Trentemøller

Poker Flat, Audiomatique, Out Of Orbit, Tic Tac Toe

2008.06.26 ::: Words by Kate Matheou, Pic by Karen Rosetzsky

Copenhagen (Denmark) based Anders Trentemøller made his debut in 1997 together with DJ T.O.M. when they formed the first live-house act in Denmark, Trigbag, and started playing lots of concerts at home and abroad.

Including three successful gigs at The Roskilde Festival, they also crafted a number of remixes and their Trigbag single “Showtime” which has been played by international DJ‘s such as Alex Gopher, Laurent Garnier or Etienne de Crecy.

Trigbag dissolved in 2000, and Trentemøller chose a 2-year break from the House-scene. During summer 2003, Trentemøller returned on Naked Music with his “The Trentemøller EP” including the tracks “Le Champagne” and “Work in Progress”. The EP was an international success and often heard on BBC Radio One and played by DJs such as Pete Tong, Danny Tenaglia, John Digweed and Steve Bug, who charted “Le Champagne” as one of the 10 best tracks released in 2003, listed in Groove, one of Germany’s most important music magazine.

On top, Trentemøller received the award “Up Front Release of the Year” at the Danish DJ Awards in February 2004 for the Track “Champagne”. With a string of legendary remixes on labels both obscure and renowned, together with his famous live appearances performing exquisitely tight live keys together with DJ-sets from his mate DJ T.O.M. around the world, the buzz about Anders kept going on in the global dance community.

Trentemøller returned with a new and rougher sound in 2005. “Beta Boy” (on Out Of Orbit) and especially “Physical Fraction” (on Audiomatique) marked the beginning of a new period for the young Dane.

In February 2005 Steve Bug released the yet famous Trentemøller EP “Physical Fraction” on his brand new label Audiomatique. This release rapidly grew to a summer anthem of 2005 and put Trentemøller on the map of internationally successful producers to be followed by three strong releases on Steve’s main label Poker Flat: “Polar Shift (pfr56)”, “Sunstroke (pfr61)” and the “Nam Nam EP”.

These three releases and a 12” on Tic Tac Toe consolidated his reputation as one of the hottest newcomer and freshest producer in 2005. Many reader polls awarded him as the Best Newcomer of the year 2005, crowned by a coverstory of German Raveline magazine in January 2006.

Since early 2005 Trentemøller and his DJ partner Tom Bertelsen are on a constant world tour which continues until autumn early 2007 with an exciting and raving live-show. Trentemøller loves to create antipodes in his music and so the contrast between large and vast echo chambers and sharp, direct in-your-face sound bits are characteristic of his sound. Coupled with outstanding production skills, he creates fascinating song structures. Thanks to Trentemøller’s unique sound he has also been a much demanded remixer. Highlights have been his remixes for Martinez (“Shadowboxing”), Sharon Philips (“Want 2 Need 2”), Röyksopp (“What Else Is There”), The Knife (“We Share Our Mother’s Health”), Moby (“Go”), Yoshimoto (“Du What You Du”), Matthias Schaffhäuser (“Coincidance”) and many more. Thanks to the special “Trentemøller twist” most of the remixes became huge hits in clubland.

Since summer 2005 Anders had been working on his debut album “The Last Resort” which was released on Poker Flat in October 2006. This brilliant work reveals another yet undiscovered side of the highly talented musician. Other than his banging dancefloor singles the album is a beautifully crafted, astonishing masterpiece, that will leave you breathless. The 13 instrumental tracks together form a wordless musical story, almost like the soundtrack of a movie. It manages to capture a whole range of emotions in subtle melodic miniatures, dreamy ambiences, dusty beats, deep dub-tracks and driving groove-excursions. An ever-changing kaleidoscope of colours and moods, „The Last Resort“ without a doubt contains Trentemøller’s best work to date and became a huge hit.

In 2007 followed two singles taken from the album “The Last Resort”: “Always Something Better (feat, Richard Davis)” (Poker Flat 71) and “Moan (feat. Ane Trolle)” (Poker Flat 81 and Poker Flat White 01). After four months of hard work by directors Niels Gråbøl and Urlik Crone and their team including shooting in Russia and post production in Copenhagen the amazing video for „Moan“ is finished in May 2007. It tells the sad story of Laika, the first living creature in orbit.

Since then “Moan” remained on high positions in the official danish and belgium sales charts - only based on 12” sales! The emotional video gathered high interest from TV channels around the globe and scored over 250.000 views on the internet in only 6 weeks.

