Under Byen's strings compose theater music
November 15, 2009
Nils Gröndahl and Morten Svenstrup have composed the music for a new play called "Når Pølseskindet bedrager". It's by the theater group Kaliber 8 and it will be running from November 19th to 27th (minus Sunday the 22nd) at Planeten in Huset i Magstræde in Copenhagen. Nils and Morten will be playing violin, saw and cello - as they do with Under Byen.
The play take it's inspiration from Danish writer Halfdan Rasmussen (which incidently also wrote the lyrics for the very first song that Under Byen chose to do a cover of: "Hvor er man henne?").
Read more (in Danish) about the play at www.kaliber8.dk.

December show cancelled and postponed to April
November 11, 2009
Under Byen announced today that they will have to cancel their concert at Copenhagen Jazzhouse on December 10th. The reason they state is that: "We wanted to play a lot of new songs for you, but the recent recordings of our coming album have dragged on, so we would have to be forced to reach a compromise regarding the setlist. And that would do no good for anyone. On the other hand we have a new date for the show which is April 7th 2010, where tickets already bought for the December show can be used. You can also get a refund, but we hope you will come. - Under Byen."

New album out February 2010 / Danish show in December
October 4, 2009
While Under Byen are just about to embark on a small tour of Belgium news has arrived from the websites Gaffa and Soundvenue that the band's fourth album will be coming in the first part of February 2010. The record has been in the works during the last year and it's expected that audiences attending their coming show at Copenhagen Jazzhouse on December 10th will get to hear new material. The exact same venue where the band premiered the previous album "Samme Stof Som Stof" on January 5th in 2006.

Tickets cost 140 DKK (19 euro) plus fees and can be bought at Billetlugen.

Henriette Sennenvaldt admitted into Danish writer's school
June 18, 2009
The voice and wordsmith of Under Byen, Henriette Sennenvaldt, has been accepted into the Danish Author's School, 'Forfatterskolen'. Quite few are admitted to this the only official writer's school in Denmark (it's located in Copenhagen and the teachers are professional authors/writers).
The school had 257 hopeful applicants this year, writes Danish newspaper Fyens Stiftstidende, and only six made it through. Henriette being one of them.

Congratulations, Henriette!

Go here for the article in Danish and here for the writer's school website.

Under Byen to play five October shows in Belgium
June 16 , 2009
Under Byen's manager Jesper Majdall has sent these five live dates for the autumn. Looks like lots of action in Belgium. Fellow Danes Our Broken Garden will be supporting Under Byen on the tour. As will Peter Broderick at the Hasselt gig.

October 7: Cultuurcentrum, Hasselt, Belgium.
October 8: Cultuurcentrum De Spil, Roeselare, Belgium.
October 9: de Warande, Turnhout, Belgium.
October 10: Cultuurcentrum, Mechelen, Belgium.
October 11: Botanique, Brussels, Belgium.

Under Byen receive grant from The Danish Arts Foundation
May 3, 2009
Under Byen have received a three-year work grant from The Danish Arts Foundation (Statens Kunstfond). 2.500 applied for grants and only 26 received. Mostly authors and painters this time. Under Byen is the only one in the rhythmic music category getting a grant this spring. Usually it is given to single artists and performers, it seems, but in Under Byen's apparently rare case it's given to the entire band to be divided among all eight of them. The grant consists of 280.000 Danish Kroner (37.600 euro) given each of the three years.

There's an article in Danish in Politiken about the grants here and to read more about the reasons for the choices this time go to The Danish Arts Foundation here (also in Danish). Here is the part about Under Byen:

UNDER BYEN
UNDER BYEN har igennem 10 år insisteret på et usædvanligt smukt og særegent udtryk præget af strygere, slagtøj og tangenter i tæt symbiose med sjælesøgende feminin vokal og fineste poesi. Der gås ikke på kompromis med kvaliteten, når ensemblet i fællesskab arbejder deres stemningsfulde musik frem. Med langstrakte akustiske forløb og et vævende net af toner inviterer UNDER BYEN lytteren med på en rejse, der fører både til sindets inderste og ud i det uvisse.
UNDER BYEN står i dag som et fyrtårn i generationen af unge, der omkring årtusindskiftet generobrede modersmålet som følelsernes troværdige talerør. Og det faktum at UNDER BYEN, trods modersmålet, har dedikerede fans i store dele af verden, viser noget om dybden i gruppens musik.
Tidligere blev tekst og musik især frembragt af forsangeren Henriette Sennevaldts og komponist Katrine Stochholm, men senest er musikken blevet skabt i en proces, hvor alle orkestrets 8 medlemmer bidrager ligeligt med hver deres personlighed og denne arbejdsmetode ønsker orkesteret at videreudvikle.
Derfor har Tonekunstudvalget for Rytmisk Musik valgt at støtte UNDER BYEN med et treårigt arbejdsstipendium fordelt mellem orkesterets 8 medlemmer: Nils Gröndahl, Morten Larsen, Rasmus Kjær Larsen, Sara Saxild, Henriette Sennenvaldt, Anders Stochholm, Morten Svenstrup, Stine Sørensen.

In short the band is rewarded for their uncompromising artistic approach, for being a beacon from around the turn of the millennium for fellow musicians and in large part for choosing to use their mother tongue. The money is given both an acknowlegdement of past achievements and a way of granting the artist(s) space and support for the work to come without them having to worry too much about the financial side while perfecting their art.

Congratulations to the band from here!

Shows in Poland cancelled
April 16 , 2009
Word from the band is that unfortunately the shows in Poland this month has been cancelled by the organizer there.

Three live dates in Poland
March 27, 2009
Under Byen have three live shows coming up in Poland next month. One of which is as a part of a radio show. These are the dates and venues:

April 22: Klub Studio, Krakow, Poland.

April 23: Studio im Agnieszki Osieckiej, Polskie Radio Pr III, Warsaw, Poland.

April 24: Klub Powiększenie, Warsaw, Poland.

Digital soundtrack single released
February 7, 2009
Under Byen have recorded a cover version of the old Danish song "Du er min øjesten" (equalent of the English phrase "the apple of my eye"). It is the title song to the new Danish movie "Himlen Falder" ("The Sky Is Falling").
The movie recently hit theaters - to mixed reviews - and is story about incest and sexual abuse inspired by true events that happened in southern Denmark some years ago.
You can visit www.himlenfalder.dk to check out the trailer and more info on the film. Under Byen's music does not feature in the trailer, though. To have a listen go the band's MySpace site where they have put it in the music player.
Apparently the song can be bought as mp3 from the film company's website.

Live performances online
February 6, 2009
In October of last year Under Byen performed "Mission" and "Hjertebarn" in backyard in Vienna, Austria, for the website They Shoot Music Don't They. It has now been put online for everyone to enjoy. To go directly to the page go here - where you will find the two videos and a photo slideshow.
Thanks to Michael for providing the material and sending the link.

Forum back online
December 29, 2008
Due to an error the forum on this site has been down for quite a while. Only just now is it back online. Apologies for the slow proces with this. The always helpful Mr. Jint has given the site a much needed update, so now it both works for regular users AND new users who can finally sign up and join the fun.

Happy new year to everyone!

Lars, webmaster

Under Byen on Spanish compilation
November 28, 2008
Spanish cultural magazine Zona de Obras devoted 86 of 200 pages to a special report about Denmark in its November issue (#53) . Included with the magazine was a 20-track cd put together by The Danish Rock Council (ROSA). Under Byen was featured on the cd alongside other Danish artists with the song "Af Samme Stof Som Stof".
Gaffa wrote about it a little while ago. Go here to order it if you want (mind you shipping is might expensive, it seems).
The cd has been added to the Discography.

Henriette Sennenvaldt sings on new Giand Sand cd
November 27, 2008
In September Arizona-based band Giant Sand released the album "proVISIONS". As on previous albums Henriette Sennenvaldt sing on it alongside frontman Howe Gelb. Now a supplemental "tour cd" is out which contains outtakes from the "proVISIONS" recording sessions as well as other things. Henriette sings on this one too. More precisely the track "The New Romance of Falling". The cd is called "Provisional Supplement" and is released on Howe Gelb's own label Ow Om Records. It can be bought through the label's website if one does not attend any of the shows on the ongoing tour. According to the label's website the tracks from this release are also available via iTunes and Amazon.
The cd has been added to the Discography.

Under Byen play Malmö on December 6th
November 26, 2008
You might have seen it elsewhere, but now it's on the fansite too: Under Byen are playing the venuer Debaser in Malmö, Sweden, on December 6th. Yes, that's just around the corner.

Apologies for this late update, but this site have been quiet because your webmaster has relocated (back) to Aarhus - Under Byen's city of origin. Therefore it's been really busy with the moving and such. Also, there's still no proper internet connection at the "fansite HQ". But soon things will flow once again as usual. And once the band starts - probably soon - to kick up some new dust there will be many more updates here.

More info on the second Thunderbear album
October 12, 2008
The kind Mr. Krogshede, former Under Byen-composer, sent along a copy of his new album "Solus Ipse". So now the cover is also in the Discography alongside a little more info. But here's some more:
It's a "self-released" cd so it's not in any shops so far. But when it becomes available to buy it will be written here on this news page as soon as it is known where you can get it.
The album has ten tracks and is a total of 44 minutes long - with tracks ranging from 2 to 9 minutes. It opens with a little piece which - in style - might remind Under Byen fans a bit of "Lenin" from the band's second album.
On the first Thunderbear album Thorbjørn and friends spiced the piano-based album up with both guitar, drums and other instruments. This time the piano gets much more space. No drums, but still allowing a bit of glockenspiel and some noise layers done on guitar to add extra flavour to these instrumental pieces.
Quiet melancholy does seems to be a common tone in many of the melodies, but there are also great dramatic parts and some that are more joyous and playful. As with his previous work moving naturally from "a lot of things going on at once" to the painfully - and beautifully - simple.
Although leaning towards the more classical genres on "Solus Ipse" Under Byen fans who enjoyed the piano parts of the previous Under Byen records as well as their overall compositional style will - no surprise, I suppose - probably find this record quite interesting.
The album was recorded in the symphonic music hall at the Musikhuset in Aarhus - and as on the first Thunderbear album the track titles make up a little poem of sorts.

New Thunderbear album / Discography updated
October 8, 2008
While Under Byen are on tour at the moment word came that they brought along the new album by former composer Thorbjørn Krogshede a.k.a. Thunderbear. Somehow he managed to sneak one out there beneath the radar (or simply "under byen"?!).
To this webmaster's knowledge it's only been made for sale at Under Byen's current live shows so far. Hopefully there will be more details soon.

Since this website's last update ages ago the new album by Giant Sand came out. It's called "proVISIONS" and features two lovely duets between Henriette Sennenvaldt and Howe Gelb. The tracks called "Spiral" and "Saturated Beyond Repair" to be more precise.

The two above releases have been added to the Discography, although the Thunderbear cover and some details on the album are still to come.

And a side note: The Swedish shows with Wildbirds & Peacedrums that were "to be confirmed" on the Concerts page are not going to happen just then after all. Possibly later.

New live shows / Unique show with Noxagt
August 6, 2008
Manager Jesper Majdall has send a few mails that signal the arrival of a rather interesting fall season. Some new and exciting shows are on the horizon. Let's take it from the top:
- They play in Malmö, Sweden, on August 20th.
- Then a date has been added in Hamburg, Germany.
- The dates for Berlin and Dresden were not correct on the Concerts page so they have switched places.
- There's also a date in Utrecht, Holland, on October 1st now.
- And this one is really exciting: On November 3rd Henriette, Nils, Morten (cello) and Rasmus will go to Norway to do music together Norwegian band Noxagt. On the 5th they will present these new compositions live together at the Nordic Music Week in Stavanger.
- Following that show the band will play three shows in Sweden. But the venues are still to be confirmed, says Jesper Majdall. This will be together with another very interesting band: Wildbirds & Peacedrums.

Go to the Concerts page for additional details on venues and dates.

Show in Odense tomorrow
July 16, 2008
Under Byen are playing a show in Odense, Denmark, tomorrow Thursday July 17th. This will be in Kongens Have (The King's Garden) alongside the bands Valravn and Tumult. The live event starts at 19.00 and ends at 22.30. The entrance is free. Read more here.
For some reason this show has not been on the Concerts page and this webmaster don't really know why.

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. Gray 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!

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.

Competition winners
January 16, 2008.
Here are the randomly selected competition winners! Congratulations!

Siamesisk EP:
Jeppe Vejen, Denmark
Henrik Lukas, Denmark
Piotr Wicijowski, Poland

SOPA DELICIOSA double-cd:
Andreas Hoff, Norway
James Harding, England
Bo Mølgaard, Denmark

Thanks a lot everybody - for playing along with this silly little game. You always come through and make it lots of fun!
There were a lot of suggestions. Some of you had more than one. And all these titles came from both Denmark and elsewhere. Some people from non-Danish speaking countries even tried coming up with something in Danish even though they were allowed to do it in English. And actually some didn't really know what they were writing, which is kind of interesting.

