Alaska swept away the feet under the Danish audience along with reporters and this resulted in praising reviews from all sides.

One Danish music magazine states that: “…I dare to say that we will be hearing more of this musician in the future, because he sure understands how to tell stories with his music…” (GAFFA * * * * *)

After this promising live debute in Denmark, his self entitled first album is to be released in Denmark on the 4th of June and a Danish tour with four concerts lays awaits him in the fall.

(Foto: Kaja Bruskeland)

- a wild clash of slashing guitars, female vocals, jazz winds and thundering drums.

Aarhus Jazz Orchestra (formerly known as Kluiverts Big Band) now with new leader Lars Møller, played Slayer Big Band Project at Blackbox, Godsbanen Friday May 4.

Watch the thriling video from the concert here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACrwFB-TtwM&feature=youtu.be 

TV- reports made by the broard Spanish television station Televisión Española (TVE) and Luxembourg RTL attach attention after this years SPOT.

TVE checked out the SPOT vibe

In their review on SPOT TVE mentions the Danish artist MØ, the band Kúra and interviews Battlekat, who states that they hope to be touring in Spain next month.

Jonas Alaska from Norway drops a comment and a song as well, and the reportage ends with a couple of words by Alphabeat and The Raveonettes.

Download and watch the first out of two tv-reports from TVE  here.

Luxembourg documents The Luna Boots

If you speak German, Luxembourg and French you can watch the report about The Luna Boots from Luxembourg who played with Danish Esther Maria Saturday at SPOT. This was part of InterSPOT-programme.

The Luna Boots shows great linguistic versatility in their songs, as they sing both in Danish, French and Luxembourg as you can hear in the report.

RTLs report includes both comments from the Director of SPOT Gunnar K. Madsen and The Raveonettes.

Watch the RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg’s report by Sarah Cattani & Sven Becker here.  

Spanish recording from Venuelab

Anna Brønsted from Our Broken Garden also attented this years SPOT as participant in the project Venuelab.

The nationwide Spanish newspaper El Mundo recorded this nice video - the first of several recordings they did at SPOT. You can find them all here as they are produced.

Furthermore, not only video recordings is creating post-SPOT attention. Dom Gourlay from English Drowned in Sound states that: “Perhaps more importantly, the current Danish music scene – and Scandinavia in general to be fair – seems to be bursting at the seams with a glut of undiscovered talent. With such an array of fine musical delights to savour, DiS found itself spoilt for choice…”

Read the entire article here. 

Aarhus City Council opened its doors on Friday, May 4th at the Town Hall to officially welcome the international guests at SPOT 2012.

More than 300 people from the music industry turned up by invitation from MXD and SPOT Festival and was greeted with a welcoming speech by Mayor Jacob Bundsgaard followed by a glass of wine and pancakes/wraps and more.

Besides the Danish attendance, music and media represents from Germany, England, Belgium, Brasil, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Holland, Luxembourg, Iceland and Poland were present.

Have a look at the gallery below.
 
 

http://overgaard.dk/the-story-behind-that-picture-0075_gb.html

Lean back and feel the atmosphere from this years SPOT.

Quality and good sound recognizes these simple but highly professional recordings, made at very intermistic settings during this years SPOT Festival.

FaceCulture had made the trip all the way from Holland to Aarhus bringing along all their equiptment and computers and the filmcrew of 5-6 people did not waste a minute of their time.

The filmproduction consisting of short acustic concerts was in a constant flow and the result speaks for itself. Below you can enjoy recordings of Rangleklods and The Raveonettes and more.

More films from FaceCulture will be posted on this page – so stay tuned. One thing left to say: Enjoy!

FaceCultures own comments:

Jonas Alaska at SPOT. Foto: Allan Høgholm Henriksen

Jonas Alaska – Tonight

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 5, 2012.

The Norwegian singer-songwriter Jonas Alaska plays the song Tonight of his debut album (2011).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fFgC_cali_M

Jonas Alaska – If Only As A Ghost

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 5, 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzEIk_Wv_z8&list=PL8FE295AF26485667&index=1&feature=plcp

The Raveonettes at SPOT. Foto: Thorten Iversen

The Raveonettes – Railroad Tracks

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 4, 2012.

