We switched up the format for our monthly playlist in favor of a broader, more flexible outlet for recommending and sharing tracks, albums, films, events, ideas and more – Our new series is called Strøm: Current and first up we have Cirkeline with their favourite melancholic, spring albums.
Besides being a staple of the Copenhagen scene for many years with DJing and promoting a wide range of different parties and events, Cirkeline has recently taken a step back to focus more on behind-the-scenes work. Current work include curating and producing music, working with Resident Advisor, teaching, engaging in various community projects, and co-running the label Katla To Records with partner Nikol, with a focus on creating a platform for FLINTA artists in the Nordic region.
Hi Cirkeline, thanks for making this list for us – Can you tell us a little bit about it?
Thank you for asking! These are my 10 albums I’m having on repeat these days, and cant get enough of. I’ve been feeling a lot of heavy emotions lately, and a kind of melancholy that’s hard to fully explain, and things around me are changing. I’m turning 30 this month, there are a lot of unresolved things in my life and at times I feel confused and lonely. Some of these feelings are just difficult to make sense of I guess, but as truly cliché as it sounds, music is the best way for me to cope with these emotions, so lately, what I’ve been listening to really reflects that. A lot of it is deeply melancholic, dark, atmospheric and quite sad, but also at some points hopeful and optimistic :’) So, this is basically an invitation: if you’re in a similar headspace, or just curious take a listen to the albums I have on rotation right now while moving through these spring blues in Copenhagen.
1) Rachika Nayar – Our Hands Against The Dusk (2021)
This is the beautiful debut album of Rachika Nayar, and it’s a bit difficult to put into words I think. It’s built around processed guitar loops and endless noisy soundscapes and it leans toward dark ambient, but there are many traces of classical composition and rock elements as well. I love how powerful this record is with the simplicity of guitar effects (and the crystalizer plugin from soundtoys;-p). The first time I listened to this I almost couldn’t wait to listen to it all over again, and it’s an album for the curious and maybe emotional listener for sure. My favorite track is ‘Aurobindo’ – an evocative story with so many layers told going for 8 minutes. Drift away:)
2) Moin – You Never End (2024)
This album has really made a big impression on me since the release. The distorted guitar blended with more club leaning elements, weird samples and Valentina Magaletti on drums makes the perfect emotional, a bit chaotic and melancholy album. I feel like it’s very much tapping into the post-punk-club-music-fusion wave there is at the moment, and they’ve got something really cool and new going on for sure:) I saw them last year at Roskilde Festival and I started crying as something definitely shifted in me. I’m very excited to see this trio’s projects in the future, and the album is forward-thinking enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if it made history. Dare I say that?:)
3) Dedekind Cut – $uccessor (2016)
This is the debut album of Fred Warmsley’s experimental ambient project Dedekind Cut. I stumbled upon this some years back in some random Reddit threat, as he was apparently part of the Joey Bada$$ crew and went more avantgarde:p This record is crazy good I think, blending noisy ambient atmospheres with field recordings, pan flute at some point, church organ even and a lot of trap influences. It’s the ambient record for the baddies, but with a lot of emotional depth to it. It also keeps you on your toes a bit, and I think this is definitely an underrated record, but try for yourself:)
4) Arushi Jain – Delight (2024)
I discovered Arushi Jain at last year’s Roskilde Festival (The best place to discover artists in all of Scandinavia if you ask me. The lineup with the small letters on the flyer are crazy good every year). She is a self-proclaimed modular princess, but for a good reason. On this Album she blends Hindustani classical Ragas with contemporary modular synthesis, making the perfect combination of powerful atmospheres that feels a bit club oriented too. It’s a bit unstructured but in the best way possible, as it’s like a long meditative soundbath. I love listening to this on the train to Odense in the morning, where I go to school. It makes me drift away a bit into another universe until reality hits again and I’m at Odense station.