In order for everyone to get something out of the answers given your webmaster have taken the liberty of translating the non-English titles into English (it wasn't easy!). You're all a bunch of little poets out there, aren't you? And then there are those naughty ones who - like Henriette did on the last album - started inventing new words (you bastards, ha-ha!). ;-D

Go to this page for the many titles!

The winners will receive the "Siamesisk" live EP once it's released mid-February (maybe even a little before). The SOPA DELICIOSA compilation will be sent out shortly.

More live EP details / Site updates / Thunderbear news
January 6, 2008.
Manager Jesper Majdall has send the cover for the new orchestral live EP. It continues with the line of artwork layout by Hrafnhildur Halldórsdóttir from the "Samme stof som stof" album and single.
Morningside Records write on their website that they will release it as a cd digipack limited to 2000 copies. And they add "We won’t bring you this one on vinyl, but are sure someone else will (!!)." One's guess could be Danish Vinyl Production who have done all the previous Under Byen albums.
American music website Pitchfork writes that the same EP released by the band's Canadian label Paper Bag Records also will be limited to 2000 copies.
So concluding from this information it seems there are two cd editions (probably identical) and a vinyl version on the horizon. When there's more news on this it will be posted here, of course.

"Siamesisk" has been added to the Discography page with info and cover. So has the "Live at KEXP - Volume Three" compilation, the "SOPA DELCIOSA" compilation and the "Beneath The Surface Volume 3" sampler compilation from the Bella Union label.

The Reading page was updated with two books. All the many weblinks on that page have not been checked or updated, though.

In the latest news update from Morningside Records they also write about Under Byen's former member Thorbjørn Krogshede: "Thunderbear has almost finished recording a new piano only album. We’ll let you know if he’ll let us release it!".

As a bit of bonus news it might of interest to some that Dennis Block of Stine Sørensen's former band Strumm has discovered a bunch of old 7-inches by the band which are now being made for sale at the shop Route 66 in Århus and Copenhagen. It's a really nice EP on pink vinyl with energetic drumming and vocals by Stine from when she was part of this trio some years ago. They actually got a MySpace page now. But there's only one song from the 7-inch on there. There's a really catchy "pop" remix, though.

X-massy new year's competition
December 22, 2007.
It's been a bit quiet on this site for a while. And also about time to have the annual competition if we want to squeeze it in to 2007. So here we go: Up for grabs are three copies of the coming live EP "Siamesisk" with Under Byen playing with The Danish Radio Sinfonietta. It will be released on February, but will be shipped to the winners as soon as it's in the hands of manager Jesper Majdall.
This nice fella handed your webmaster a cd-r copy the other day and it sounds mighty fine and biiig! The tracklist goes as follows:

1. Plantage
2. Af samme stof som stof
3. Siamesisk
4. Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det
5. Tindrer

Your webmaster is throwing in three copies of the new "SOPA DELICIOSA" compilation with several Under Byen sideprojects on it (read the previous news item). Norman Records just reviewed it and singled out Sara Saxild's duo The Sad Lovers and called their song "divine" (to which your webmaster can only agree). You can read that here.

And what should you do in order to get your hands on this? It's becoming increasingly difficult to come up with challenges, so this year it might seem a bit silly. But silly can be fun! So before January 12th send an e-mail to lsd_dk@hotmail.com with...

Your title of a hypothetical Under Byen song.

Yes, it's not like the band has asked me to do this, but just write your suggestion for a new song title for a song they haven't already written. Be creative, have fun! If you're Danish write it in Danish, and if you're not, then feel free to do so in English if you don't feel comfortable enough with Danish. You can check out the Lyrics page for inspiration if you want. The winner will be randomly chosen among the suggestions, but I hope you will play along.

Have a merry christmas and a happy new year!

Lars

New compilation with Under Byen "sideprojects"
December 2, 2007.
A new cd called "SOPA DELICIOSA" is coming out. A double cd compilation featuring three tracks by Under Byen members together with other musicians. It's released by the small label Sound Of Perpetual Astonishment (SOPA) run by the webmaster of this website.
The compilation contains over two and half hours of music on a total of 44 tracks. Canadian singer Wendy McNeill who supported Under Byen on their big tour of Denmark in the fall of 2006 is also on it with a new track. And yes, your webmaster here actually also snuck a track in there under the name Resident Tourist. Plenty of other great songs from artists from 10 different countries can be heard on it. The price is 80 DKK (11 euro / 16 $) and it can be ordered through www.sopa.dk.
You can read more about the release at the cd's page on the SOPA website. Very soon a website dedicated to the compilation will be up at www.sopa.dk/sopadeliciosa. For now you can see the full tracklist and listen to a preview of some of the tracks there. The YouTube preview can also be viewed below the cd-cover on the right of this text.
Here is some information on the Under Byen-related tracks on the cd:

The Sad Lovers is a duo made up of Sara Saxild and Anna Brønsted. Anna is also part of the band Our Broken Garden and plays with Lise Westzynthius. The song "My Man" is a slow and warm stripped down song with great vocal harmonies.

Dazzle Ships is a quartet featuring Under Byen members Morten Larsen (on drums) and Morten Svenstrup (trading his usual cello for the bass) alongside Filip Granlie (of I Am Bones and other bands) and Dennis Block (formerly of Strumm together with Stine Sørensen).
The song is an acoustic song to begin with, but turns into a rather grandiose creature with drums and much else by the end.

Release date for orchestral live EP / Facebook group
December 1, 2007.
Finally there is an official release date for the coming live EP with Under Byen playing with the The Danish Radio Sinfonietta. The title of the release is “Siamesisk” and it will be out on February 18th in Denmark and North America.

A little extra note: Norwegian Under Byen fan Lars André Dahl has started an Under Byen group at Facebook. So if you're on that site you can go here for some of that action. There's also an artist page for the band here.

EnnaBella festival this weekend
November 15, 2007.
Don't forget the EnnaBella From Hell'a festival this Saturday (th 17th) in Aarhus! Read more at www.ennabellafromhella.dk.

Discography updated
October 23, 2007.
Nils Gröndahl and Morten Svenstrup participated in the recording of the two latest releases by Efterklang, "Under Giant Trees" and "Parades". Both have therefore been added to the Discography. So has to older French compilations that turned up.

All acts ready for Sara's and Stine's festival
October 22, 2007.
The EnnaBella From Hell'a festival on Saturday November 17th - which Sara Saxild and Stine Sørensen of Under Byen are putting together with two other friends - now has the full programme set up. Eight acts from six different countries will share their original music with the rest of us in the old art cinema Øst For Paradis in Under Byen's hometown of Aarhus next month.

Fans of Under Byen might rank Henriette Sennenvaldt as one of the best female vocalists in Denmark. And this webmaster is not the one to argue with that. On this festival there's a chance to witness two more of the country's finest: Marie Laurette Friis and Hie Soo Moon. Below you can see the full line-up with links for websites with sound and information.

Maria Laurette Friis (DEN) of Tys Tys performs with theremin player Pamelia Kurstin (USA).
Harpcore (DEN) - A mix of classical harp music with pop and electronica.
Taxi Taxi! (SWE) - Fragile indie pop from the young twin sisters.
Barbara Morgenstern (GER) - Producer, singer and pianist playing different electronic indie pop in German and English.
Rockettothesky (NOR) - Peculiar pop voice in a magical sound universe.
TriMooGas (DEN) - experimental rock trio with cello, drums and Hie Soo Moon of Blob Back Fahrenheit in front on vocals and guitar.
Wet Dog (UK) - Catchy and melodic punk rock from London.
Sofia DeVille (SWE) - Old school rock'n'roll and beautiful vocal harmonies.

To check out the festival's schedule go to www.ennabellafromhella.dk. There you will also find info about the workshop for young female musicians that's also part of the festival.

Photographer puts Under Byen on book cover
October 21, 2007.
Photographer Morten Larsen (not the band's drummer) who did the frontpage photo session of Under Byen for the magazine Gaffa has made a book. It contains photos of Danish and international musicians (Nick Cave, Iggy Pop, Jarvis Cocker etc.) and has a picture of Under Byen - or more precisely Henriette Sennenvaldt - on the cover. The title of the book is "Any Colour You Like" and is published by Gaffa itself. You can read more about it at Gaffa's webshop and also order it from there. The price is 296 DKK (roughly 40 euro).

Nils Gröndahl live video and pictures online
September 22, 2007.
For those it might interest: some live videos and a bunch of really nice black and white photos (by everpresent Mr. Jint) are now online. They are from Nils Gröndahl's concert with Oliver Hoiness at the SOPA Night at 'Rumstativ' in the Aarhus festival week. Here they performed with a lot of other acts of which there are also videos and photos. Go here to see all that.

Stine and Sara organize music festival in Aarhus
September 19, 2007.
Stine Sørensen and Sara Saxild are currently working on setting up a one-day music festival for female artists in Aarhus. Together with Anne Brønsted (singer in Our Broken Garden and The Sad Lovers - the latter along side Sara) and Hanne Tjessem (concert organizer) they will put i it all together using the city's nice, old art cinema Øst For Paradis for the event. The festival - called Enna Bella From Hell'A - happens on Saturday November 17th.
So far three acts are confirmed: Taxi Taxi!, Wet Dog and Maria Laurette Friis (of Tys Tys) who will do a special show with theremin player Pamelia Kurstin. The rest of the programme is under wraps for now. But it will probably be a very interesting selection of exciting acts.
Yes, four great gals with superb taste in music is putting all this together in one of the nicest places in Aarhus. So, all you need to know is... that you gotta go. If you want to read a bit more before that you can visit:
www.ennabellafromhella.dk and www.myspace.com/ennabellafromhella

Interview book with Henriette published
September 18, 2007.
In July of this year Henriette Sennenvaldt took part in an interview series by journalist Anya Poulsen on Danish National Radio DR. The book with these conversations - a total of seven - has now been published. The title is "Feminint Forstærket" (roughly translates as "Feminine Amplified" - or enhanced/reinforced) and the other female artists in it are:

Signe Høirup Wille-Jørgensen (Speaker Bite Me / Jomi Massage)
Maria Laurette Friis (Tys Tys)
Ane Østergaard (Band Ane)
Soma Allpass (Trains And Boats And Planes)
Kirstine Stubbe Teglbjærg (Blue Foundation)
Kira Skov (Kira & The Kindred Spirits)

DR writes about the book here. There you can also see the photographs of all the interviewees. DR's own website has the book for sale here, but it will most likely also be available through regular bookstores in Denmark.

Danish tour starts tomorrow
September 12, 2007.
Tomorrow Thursday Under Byen play the first of six gigs on their small Danish autumn tour. These are the dates:

September 13: Stars, Vordingborg.
September 14: Lyd & Litteratur, pAKHUSET, Aarhus
September 15: Studenterhuset, Aalborg.
September 27: Store Vega, Copenhagen.
September 28: Tapperiet, Køge.
September 29: Toldkammeret, Helsingør.

Orchestral live EP to be released
September 10, 2007.
Morningside Records and some webzines have announced that the live recordings done with The Danish Radio Sinfonietta back in April of this year will get an official release. The recordings have been mixed so they sound better than the original live broadcast and webcast. The EP has a preliminary release date in early November and the songs it are: Plantage, Af samme stof som stof, Siamesisk, Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det and Tindrer. More good news: it will be available both on cd and vinyl.

Further news: Anders Stochholm will be part of the touring band with Lars H.U.G. this October. Two of the six shows will be part of the DFDS Rock Cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo - which Under Byen took part in August of 2006. Live dates on this site.

Nils Gröndahl show in Aarhus
August 19, 2007.
One more Under Byen-related show during the Aarhus Festival Week: Nils Gröndahl will be performing with Oliver Hoiness on September 7th as part of the Rumstativ events on the harbour. More precisely as part of the SOPA Night there - starting at 20.00. You can read much more about the show at Sopa.dk and all the other great music during the week at Rumstativ.dk.
Nils and Oliver performed together earlier this year in Copenhagen. You can see pictures and video from that show here.

Unique duet show in Aarhus / Discography update
August 17, 2007.
On August 30 Under Byen will take part in a socalled "unofficial" opening of the Aarhus Festival Week. Under Byen's part of the show will be a unique string of special duets arranged by the band. Among the duet performers are Christian Hjelm of the band Figurines, Steffen Brandt of the band TV-2 and singer Povl Dissing. During the band's career it has covered songs by TV-2 and Povl Dissing live. You can read more (in Danish) at the website of the Aarhus Festival Week here.

The compilation cd "Fine Fine Music" released by Excelsior Recordings in 2006 has been added to the Discography.