The Danish band The Raveonettes plays the song Railroad Tracks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTpCDKVT90I&feature=youtu.be

I Got You On Tape at SPOT. Foto: Lars Laen

I Got You On Tape

-  Run From The Rain

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 4, 2012.

The Danish band I Got You On Tape plays the song Run From The Rain  of their album Church Of The Real (2011).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2dL_hZUq5A&feature=youtu.be

Rangleklods at SPOT. Foto: Mathias Warnich

Rangleklods - In Charge

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 4, 2012.

The Danish artist Rangleklods plays the song In Charge of his album Beekeeper (2012).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA-1Wzay8L8&feature=youtu.be

Lay Low - The Backbone

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 5, 2012.

The Icelandic singer-songwriter Lay Low plays the song The Backbone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CyVSH3pfI5o

Freja Loeb - Soft Blues

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 5, 2012.

The Danish band Freja Loeb plays the song Soft Blues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-GkO4A3-kM

NovemberDecember – Save Yourself

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 5, 2012.

The Danish band NovemberDecember plays the song Save Yourself from their NovemberDecember EP (2012).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl9a3_kd9j0&feature=autoplay&list=PL8FE295AF26485667&playnext=1

Boho Dancer – Pistols

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 5, 2012.

The Danish folk rock band Boho Dancer plays the song Pistols.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTgPKbPiOSs&list=PL8FE295AF26485667&index=3&feature=plcp

Asbjørn – She Is A Hurricane

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 5, 2012.

The Danish band Asbjørn plays the song She Is A Hurricane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6I4tbaG4kI&list=PL8FE295AF26485667&index=4&feature=plcp

Cody – Under The Elms

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 5, 2012.

The Danish band Cody plays the song Under The Elms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PVMoiHOpZM&list=PL8FE295AF26485667&index=6&feature=plcp

The Eclectic Moniker – Easter Island

This session was recorded at the Spot Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, on May 4, 2012.

The Danish band The Eclectic Moniker plays the song Easter Island.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5Y2sU9s3j3Q

Plenty of hours spent with like-minded people who – like oneself – appreciate the setup with room for artistic ambitions as well as the social dimension of such a festival.

Room for great ambition, but well – it was a bit crammed at times.

There will always be lines of people waiting to get into the concerts at SPOT. It’s almost an integral part of the indoor-festival concept. But some lines are really bottlenecks and in a couple of situations the handling of these lines have been less than perfect.

Those are things we will have to do better next year – and we will!

With Godsbanen (The Freight Yard), SPOT has now got a strong foundation – a centre for concerts, seminars, and debates. A place where most of the audience feel at home.

Over the next few days we are going to clean up and take stock. And we are shall process and follow up on all the reactions from the audience, musicians, industry and media people, guests and the many collaborative partners who contributed to the practical dimension of the festival.

Thanks to everyone who has helped on one level or another to make SPOT 2012 a success in almost every way.
Thanks to all the acts for the beautiful and fascinating moments you gave us and to the huge open-minded audience. Thank you for the great atmosphere you created together.

Thanks to partners, sponsors and everyone who has backed SPOT and been part of making the festival unique in Danish music. To all of you who have become co-owners of the festival and have put your mark on it.

Thanks to all the panel and seminar participants, speakers and the tireless comperes.

We would also like to thank our many international guests, who have come in so great numbers to listen to the Danish music scene anno 2012. We apologise for the concerts that you could not get into. We will make sure that it won’t happen next year!

Thanks to the City Council of Aarhus for welcoming our guests so warmly.

Thanks to the technicians and all the other people who have contributed to making the logistics and the practical dimension run smoothly.

A special thank you to the staff, co-worker and volunteers, who have worked so incredibly hard to organize and run the SPOT Festival this year. It was a bit of an uphill struggle this year, but you pulled through.

Thank you for your competent work, your friendly smiles and great mood during the entire event.

