He’s an orchestra in a box. He takes club music to the next level and produces everything from eight minute dancefloor riots to film scores à la David Lynch. He’s remixed Röyksopp, The Pet Shop Boys and Moby and sales figures for his album ‘The Last Resort’ are sensational.

Meet Trentemøller, the one-man army who put Denmark on the world map of electronic music, while claiming he isn’t a DJ – even though most of the international club community seem to disagree. In September last year, to his surprise, he was awarded the annual Ibiza DJ Award.

“I couldn’t even name a top ten of new releases. I just don’t keep bang up to date with what’s going on in the clubs. I was even more taken aback that the nomination was in the “electro” category!” BBC Radio 1 legend Pete Tong presented the award, voted for by clubbers from around the world. “I just didn’t get it,” he laughs.

Yet Anders Trentemøller has rocked dancefloors from Berlin to Rio with remixes as well as original compositions. So when his album ‘The Last Resort’ came out in 2006, it was a bit of a surprise that the music wasn’t the least bit club-friendly. Instead, Trentemøller had created a downbeat masterpiece, a record that may have been a long way from the 12-inch singles that made him such a big underground name, but one that was a lot closer to the man himself.

Room for improvisation
The fact the album ended up an electronic bestseller was no mean feat. There were no vocals, no catchy choruses, no shortcuts to understanding the music. But it was still one of the best-selling electronic albums in the UK, Germany, the USA and at home in Denmark. The man with the “Ø” in his name had taken techno to the charts and made it popular.

“I know the album is really demanding. I was surprised it sold so well ’cause a lot of people were expecting more party music – they got something else,” he explains.

Success has made Trentemøller a big draw on the live circuit. He recently recruited a band to help him escape the rigidity of the drum machine. It consists of his musical partner, singer/songwriter Mikael Simpson, on bass and the internationally acclaimed fashion designer Henrik Vibskov on drums. Room to improvise was a prerequisite.

“Suddenly, you find yourself in a new role you’re not ready for. But when I played in rock bands many moons ago, I hated the rehearsal room. The two others felt the same, so we only met for three weeks of concentrated practice before the first gig. And we haven’t rehearsed since. I like the fact that our concerts are unpredictable, that something might go wrong. We’re only human after all, and there has to be room for that. We don’t want to play the same gig twice.”

That’s why he isn’t a DJ. He enjoys unpredictability, and would rather mess about on his laptop. Sometimes he will batter away on a keyboard, but only to conjure up spirits from gigs gone by. “We’ve got this huge tour bus with tinted glass and we feel like rock stars,” he says, before reeling off upcoming tour dates on the East and West coasts of USA, in Iceland, in Brazil and in Mexico.

Celebrating the funeral
It all started with a cheap laptop from a cut-price supermarket, on which Trentemøller produced, ironically enough, the underground hit ‘Le Champagne’. He made his debut in 2003 with a vinyl EP on the acclaimed American house label Naked Music, and went on to be one of their best sellers.

Since then, his records have sold like hot cakes, paving the way for a dozen singles on smaller labels and highly popular remixes for the likes of The Knife, Röyksopp, The Pet Shop Boys and Moby – all of which bore the special Trentemøller hallmarks of organic structures and constantly shifting rhythms. For the time being though, Trentemøller has taken his foot off the gas a bit. He’s working on music for a stage version of the Cannes prize-winning film ‘The Celebration’ by Thomas Vinterberg. “I’ve never tried stage music before. I mean, I don’t even read music!” he explains.

Just as ‘The Last Resort’ was more suitable for funerals than family parties, ‘The Celebration’ isn’t exactly a comedy. “The music has to reflect that,” explains Trentemøller, a self-proclaimed fan of David Lynch’s eerie cinematic style. “Electronic music lets you trip out and mess around with the recognizability of sounds. You can’t do that with traditional instruments.”

Artistic freedom
Work on the follow-up to ‘The Last Resort’ hasn’t even started, but the prospect already makes Trentemøller a bit nervous.

“I try not to think about it and just make music without worrying about what DJs will play, or what people expect. The most important thing for me is to have full artistic freedom. With ‘The Last Resort’ the label wasn’t allowed to hear the album before it was completely finished, and that’s how it will be the next time, too.”

In the meantime he has released ‘The Trentemøller Chronicles’, a compilation featuring his complete rap sheet on two CDs. But offers keep pouring in, most of which he has to refuse. Rufus Wainwright was one of the unlucky hopefuls, but there is a chance he’ll work with 2raumwohnung and The Knife’s singer Karin Dreijer – but only if Trentemøller has time. A lot of aspiring musicians would love to find themselves too busy. He does have a dream project though, one he’ll definitely make time for: To work with Mazzy Star’s singer, Hope Sandoval, whose melancholic voice he finds alluring.

“I’ve tried getting in touch with her so many times,” he sighs. “Apparently she is really shy, so the approach has to be just right. I’m considering sending her flowers, or perhaps a singing telegram. Anything, as long as it works.”

OTHER DANISH ELECTRONIC ACTS TO CHECK OUT
Trentemøller may be the shining star of Danish electronic music, but the scene is awash with exciting artists and producers. Here are four exciting releases:

Efterklang: Parades (Rumraket)
A dreamlike ensemble that fuses classic and new, electronic and acoustic, video and audio. Their 2004 debut ‘Tripper’ earned the band gigs at numerous international hotspots, and after a number of minor releases their long-awaited second album is finally here.

TomBoy: Seriøs (Gomma)
Tomas Barfod is the well-travelled drummer in WhoMadeWho, one half of house duo Filur, and a DJ who has played clubs all over Europe, from Fabric in London to Panoramabar in Berlin. His solo project TomBoy triggers both minimal and maximal electro beats. Look out for the ‘Flamingo’ single, complete with a tense Trentemøller remix.

Martinez: Restructured Layers (Out of Orbit)
German DJ godfather Sven Väth has praised part-Danish, part-Swedish producer and DJ Martinez. On ‘Restructured Layers’ he proves that his mixing skills are out of this world. The beats and synths stack up like a harmonic and well-organized car crash.

Manual: Lost Days, Open Skies and Streaming Tides (Darla)
Whizz-kid Jonas Munk has countless projects on his CV. His most recent release as Manual is a double CD that creates an electronic universe of romantic daydreams, full of subtly hinted homage to names like Slowdive and the Cocteau Twins.

Brought to you in collaboration with:
Boom Boom Magazine – The Sounds & Visions of Denmark