German show announced
July 29, 2007.
On Under Byen's MySpace page the band has now announced another show on August 3. This will be at the Haldern Pop festival in Germany where the band has played before four years ago. Part of this show was later released as a live EP.

Aarhus show confirmed
July 25, 2007.
One more show will be part of the previously mentioned autumn tour of Denmark. This will be at pAKHUSET as part of 'Lyd & Litteratur' [Sound & Literature] in Aarhus on September 14. The Pakhuset is part of the Studenthouse in Aarhus and is situated on the harbour. The Concerts page has been updated.

New radio interviews
July 18, 2007.
When Under Byen was in Portland, USA, recently they did interview at the KPSU student radio there. Stine and Morten Svenstrup are talking a bit and playing some music. You can go here to read about it and download it. Or right-click and "save as" on this link to download it directly. It's in English.

Danish National Radio has made a string of interviews with female Danish musicians. One of them is Henriette Sennenvaldt. This hour-long program will be broadcast this Saturday, July 21, on DR P2 at 14:03. But it's already streamed online here. So go there for a very rare interview with Under Byen's leadsinger. It's in Danish.
To read more about the other interviews go here. In September a book with the interviews, "Feminin Forstærket", will be published. The radio shows are done by journalist Anya Poulsen.

Danish tour in September
July 17, 2007.
From information gathered on the internet it looks as if the band is putting together an autumn tour of their home country in September. Including gigs at some venues they most likely haven't played before. No official information from the band or its manager yet, but the following gigs can be found when visiting Beatbox Booking and visiting Danish venues on the internet:

September 13: Stars, Vordingborg.
September 15: Studenterhuset, Aalborg.
September 27: Store Vega, Copenhagen.
September 28: Tapperiet, Køge.
September 29: Toldkammeret, Helsingør.

Then one can only guess if September 14 and 20-22 will be used for shows. But so far this is the information that's out there.

Pictures, live video and press clips
July 5, 2007.
While Under Byen's label Morningside Records are complaining on their website that the band does not send any postcards home and the rest of us are curious to read reviews, see some pictures and possibly hear some of their performances (like the coming KEXP session) we can enjoy some pictures in the meantime.

Already some brand new (and really good) ones online from the first show on tour at the El Ray Theater in Los Angeles on June 28. Go here for those.

And there are also some older ones: At Stensgaard.dk you will find photo sets from three gigs from the last Danish tour (plus sets of support act Wendy McNeill). And at Scenestars there are some shots from the band's showcase at SXSW in Austin, Texas, on March 15, 2006.

For moving pictures you should visit YouTube. Your webmaster here got permission to upload some nice video from the last Danish tour on that site. A bit better quality than most other (digicam- and mobilephone shot) Under Byen clips on YouTube. This one was filmed with a dv-cam (a bit shaky at times) and has improved sound by adding soundboard sound into the mix. So go here to see Under Byen do a 9-minute long performance of "Den her sang..." at Forbrændingen in Albertslund last November.

Also: A few quotes have been added to the Press Clips page:

"If you’re a fan of Sigur Ros, Bjork, the experimental side of Radiohead, the meditative hypnosis of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and the moodiness of Portishead you need to see Under Byen. (...) After obsessing the good part of a year over the majestic beauty of their third album (first North America release) Samme Stof Som Stof, I witnessed their splendor firsthand when they performed for KEXP during our March SXSW broadcast. The experimental electronic rock collective exceeded expectations creating deeply emotional soundscapes at times delicate and introspective, at times bombastic and mind numbing."
- KEXP Blog on US radio station KEXP's website, July 2007.

"While they've got the essentials (guitar/feedback, bass, drums), their sound is also defined by other, stranger sounds: piano and strings that recall classical music, unsettling percussion cadences reminiscent of Einstürzende Neubauten, and the torch-singer-from-the-Twilight Zone vocals of Henriette Sennenvaldt. Some might think she "sings like" Bjork, but the Icelandic vocalist projects adolescence, as opposed to the Nico-like cool of Ms. Sennenvaldt. "Samme Stof Som Stof" is the latest thing in appealingly uneasy listening, ranging from the stripped-down synth-pop of "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" to the orchestral elegy "Liste Over Sande Venner Og Forbilleder."
- SF Weekly, "All Shook Down" Weekend Guide, June 2007.

Updated tour schedule
June 29, 2007.
The tour schedule put on MySpace by the band recently does not correspond with the one on the fansite. But the band are the ones in the know and have the latest adjustments - and so shall it be at the fansite!
The gig on July 2 will be at Nightlight Lounge in Bellingham near Seattle and the one on July 7 in Boise has been removed from the list. The Concerts page has been updated.

Interviews & review
June 29, 2007.
Some reading matter for you: OC Weekly interviews Morten Svenstrup in this article - where the phrase "northern light junkyard music" pops up. Straight.com has talked to Nils Gröndahl and has this article to offer - in which fellow Danish band Aqua are called "Eurodance atrocities", he-he. And then Wireless Bollinger has discovered the Thunderbear cd and given it a nice review where the writer concludes that "the musicianship will drive you into a jealous rage. You can read that one here.

KEXP compilation with live track / Coming radio session
June 26, 2007.
When Under Byen were in the US last time around they played a show for the college radio station KEXP. Now the station has put out a compilation cd and lp with various live tracks from different artists - among them Under Byen. The song is "Den Her Sang Handler Om At Få Det Bedste Ud Af Det" and the band shares the album with such others as Frank Black (of The Pixies), Beirut, Lady Sovereign and Grizzly Bear. You can read all about the release made to raise money for the station here.

Also: Morningside Records have announced on their website that the band will play a KEXP session when they reach Seattle on the tour they start this Thursday.

US tour kicks off this week
June 25, 2007.
Under Byen are leaving for the US today and on Thurday they embark on another tour there - with a one-gig trip to Canada also. All but one show will be together with The Album Leaf. They start at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles on June 28 and end up at The Knitting Factory in New York on July 9. Be sure to catch them at one of the shows.
Check the Concerts page for details.

Pictures and video from Nils Gröndahl show
May 28, 2007.
Those interested in the solo efforts by Under Byen's violin- and sawplaying noisemaker Nils Gröndahl can take a little trip to the website www.sopa.dk. There they'll find pictures and video from Saturday's Pre-Forma Nova Festival show at Global in Copenhagen. Here Nils performed with Oliver Hoiness.
Visit Nils at the SOPA site too, if you will, and listen to his cd. There are still some left for sale.
And you can also go check out the line-up for this year's Forma Nova Festival at their MySpace page.

Updated US tour schedule
May 22, 2007.
Manager Jesper Majdall now has the updated list of shows on the "fall-turned-summer" tour of the USA (plus a bit of Canada). Some changes have been made to the original list announced by Paper Bag Records earlier this month. About a handful of the announced shows will not be played and the New York show has got a new venue and new date. Check the Concerts page for the details.

And don't forget that it's this Saturday that Nils Gröndahl will be playing a rare solo show. Well, not strictly solo as he has invited Oliver Hoiness (of Blob Back Fahrenheit, We Love You Joy (formerly Joy Lieberkind) and other bands) to perform with him. Details on the gig can be found at the venue Global's website here.

Rare live solo show with Nils Gröndahl
May 7, 2007.
On May 26 Nils Gröndahl will do a rare solo performance (although maybe with some friends to help out) at the venue Global in Copenhagen. This will be as part of a pre-festival gig to promote this year's Forma Nova Festival. Other bands that day are Harmony Boys, Lamburg Tony, De Agtige and possibly Blob Back Fahrenheit. DJs will be Rumpistol, Copyfokking and Carl Emil. Visuals for the gig will be done by Bottega Arete.
Your webmaster will be present as well to promote the SOPA label and Nils Gröndahl's cd which was put out through it. So cds will be for sale there.

Paper Bag Records announces US tour! / Compilation appearance
May 3, 2007.
Under Byen's Canadian label Paper Bag Records sent out a newsletter today. Here it annonced the coming North Amerian fall tour where the band will join The Album Leaf on some dates. Before listing the live dates let's just mention that Paper Bag Records also revealed that Under Byen will be featured on the next "Live at KEXP" compilation which will be out this summer.

The tour according to Paper Bag Records:

28-Jun Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theater w/ The Album Leaf
29-Jun Pomona, CA - Glasshouse w/ The Album Leaf
30-Jun San Francisco, CA - Slim's w/ The Album Leaf
2-Jul Eugene, OR - WOW Hall w/ The Album Leaf
3-Jul Seattle, WA - Neumo's w/ The Album Leaf
4-Jul Vancouver, BC - The Plaza w/ The Album Leaf
6-Jul Portland, OR - Doug Fir w/ The Album Leaf
7-Jul Boise, ID - The Venue w/ The Album Leaf
8-Jul Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
9-Jul Denver, CO - Bluebird
11-Jul Chicago, IL - Abbey Theater
12-Jul Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
13-Jul Montreal, QC - La Sala Rosa
14-Jul New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
15-Jul Boston, MA - Middle East

Henriette Sennenvaldt live in London tonight
May 2, 2007.
Howe Gelb, the so-called "godfather of alternative country", is doing a show with a whole bunch of guests tonight at The Barbican in London. Henriette Sennenvaldt is also on the programme as part of his band Giant Sand.
This is the second time that Howe Gelb does an "all-star" show at The Barbican - the first time almost being "legendary" by now.
Other guests tonight include Isobel Campbell and Emiliana Torrini. You can see the programme here (pdf-file).

Show with orchestra streamed online
April 29, 2007.
Saturday's show with the Denmark's National Radio's Entertainment Orchestra at the Radio House in Copenhagen is now streamed online. As a little bonus there are also two little videos of the band rehearsing with the orchestra. Go to www.dr.dk/radiohusetrocker for all that.
The show itself was also shot for tv, so chances are that at some point the band will finally make it's way onto Danish tv screens.

The picture on the right is by our friendly neighbourhood photographer Jint. Shot of the empty radio hall before the show. Visit him at www.jint.dk. He's putting together a new website called www.shooting-rockstars.com at the moment. Henriette is featured on the front page there.

Live at the Danish national radio this Saturday
April 25, 2007.
A bit quiet on the News page these days. But let's just remind people that it's this Saturday that the band plays with the big orchestra in Copenhagen as mentioned in previous news story. Hopefully soon we can bring some new live dates.

Live project on Danish national radio / US tour planned for 2nd album re-release
March 26, 2007.
On April 28 Danish National Radio DR says goodbye to its old Radiohouse building in midtown Copenhagen before moving to new surroundings. This is done with the annual "Radiohuset Rocker" one-day festival in the studios in the house. The last band to ever play there will be Under Byen. So says a press release from Denmarks Radio.
The band's show will be one of a kind as it will feature a collaboration with the in-house RadioUnderholdningsOrkestret [The Radio Entertainment Orchestra]. According to music magazine Gaffa Under Byen's "former keyboardman" Thorbjørn Krogshede is currently arranging the music with the orchestra.
Among the other bands playing this year at "Radiohuset Rocker" - before Under Byen puts on the grand finale at midnight - are Blue Van, Maria Køhnke, Murder, The Floor Is Made of Lava and Lily Electric.
You can visit "Radiohuset Rocker" on the web at www.dr.dk/radiohusetrocker. Tickets are 150 DKK in pre-sale (info about where to get it is in the press release).

The Danish Rock Council (ROSA) has written an article (in Danish) about Under Byen's tour of the US and Canada. You can read that one here (and check out some photos). Gaffa has the same one online too. In it manager Jesper Majdall says:
"It's been an all or nothing tour with us aiming at big well-known venues. This way we have something to build upon in September where we plan another tour there - to coincide with the re-release of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" in North America."

Thorbjørn talks about leaving Under Byen in Gaffa
March 25, 2007.
In the March issue of the music magazine Gaffa Thorbjørn Krogshede talks a bit about his decision to leave the band. That's in an article entitled "Under Byen - Under reconstruction". Very clever.
The article says he lost his enthusiasm for the long, hard tours and not making any money as a musician.
- Other grown-ups get m0ney for what they do, laughs Thorbjørn. You can make music for free for some years, because it's the greatest thing in the world. But Under Byen is very close to a full-time job, and I also have my job as a music teacher to take care of.
Nils Gröndahl says:
- Thorbjörn has meant a great deal to the band which Under Byen has become since 1999. He has treated his key instruments with great eagerness to explore. He and I have run a hard race against each other to develop the soundscape with pedals and effects.
Still Nils looks to a bright future. The composer's friendly exit does not come as a big surprise to the band who has now recruited pianist Rasmus Kjær as a substitute for liveshows.
- Now we go on a tour of the US. When we come home we will have to find out how Under Byen will sound without Thorbjørn. For instance it opens up for a less piano-dominated sound, says Nils.
Seen from the outside the solution could be a Beach Boys/Brian Wilson-model, where Under Byen was touring while Thorbjørn stayed home and composed.
- Fuck, man, why didn't I think of that? No, I'm probably more the kind of person, that likes a clean cut. Either I'm in or I'm out, says Thorbjørn who will now also focus more on his solo project Thunderbear.
- Who will be the next main composer on Under Byen's next album? I have no idea. But I'm sure it will be great!, says Thorbjørn.

