatic lyrics, complicated song structures, superb musicianship, a singer with a golden set of pipes and very exciting live shows: I’m surprised Mew have not made bigger waves in the UK.
Andrew says
Forgot about Mew. Saw them as a support act many years ago for someone (Elbow, I think). Their Frengers album is excellent.
This Tennants advert was on Scottish tv many years ago trying to stir the passions of Scottish football supporters, soundtracked by Comforting Sounds by Mew from Denmark.
Andrew says
Proper, full version of Comforting Sounds used on this animation:
Neela says
Metallica’s Little Lars’ dad Torben, who stole the show in Some Kind Of Monster, did an album available on Spotify. File under experimental. Not for the family dinner, if you’re not the Addams.
Torben is best described as quite a character.
Kaisfatdad says
Mercifully Black Lace are not the only ones to have written a song about the Danish capital.
Lucinda wrote this one about hearing about the death of her former manager, Frank Callari, while on tour in Denmark in 2007.
Declan says
Biggish (Psycho-)Rockabilly scene there, my compilation gathers such names as Wild Wax Combo, Siberian Mad Dogs, Depitors, Silver Rockets, Candymen, Los Vegas, The Polecats, Frantic Flintstones, Buzz & The Flyers, The Quakes, The Deltas, Nekromantix, Taggy Jones.
Here’s one:
And one for Copenhagen:
Kaisfatdad says
Danish Psycho Rockabilly! Wow! You really have opened my eyes to a whole subculture.
Never seen any of those bands at Roskilde unfortunately but I do enjoy dipping my tloe into different micro-genres.
Sniffity says
It is my solemn duty, in the absence of Johnny Cockaleekie, to report that the answer is….DONOVAN.
How’s that, you ask? Come closer and Uncle Sniffity will reveal all….
It begins with Mac Macleod, erstwhile folkie, and according to Pete Frame ” the best acoustic guitarist we had seen.” Arising from the early 1960s St Albans scene, and after touring here and there with John Renbourn, Macleod found himself in Torquay, where he met and palled around with young D. Leitch. Among other things, he taught the young Donovan how to do the finger-picking style which young DL later showed John Lennon in India…oh, the tangled skein of history!
Anyways, in ’65 Macleod and wife upped sticks to Stockholm, and later to Copenhagen, where he eventually fell in with a group calling themselves Peter Bell and the BB Brothers. He formed a splinter group, that went gangbusters until he was busted for matters narcotic. Deported from Denmark, he returned to the UK, where a letter awaited from his old chum Donovan, who while in India had written a tune inspired by the name of Mac’s splinter group….The Hurdy Gurdy.
Fetching the band from their Scandi-territory, Mac and the boys set up on Donovan’s front lawn and gave a display of how they intended to do Hurdy Gurdy Man. The Welsh Wonder was dismayed at the heavy treatment they accorded it, and explained that it supposed to receive a lighter, folkier sound. More fool them for listening to him, for shortly after the treacherous Leitch released his own version of the song, which accorded completely with the way the HG’s had performed it…
Well, that’s how an old man in a dark, smoke-filled pub told it to me*, and so that’s how I’m telling it to you – Youtube has failed completely to find a recording of The Hurdy Gurdy’s Hurdy Gurdy Man so you’ll have to settle for this…
*or it might have been a combination of Wikipedia and Mac Macleod’s own website.
Sewer Robot says
Well he’s always come across a bit of an Aarhus! A quick check reveals that, unlike Elvis Costello’s “King Of America”, John Grant’s titular ambition does have a real life position. Did not know that.
Here’s The Raveonettes:
Deviant808 says
Oops, didn’t notice you’d beaten me to it there.
Locust says
Ask any Swede of roughly my generation and the answer is Gasolin with singer Kim Larsen:
Neela says
Oh yes! The Scandinavian Freebird.
Kaisfatdad says
That is an interesting thought, Neela. Are there are any other candidates for those Pan Scando, Lighters (Mobile phones now) Out, Sing Along Anthem moments?
Any thoughts, Locust? We probably have a few here in Sweden. Something by Taube or Cornelis?
Kaisfatdad says
Neela, I have just realised that you understand Swedish. Have we another AWer here in the frozen North. Please spill the beans!
Neela says
I’m from Sverige, so yes, min svenska är ganska bra.
I live down south. If you want more beans it’ll cost you. 😉
Öppna Landskap is a mobile moment, I’m sure.
