NEWS

Pictures and video from Moscow show / Henriette makes another Giant Sand appearance
June 27, 2008
Under Byen played at the International Open Book Fest in Moscow, Russia, a few weeks ago. Varvara Kazaryan has been so kind as to sent some photos from the event. They have been put on this website here. Furthermore she has put a video clip online which you can see here. Thanks a lot for sharing, Varvara!

Also... American songwriter Howe Gelb, who Under Byen members have played with on several occasions, have had Henriette Sennenvaldt sing on some songs on recent Giant Sand albums. According to Giant Sand's MySpace blog she's been at it again. The album will be out on September 2nd 2008 and is called "proVISIONS". On it she joins other prominent contributors such as Isobell Campbell, Neko Case and M. Ward.

More shows confirmed for European fall tour
June 11, 2008
Manager Jesper Majdall has confirmed more dates from the coming fall tour which the band will embark on. These are the coming shows - besides the two summer shows in Russia and Denmark.

2008 - October 2: AB, Brussels, Belgium.

2008 - October 3: La Maroquinerie, Paris, France.

2008 - October 4: Le Ciel, Grenoble, France.

2008 - October 5: ISC, Bern, Switzerland.

2008 - October 6: Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg, Germany.

2008 - October 7: Szene, Vienna, Austria.

2008 - October 9: Beatpol, Dresden, Germany.

2008 - October 10: Venue to be announced, Berlin, Germany.

Under Byen play Moscow, Copenhagen and Brussels / Forum to be fixed
June 9, 2008
A bit out of the blue this webmaster has been made aware (by Varvara Kazaryan - thank you!) that Under Byen are playing in Moscow in a few days. More precisely on June 13. Under Byen's manager Jesper Majdall has confirmed this - although he still has to confirm the name of the venue. The concert is at the International Open Book Fest. Here the band will - according to Varvara - receive a critic's prize for Best Foreign Artists. Anyone who can read Russian can go here.

Another stellar gig is coming up this summer. On July Under Byen and Efterklang (seems like a great combination) will play together at Copenhagen Jazz Festival. This will be at Store Scene in Skuespilhuset. Read more here. Tickets are already for sale at BilletNet.

And finally, the first of the shows on the previously mentioned fall tour of Europa has been confirmed. This will be at the venue AB in Brussels, Belgium, on October 2.

All three dates have been added to the Concerts page.

The webmaster have been made aware that the sign-up at the forum is not working despite the forum recently having been updated. This will be looked into.

Nils Gröndahl solo gig
May 11, 2008.
Nils Gröndahl is playing one of his rare solo shows on Thursday May 15th. This will be at Rust in Copenhagen alongside Le Fiasko, Howl Baby Howl and One-Eyed Mule. Nils also performs with Le Fiasko. Read more at the Rust website.

we've put out remix albums of both "Kyst" and "Det Er Mig Der Holder Traererne Sammen", so of course we had to do one of "Samme Stof Som Stof" as well. This time around though, we had only one artist remixing the album.

Years ago he talked about us in a not too flattering way, so what would be more obvious than asking Danish electronic artist Goodiepal if he would do a remix of one our songs. He had some demands if he should do this, and all in all this just seemed even more appealing.

We have no idea what it's going to sound like but we know that we'll receive 300 12"s very soon. We'll - most likely - be selling those at the Danish shows we'll do by the end of May. If you don't have a chance to attend these shows, you can write our management at jesper @ volcanomanagement . com and they'll probably help you out to get a copy of this very limited release.

take care. Under Byen."

A few words about future releases
May 7, 2008.
American magazine Under The Radar recently had an article ("Orchestral Maneuvers in Denmark") about Under Byen. Coinciding with the release of the new "Siamesisk" orchestra live EP. Nils Gröndahl is interviewed. Here's a few excerpts from the piece where Nils says some interesting things about the new EP, the next album and the remix album:

"According to multi-instrumentalist Nils Grondahl, working with an orchestra was something the band had considered, but never seriously until the Danish Broadcasting Corporation approached them about the concert. "We sometimes have a hard time being eight people in a band, so we've never dared including more," jokes Grondahl, who plays violin, lapsteel guitar, and singing saw for the band. "That said, we, of course, had the idea that our music would sound even cornier in a context like this one. In some ways, these recordings are over-the-top: We included 42 people to add even more melancholy to our songs."

The article then says that this might mean that the next album will have more conventional song structures. The band has begun doing new material and Nils predicts the new album with be more "straight":

"By 'straight,' I just mean more focused, more direct," he explains. "Although that term in Under Byen's world seems far from most people's understanding of it. This time around, more people from the band are contributing with songs and it's my impression they have a more poppy approach to songwriting than Thorbjorn [Krogshede, former band member], who wrote most of the songs on our last studio album."