Roskilde 2006 show streamed / Live photos
March 24, 2007.
As of writing this Danish national radio are broadcasting 24 hours of live recordings from last years Roskilde Festival. Tonight - or more precisely in the night Central European Time - Under Byen's show will be broadcast. That's actually March 25th and that's between 4.00 and 5.00. And don't forget to turn the clocks forward one hour tonight (at least in Denmark, that is).
Click 'Hør kanal' on this page. You can see the whole schedule at Gaffa here.

Some photos from the Chop Suey gig in Seattle have made their way online here.

KEXP live show online / Win vinyl album / Web remixes
March 18, 2007.
Under Byen's March 16 show at the South By South West festival in Austin, Texas, is now available for download online. Go to the KEXP Blog to do that. If you want to see pictures from Day 3 of the KEXP shows go here.

Under Byen's Canadian label has a contest going on at the moment where you can win the vinyl version of "Samme Stof Som Stof". The contest ends on March 26. Go here for that one.

The website Stereogum who sponsors the current tour stateside has put two new remixes of "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" on their website. You can download them here.

More reviews
March 11, 2007.
The tour seems to be going rather well. A lot of writing about it on the web too.
The Globe And Mail has reviewed the Toronto gig here where Henriette Sennenvaldt now has become an "unapproachable, icy Bond-girl". The Canadian music blog For The Records writes about the same gig here and also has a bunch of pictures here. The Eye Weekly also reviewed the gig and the reviewer has found her new favourite band. Read that one here.

Articles and blog reviews
March 10, 2007.
More news on the ongoing tour of the USA and Canada. The blog Midnight Poutine writes about the gig in Montreal. Chromewaves was writing about the show in Toronto the day before and also the day after. And there are also lots of pictures. The Boston Globe also had an introducing article before the show there.
And as you can see here on the right the band actually made the cover of The Eye Weekly magazine mentioned yesterday. Looks great, doesn't it?

Interviews / Compilation appearance
March 9, 2007.
A couple of interviews have popped up. There's one in the Toronto Star and one in The Eye Weekly. The latter has a rather rare interview appearance by Henriette Sennenvaldt.

The British label Bella Union - run by former Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde - has released a compilation cd on which there is a song by Under Byen. It's "Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det" and cd title of the cd is "Beneath The Surface Volume 3: A Bella Union Sampler". You can read more about it at Bella Union and at MusicOMH.
Other artists on the cd include fellow Danes The Kissaway Trial and Australia's Dirty Three among others.

US tour is on! / Live show on US radio
March 7, 2007.
Having played their first couple of gigs on the current US and Canadian tour Under Byen are on the road as of writing this. Going through Canada then down to Texas for the South By South West festival and ending up in Seattle.

Seattle radio station KEXP will be at one of the SXSW shows and broadcast it live. That's on Friday, March 16th at 5:00 PM. Read more about that here and tune in. If you at SXSW then KEXP have the following to say:
"The entire 8-hour broadcast and the live performances are open to the public and we encourage you to come down and watch. If you plan to come to view a live band please arrive and be seated at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled time. Viewing will be limited to a first come first served basis only. The Austin City Limits studios are located at KLRU TV."

The blog 'Late Night Wallflower' has a bit on the show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. You can read that here.

Discography updated with new guest appearances
February 18, 2007.
The album "Ffffooo K Tsscch!" by Kirsten Ketsjer (a.k.a. Kirsten Ketsjer The Rock Band) has been added to the Discography. Nils Gröndahl - who from time to time takes part in projects by the Yoyooyoy label - has contributed with his violin on this fine album. It has just been released this week and it's a joyful mix of catchy guitar tunes, energetic experimental outbursts and free-floating soundscapes. All tied together with equal amounts of instrumental improvisation and original lyrics.
Furthermore the tracklist (what wonderful track names!) have been added to the Frisk Frugt album in the Discography - also a Yoyooyoy release.

You can listen to mp3s from the albums and much more at www.yoyooyoy.dk.

US tour updates / David Byrne "goes north" / MySpace featured artist
February 14, 2007.
The Concerts page has been updated with the latest info on the very-soon-to-come US tour. Cleveland and Opolis are now on the tour. And there are now "only" two shows at SXSW. Little details here and there have also been corrected.

David Byrne, former Talking Heads mainman, who earlier wrote warmly about the band in his blog, is currently spinning a lot of Under Byen's tunes alongside other great artists mainly from the northern reaches of Europe - such as Stina Nordenstam, Sigur Ros and Hanne Hukkelberg. A lovely selection. Go to www.davidbyrne.com/radio and check out the tracklist and have a listen.

Under Byen are featured on MySpace's music page right now. Right in time for the coming shows. Let's hope it will help pack the venues.

Help spread the word, if you know people in the neighbourhood who you think would like to go and see a great show! :-)

And Happy Valentines, all you lovers out there!

Henriette Sennenvaldt photo session
February 5, 2007.
Photographer Anders Von Greffelstejn shot a really great photo session with Henriette Sennenvaldt last year. Anders and Henriette felt like sharing these great photos with the rest of you. So here they are! Go here to see them.

Visit Anders' website www.von-greffelstejn.dk and check his other work or drop by his MySpace page.

Thanks, Anders and Henriette!

Two critics awards for Under Byen / Discography update
February 4, 2007.
Under Byen won the critics award Steppeulven for Live band of the year and Singer of the year (Henriette Sennenvaldt). Contratulations! The four other nominations - Album of the year, Song of the year, Band of the year and Author (best lyrics) of the year - went so someone else. You can see the full list of winners at Gaffa.

The Discography page has been updated with the following releases:
Nils Gröndahl - Jeg har noget tilsvarende derhjemme
Moi Caprice - You Can't Say No Forever
Frisk Frugt - Guldtrompeten

One solo release and two albums with guest appearances.

Nils Gröndahl solo cd released / Critics award show tonight
February 3, 2007.
The remastered re-release of Nils Gröndahl's solo soundtrack for an art exhibition in 2004 is now out and available for sale. The title is "Jeg har noget tilsvarende derhjemme" [I have something similar at home] and it consists of one 26 minute track in several parts. A journey in sound where deep thundering noise, minimal electronic jittering blend with violin.
Only 50 copies have been made, so don't wait for too long, if you want one.
The price is 50 dkk / 7 euro / 9 $ and it can be bought at www.sopa.dk (payment via Danish bank or Paypal). Read more on the Shop page at the site, if you are curious.
The cd is released alongside Italian lo-fi pop act Marzipan Marzipan.

Tonight the Danish Music critics' award 'Steppeulven' decides what artist are getting recognition for their accomplishments this year. Under Byen is the band with the most nominations: six in all! Read more at www.steppeulv.dk.

Thorbjørn Krogshede leaves Under Byen
January 22, 2007.
Thorbjørn Krogshede, Under Byen's composer and man at the keys and many other instruments, has decided to leave the band. Webzine Soundvenue had this news today. Manager Jesper Majdall was quoted saying that Thorbjørn's leaving will not affect the future existence of the band.
"It's not 'the big story' in our world", he says. "People come and go in this band and the situation was the same when Katrine Stochholm left the band a few years ago."
The reason for leaving the band is that Thorbjørn wants to concentrate more on his studies and does not feel like doing the amount of touring that the band is doing these days.
Thorbjørn's last show with the band was the fantastic gig at Pumpehuset in Copenhagen in early December of last year.
You can read the article in Danish here.

This fansite's webmaster wishes Thorbjørn all the best and thanks him for his great work with the band.

And a little side note: Soundvenue had an article this December where the band picked their favourite albums of the year. Somehow it went unmentioned on this page. Read on here (in Danish).

Danish Music Award nomination
January 15, 2007.
The annual mostly-major-label Danish Music Awards - where the mainstream Danish music biz congratulates itself on another year gone by - have announced this year's nominees. As usual a few bands have most of the nominations, but for some reason Under Byen have snuck in and gotten a single nomination. Or more precisely Henriette Sennenvaldt has - as female singer of the year. You can see all the not-terribly-surprising nominations at Ekstra Bladet here.
Morningside Records labelmates Oh No Ono have two nominations.

Much more interesting, but with less public attention, are the Danish critics award Steppeulven where Under Byen are nominated in six categories.

Another US date
January 12, 2007.
Manager Jesper Majdall has just confirmed another show in the USA. This will be at the venue Chop Suey in Seattle on March 21. Thanks, Jesper!

North American tourdates
January 11, 2007.
The dates for the big upcoming tour of North America have been announced. Plenty of US shows this time around. And even an MTV gig in Canada. Looks exciting! Keep checking back for updates and more possible shows.

2007 - March 2: Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston, USA (with Frida Hyvönen & El Perro del Mar).
2007 - March 5: Bowery Ballroom, New York, USA (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 6: Johnny Brenda's, Philadelphia, USA (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 7: La Sala Rosa, Montreal, Canada (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 8: CMW, Toronto, Canada (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 8: MTV Live, Toronto, Canada (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 9: Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, USA (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 11: Wexner Art Center, Columbus, USA (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 12: Abbey Theater, Chicago, USA (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 13: Renses Art Center, St. Louis, USA (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 15: SXSW, Kork Agency Show case, Austin, USA.
2007 - March 15: Stereogum, day party, Austin, USA.
2007 - March 16: KEXP Live, Austin, USA.
2007 - March 18: Knitting Factory, Los Angeles, USA (with Frida Hyvönen).
2007 - March 19: Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, USA (with Frida Hyvönen).

Competition winners!
January 10, 2007.
Here they are. Finally! The winners of this year's x-mas competition. And wow, how many they are! So many prizes. :-)

But before we announce the winners let's just take a look at the input from the competition. The top three of songs that got the most votes are interestingly enough from each of the three albums. The old favourite "Legesag" was clearly the winner, but was closely followed by newcomer "Den her sang...". Still, the many songs voted for without a doubt show that Under Byen is not a band floating on a fragile cussion of single hits. 19 different songs got voted for! From the massive behemoth "Film og omvendt" (the evolution of it live was often mentioned) to small instrumental interludes like "Lenin" and "På disse kanter". Some were chosen because they where the very first Under Byen song people heard, others were chosen because the lyrics affected people very much personally and yet others had blown people so much over backwards at a live gig that the experience was still recalled vividly.
And here is the list! Please note that many songs share a spot on this list because they got the same amount of votes.

1. Legesag
2. Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det
3. Gå ind i lyset
4. Hjertebarn + Det er mig der holder træerne sammen
5. Film og Omvendt + Mission + Om vinteren + Plantage + Lenin
6. Vindeltrappe + Jeg er din mand + På disse kanter + Af samme stof som stof + Tindrer + Kyst + Puma + Slå sorte hjerte + Pilot

Thanks a lot for everything you wrote, folks! It has truly been a pleasure as webmaster to read all the super kind e-mails. It's evident that the music really touches you. All your nice words will be passed onto the band. They enjoyed reading the results from the last competition so much - and most surely will this time too. :-)

And now here are the winners!

Book of Henriette's lyrics
Rasmus Kjær Jessen, Denmark

T-shirts (male)
Thomas Kudela, Germany
Martin Petersen, Denmark

Girlie t-shirts
Sophie Slot, Denmark
Maria Lyhne Grønaa, Denmark

Vinyl of "Samme stof som stof"
Lars Andrè Dahl, Norway
Bella Boelsgaard, Denmark

Signed posters
Sam Loncke, Belgium
Maria Abelone Bach, Denmark
Andrew Robinson, New Zealand

Thunderbear cds
Pablo Baudí Canales, Spain
Franck Levallet, France

Nils Gröndahl cds
Luciano Recabarren, USA
Martina Thiebes, Germany

Morningside Records sampler compilation cds
Emilie Gjølby Melgaard, Denmark
Marie Jensen, Denmark
Kristina Dahlberg, Denmark
Kenneth Christensen, Denmark
Feliks Schuenemann, Germany

The prizes will be send to you soon.

And then - as once before - a little apology from your webmaster for asking such a hard question to you all. Some wrote: Then what is your favourite, Lars? And yes, it's damn tough. All depends on one's mood, if it's a live version or something else. But for nostalgic reasons... I put my vote on "Fugle og ild". It was the song that stuck in my head for ages after the very first gig I saw - way back before "Kyst" was released. It simply wouldn't let go - and that deserves a vote.

Thanks to the band for providing all these lovely prizes for yet another fine competition here at the site!