Kaisfatdad says
Thanks! That is enough beans to be getting on with. Good to know that there is someone else here with some of the same cultural and language reference points.
Öppna Landskap is indeed a mobile moment. A beautiful song. Here it is for the rest of the AW.
But whether it works outside of Sweden is not certain. I saw Ulf Lundell at Roskilde and he made no attempt to reach out to those who did not already know his music. So it was just a gaggle of Swedes up the front.
I have seen acts with a far greater language barrier really communicating with the Roskilde audience so I was not impressed.
Neela says
He’s more Dylan than Springsteen when it comes to banter, I guess. Not very communicative.
Kaisfatdad says
Ulf Lundell is certainly no Billy Bragg. About as much banter as you’d get from Van Morrison.
Then again, communicating with an audience can be done in many other ways. Body language, showing an awareness they are there.
Uffe was icke godkänd!
Neela says
He did the Hultsfred Festival, which, as I´m sure you know, for many years was THE festival in Sweden. Would have been a great opportunity for him to reach out to a younger audience (he was in his early fifties at the time, and by then had already been the older statesman of rock for at least a decade).
As I recall it he decided to do his regular set with mainly album cuts most people in the audience wouldn´t be already familiar with were they not fans. Not that he is short on classic tracks, of course.
But most of them were already old by then, in 2001. He finished with a Springsteen version of Twist And Shout. The whole thing is on YouTube, of course. Two hours worth of proper gubbrock
Sven Ingvars did the same festival, played all/most of their hits and reached out to a new generation in the process.
But if you catch Lundell when he´s in the right mood, if there´s such a thing, he can, I´ve been told, be a hoot.
I do respect people who do what they do, take it or leave it (Mr Young, I´m looking at you!). But regardless of what songs they decide to play, it´s nice if it looks like they´re having a good time up there.
Kaisfatdad says
None more gubby than Uffe! And it does not help that his fans (mostly middle-aged men) worship the ground he walks on. Respect to Sven Ingvars. Faced with a lukewarm audience, they turned what could have been a damp squib into a triumph. Great story!
Locust says
I thought the Scandinavian (at least Swedish) Freebird was Shoreline! 🙂
Neela says
Ha! Maybe, but I´m not sure how folklig (what´s that in English? trad arry?) Shoreline is. Not sure how folklig Freebird is either, though. So you could be right.
Maybe people show up at Coldplay concerts just to shout “play Freebird!”.
Deviant808 says
Looking forward to seeing these young scamps when they play in Edinburgh in October.
(“Sponge State” – Sløtface)
Deviant808 says
Iceage started out OK, but lost the plot a bit after their debut album.
(“Broken Bone” – Iceage)
Deviant808 says
There’s always the Raveonettes too.
I once trekked the length of the Glastonbury site to see these, only to find them onstage apologetically explaining that they’d lost their instruments in transit. Meanwhile my mates were back at the Pyramid stage watching what – as they took great delight in telling me later – was a fantastic set from the Sugababes.
(“Attack of the Ghost Riders” – The Raveonettes)
Kaisfatdad says
And now a band that Moose and I both have a soft spot for: the sensual sounds of Quadron.
The singer, Coco O, performed solo at this year’s Copenhagen Jazz Festival but it’s been a while since they’ve relased anything.
Keyboard player Robin Hannibal was also half of the mysterious Rhye,
I¨ve just discovered that before Quadron, Coco and Robin were involved in a collective called Boom Clap Bachelors. Rather good they sounded too.
Kaisfatdad says
In the 60s many major figures from the US jazz world relocated to Copenhagen: Ben Webster, Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon etc. Some of them stayed permanently. They found the respect they were given and the warm welcome they received a pleasant contrast to the racism rife in the US.
https://www.thelocal.dk/20160701/when-the-village-vanguard-came-to-denmark
It led to some intesting collaborations with Danish jazz musicians.
Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and Kenny Drew playing an old Danish folk tune from the 1973 album Duo.
Kaisfatdad says
On the subject of jazz, trombonist, Kai Winding, deserves a mention.
Hawkfall says
I can’t believe we’ve got this far without anyone mentioning Mercyful Fate and King Diamond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdJKLE58FUM
Kaisfatdad says
I know very little about Danish metal. But it does seem at a glance that there are a lot of bands from Århus. Any other bands we should know about?
Hawkfall says
I hope not!
Kaisfatdad says
I promised @neverflown a playlist to serve as an introduction to Danish music. Still a work in progress, but here is what I have done so far. Shaping up quite nicely. The suggestions on this thread have been really useful, so please keep them coming!