Trentemøller and his live partner DJ "Tom“ Bertelsen played more than 100 shows over the last 1 and a half years with their raving and energetic live sets mainly based on Trentemøller‘s dance floor singles. But in the summer of 2007 they announced a very special tour: "Trentemøller Live in Concert“! . For the first time Trentemøller and the band are performing tracks from the album "The Last Resort“ live on stage! The band members are: Henrik Vibskov on drums, Mikael Simpson (guitar/bass) and of course Trentemøller. Apart from being exceptionally gifted musicians, Vibskov and Simpson are already very well known artists in their own rights. Vibskov is a famous fashion designer with exhibitions in Paris, London, New York, Tokyo and more, while Simpson is one of the most popular and gold selling danish singer/songwriter. Elaborate visuals have been created for the entire show by video director Karim Ghahwagi (who already provided spectacular visuals for the shows of the danish band Efterklang) and you can expect a highly entertaining and capturing multi-sensual live performance of an outstanding album! Trentemøller “Live In Concert” have been booked for many main festivals in Europe including Glastonbury in th U.K, Melt in Germany, Pukklepop in Belgium, Lowlands in the Netherlands and Roskilde in Denmark, before they are playing a North America tour.

The new double-album “The Trentemøller Chronicles” is a very special kind of “Best Of” album and was released October 1st, 2007. It includes Anders‘ personal selection of his best songs and remixes, which have only been available on vinyl or on compilations, as well as some new and exclusive songs. But the fantastic Trentemøller mix on CD1 and the fine selection of remixes on CD2 make this release a great double album in its own right for extraordinary listening pleasure.

Trentemøller is already working on new projects including a film-score, and fashion line and new exciting releases and will be spending time at Pacha Ibiza this season as a regular guest at Pure Pacha, with his debut appearance coming on Friday June 27th and then returning on August 15th.

Nocturnal: Do you have any special Pacha memories from down the years?
Trentemøller: Yeah, last year was a big experience to play with Pete tong, since he has helped me a lot, pushing and playing my debut album ‘The Last resort’ and many of my remixes… such as remixes for Moby, Royksopp, The Knife and Pet Shop Boys. It was really fun finally playing with him J .

Nocturnal: When did you first visit the club?
Trentemøller: It was 3 years ago, together with DJ T.O.M. I used to play the keyboard live and he would Dj. So I am really looking forward to playing this year because I am the DJ now and I find a lot of joy in doing that. It’s different than just playing the keyboard.

Nocturnal: Do you find yourself playing in any way differently when you are here at Pacha?
Trentemøller: When I play other clubs I tend to mix in some more punk disco or electro with a rock’n’roll attitude, however, the Pacha crowd are more up for ‘straight’ dance music/techno. On the other hand It’s also fun to challenge the audience a bit, and I still think that I will mix in some of my edit’s and bootlegs this summer too. hee hee (-:

Nocturnal: How do you see the scene in Ibiza 2008?
Trentemøller: Pure Pacha will be my first trip into Ibiza this year so let's see. Again, I’m just looking forward to partying at Pacha and playing some good music.

Nocturnal: Do you have an all time favourite ‘Ibiza record'?
Trentemøller: It must be Jaydee’s ‘Plastic Dreams’. An all time classic, and the track still works on the dancefloor! I love it!

Nocturnal: What is your perception of the Pacha crowd?
Trentemøller: A good party crowd that is very dedicated to dance music.

Nocturnal: How do you think Pacha is still going strong after over 30 years in business?
Trentemøller: 30 years?? That’s amazing!! It’s really cool. Must be some of the oldest clubs in the world still rocking! Wow!

Nocturnal: What can people expect from your gig?
Trentemøller: Good quality music, energy and a lot of my own edit’s and bootlegs.

Nocturnal: How is the rest of the year looking for you?
Trentemøller: I am working on my next studio album right now. I am bringing my laptop and a keyboard with me to Ibiza so I can work while I’m here on the beautiful island for the next 10 days. I am working a lot with mixing real drums, guitars and strings with electronic sounds. I also use my band members a lot more than on The Last resort album. Then I’m off to Japan and Australia to DJ. In September I am off to New York to work further more on the album. I love that city, it’s always inspiring to be there.

Nocturnal: Could you give us a big track for you this summer?
Trentemøller: For me right now I love playing the Mathias Tansmann remix ‘Nomads’ by Cle! It’s huge! And I’m also playing my brand new remix of Modeselector feat. Thom Yorke ‘The White Flash’. It will be released in 3 weeks.

Nocturnal: Lastly here are some quick shots:
Nocturnal: Dancefloor or VIP?
Trentemøller: ANSWER.
Nocturnal: Dress Dancefloor or dress down?
Trentemøller: Both!
Nocturnal: Beer or wine?
Trentemøller: Beer.
Nocturnal: House or techno?
Trentemøller: Techno.
Nocturnal: Sunrise or sunset?
Trentemøller: Both!
Nocturnal: Vinyl or CD?
Trentemøller: CD.
Nocturnal: Sea or sand?
Trentemøller: Both!
Nocturnal: Now or then?
Trentemøller: No doubt : both!!!
Nocturnal: Home or abroad?
Trentemøller: Home but abroad is also inspiring...
Nocturnal: Heads-down or hands-in-the-air?
Trentemøller: Heads-down if we are talking good shoe-gazing indierock, hands-in-the-air on the dancefloor!

::: Related Links

::: www.myspace.com/trentemoeller

::: Pacha Ibiza Club Listings