More competition prizes
December 28, 2006.
Your webmaster just realized that he could in fact also throw in a few prizes to make it a bit more exciting. Not another 'århus:nu' book/cd this time, but the about-to-be-released cd by Nils Gröndahl (violin & saw) called "Jeg har noget tilsvarende derhjemme".
Two promo cds are up for grabs (just the same as the sales copies except they are not numbered) besides all the other prizes.
The music on this cd was originally released as the soundtrack for an art exhibition of paintings in 2004, but is now rereleased in January 2007 in a limited number of copies through the new label SOPA (run by the webmaster of this site). The cd contains a 26 minute track where deep thundering noise, minimal electronic jittering blend beautifully with violin.
You can read a bit more at www.sopa.dk.

Happy new year, folks!

Lars

Christmas competition
December 23, 2006.
This is very last-minute, but it's still x-mas! Time for a competition. The band and Morningside Records have put these nice things up for grabs.

1 book of Henriette's lyrics
2 t-shirts (male)
2 girlie t-shirts
2 vinyl of "Samme stof som stof"
3 signed posters
2 Thunderbear cds
5 Morningside Records sampler compilation cds

To enter the competition send an e-mail to lsd_dk @ hotmail.com (remove the spaces) and write which Under Byen song is your favourite - and why. You decide yourself how much you want to write. Remember to include your postal address and t-shirt size!

And do it on January 7 at the latest.

This question has been asked before in an earlier christmas competition. But new songs and new listeners have come since then, so let's try that one again. ;-)

Thanks to Under Byen for an exciting year with a superb album and so many fantastic shows. And great to see all you folks out there who support the band and also drop by this website.

A truckload of merry christmas wishes to all of you!

Your online servant,

Lars

Live photos from Rotterdam
December 23, 2006.
As a last little present right before christmas today you will get a total of 31 photos from the November gig at Rotown in Rotterdam, Holland. Photographer Marc Nolte was at the show and shot all these fantastic photos in beautiful black and white. Some of them must be among the best Under Byen live shots done so far. Just check out this one of Nils on the right. Go to this page and check them out. And go to www.marcnolte.com to see some of Marc's other great photos. Thanks a bunch, Marc!

Live photos from Silkeborg
December 22, 2006.
Last year photographer Casper Vildrik Justesen shot some amazing photos at the venue Rampelys in Silkeborg, Denmark. This year he returned to "the scene of the crime" with his camera and shot even more. Check out his great new set of photos here. Thanks a lot, Casper!

More end-of-the-year charts / Norwegian reviews
December 20, 2006.
Several media have placed Under Byen's "Samme stof som stof" album in their "best albums of the year" charts. As mentioned earlier Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet put it straight at number one on the Danish chart. Webzine Undertoner follow the good suggestion and does exactly the same. You can read that here.
Danish alternative radio chart Det Elektriske Barometer put the album at number 18 - with two fellow Morningside labelmates, Christian Hjelm of Figurines and Oh No Ono, popping up at number 15 and 1 respectively.
Danish webzine Diskant put Under Byen at number 7 in their "best album of the year" chart and at number 1 in the "best Danish album of the year" chart. You can see that here.

US webzine JamBase put the album at number 19 in their "20 Great Albums You Didn't Hear In 2006" list... luckily some of us did. ;-) You can read that one here.

Congratulations!

Three Norwegian newspapers have also review the album: Rogalands Avis, Bergens Avis and Bergens Tidene / BergenPuls.
Bergens Avis (four of six stars): "The orchestra has much in common with Icelandics Múm and Sigur Ros, but here everything is organic. Vocalist Henriette Sennenvaldt sings Björkish fragile/crazy and exploratory. (...) The magic starts on the song 'Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det'."
Rogalands Avis (six of six stars): "They are impossible to classify. (...) The unified whole is just as clattering, violintrembling, melancholic and joyful as a perfectly balanced overall sound should be. (...) It's so nasty and nice my stomach hurts."
Bergens Tidene / BergenPuls: "Refreshingly unpredictable. Despite clearly defined songwriter duties you get the feeling of a creative democracy. The band has eight members of which one plays saw and violin, lovely. The result is a kind of semi-gloomy "after club"-music, but free of digital elements. (...) The use of strings can sometimes remind me of dEUS."

Danish critics awards nominations
December 10, 2006.
Under Byen is leading the field at the annual Danish music critics awards, Steppeulven, this year - with an amazing six nominations. Check it out:

- Album of the year (Samme stof som stof)
- Song of the year (Af samme stof som stof)
- Band of the year
- Live band of the year
- Singer of the year (Henriette Sennenvaldt)
- Author (best lyrics) of the year (Henriette Sennevaldt)

Way to go, guys'n'gals! The award show will be held - and the winners announced - at Lille Vega in Copenhagen on February 3.

You can see all the nominated artists at Gaffa. The official site is not yet updated, it seems.

Botanique live photos
December 7, 2006.
Libelia De Splenter from Belgium has been so kind as to sent a whole bunch of fantastic photos which she shot at the Botanique show in Brussels on November 9. Go here and feast your eyes. Thanks so much, Libelia!

Also: the Bootography has been updated.

Belgian radio session and interview
December 6, 2006.
Nils Gröndahl sent a nice link for a radio show online at Studio Brussel. The band plays two acoustic songs and Stine and Nils are interviewed. Go here to have a listen. Thanks a lot, Nils!

Danish live reviews / In the "best album" polls
December 4, 2006.
The Danish media wrote some really nice reviews of the recent shows.

Danish newspaper JyllandsPosten wrote about the gig at Forbrændingen in Albertslund and gave it five of six stars. At the same time drawing parallels to Star Trek which must be a first in an Under Byen review...
"Under Byen are uncompromising in their hunt for new musical horizons, and this can make the project remind one of the Star Trek manifesto: To boldly go where no man has gone before. That journey goes both via an immensely beautiful rendition of the fragile slowmotion ballad 'Tindrer', which singer Henriette Sennenvaldt colours brilliantly with her drowned and fallen angel voice. And onwards all the way out into a long-drawn-out and wild noiserocking acidbath for the senses. (...) And vital - that is Under Byen. Maybe as never before. The group alternate sensibly between ingenious and restrained arrangements and collosal sonic assaults. A successful mission to the stars."
Read it all in Danish here.

Danish magazine Gaffa wrote in detail about the going-ons of the show at Train in Aarhus and concluded:
"Under Byen is still an orchestra in a class all of its own".
Read it all in Danish here.

Danish webzine Soundvenue were completely blown away by the tour's grand finale at Pumpehuset in Copenhagen. A maximum of six stars were given and the words were among others:
"Under Byen's music was like an arrow through the heart. (...) The musical experience was so overwhelming and intense that no one could have left this last show of the band's tour without goosebumps and a throbbing heart."
Read it all in Danish here.

"Samme stof some stof" has also made it into the "best album of the year" polls. At Gaffa it got into 6th place on the "Best Danish Albums of 2006" list - which had the barely-just-released "Interkom Kom Ind" by Nephew at number one (this webmaster wonders how many people are actually aware of the fact that one of the band members are also one of the main editors at Gaffa? Not that it has to have anything to do with anything).
The song "Af samme stof som stof" also made it into the chart of best Danish singles of 2006 at number five.

This last Sunday Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet summed up the best Danish albums of 2006 and placed "Samme stof som stof" at number one no less. I guess congratulations are in order.

Live photos
December 3, 2006.
With the touring over for the moment it's time to look over all the photos from around the world that have been sent to this site. Thanks a lot to all of you! They will be posted over the coming weeks - in no particular order. :-)
First up is Michael Boe Laigaard with a nice selection of photos from the show on November 24 at Paletten in Viborg, Denmark. Go here to see them. Thanks, Michael!

Under Byen at Allmusic.com / Reading matter
November 29, 2006.
The major website with the ambitious, yet slightly misleading name Allmusic.com finally made a page on Under Byen. Along with it comes a nice review of "Samme stof som stof". Read the review here and the biography here.

Canadian magazine Beatroute has a review of "Samme stof som stof". But not all of it is online, it seems. You can read that bit here.

French webzine Eclipshead has an interview with the band. It's in French. Go here to read that one (scroll down). If you're not fluent in French then the babbling fish might help you.

And don't forget that the band is rounding off their Danish tour this weekend with shows from Thursday to Saturday in Vordingborg, Roskilde and Copenhagen. You can read a bit more about the work with the special stage set-up at the venue Stars at their website here.

Reviews
November 21, 2006.
Paper Bag Records has collected a bunch of review quotes on their MySpace bulletin. Some of them have been mentioned here before. Others haven't...

"Unpredictability is one of the Under Byen's defining characteristics. When listening to Samme Stof Som Stof, one feels as if anything is possible, as if each song can alter its shape at any moment and become something altogether different. There is a palpable sense of a band, not attempting to exhaust the possibilities of each song, but to consciously and playfully invent each twist and turn, to patiently compose labyrinths constant to their musical vision. The unexpected chord change which shifts the tone completely, the ebbing and flowing of unearthly instrumentation, skeletal arrangements which explode into fissures of sonic debris—Under Byen are masters of each. (...) Under Byen is incredibly apt at enrapturing one with what is happening while at the same time putting her in suspense over what will come next. They are a band that boldly declares that they don't sound like anyone except themselves. And they are a band that proves it time and time again."
- "Album of The Week", American webzine Treble. Read it all here.

"This Danish band’s 3rd album (and 1st US release) is an evocative set of atmospheric songs blending elements of post-rock, classical and more in ways similar to Sigur Ros, but with more nods to both pop song craft and rock aggression. Dark, moody soundscapes and clanging percussion are combined with ethereal melodies and lead vocalist Henriette Sennenvaldt’s Bjorkian vocals."
- US radio station KEXP. Read it all here.

"Think Sigur Ros. Think Bell Orchestre. Think late-era Talk Talk. Think Mogwai. Then think again."
- Canadian newspaper Ottawa Sun.

"Under Byen (pronounced Oh’nah-Boon) have created a masterful and unique work that is at once the lace glove and the wool mitten you've been longing for this fall. Full of experimental sound play that never sounds experimental, dual drummers that aren't redundant, and built microphones that distort lovely vocals into something even lovelier, Samme Stoff Som Stof begs to be considered as one of the year's most impressive works. Unlike so many bands that appear seemingly out of nowhere with the shelf life of a half-eaten apple, Under Byen offer a lush, incredibly dense and ethereal landscape of sound, with a style that stands in stark contrast to the rest of the world's perceptions."
- American webzine Austinist. Read it all here.

"A simple yet very tender and sultry effort in the vein of Massive Attack. One worth seeking out!"
- 8 of 10 rating, webzine PopMatters.

"A dangerous sensuality reminiscent of Bjork and Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino…making for a luxurious listen for drama kings and queens."
- CMJ Monthly.

"Dark textures and warped coos are so reminiscent of the Homogenic-era sound that I can picture the cardboard elf village within a cardboard elf village of the imaginary Gondry video that would follow. (...) Throughout the album, the urge to pull every track to a gushing climax is resisted in favor of individual instrumental turns and a welcome dose of negative space. String sections, piano, synths, kalimbas and eerie theremin-like saw playing helps us forget to miss absent guitars. Even the sequencing displays a well-developed aesthetic, with short and delicate music-box pieces cleansing the palette for the opuses. (...) Lack of language comprehension doesn't diminish the plus-sized emotions on display, even if making sense of it all is ultimately akin to finding meaning in the frozen face of a Scandinavian fjord.
- 7 of 10 rating, American webzine Prefix Magazine. Read it all here.

"Under Byen's sound ranges from fairytale shimmer to visceral brutality, while always maintaining, or at least always returning to, a continuous sonic narrative. The textures recall the heavier drone of Pelican or Growing married with the folk-inflected pastoral of Espers or Joanna Newsom. (...) It all comes together on tracks at turns gorgeous and sweeping or dark and atonal, but always well crafted, well balanced, and well worth zoning out to."
- Album Of The Day, American magazine Spin's website Spin.com.

They have been added to the fastgrowing Press clips page.

Spin.com Band Of The Day
November 20, 2006.
Another of the big US music mags (besides Rolling Stone and Pitchfork) has caught the scent of Under Byen. This time it's Spin. Today the band is "Band Of The Day" at Spin.com. You can read it all here and rate the band. And discuss the piece here, if you feel like it.

Odense show cancelled
November 19, 2006.
The show in Odense has been cancelled - as has most of the shows at the venue this winter. According to the venue's website it is due to financial difficulties at the place. You can read more at www.studenterhus.dk. We hope to get you back in business again, Odense Studenterhus!