5) Klein – Sleep with a Cane (2025)
I love Klein and think she is doing so many interesting things right now. This conceptual ambient album was released last year, and I keep coming back to it. There is something super eerie about it and almost unresolved which makes you want to come back for more to maybe never get a resolvement. I think this album is BEAUTIFUL, and the haunting drone sounds that just keeps going with the classical structures and tape recordings just hits the right spot for me these days. It’s not something I would put on for a dinner party or for cleaning my apartment, more like sitting and staring out the air on my balcony thinking about my lost love and present chaos:-)
6) Civilistjävel! – Brödföda
I listened to this album almost daily last year when I went to live on an island in Norway for a month. It was in January, and this was the perfect soundtrack for solitude and contemplating times. It’s back in my life these days, and I think for good. The album is mainly experimental ambient, but it’s also dub with stripped back minimal techno elements, and it has a lot of different features on it making it even more interesting. I love the simplicity and the care for detail and textures, which gives a lot of mental space without it ever becoming boring. It’s a good album to actively listen to for a walk in nature, but could also work as a background atmosphere when you read your little book or cook a little meal:) It’s released on dear Fergus label FELT, which also features a lot more Civilistjävel! records worth checking out, along with more cool stuff and reissues in general. Shout out to all the Copenhagen labels like FELT pushing new and experimental music in the scene.
7) Annahstasia – Tether (2025)
I didn’t know Annahstasia until this album came out, but wau what a record. On her debut, her voice really is the main instrument, carrying the entire project over an otherwise acoustic sound.This pick stands out a bit from the others genrewise, but I had to include it still. Her voice feels very unique and nothing I’ve heard before, and the poetic lyrics give me the chills. Very powerful. It’s the perfect heartbreak album, and maybe good to when you just need to sit with your feelings and maybe have a little cry on the couch:’-)
8) Portal Pets – Portal Pets (2026)
This album just came out recently, and I had been waiting in so much excitement since their first single came out. Portal Pets is a constellation of 3 very cool artists from Copenhagen doing very cool stuff. This project is just what Copenhagen needed right now if you ask me. With Xenia Xamenek on vocals mixing spanish and english, layered over raw, emotional guitar and grungy, driving drums, the sound feels experimental and fresh but still familiar. It’s noisy and a bit unpredictable, but very catchy and mesmerizing. I’m really looking forward to seeing them this year at Roskilde Festival!
9) John T. Gast – SINEAD MEMORY TAPE (2015)
This entire album is an emotional tribute to Sinéad O’Connor, who I believe influenced many people, myself included. It was released the year she passed, and has a strong sense of grief and sadness throughout, with a very gloomy and evoking atmosphere to it. It has cello, toned down piano, distorted bass, and a very heavy drone soundscape in general with subtle acid elements too. Sinéad’s voice is sampled throughout the record as well, especially noticeable on the first and last track that are almost remakes of her tracks ‘Drink Before the War’. Very beautiful tracks, but overall a very sad record actually. I’m not familiar with the producer, but this project feels distinct from their other work. This is (also) a record I would sit on my balcony with and stare into the air with:) On the melancholy scale this is probably a 10/10. Released on 5 gate temple, that has some pretty cool and weird releases on it. Worth checking out if you’re into deconstructed club, experimental leftfield and deep tech.
10) Shlohmo – Bad Vibes (2011)
This is one of the most important records of all time for me. I’ve been waiting for the right occasion to talk about this one haha. Talk about melancholy!!:) I’d easily place it among my favorite albums ever, and it’s a record that has followed me for most of my life now. It’s also an album I keep revisiting and somehow end up feeling the exact same things every time. The album is very simple, and it felt really innovative for its time. It also fit perfectly into the chillwave moment that was happening around those years, coming after the late-90s IDM wave and with clear trap references as well. It’s very LA but without the classic Boom Clap vibes and It’s full of bleeps and bloops, combining deconstructed hip-hop beats, distorted guitar, lo-fi textures and very melancholic basslines and pads. Maybe an experimental instrumental hip hop record? All of these elements just creates the perfect sad and nostalgic, and still uplifting record. It’s maybe one of those albums where if you feel it, you really feel it. And if not, maybe it’s hard to understand my hype, since production-wise it’s not the most groundbreaking or technically advanced album ever. But for me, that’s also not really the point of music is it?