Sound of Copenhagen – In The Flesh

Sound of Copenhagen is an electronic record label – founded by Le Gammeltoft and the late Kjeld Tolstrup – that promotes emerging and exciting unsigned artists coming out of Copenhagen and Denmark.

Artists get one track on annual release from Sound of Copenhagen to make a name for themselves – and given the label’s following, it is quite a chance.

On Saturday 12^th October DR’s Konserthuset – the magnificent classical music venue with Denmark’s national broadcasting company behind it – became Sound of Copenhagen’s. The lights in the foyer were ambient and with the visuals projected onto walls something that defied concert or club was created.

Loving the label and its sounds as much as I do, I was disappointed at first when I learned that this would be a sit-down concert. Surely electronic music is for dancing to? Yet, I respected they were trying to make us feel outside the box. The experience would be something completely novel. I was ready!

Shanghai began with their Lulu Rouge-remixed Looking for Love and thereafter came Vinnie Who, Visti & Meyland (what an impressive amount of soul for a White Danish guy), D’Jean & Masonaise with the superb Man of Trouble, Rosa Lux and Danish hip-hop legends Suspekt. Either they came on during my trips to swig more cider or I totally missed out on Kölsch – producers of my favourite track Loreley. Also playing with passion were Mikael Simpson, Troels Abrahamson and all the other back up musicians and DJs.Unlike the traditional concert, guests were free to get up from their seats as much as they liked – to the bar or outside the grand building for a smoke and a twinkling view onto the water. The sound system and hall acoustics were stunning and that bass one can only get a fraction of on headphones was extrapolated to chair-reverberating potential. The performances had just as much of an acoustic aspect as the electronic stuff. In fact, this could have been an acoustic concert with a heavy electronic presence. The same is not necessarily true of the S.O.C. albums.

Hosting the evening were Le Gammeltoft and Korean-born Dane Simon Jul (one of the trio who travelled to North Korea to film the documentary Kim Jong-il’s Comedy Club – aired on BBC’s Storyville back in 2010). The chat was in Danish but my learning of the language so far meant I was not completely deaf to the banter and Gangnam Style jokes – and anyway it is a commonly known fact that ones language ability improves after a few drinks…

The banging atmosphere continued on into the efterfesten in the lobby where lights were dimmed further, Trentemøller came onto the decks and people got busy dancing, making it one of the most comfortable and sumptuous nightlife venues I have partied towards the dawn in.

The earlier portion of Saturday evening may have been lighter on the electronics than I had desired, but there is little doubt about whether or not I will return next year. And how pleasant – and unusual, too – it was to put names and faces to the electronic music that would otherwise be left as a track on one’s MP3 player.