Lyrics book in print / Pitchfork review
November 17, 2006.
The lyrics book that has been mentioned on this site before is now finally in print. Manager Jesper Majdall was kind enough to sent one in the mail to your webmaster. And the first impression was simply: a lot of love must have put into this little book.
It's a hardcover, not-so-thick book measuring 14 x 17 centimeters. But as the saying goes: size doesn't matter. At least not here. This is pure, concentrated Under Byen. :-)
The book contains pieces of the artwork known from the "Samme stof som stof" packaging done by Anna Rosa Hiort Lorentzen and Hrafnhildur Halldórsdóttir - as well as great new artwork by Julie Nord.
The book does not contain all the lyrics from Under Byen's albums, but selected ones from all three. Yes, "Legesag", "Kyst", "Det er mig" are there, but also many of your other favourites, I'm sure. On the left page there's the Danish original and on the right page is the English translation.
The nice surprise is that there are also lyrics - or poems - that have not been on any album. Including the text used for Henriette Sennenvaldt's contribution about "a book made of snow" for an art exhibition (what might be one of the more explicit examples of Under Byen's quirky humour). Other pieces are most likely totally new to the public.
The book will be made for sale on the ongoing tour of Denmark for the price of 150 Danish kroner (DKK). Which is roughly 20 euro or 26 US dollars by current currency.
500 copies have been made and manager Jesper Majdall wrote the following on the fan forum not long ago: "I'll try and make it available for orders outside of Denmark. I'll keep you posted." As soon as the website gets more info on this matter it will be written first thing on this news page. I am sure there are quite a few people outside Denmark who would love to get their hands on this great piece of reading matter.

The quite influential webzine Pitchfork Media has reviewed Under Byen's "Samme stof som stof" album. And they like it. Not just throwing their ratings around they give it a 7.7, but the text itself is pretty much all positive. A good review.
Once the writer gets over the reviewer-doing-comparisons along the lines of "sounds like Björk and Mogwai falling down a well together", "sounds like they're straining toward being the Animal Collective of Mogwais" and namedropping Bark Psychosis and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth (hey, those are new ones) they go on to say:
"They thread thin, sneaky melodies through shape-shifting veils of fog. Samme Stof Som Stof's sound palette is a vivid and varied range of grays and blues; each song is like some giant machine on the verge of shuddering apart."
And they also have this to say about the band's (and this webmaster's) mother tongue: "There are a couple of things that make Danish such a neat language. One is its whimsy-- from the looks of it, you just throw together any letters you like and then pronounce them however you want."
Geez, those Americans. :-)
You can read the whole review here.

Special gig at Stars / Review
November 16, 2006.
On November 30th Under Byen will play at the venue Stars in the town of Vordingborg on the southern tip of Zealand. On that particular occasion Stars is giving birth to a new concept of theirs. One that tries to move away from the traditional "band-on-stage-in-front-of-audience" setup. So it says in the local Vordingborg paper Sydsjællands Tidende.
The crew at the venue are currently working on different models in an attempt to place the band in the middle of the concert hall on different levels. Furthermore the usual dark-walled place with instead have white surfaces. Videoprojections will also be an important part of this idea. The audience will be able to "interact" more with the artists playing, the article says. The concept is planned to be used at more shows to come - not just for Under Byen. No more details as of yet, but they seem rather determined to try something different at Stars.

The website I (Heart) Music wrote about the "Stof" album, and Little Radio used the same article. You can read the full review by clicking the links. They had good things to say:

"The band isn't going for grandiosity as much as they seek to create small, spooky spaces. (...) The band gets a lot more raucous than Sigur Ros could ever imagine. The contrast between the two creates a wonderful dynamic that runs throughout the whole album, as the band build up a really tense atmosphere, and then throw the kind of cathartic release that makes it all worthwhile -- which, really, is a word that could be used to describe the entire album. Samme stof som stof is a rewarding album to listen to, and hopefully one that will help Under Byen succeed here on their own terms."

North American spring tour in the works / Article and review
November 10, 2006.
Americans and Canadians listen up! Your next Under Byen fix is not far away. Under Byen's manager Jesper Majdall has these nice things to say: "Under Byen will be back in USA and Canada around March 2007. We hope to set up about ten shows. Among them appearances at Canadian Music Week and South By Southwest. I hope to have a tour schedule ready in two weeks time. Stay tuned for more". Thanks a bunch, Jesper. The many new fans in North America will be sure to dig that piece of news.

MSNBC's website has a nice article about Under Byen claiming that the band is among "new artists you need to know now". Well, we knew already, didn't we? ;-) And yes, indeed "something's rocking in the state of Denmark". And soon very much so with a whole 11 shows on Danish soil. Read the article here. Nice reading, that one. The writer is not in doubt: "By all accounts, Under Byen is one of the best live bands playing today.(...) Under Byen will be touring North America this spring. As for me, I can’t wait that long — I’m flying to Denmark at month’s end to catch the last show of this tour." Enjoy the trip! :-)

Amplifier Magazine has also reviewed the "Stof" album stating that "Under Byen is a band of another place and time." And yet another reviewer seems to have been touched... "The feelings that Under Byen conjures within the listener are truly mysterious and transcend any purely verbal level. Music this powerful speaks for itself."
Read it all here.

Another Canadian front page / Live video and photos / MySpace update
November 9, 2006.
Following the band's front page on the Montreal Mirror now comes another such one on the Vancouver-based magazine Discorder. It features an article on the Pop Montreal festival with some very nice words about Under Byen. The website doesn't seem to be working properly right now, so it's not possible to read the article. However, the piece of the text concerning Under Byen was kindly supplied by Under Byen's manager Jesper Majdall by e-mail. Hopefully Discorder will forgive me for putting it here, all things considered.

"Up next was the Danish group Under Byen, and they took to stage with an impenetrable Nordic air. There's been a lot of talk lately about their Sigur Ros-inspired soundscapes, but their live show definitely complicated the comparison.
Eschewing the guitar in favour of a well-rounded string section, extra percussion and an amplified saw, they played complex, mournful arrangements that left jaws agape. Lead vocalist Henriette Sennenvaldt, whose picture graces the cover of this issue, swayed at the back of the band, but her remarkably Bjork-like voice commanded everyone's attention, even with all the words in Danish. As the set unfolded, the music ranged from sprawling post-rock compositions to slammy, Tom Waits rhythms. When the saw was brought out, I was afraid that it was little more than an attention grab, but the opposite proved true. Working his bow across the serrated edge, the sawman produced sounds remarkably like a dissonant guitar, but emanating from a construction tool it came across as a feat of blackest alchemy. Overall, the set was both intricate and overwhelming, and I look forward to hearing more from these Scandinavians."

And...

It doesn't happen often, but when it does it should be mentioned here. A live video has been been put online. The song "Heftig" from the October 27th show at Festival Rockomotives in Vendôme, France. Go see it here.

A lot of people have also been shooting lots of nice photos of the ongoing tour (thanks a lot, folks!). I hope to put up links for them soon, but for now check out the fansite forum in the Live section for links. There's about a handful of different photo sets so far.

And last but not least the Under Byen MySpace page has finally gotten it's proper address. Easier to remember... www.myspace.com/underbyen.

New interview
November 1, 2006.
Brooklyn-based webzine Junkmedia has an interview with Nils Gröndahl about that "otherworldly music from Denmark". And lesson to be learned from that one: "Illusion is the first of all pleasures." Read it all here - and see a drawing based on the band's odd dressed-up-as-Austrian-yodlers press photo.

Brussels support act / New reviews
October 30, 2006.
Things are all coming together. :-) A friend of some of the Under Byen members, I Like This Wind, will be supporting the band in Brussels on November 9th. Also hailing from the band's native Aarhus she now resides in Brussels where she writes songs to go with her powerful voice. A future cd release is planned through Sound Of Perpetual Astonishment - the label of your webmaster here where also Nils Gröndahl's solo project will soon see the light of day. Yes, it seems it's all connected.
You can visit the SOPA label at www.sopa.dk and check the artist pages for sound links. And also on the label's MySpace page where were you can listen to an except from Nils' music - as well as a track by I Like This Wind.
I Like This Wind also has a website with a handful of mp3s. Among them a mesmerizing rendition of the Billie Holiday classic "The Man I Love". Go here to listen if you're curious.

And more magazines around the world dig Under Byen. Have a look...

"The music is beautiful for its non-linear harmony. A mixture of tender melancholy as from an ancient music box, and stoic insanity because of those curiously sluggish drums. Something harsh is in the wind, something nightmarish. Sometimes there are disturbing, croaking sounds. At the same time a certain sublimity persists. Expressed in the phenomenal harmony that the piano and the strings maintain. Above all the vocals turn the whole into a haunting fairy tale, and overcome the fear. Magical music."
- British Web- and DVD zine Electronic Beats on "Samme stof som stof", October 2006 (read more).

"The album is at times dark, has an impressive dynamic range, and for me personally, a bit of mystery from what the those lyrics could possibly be about. Sounds georgous regardless. “Pilot” kicks off the album in impressive fashion with that Surfer Rosa era Pixies kind of loud as hell sound, driven by two pounding drummers. (...) Samme Stof Som Stof is an unique album, highlighted by attractive vocals and a vast collection of acoustic instruments that are not shy about creating a wide dynamic range when required."
- Webzine Lunapark6 on "Samme stof som stof", June 2006 (read more).

"The band maintains a darkly cinematic veneer all their own."
- US magazine Losing Today on "Samme stof som stof", 2006 (read more).

"The octet does show off a dramatic sense and a style that strays far from the confines of by-the-book pop or rock. It is interesting stuff, arranged to showcase the vocals of Henriette Sennenvaldt in a wash of piano, strings, effects and percussion. (...) The songs are all sung in Danish. Perhaps Sennenvaldt is singing of heartache, which is what a reasonable person might guess. But she could just as easily be singing about some pens and pencils. Or the price of gasoline. Oh, my kingdom for a full translation…(...) The music throughout Samme Stof Som Stof is entrancing, as is Sennervaldt’s voice."
- Webzine 30music on "Samme stof som stof", 2006 (read more).

Vienna gig off
October 20, 2006.
As you might have noticed on the official Under Byen website the show in Vienna on October 23 is not going to happen after all. Unfortunately.

European tour starts tomorrow
October 17, 2006.
Yes, don't forget... The European tour kicks off tomorrow in Flensburg, Germany. The band will also visit Austria, Holland and Belgium for a total of 19 shows. After that they return for 11 shows in Denmark. Undoubtedly their longest tour yet.

Check out all the dates and venues on the Concerts page.

Under Byen Cruise Photo Special
October 16, 2006.
It's been a long time since we had a photo special in this site. But here is one. And it's a little different than usual. When Under Byen played their two gigs onboard the Crown of Scandinavia in late August your webmaster was there too - alongside Under Byen-fan Kristina and photographer Steffen, which you must know by now for all his many great Under Byen photos. :-) Therefore this Photo Special is about the whole trip and not just the concerts. This way you can maybe get a bit of an idea of the trip as such. The photos taken by me, Lars, are mostly from the trip itself, while Steffen shot some really lovely pictures from the two shows.

At some point Steffen will upload his pictures plus a few more at his website www.jint.dk. But they're not quite there yet.

I hope you enjoy the pictures - even though the band is not on all of them.

Fittingly it's called "Fra kyst til kyst". Go here for the page.

Lars

Photo by Jint.

New press photos
October 13, 2006.
The new press photos which showed up with recent reviews from "across the pond" are now also available in high quality at the Morningside Records website. Go to Under Byen's page there to check these cool new shots out.

More great reviews
October 12, 2006.
More reviews have popped up. And yes, Under Byen really seem to have charmed quite a few people out there. Just read on...

US university magazine ThunderRadio Music Review (The Spectrum) writes this about "Samme stof som stof":
"Simply put, their music is amazing. (...) The band consists of vocals that are a sweet intermingling of extravagant Björk-styled vocals, homely Joanna Newsom song craft and instrumentals that take on a playful youth mentality much like the music of electronica wizards Psapp. (...) The music seems to wander around slightly and fade in and out, dancing in the spotlight for a while then retreating back into the shadows. Samme Stof Som Stof, which means 'Same Fabric as Fabric,' is sung in Danish — like their previous albums — and this only adds to its allure."
Read it all here.

Canadian webzine Wavelength has also reviewed the album and writes: "The LP is a grower that demands repeated listens, full of dense songs replete with all manner of pedals, strings, saws and sundry percussive instruments. (...) This can almost as easily make for a frustrating listen as an exhilarating one, but Under Byen’s spirit is heartening they value experimentation and playfulness while still incorporating an underlying pop aesthetic."
Read it all here.

Canadian webzine Scene And Heard write this about "Samme stof som stof": "The music found on the eight-piece's fourth album, their first for Toronto's Paper Bag Records, does seat them comfortably alongside art-rock bands like Radiohead, godspeed you! black emperor and the aforementioned Sigur Ros. Henriette Sennenvaldt's delicate vocals help to set them apart in the decidedly male-dominated field. At times reminiscent of Bjork and at others Stina Nordenstam, her emotional, childlike voice rides the slowly building wave of instruments. (...) It is an alternately beautiful and unsettling collection of songs. Hopefully, this will be the first of many North American releases."
Read it all here.

