Danish Vibes - New music from the North

Festival mit Janne Mark, Basco feat. Jullie Hjetland, Kenneth Dahl Knudsen und Mambe & Danochilango

Basco and Jullie Hjetland
The Scandinavian top-class quartet Basco has joined forces with the enchanting Danish/Norwegian singer Jullie Hjetland. Together they create energetic music and a poetic sound delivered with their shared passion for story telling. Over the years both Basco and Jullie have been awarded at the Danish Music Award – Folk in such categories as “Album of the Year”, “Singer of the Year”, “Artist of the Year”, “Track of the year” & “Composer of the Year”. Their music is varied, full of nuance and beauty, of temperament and drive, of grand sweeping landscapes, delicate, fractal detail, and of good, old fashioned, raw, foot-stomping power. Together they’ve released the EP “Kongsdøtrene” in 2014 and in 2018 they will commence the journey to release a full album together.
Jullie is a versatile and charismatic singer, whose voice has brought her round the world with not only Basco but also as Lukkif and with Pierre Dørge and Nordens Tone, among others. Whether performing with Jullie, as a quartet or with the Danish Radio Big Band, irrepressible Scandinavian folk roots band Basco’s infectious energy, virtuosity and inventiveness have gained the hearts and minds of audiences from all over Europe. Basco is the first folk string band ever to be shortlisted for the prestigious Nordic Music Prize in 2014 for their album, “The Remarkable Return of Old Man Basco”. In May 2017 this remarkable quartet released their forth studio album “Interesting Times”, which was awarded “Album of the Year”, Danish Music Awards Folk 2017

Janne Mark
With ‘Pilgrim’ Janne Mark and her musicians have managed to produce one of the most beautiful, most essential, most personal and most important vocal albums long heard in this country.” – JazzSpecial (DK)
Janne Mark is a Danish vocalist, hymnwriter and composer, who has embarked upon a path between songwriting, spiritual jazz, hymns and Scandinavian folk with the international album release ‘Pilgrim’ on German jazz-label ACT. She is the first Danish artist on ACT performing in her native language.
She writes in the here and now, is socially aware and committed and this is how her songs have established themselves outside the canon of sacred music and into the secular space. Janne Mark incorporates the urban space into her hymn-writing and has found a unique way to reinvent the Danish hymn-tradition which is a major part of the folk music tradition in Denmark.
“Pilgrim is a portrait of a fascinating artist” – ACT
Inspired also by classical composers like Arvo Pärt and Carl Nielsen and with a passion for great vocalists and songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan, she combines these influences into a Nordic sacral songwriting with dimensions where her listeners find themselves in a haven of peace and quiet. The collaboration with unique Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen on ‘Pilgrim’ underlines this with an expression of touching musical poetry between time and space as a result.
“When words and music blend together with so much beauty as Janne Mark and Arve Henriksen have done here, all you can do is open your ears and your soul and surrender.” – ***** Berlingske Tidende (DK)
Janne Mark has performed in Germany, Scotland, Sweden, Austin Texas and all over Denmark. Throughout 2018 she will be touring in Canada, Norway, Germany, Scotland, at the Danish Embassy in Beijing and at Pizza Express Jazzclub in London as part of the festival ‘Sounds of Denmark’.
She is also the main singer at the services held at Brorsons Church, Copenhagen, a church situated in a multicultural area of the Danish capitol.

Kenneth Dahl Knudsen
Emotional journey into the lightness of youth:
Renowned danish double bassist sums up his varied international experiences on new album „Tété“ and unravels the essence of his work.
The Danish based jazzmusician, composer, arranger and bandleader is an internationally in demand sideman due to his intutitive virtuosity on double bass, a mastery that led him to work with names like Gilad Hekselman or Aaron Parks. The release of his fourth album „Tété“ sees him stepping into the limelight as a composer and bandleader of his international quintet – and it proves to be real stroke of luck: Musical influences from all over the world come together with a naturalness that implies Knudsen has the formula for successfully translating the fundamental idea of jazz into the age of globalisation.
Sometimes you have to dive into the unknown to get back to yourself. Nobody knows more about this simple truth than double bassist and composer Kenneth Dahl Knudsen. As the grieveing about his mother´s death threatened to take all joy of living from him, the multiple awarded jazzmusician went on a journey that led him through 33 countries – always accompanied by his bass, his sheer belief in the uniting forces of music and the glimpse of hope to get back some of the lightness he had in his youth. Little by little the encounters and playing with local musicians from diverse musical cultures as from Japan, USA, Morocco, Lebanon, Israel, Thailand and Germany helped Kenneth Dahl Knudsen to gain a variety of new musical impressions as well as finding new joy in life – an experience he shares with the world on his fourth album „Tété“. The title references the name he used to give himself as a little child before he could speak properly and stands as a symbol for his newfound lightheartedness.
From a musical point of view the title also perfectly reflects the truly open minded childlike curiosity that Knudsen aimed for with his new album. As a bandleader he manages to unite all the experiences he made on his journey and ties them all up into one impressive complete work. Backed by the blindly intuitive interplay of his quintet Knudsen combines harmonies of the european music tradition with the playful rhythms of Africa and Latin America as well as the expressiveness of jewish folksongs as if they belonged together naturally, sounding like noone else but himself. It feels like Kenneth Dahl Knudsen is leading the intercultural understanding that is the fundamental idea of jazz into the age of globalisation – and he welcomes everybody to join him on his exciting journey.

Mambe & Danochilango
Sonic travellers, worthy citizens of the global village, their music travels through genres as diverse as Tribal, Kuduro, Dancehall, Hip Hop, Balkan and Cumbia but they prefer to call it “Global-Bass”.
This duet with Latin roots and Scandinavian influence shows the newest mixtures of the world music.
Danochilango, former dancer of The Royal Danish Ballet and DJ for more than a decade, create in his productions an harmonicbalance between the analogue and the electronic by the use of acoustic instruments. While Mambe conveys her activism through her vocals, she sings in Swedish, Spanish, Danish and English. Her melodic and powerful voice, bears a strong influence of her Colombian Roots, and her lyric fire words with a deep and profound social content.
All of these qualities combined have led Mambe and Danochilango to be nominated for the Danish World Music Awards in the category of “Best live act 2015”. Moreover, “Cumbia Universal” has been nominated for “Best song 2016” by the same institution.
The special connection between them became into an extraordinary faithful audience. They released the EP “Híbrido” in 2015. Since then, they have been sharing stages with bands such as Bomba Estéreo, Dengue Dengue Dengue, El Hijo de la Cumbia,Copia Doble Systema and Pato Machete to mention a few.
After a fantastic first tour in Mexico, they are currently working on their new album, which is expected to be even more original, dance-able, urban and ethnically diverse than their debut EP.
Immerse yourself into M&D universe!