Morrison says
Jakob Bro – ECM-telecastertastic noodling
timtunes says
I’ve dabbled a bit with Efterklang
but otherwise surprised how few internationally known Danish acts there are – given their Scandinavian neighbours’ successes. I can suggest this theme to one of the best series ever
Neela says
Seconded on Borgen. Great stuff.
Moose the Mooche says
She certainly is.
….what?
Neela says
Sidse Babett Knudsen. Sounds like the name of an advanced jazz trio.
timtunes says
…and I don’t think we have had this classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMpVRs-ln4g
Kaisfatdad says
Marvellous selections , Tim. How did I forget Efterklang? A very special, bravely experimental band who are unlike any other. I’ve seen a couple of excellent shows by them.
I agree. The Danes are not as good at marketing themselves internationally. There is no shortage of talent.
Locust says
It is rather odd – I could mention plenty of Danish authors, actors, artists (as in painters etc), politicians, scientists, directors etc, but no matter how hard I try I can’t think of any more Danish artists (as in musicians). Why are they hiding?
(Of course, they would no doubt answer that it’s no use trying to get Swedes interested in the music of their Scandinavian neighbours, and they would have a point, at least in the past…)
Kaisfatdad says
You will find it odd Locust, but I can name many Danish artists.
Along with the ones I’ve already mentioned there is several artists that I have a lot of albums by.. Anne Linnet, Lis Sorensen, Sanne Salmonsen, Anne Dorte Michelson, Nanna, Shit and Chalou, Trille, Tosedrengene,På Slaget 12 etc. The list goes on and on. And I have seen quite a few of them live.
My fondness for (mostly female) Danish pop singers is a standing joke among my friends. But having relistened in the past week, I feel no need to change my opinion.
Strangely enough my fondness for these artists began in Malta back in the 80s.. I was working with two Danish girls who were keen to introduce me to some of their favorites. I left there a big fan of all-girl band. Shit and Chanel and it snowballed from there.
Neela says
Some of them had hits in Sweden too, at least Anne and Sanne.
Kaisfatdad says
Any suggestions as to how to translate the word “folklig” into English? I suspect that it can’t be done with just one word.
It refers to a person or in this case a song that has become very dear to the heart of many people.
With a person or band, it is that have achieved National Treasure status. Jarvis Cocker, the Grateful Dead, Billy Bragg, johnny Cash….
For a song, it is one that everybody knows and wants to sing along with. Having seen a clip of the Green Day audience singing Bohemian Rhapsody together I would, to my surprise day that is is now folklig.
Neela says
And watch out for the next episode, when we try to explain the concept of “lagom”!
Locust says
Funny, I just recently wrote to one of our fellow AW:ers trying to explain the concept of “folkkär”. The way I described it was that it means “beloved by the people” and where National Treasure status (at least in the Swedish use of Nationalklenod) is a sign of deep respect and awe, being “folkkär” means that you feel related to them and would like to go down the pub (or have a fika) with them.
Lill-Babs is like everyone’s crazy granny or something… 😉
Neela says
I´ve been trying to introduce my foreign partner to Hasse & Tage, especially Lindeman. Not sure it is successful. Though comedy usually doesn´t age that well, especially the political satire Hasse & Tage usually focused on. But they are both folkkära and nationalklenoder.
Lill-Babs seems to be a bit like the Håkan Hellström of her time, it´s more about the personality than the ability to hit the notes. When people of a certain age say “in the old days singers could sing”, I´m guessing they´re not talking about her or Evert Taube.
Ah, fika. I really should be going.
Kaisfatdad says
Don’t go there Neela! If there is one thing which is not lagom, it is attempts to explain that word.
Dejligt (lovely, delightful, gorgeous: pronounced die lit) incidentally is my fave Danish word.
Kaisfatdad says
We are on to an interesting topic here. Locust and Neela. I think that often someone who is folklig or folkkär starts off on the fringe and then wins the heart of a far broader audience. The late, great Freddie Wadling is a good example. He was a wonderfully odd chap and never sought wide popularity. But by the end that is what he got.
Somehow I feel that this is something the Scots can relate to far better than the English. They cherish their heroes. Michael Marra springs to mind
Neela says
It´s a shame Freddie passed away just as he was getting the wider attention he surely deserved, even if I was sursprised he had agreed to do Så Mycket Bättre.
Kaisfatdad says
Mo is a very canny Dane. She has collaborated with UK’s Snakehips and with Major Lazer. That song, Lean On charted high in the US.