Webzine Decoy Music writes this: "Samme Stof Som Stof is one of my favorite albums of this year and one of the most inventive albums I’ve heard in quite some time. Under Byen’s sound is really unclassifiable for me. Sometimes they sound indie, sometimes they sound like Bjork (well at least their vocalist, Henriette Sennenvaldt), and sometimes they just sound like the most incredible post-rock I’ve ever heard. Their song “Den Her Sang Handler Om At Få Det Bedste Ud Af Det” (yes, that’s the song name) exhibits so much control over tension and resolution, it’s ridiculous. (...) This could be post-post-rock, if you ask me. Anyway, this album isn’t just post-rock and is pretty far from it. There are songs on this album for fans of all kinds of music."
Read it all here - where the writer also has this suggestion: "Also dudes, Google image search Henriette Sennenvaldt. You will NOT be disappointed." :-)

Webzine Tiny Mix Tapes has a rather lengthy review which among other things reads: "This is the darkness your parents never told you about, the endless struggle to earn your keep, be creative, be in love. (...) Twelve tracks and not a single dud, not a single misstep, not a single faux pas. (...) This is a dynamite album with all the potential in the world lingering under its floorboards. If you don't take a peek, you'll be missing out on a thus-far-obscured treasure."
Read it all here.

Swedish webzine It's A Trap also did a review a while ago. They wrote: "Under Byen singer Henriette Sennenvaldt sings in this dreamy whispery voice that is simply incredibly sexy, yet triste. The music underneath is post-rock in a similar fashion to Do Make Say Think, but with a more noisy aspect of raw percussion and field recordings. Under Byen also uses a lot of minimal arrangements to create a thin curtain behind Sennenvaldt, only to explode a few minutes later in an intense fury. Instrumentation is all over the place and adds to the overall brilliance. I have heard plenty of post-rock in the last few years, but this is amongst the best."
Read it all here.

And yes, they have been added to the Press clips page.

Canada and the two Davids dig Under Byen / Articles, reviews and live photos
October 11, 2006.
From reading reviews in the US and Canadian media Under Byen seem to have enchanted audiences overseas too.

Rolling Stone's David Fricke, who have more than once declared his love for the band, picked the latest album in his column in the magazine. Here he among other things wrote:
"Samme Stof Som Stof veers in alluring slow motion from antique creak to sleek futurist dread. Sennenvaldt's deep-breath purr is practically volcanic in its volume and worry, and where earlier records suggest Portishead kidnapped by the Sugarcubes, this one has a heavy-riff boom that sounds like Sigur Rós' idea of Black Sabbath. The lyrics are in Danish, but this full-moon magic needs no translation."

The other David who attended one of the recent Under Byen shows across the Atlantic was none other than former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. In his online journal he writes:
"The interplay, the spaces left out by one instrument, into which another player would insert a sound, seemed carefully arranged, and this sort of socket approach grabbed me instantly. The mood is one of beautiful desolation and melancholy."
To read all he wrote about the Montreal show go here.

Magazine Montreal Mirror have the band on the cover and a lengthy article inside. You can read it here. The cover features one of the oddest press photos of the band yet. Some of the other articles mentioned below feature some new press photos that use the live projections. Looks rather cool.

Eye Weekly also has an article. Go here to read it.

And so has Jam! Showbiz. Go here to read that one.

Aaand Ottawa Express also interviewed the band. Here's yet another link for your reading pleasure.

Website Paper Thin Walls have the track "Den Her Sang Handler Om At Få Det Bedste Ud Af Det" featured. They among other things write:
"Each song from Danish gang-of-eight Under Byen’s delicious third album, Samme Stof Som Stof, unveils a different turbulent art-house movie score ripe for an overactive imagination. (...) Samme Stof Som Stof (Same Fabric As Fabric), the band’s first album released officially in North America, sounds like despair, whimsy and some stuff director Lars Von Trier could use. Its fabric is ornate and delicately fitted with short instrumentals, a tapestry to behold. The sound of these great Danes stay burned into the brain long after the images they inspire fade."
Read the whole thing here.

When Under Byen played at PopMontreal it was alongside Giant Sand. At the website Chromewaves you can read reviews of both shows as well as see a lot of nice pictures from them. But let's just quote the Under Byen review first:
"This was the set that I was most looking forward at Pop Montreal and I was not disappointed. While most every other act I've seen fell pretty well within the jurisdiction defined by the festival name (some sort of pop performed in Montreal), this Danish outfit were the proverbial 'and now for something completely different'. Boasting an elaborate and expansive stage setup, Under Byen dazzled with a show that was both angelic and gutteral, delicate and hulking. (...) Shrouded either in shadows or silhouetted by a lightshow and even hiding their supermodel-looking singer further back on the stage, often crouched down by the floor, the band didn't say a word to the audience, preferring to let the music do the talking - and that it did, in mysterious booming tones. (...) It's always nice when something manages to meet high expectations, but to have them blown away - as I and many others in the audience were - is even better."
Read the whole thing here. Check out the great Under Byen photos here and the Giant Sand ones (with Henriette and Nils) here. There's a very sweet one of Howe and Henriette looking at each other the piano.

In July website Stereogum wrote about Under Byen as the band to watch (read that here) and in September they did a competition for tickets for the New York show. Now they have posted a review of the show alongside some really nice photos from it. About the show they wrote:
"'Pilot''s smoldering skin-smashing was an instant mood setter, while "Den Her Sang Handler Om At Få Det Bedste Ud Af Det" (imagine that with a double-word score in Scrabble) -- with its 3 bass-note vamp under acending, dissonant-then-driving strings, and ending with a descending chromatic run under a repetitive piano figure -- sucked the fucking wind out of our lungs. Other highlights included "Tindrer," which was inescapably awesome (and inescapably Sigur Rós -- sorry, there it is again), and the title track to their latest, greatest record Af Samme Stof Som Stof."
Besides the report from the show there's also a little interview. Maybe the Danish word "røvguitar" (ass guitar) will go international now? :-) Read it all here.

In case I forgot to write it earlier US radio station KEXP really like Under Byen too. In fact...they admit they''re obsessed with them. :-)
"Under Byen create a sound unlike any other band…sure, you’ll notice a little Bjork in the vocal, and a little Sigur Ros in the musical moods and glacial time shifts, but like much of the best music, Under Byen defies classification and comparison. Violin and cello melt into synthesizers colliding with metallic percussion. Bells, chimes, and otherworldly saw take you to new highs only to be grounded by raw feedback and noise. Sweet and comforting, then metallic and brutal. Beautiful and distinctive. Words fail, so enough with them, listen for yourself."
Read the whole article "My Current Obsession… Under Byen" here.

All these nice words have been added to the Press clips page.

Under Byen's Canadian record label, Paper Bag Records, write in their newsletter: "For those of you who were not lucky enough to see Under Byen during any of their Canadian dates they will be back....keep March 2007 free, ok?".

Canadian article
October 2, 2006.
Canadian music magazine Exclaim has a small piece on Under Byen where Thorbjørn Krogshede says a few things. You can read it here.

Congratulations!
September 18, 2006.
As some of you might have read on the official site Under Byen had a baby - or more precisely Sara did. Many congratulations from here!
Anders Stochholm will be filling in on the bass on the fall tour.

Nils Gröndahl to re-release solo debut
September 17, 2006.
Nils Gröndahl will be making his solo debut EP available again. The two long pieces of noise incorporating violin and electronic effects was originally made for the exhibition "Skabelsen - nutidskunst til syv dage" [Genesis - contemporary art for seven days] in 2004. The music was included on cd in the catalogue for the exhibition and has not been available anywhere else. Until now.
Your fansite webmaster has started a little new music project: a small record label called Sound Of Perpetual Astonishment. Or SOPA for short. Among the coming releases on SOPA is Nils' music from 2004 - which he is about to remaster for better sound. It would be a shame if more people didn't get to hear this wonderful little EP. It has now been retitled "Jeg har noget tilsvarende derhjemme" [I have something similar at home].
The concept of the SOPA is to initially limit each release to 50 copies and keep the price at 50 DKK (about 7 euro). You can read more about the label's concept, Nils' cd and the other artists about to release music on SOPA at www.sopa.dk.
On SOPA's MySpace page you can hear an excerpt from one of Nils' tracks.

Be fast... New York show is 'first serve and limited'
September 16, 2006.
If you want to attend the Under Byen show in New York you will have to write Paper Bag Records in order to get a ticket. At the label's website they write the following:

UNDER BYEN - RARE SHOW IN NYC
Want to be one of the people who get to see our new signing, Denmark’s amazing ‘UNDER BYEN’ at The Mercury Lounge in New York on October 4th at 7:30pm? If so, you must email info@paperbagrecords.com to secure a spot on the list for this special and exclusive event. This is a first come first serve and is very limited, so don’t sleep!

The labelsite news on it is here.

International release dates / Pitchfork news / US review / Album streamed
September 15, 2006.
Here are the coming international release dates:

USA (through Paper Bag) is October 10, while Pitchfork write that Canada will have it already on September 26.
Germany (through PIAS) is October 20.
The Benelux countries (through Excelsior) is in October.

Thanks to Jesper Majdall for those.

The influential music webzine Pitchfork finally wrote a bit about Under Byen. The article is called "Under Byen invade North America" and is about the coming tour. You can read that here.

Furthermore the US webzine Cokemachineglow has written a rather positive review of "Samme stof som stof". You can read it here. Among other things they write: "The album has the weight of ages behind it, a complex personality and everywhere its implacable, stubborn patience. (...) Under Byen are writing counter to the pace and temper of our time. Samme Stof Som Stof is an album on its own terms."

Thanks to Sam for the tip on those two websites' writings.

Paper Bag Records have put "Samme stof som stof" on their online music player. So have a listen here if you don't already have the album.

German and Austrian live dates
September 14, 2006.
Here's a bunch of new live dates in Germany and Austria. Thanks to Jesper for them.

2006 - October 18 - Volksbad, Flensburg, Germany

2006 - October 23: Chelsea, Vienna, Austria

2006 - October 24: Prime Club, Cologne/Köln, Germany

2006 - October 25: Star Club, Dresden, Germany

2006 - November 1: Silver Wings, Berlin, Germany.

2006 - November 2: Übel & Gefärlich, Hamburg, Germany.

American and Canadian live dates! / Label night
September 8, 2006.
Finally Under Byen take another trip across the Atlantic. And this time it's a proper tour, although a short one. Altogether five dates where the band will also play alongside Joanna Newsom and Giant Sand.

2006 - October 4 – Mercury Lounge, New York, USA.

2006 - October 5 – PopMontreal, The Ukrainian Federation, Montreal, Canada (with Joanna Newsom).

2006 - October 7 – The Cabaret, PopMontreal, Montreal, Canada (with Giant Sand).

2006 - October 8 – Zaphod, Ottawa, Canada.

2006 - October 9 – The Horseshoe, Toronto, Canada (with Giant Sand).

The above info was taken from the latest Morningside Records newsletter. Tomorrow, Saturday night, the label is celebrating it's five year anniversary with a night at the venue Voxhall in Aarhus with different of the label's bands.

Under Byen lyrics in print / Great reviews / Cruise article
September 2, 2006.
Just the other day manager Jesper Majdall popped up on the forum to tell people that Under Byen lyrics will find their way into print very soon. Twenty selected Under Byen lyrics will be in a new book with English translations of them. The book will be available on the Fall tour. More details on it here on the news page as soon as they are available.

Some new reviews have surfaced. Sweden's Sonic Magazine wrote a lenghty and very positive review of the "Stof" album and gave it a whopping '9' rating. The writer called Under Byen "one of the best and most interesting bands in the world right now". You can read the first bit of the review on the scan on the right.
American webzine Babysue has also reviewed "Stof" now that Canadian Paper Bag Records have released the album. They give it at 5 out of 6 rating and among other things write "It is rare indeed when a band stumps us. Samme Stof Som Stof is an album that doesn't sound very much like any other we've heard before. (...) Truly strange and ultimately hypnotic...Samme Stof Som Stof is an instant favorite here in the babysue campground...".
You can read the whole review here.

The Danish Rock Council (ROSA) have written an article (in Danish) about Under Byen's Oslo cruise. There are also some pictures. Read it here.

Soon there will also be a fansite special about the whole trip and the big show at Forum in Copenhagen. Stay tuned!

Cruisin' time
August 22, 2006.
Tomorrow Under Byen - and also your ever-present webmaster - will depart from the harbour in Copenhagen on the ship Crown of Scandinavia heading for Oslo, Norway. One of these parties will have to work hard on stage making beautiful music and the other will make an effort to relax and enjoy the show. The latter will be sure to shoot some photos and tell you all a bit about this special event afterwards. Straight off the ship Friday morning it's a good idea to hang around Copenhagen until evening time for the show at Forum. Latest news regarding headliners Massive Attack is that they will bring along the vocal talents of reggae legend Horace Andy and Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins-fame. Could end up being a really great evening at Forum.

And by the way, the Bootography has been updated with last year's show at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen.