The "Samme Stof Som Stor" remix album has been underway for a long time. The article mentions that it includes contributions from Howe Gelb, Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde and Sandro Perri (Polmo Polpo). The last part of the article reads:

All this extracurricular activity, Grondahl says, is critical for helping the band "find new ways of attacking our songs." "It helps us find out how other musicians work together and might even help us relax a bit more in Under Byen when we have some more creative outlets," he says, before warning that writing for the next album will likely be a "slow process." "Normally, a song takes many shapes before we end with the one that makes it on the album. Sometimes we can put together a new song fairly fast, but we've also had songs that took three years before we felt they were good enough to end up on the album."

The article was written by John Motley. Thanks to Todd C. Cray for typing it up.

Facebook artist page / Nils Gröndahl guest on new album
May 3, 2008.
Now there's an Under Byen artist page at Facebook. Go here for that one. There's already an Under Byen group and an iLike profile there. But now there's a real "official" artist page where you can add yourself as a fan if you want.

And... Once again Nils Gröndahl is out and about helping out other bands. This time on the new album by Virak called "Threads". He is credited with "heavenly voice and grinding noise" on the song "Something Strange Happened As We Stood By The Lake" and violin on "Who I Am = You" and "Song of Everything".
Here's the band's MySpace profile. It's released by Mirror Mirror Music and distributed by Dotshop.se. The album has been added to the Discography.

Nils Gröndahl guest on new album / Stine Sørensen guest at live show
March 24, 2008.
Danish music magazine Undertoner reports that Nils Gröndahl (once again) has contributed to an album by fellow label mates Larsen & Furious Jane. The title of this - their third - album is "Zen Sucker" and it will hit the streets on May 19th.
The Danish article in Undertoner you can find here.

On April 3rd Stine Sørensen will take part in a live show by Delay Lama in Copenhagen. Her old bandmate from the Strumm days, Dennis Thang Block, is one part of this electronica duo. Alongside two other singers she will provide vocals for the concert.
This is at Huset i Magstræde (located in Rådhusstrædet 13). Also performing that night is Spejderrobot (Copenhagen) and 9 (Italy/Berlin) as well as the webmaster of this site... although only as DJ... under the monicker Capt. Daydream. It starts at 21.30, costs only 30 DKK, and you can read more about it here.
The event is presented by the label SOPA which released Nils Gröndahl's solo cd about a year ago.

Henriette Sennenvaldt sings on new Giant Sand album / Forum back in working order
March 13, 2008.
In May of 2008 Howe Gelb will release a new album with his band Giant Sand. Once again the listener will be treated to Henriette Sennenvaldt's voice on one of his albums. First she was on Howe Gelb's "The Listener" where most of Under Byen took part, then Giant Sand's "Is All Over The Map" and finally "Arizona Amp And Alternator" by Arizona Amp And Alternator (which was in fact another name for Howe Gelb and Giant Sand). The new album is called "Provisions" and besides Henriette it also features the talents of amongst others Isobel Campbell, Neko Case and M. Ward. You can read more about it here.

And finally some good news for those of you missing the website's "fan forum" and those of you who have had trouble signing up. It's back! It's fixed! The visual confirmation in the sign-up now works - which means that the forum can be open to everyone while at the same time fighting of 'spambots'. Oh, what a relief. A great, big thanks to Steffen "Jint" Jørgensen for fixing it. He's already done a lot for this website and also the band. Among other things in the form a lot of splendid Under Byen photographs (live and 'press'). If you are in the need for his photographic talents and web design services don't hesitate to visit www.jint.dk and get in touch with him. Thanks a lot, Steffen!

Band website back online with new EP content
February 19, 2008.
After quite a while being down www.underbyen.dk is back online. This coincides with the release of the new "Siamesisk" orchestral live EP. Even more interesting: As a special treat you can now download video and pictures from the concert itself. This also includes "behind the camera" stuff.

The EP has also gotten great reviews (in Danish) in Gaffa, Jyllands-Posten, Politiken, Undertoner and Diskant.dk.

And just a little side note: the web service providers have updated something which has caused the forum to go offline. Hopefully this can be fixed soon.

New tour plans
February 10, 2008.
A few shows have been listed on Under Byen's MySpace. Three in May in Denmark and Sweden. Asked about it manager Jesper Majdall added that there were also plans for 8 to 10 shows outside Denmark in October 2008.

2008 - May 29: Voxhall, Aarhus, Denmark.

2008 - May 30: Siesta Festival, Hassleholm, Sweden.

2008 - May 31: Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark.

And to follow up a bit on the contributions to the x-massy new year's competition word from the band is that they really liked the idea and very much enjoyed reading all the inventive titles.

Read all the old news in the News Archive

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