We look forward to seeing old and new SPOT guests next year

Thank you for now! See you in 2013 – practically same time and practically same places.
Gunnar K Madsen
Head of SPOT

—-

(Foto: Thorsten Overgaard)

At Radar the café tables were set up with candles, the light was dimmed and freshly brewed coffee was ready on the bar – the mood was set for an intimate and causal keynote speech. Sheila Whiteley walked around and handed out copies of her speech, which was greatly appreciated by the audience, who paid close attention. When she began her speech only seven had turned up, but it wasn’t long until all the tables were filled.

Sheila Whiteley, Photo: Thorsten Overgaard

Professor Sheila Whiteley was Chair of Popular Music at the University of Salford until December 2006, and is receiver of three European Social Fund awards for her research into Women and the Cultural Industries. She speaks about Popular Music and Issues surrounding gender, identity, subjectivity and sexuality.

The topic of the keynote was “the political and cultural implications of gender imbalance in popular music” – a broad topic which Sheila Whiteley managed to narrow down to a speech of just over an hour. Mostly Whiteley stuck to the written speech which had been handed out to the audience, but a few times her enthusiasm for the topic of women in popular music took over, and she shared some personal stories and experiences. The talk was seasoned with both a power point and three musical examples (two by Joni Mitchell and one by Sheryl Crow) which all portrayed  how women are presented not only in popular music, but in culture in general.

When the talk was over and people had applauded Whiteley opened the floor to a debate on the topic. Interesting views were brought up, and even after the official debate was over, people kept discussing as they left the room. This was definitely a keynote that left an impression on the audience.

Scott Cohen is a house-hold name in the international music industry: He is the co-founder and Vice President of The Orchard, a huge independent music and video distribution company, and he is longtime manager of The Raveonettes amongst others.

The full title of the keynote was: “Show Me The Money – Making money in the Music industry is a challenge. The digital age created more opportunities but also added layers of complexity. Learn the tricks of the trade.” And the venue Radar at Godsbanen was full of people, all dying to pick up a few tips from the man who knows a thing or two about making money in the music industry. Scott Cohen began by talking a quick pole of the audience, to see what kind of people had shown up. It turned out that the audience was full of musicians, journalists, record label representatives and other industry people.

Scott Cohen Photo: Thorsten Overgaard

Cohen’s main point was clear: If you want to make money in the music industry today, you need to have a community around you. With cases such as Lady Gaga and Kesha, he tried to convince the audience, that the days were you make an album, put it into mass production and then sell it and get rich are over. These days you need to get online, build up a trusting fan base (and start out by giving them things), and THEN convince them to buy not only your music but tickets to your concerts.

They key, Scott Cohen told, was especially social media and Facebook, and he let the audience know that he always puts aside money in bands’ marketing budgets for Facebook adverts. But Cohen also emphasized that the music still needs to be great, for all this to work.

Afterwards, when the applause had settled, Scott Cohen took time to answer questions from the audience, and they keynote went 15 minutes over time – but no one seemed to mind one bit.

Topphoto: Thorsten Overgaard

A room filled to the very last chair with excited listeners, most of them armed with pen and papir was the setting for Gerd Leonhards keynote speach at Godsbanen, Friday the 4th at 15.00. Gerd Leonhard  was enthusiastic and ready to point out his future analysis despite a few technical problems that caused the session to begin a bit later than scheduled.

Keynote Speaker Gerd Leonhard. Foto: Lars Laen

With a background as a musician himself he sees the obstacles and opportinuties for the music business and its creators as a fact, and states that the only way of being able to look into the future is to truely understand what happens in the present and paying attention to this.

It is without a doubt that Gerd Leonhard has collected enormous amounts knowledge about the digital age, the different industries and its consumers throughout the years, as he was one of the first to jump on the internet-bus.

He described amongst other things how the money making has moved from being attached to “products” over to being the “service” itself.  A way of illustrating this can be done by saying that now everything is in the Cloud – not in anything tangitable. A keyfrase here is to focus on: Access – not ownership, and “added value”.