In fact, that makes her the most commercially successful Danish artist since 1961 when Jörgen Ingmann had a hit with a cover of Apache.
You all remember Jörgen and Grete Ingmann from Eurovision 1963 I trust…
Kaisfatdad says
One for the folkies and proffers now.
Before I went to Roskilde this year I had never heard of Afenginn. They put on an extraordinary show with about 20 people on stage: the backing vocalists were in evening gowns and seemed to have come from the opera.
Hard to describe. A heady, exhilarating mixture of folk, classical, jazz, klezmer and quite a bit more. Demark’s snswer to Bellowhead?
Neela says
I have seen Afenginn live! Seem to recall I enjoyed it.
Kaisfatdad says
I am sure that not a single one of you has heard of electronic band Den Sorte Skole (The Black School). I hadn’t before I saw them on the Orange Stage this summer.
Complete with a 25 piece Icelandic choir dressed up to look like the Rejkjavik branch of the Klu Klux Klan and much else besides they put on a show that was musically and visually stunning.
This clip of a gig they did in France gives some small idea.
And this miniclip, complete with the famous cow-shagging alien flagpole, gives a small impression of the Roskilde show.
Alias says
The leader of Phronesis Jasper Holby is Danish. I’m surprised they haven’t been mentioned yet.
Kaisfatdad says
There is lot more Danish jazz that could be mentioned, Alias. Like Cecilie here.
Kaisfatdad says
Glad to hear you too enjoyed Afenginn, Neela.
As regards getting into Hasse and Tage, I got an idea of how special they were when I saw an old clip black and white of Monica Zetterlund doing one of their songs: powerful, poetic and very moving.
Neela says
“Så synd att hennes huvud var ett hål”, indeed. Sad when a 30 year old song is more relevant now than when it was written.
And yes, your clip was in black and white, but Monica is great in colour too.
Kaisfatdad says
I had completely forgotten this Scando thread which we did a while back. Locust and Declan were in very fine form.
One discovery was that Sanne Salomensen did an album with members of Little Feat: Language of the Heart from 1994.
Locust says
Ha! Not only had I completely forgotten that thread, I’d obviously completely forgotten seeing MØ at Popaganda that year…but reading back my verdict it’s perhaps not surprising.
Kaisfatdad says
I saw Mø at Roskilde, Locust, and she was a bit meh for my taste. But drew a very large crowd who obviously enjoying the show.
Tina Dico is another Dane who has worked with a U.K. band, this time Zero 7.
Rather more my cup of tea.
https://youtu.be/zKJVnxpQ2qg
I was thinking about songs that had become Pan-Scandinavian hits. Anne Linnet’s Tusind Stycker has to be one of the biggest. Made mega by Björn Afzelius of course.
So much so that, as she comments here, everyone thinks it’s a Swedish song.
Locust says
I dislike it equally in both languages…almost with the same fervour with which I dislike Öppna landskap, which it reminds me of. Similar tempo, both have mawkish melodies, soppy lyrics, and singers (in both languages) who I just don’t like at all! I almost get an allergic physical reaction when either song comes on the radio, it feels like a rash on the inside of my skin that I can’t scratch – making me cringe and wanting to hit something… *shudders*
Neela says
No one lost money doing soppy music…
Kaisfatdad says
Gosh Locust! I had no intention of giving you a rash.
We’ll have to agree to differ as I really do like Anne Linnet’s voice which I find wonderfully expressive.
I have many favorites from her discography, not least Brandon’s Gade where she sets the poems of Tove Ditlevsen to music.
As balsam for your rash, try this string quartet that I just stumbled over. Classically trained but here they are doing medleys of traditional Danish tunes. Very agreeable.
Locust says
Well, out of the three, Linnet is definitely the voice I have the least problems with – in her case it’s mostly the song itself!
If anyone wanted to drive me to jump off a cliff, they could arrange a medley of Tusen bitar and Öppna landskap (they’d blend together perfectly) and have it performed to me by Per Gessle…unable to chew my own ears off, I’d definitely choose the cliff!
I find that I’ve become more tolerant in later years, but some things are still too offensive to live with. 😀
Kaisfatdad says
You are very funny Locust!
Well, I’m jumping with you if Per Gessle is singing anything!!
Such a whiny, weedy, characterless voice.
Kaisfatdad says
I have just discovered a band who reallyare Denmark’s answer to Bellowhead: BalTinget. Folky, jazzy and they swing!