Join us when Strøm Festival 2024 revives the first electronic music concert ever in Denmark with a five-hour concert – just like in 1972, but revived and revitalized.
Did you know that the first electronic music concert ever in Denmark took place at the Glyptotek in 1972? Under the title MUSIKZAG, the music was channeled out into the exhibition halls for ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian art.
Join us when Strøm Festival 2024 revives MUSIKZAG with a five-hour concert – just like back then, but supplemented by younger forces: SØS Gunver Ryberg, Thomas Knak, Sofie Birch, and Anton Friisgaard.
The concert can be experienced in the Central Hall and in the collection halls. All you need to pay is the regular museum admission fee. Buy online here.
15.00-16.00: Gunner Møller Pedersen (live)
16.00-17.00: Anton Friisgaard & Gunner Møller Pedersen (live)
17.00-18.00: Thomas Knak & GMP (live) –> Anton Friisgaard & GMP improvisations (live)
18.00-19.00: Sofie Birch & Gunner Møller Pedersen (live)
19.00-20.00: SØS Gunver Ryberg & Gunner Møller Pedersen (live)
About the concert
In addition to the four electronic composers and producers involved in reinterpreting the work, one of MUSIKZAG’s original creators, 81-year-old Gunner Møller Pedersen, will participate in the re-enactment, using the original machines and reel-to-reel tapes from 1972, drawing direct threads from the past into the future.
As in the original performance of MUSIKZAG, the music will spread throughout the Glyptotek’s collections, consisting of improvisation, programmed elements and the original MUSIKZAG reels. The audience can move around freely in the Glyptotek during the five hours and experience the immersive multi-channel sound – and just like at the original concert, you can lie down on the floor and experience the concert in the Glyptotek’s Central Hall.
About MUSIKZAG
MUSIKZAG was created by the composers and electronic music pioneers Fuzzy and Gunner Møller Pedersen. Their vision was to create a ‘living organism directly addressed to the listeners, as opposed to the industrially created muzak that everyone is being forcefed in shops, offices and public transport’.
“We want to sharpen the senses of the listeners instead of dulling them, as commercial industrial music deliberately does,” they said about MUSIKZAG in 1972.
About Gunner Møller Pedersen and Fuzzy
Composers and sound pioneers Fuzzy (Jens Vilhelm Pedersen) (1939-2022) and Gunner Møller Pedersen (1943-) formed the ensemble ‘Pedersen & Pedersen’ in the 1970s, creating the memorable MUSIKZAK concerts at the Glyptotek, amongst many other pieces and performances.
Gunner Møller Pedersen founded ‘Dansk Elektronmusik Selskab’ (The Danish Electronic Music Society) and performed several other works at the Glyptotek, including ‘PANOPTICONCERT’ (1974) and ‘ET LYDÅR’ (1977-82).
He worked to realize a vision of spatial music – music in which the placement and movement of sound in space is an essential compositional element on a par with timbre, rhythm, melody and harmony. This vision led him to work with electronic instruments at a time when it was neither hip nor easy to do so, and he became one of Denmark’s few pioneers in the field.
Fuzzy composed extensively for film and TV, felt at home in many forms of music, and was a popular composer – widely known and well-liked by the public. He was among the first Danish composers to truly embrace the computer – both in the composition process and in performances – and through the computer he believed that ‘now composition is a possibility for everyone’.
About Sofie Birch
Sofie Birch (1989-) is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist with a special sense for building complex yet harmonious musical spaces with a mix of electronic hardware, acoustic instruments and field recordings. Based on the healing nature of sound vibrations, Birch’s music evokes dreamlike, meditative states in the listener. She has performed at CPH:DOX, Unsound and The Barbican and has worked with sound and compositions for award-winning art installations and animation films.
About SØS Gunver Ryberg
SØS Gunver Ryberg (1979-) is an internationally recognized and award-winning electronic composer and live performer whose innovative and intense music breaks with genre conventions and is characterized by complex rhythms and textures. She often composes in immersive formats such as multi-channel works, installations, performances and virtual reality and has performed at the biggest venues and festivals in the world such as Berghain, Berlin Philharmonie, ADE, Roskilde Festival and Aphex Twin’s concert at Manchester Warehouse Project.
About Thomas Knak
Thomas Knak (1973-) has been a key figure on the electronic music scene since the early 1990s, when he was one of the first to bring ambient, electronica and drum’n’bass to a wider audience, partly as DJ Opiate and partly via his radio show on DR. His first solo album from 1999 is considered a milestone in the electronic music landscape, and in addition to collaborations with big names like Bjørk, Nils Frahm and Ryuichi Sakamoto, he has released numerous albums with Bro/Knak, Future 3, James Bong, People Press Play and System. In 2023, Knak received the lifelong honorary grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.
About Anton Friisgaard
Anton Friisgaard (1994-) has recently left his ambient alter ego Hviledag to expand his musical landscape with new possibilities. Embracing a wide range of sonic cultures with musical agility, his curiosity has led him on live expeditions with classical ensembles, ambient church events, and into body-shaking sound systems and the world of nightclubs.
Price and tickets
‘MUSIKZAG’ can be experienced in Festsalen and in the antique collection, and it only requires regular museum admission. Skip the line and buy your entrance ticket in advance above.
During the day, the museum’s rooftop terrace is open where you can enjoy a beer with a view of the city rooftops. In Picnic you can enjoy a delicious dinner or a drink. Reserve a table here: https://glyptoteket.dk/cafe
Strøm Festival is supported by Statens Kunstfond, Københavns Kommune, Frederiksberg Kommune, Frederiksbergfonden, Koda Kultur, Knud Højgaards Fond and William Demant Fonden.
