BY:LARM: Sasha Siem + Sekuoia (DK) + DNKL (SE) + AV AV AV (DK) + Harald Bjørk
7:00 PM – Sasha Siem
Anglo-Norwegian artist Sasha Siem has announced the release of her debut album, “Most Of The Boys”, which will be available through Blue Plum Records on March 2, 2015. The debut LP follows recent single “My Friend”, which saw her musical background collide colorfully with her appreciation of more contemporary artists such as Andrew Bird and PJ Harvey, giving way to a sold-out London single launch and praise from the likes of NME, Clash Magazine, Stereogum and Noisey, with additional support from XFM and BBC 6Music. Written during a spell in Berlin and later produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson (Sigur Ros, Bjork, Bonnie Prince Billy, Feist) at Reykjavik’s legendary Greenhouse Studios, Siem’s debut LP “Most Of The Boys” is a song cycle. Its twelve songs are as linked by their themes as by the sonic world they inhabit – born of an unlikely collusion of influences that Siem has woven together: her years spent composing and performing award-winning contemporary classical music; her fascination with likeminded lovers of innovative songwriting and unusual arrangements and her youthful love of the canon of great songwriters that emerged in the 1960s.
8:00 PM – Sekuoia (DK)
Sekuoia, alias of 21-year old Patrick Madsen, is one of the most acclaimed producers to come out of Scandinavia right now. He has released two EPs and will be releasing a new EP in March 2015. Sekuoia combines the organic with the electronic in a dreamy meltdown and has been chosen to support acts like Inc, Active Child, Washed Out, MØ and WhoMadeWho, as well as remixing Tomas Barfod. The buzz in Scandinavia has been incredibly fast-growing and he is shooting up everywhere playing European festivals like Reeperbahn Festival, Amsterdam Dance Event, Rencontres Trans Musicales and Eurosonic. His sound consist of dry beats, synth washes and copy/pasted vocals conjure echoes of both dubstep and atmospheric ambient. The Danish producer is creating delicate electronic music that effortlessly bridges ambient, hip hop and electronica. His painterly soundscapes are equal parts night club after midnight and stalactite cave at dawn.
9:00 PM – DNKL (SE)
It’s been 12 exciting months for Swedish trio DNKL. Emerging from their Gothenburg basement studio at the end of 2013, the band have played at some of Europe’s biggest festivals and won over a legion of fans around the world with their mesmerizing, dark electronic pop. Their debut single “Hunt”, hailed as a “bleary eyed, 4am triumph” by DIY, would go on to be featured everywhere from The Guardian to influential blogs such as Discobelle and Indie Shuffle and would eventually find itself at no 35 in The Line Of Best Fit’s Fifty Best Tracks of 2013. Its follow-up, “Battles”, met similar praise. Since then, the band has gone on to perform at Roskilde Festival, opened the Way Out West festival on the Boiler Room stage, played at Berlin Music Week and supported Com Truise on his European tour.
10:00 PM – AV AV AV (DK)
On a trip to the beach house trip, a well deserved break from the busy and pulsing nightlife of Copenhagen the nascent steps of the electronic music trio AV AV AV were taken. In the fall of 2013 the three producers and DJs ELOQ, UNKWON and DJ E.D.D.E.H. went to the west coast of Denmark and started producing tracks together. Their first track “All Good” was released on SoundCloud in June 2014, and became instantly an essential summer tune for fans and listeners around the world. From one day to another the trio was confirmed for events like by:Larm, SPOT Festival, Club NME and Roskilde Festival. It was actually a bit of a coincidence that the three guys formed the band. The original plan of the trip was to relax, socialize and enjoy each other’s company. But already on the first evening they decided to open the computer and try out some common ideas about producing music. Before the night was over the band had already made their first three raw sketches – among them was “All Good”. The band decided to repeat the trips to beach houses, and in the winter they went to a cottage in Sweden to finish up the work of what will become their 2015 debut EP. In October 2014 AV AV AV played their critically acclaimed live debut show in Copenhagen at DR Koncerthuset in the main hall in front of 1,500 people, and hereby confirmed why several media sites including VICE already have named the band Denmark’s New Electronic Supergroup.
11:00 PM – Harald Björk (SE)
Harald Björk was born and raised in a suburb of Stockholm, surrounded by nature, although the basements of the houses told a different story, harboring a wealth of budding producers and bands. He first began to make a production name for himself with early releases on labels such as Traum Schallplatten, Apparillo Music and Deep Focus, before taking the brave decision to go it alone by founding his own Kranglan Broadcast imprint in 2009. Harald Björk’s music is a naive and emotional form of melodic minimal techno with a melancholic Scandinavian touch. His hardware-only live set hooks a host of machines up to the mixer in preparation for a journey through dystopian melodics, exploding breaks and motoric beats, with Harald taking the helm. His parallel DJ career was first embarked upon as a teenager, flirting with hip hop in the days before techno stardom beckoned, eventually evolving towards the modern variant of music-for-dancing-to that we see today.