Two more French dates
August 4, 2006.
They keep coming. A few more French shows on the fall tour.

2006 - October 20: La Laiterie, Strasbourg, France (with Nouvelle Vague).

2006 - October 29: La Maroquinerie, Paris, France (with I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness).

New Danish, French and Dutch shows
August 3, 2006.
A bunch of livedates just dropped in from manager Jesper Majdall. Some you already know, but there are also new ones. Among them several Danish dates as well as some in France and one more in Holland. And the word is: more to come.
The tour marks the first time that Under Byen has done a tour of Denmark of this size. 11 shows in total. Among them a return to Train in Aarhus, where they haven't played since they signed their first record deal in 1999. And also another show at the small venue Rampelys in Silkeborg where the band did an exclusive gig in April of last year. Also: this time around in Copenhagen they will play at Pumpehuset.

These are the new shows. Check the Concerts page for the full updated list of all the shows. In total there are now 25 shows, but as mentioned before more will be announced.

2006 - October 26: Atheneum, Dijon, France.

2006 - October 27: Festival Rockomotives, Vendôme, France.

2006 - October 28: Festival Nevers À Vif, Nevers, France.

2006 - November 3: Ekko, Utrecht, Holland.

2006 - November 4: Gigant, Apeldoorn, Holland.

2006 - November 6: Paradiso (upstairs hall), Amsterdam, Holland.

2006 - November 8: Rotown, Rotterdam, Holland.

2006 - November 16: Tobakken, Esbjerg, Denmark.

2006 - November 24: Paletten, Viborg, Denmark.

2006 - November 25: Rampelys, Albertslund, Denmark.

2006 - November 29: Train, Aarhus, Denmark.

2006 - November 30: Gimle, Roskilde, Denmark.

2006 - November 30: Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, Denmark.

German record deal / Big fall tour
July 28, 2006.
As mentioned earlier Under Byen have made a record deal for North America with Canadian label Paper Bag Records. On the band's MySpace page they now write that the album will be out through them on September 28th. They also write that a deal has been made for Germany. It is with PIAS Recordings (also known as Play It Again Sam) who also release music by such bands as Mogwai, Editors, Joan As Policewoman, Nouvelle Vague and Tiga. Under Byen's album will be out through PIAS in early October.

The band also writes that it will do "a full European tour in the fall" including 11 Danish shows. Although not confirmed by the band several gigs have begun showing up online. Mostly in Denmark, but also elsewhere. These are the ones that have popped up so far - including the ones mentioned earlier on the Concerts page - confirmed and unconfirmed:

2006 - August 23: DFDS Seaways, Copenhagen - Oslo, Denmark - Norway.

2006 - August 24: DFDS Seaways, Oslo - Copenhagen, Norway - Denmark.

2006 - August 25: Forum, Copenhagen, Denmark.

2006 - November 5: Effenaar, Eindhoven, Holland.

2006 - November 9: Botanique, Brussels, Belgium.

2006 - November 10: Petrol, Antwerpen, Belgium.

2006 - November 11: Cactus@MaZ, Brugge, Belgium.

2006 - November 17: Studenterhuset, Aalborg, Denmark.

2006 - November 18: Pitstop, Kolding, Denmark.

2006 - November 23: Forbrændingen, Albertslund, Denmark.

2006 - November 29: Odense Studenterhus, Odense, Denmark.

2006 - November 30: Stars, Vordingborg, Denmark.

Thunderbear show tomorrow
July 17, 2006.
Just a little reminder. Thorbjørn Krogshede is playing one of his rare soloshows (with band - including Morten Larsen) tomorrow Tuesday July 18 as part of the Aarhus International Jazzfestival. The whole thing goes down at the venue Voxhall.

Under Byen make deal for North America
July 12, 2006.
In the latest issue of Danish music magazine Gaffa there is an article about Under Byen. In short it says: Under Byen signs deal for North America. The lucky label is Toronto-based Paper Bag Records. Trevor Larocque, A&R man at the label, visited the Spot 12 Festival in Aarhus recently to check out the band live. He had come across the band on the internet and then got hold of the latest album - and then couldn't stop playing it at the label's offices where others also got curious. Under Byen will be the first non-Canadian band on the label.
His strategy for the band takes into account that it's physically a rather big band.
- It's not a band that has to go out and play everywhere, he says. My idea is to keep it exclusive. I want to set up shows in relatively small venues in Montreal, Toronto and New York. I think it will be shows that people will talk about afterwards and go "I wish I had been there". That is the plan to begin with.
The article does not mention a release date for the album. The label's roster features amongst others such bands as Tokyo Police Club, The Deadly Snakes and Stars. The latter maybe being the one best known to Europeans. Broken Social Scene also released an album on the label.
You can read the article in Danish here.

Roskilde Festival radio interview
July 5, 2006.
Nils and Stine were interviewed at the Roskilde Festival by Danish national radio DR. You can listen to it here. As well as many other interviews from the festival.

Competition winners!
July 4, 2006.
Finally time to announce the winners of the 2-year anniversary competition. Picked blindfolded at random - here they are!

"Kyst" remix album + Morningside Records Compilations:

George Dickerson, USA
Jakob Suhr, Denmark
Feliks Schünemann, Germany

Morningside Records Compilations:

Josefine Lorentzdotter, Denmark
Verner Hansen, Denmark
Jon Lausten Vilsen, Denmark
Thomas Kudela, Germany
Roy Kenneth Økland, Norway
Janne Thoft, Denmark
Agata Foti, Denmark

Thanks to all who participated! It was great fun. And thanks to those of you who gave some feedback in the form of very nice comments and suggestions for improvements. This time around we had participants from many different countries - Denmark, Norway, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Italy, USA, Chile, Australia and Pakistan. Impressive.

One more Danish show
June 29, 2006.
According to the ticket agency BilletNet Under Byen will play at Stars in Vordingborg, Denmark, on November 30.

And the fansite competition is now over. Thank you for the many entries from around the world. Unfortunately there is no time for your webmaster to draw the winner before rushing off to the Roskilde Festival. Sorry. So please have patience. On Monday the festival is over and there's time for the draw. Until then, have a nice weekend. And for those of you at the Roskilde Festival: See you Saturday night at the Odeon stage! ;-)

One more Danish and three Belgian shows / Morningside webshop closed
June 17, 2006.
The fall tour is in preparation and a few gigs have surfaced on the web here and there already. Besides the already mentioned Danish one at Forbrændingen, Albertslund, Odense Studenterhus now also say they have an Under Byen show on the program on November 29th.

And three shows in Belgium have also revealed themselves online:

November 9: Botanique, Brussels
November 10: Petrol, Antwerpen
November 11: Cactus@MaZ, Brugge

The Morningside Records webshop has had to close due to the overwhelming demand for the label's releases. They couldn't keep up. On the website they now write:
"As of today we don't have our own mailorder anymore. And we've deleted all orders in it. We can't keep up and it is causing a bad conscience and sleepless nights. We're sorry. Should have done this earlier."
They then refer to shops elsewhere: CDSkiven (Worldwide), CDON (EU & Scandinavia), VibraShop (Worldwide - not all titles) and Glitterhouse (Worldwide - not all titles). Considering Morningside has gotten pretty good distribution over the last year or so the label webshop might seem a bit unnecessary now.

Denmark's best magazine for good music, Geiger, has written a good review of the Spot 12 show. You can read it here (in Danish, but with a few pictures).

The Bootography and the Concerts page have been updated.

Anniversary competition with fantastic prizes!
June 10, 2006.
As mentioned earlier there is a competition on the occasion of the site's two year birthday. Ten Morningside Records Samplers are up for grabs, BUT also something many of you will probably find very interesting. Manager Jesper Majdall stumbled on some of the rare out of print "Kyst" remix-albums from 2001 the other day. So there will be three of those among the prizes too! How about that? :-)
The remix-winners will also get the sampler-cd. So in short: 10 winners in all - among them 3 extra lucky ones.

So how do you enter the competition?

It's very simple: Just send an e-mail to lsd_dk@hotmail.com with your postal address. And if you feel like suggesting new features, improvements and such for the fansite then this would be a good chance to do so. Knock yourself out! This is not necessary in order to enter the competition, though. But feedback is always nice.

The competition closes on June 28th! Winners will be drawn at random and chances are the same whether site feedback is given or not.

The sampler-cd contains a thorough run-down of Morningside Records' five year history and besides Under Byen's song and Thunderbear's "Bonde?" (the majestic 25 minute track from the album) some of the other bands on the cd have Under Byen involvement one way or the other.
You can see the tracklist for the remix-album in the Discography. The tracklist for the Morningside Records Sampler is as follows:

1. I Am Bones: The Ostrich Approach
2. Larsen & Furious Jane: Art Director
3. Figurines: Ambush
4. My Friend George: A Man Of Happy Solutions
5. Oh No Ono: Keeping Warm In Cold Country
6. Oceano Da Cruz: Beehives Mighty Vicious
7. Delicia Mini: Pull The Trees Down
8. The Morningside: Just About Ready For Bed
9. Ghost Voo: Leaps From The Water
10. Jomi Massage: What To Pass On / What To Keep
11. Strumm: ...At Your Feet
12. Speaker Bite Me: Crackwhore (Live)
13. Under Byen: Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det
14. Thunderbear: Bonde?

The fansite's two year anniversary!
June 7, 2006.

My goodness, time flies! It's been two years already since this site saw the light of day on June 7, 2004. A good (or bad?) excuse to show the wonderful picture above on this happy occasion. It's actually from the band's "Samme stof som stof" release party and shot by our ever-present friendly neighbourhood photopgrapher Jint (and where's Thorbjørn? Tending the bar!). And I promise I will not take advantage of the band like this again, he-he. ;-D
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the band for their openness towards the idea of having a site like this. And of course for keeping up their good work which can still surprise and excite a guy like yours truly who go to too many of their shows. :-)
The band's manager Jesper Majdall has also been more than helpful, so many thanks to him also.
It still sometimes feels a little odd for me doing the website. Because it's a "fansite", I guess, which has to do with "fandom" - a thing I have a very ambigious relationship with for so many obvious reasons. But then again it's also such an amusing and rewarding experience so that particular thought never really takes proper root. The wonderful music makes me wanna do this - help spread the word. But these days, also a big part of the fun is experiencing people from around the world getting into Under Byen's music (you really are a lovely bunch!). Thanks for participating in whatever ways you do and also for the kind comments about the site that you write from time to time.

Thanks a lot!

Yours,

Lars

2006 also has another anniversary. Under Byen's label Morningside Records have been around for five years now. Amazing how far they've come in this short space of time.
On this occasion they have made a sampler cd with 14 fine tracks. Among them Under Byen's "Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det". The cd is a brilliant introduction to the label's five year history and all its bands. It is not for sale anywhere to my knowledge, but will be available for the lucky winners of the 2nd Anniversary Competition on this website.
Jesper Majdall has indulged me on this little idea of another competition, so thanks to him!

Besides the Under Byen song the "Morningside Records Sampler" also has tracks by I Am Bones, Larsen And Furious Jane, Figurines, My Friend George (Jesper Majdall's band), Oh No Ono, Jomi Massage, Strumm (Stine's other band), Speaker Bite Me, Thunderbear (Thorbjørn's sideproject) as well as others.

More details to follow tomorrow. Just had to announce it on the day, of course.

Under Byen rock the boat / Spot 12 Festival pictures and more / Various news
June 6, 2006.
Now there is a chance for a rather unique Under Byen concert experience. DFDS Seaways and The Danish Rock Council (ROSA) are setting up a long line of exclusive shows with Danish bands onboard the ferries going from Copenhagen to Oslo. Yes, that's right, a mini-cruise with cool music. There is more info in Danish on it here.
Under Byen will be playing on the ferry Crown of Scandinavia on August 23 on the way to Oslo and also again on the way back. The venue on the ship only has capacity for 180 people. You can read more about Under Byen's part in this on this page (in Danish).
Among the other bands who take part in this audible Scandinavian seaway ping-pong are Nephew, Powersolo, Oh No Ono, Lars H.U.G., Randi Laubek, Allan Olsen and quite a few others.

Under Byen played in their hometown of Aarhus at the Spot 12 Festival this weekend. This was as the closing act on the festival's main stage in the Musikhuset. More precisely in the Big Hall with a capacity of more than 1500 people - and it was packed. The band put on a great show and the visuals done by John "Skæg" Hedegaard were at their finest on the huge screen behind the band. Pictures from the show can be seen on the fansite here. One shot by Jint, two by Agata Foti and the rest by your webmaster here.
The show was reviewed by Gaffa who also has a small gallery of pictures. Check it out here.

Nils Gröndahl also played with fellow Morningside label mates Larsen And Furious Jane at the festival and Thorbjørn Krogshede picked up his bass clarinet and played with Sofus Forsberg. There are also pictures from these shows on the Spot 12 photo page.

And in other news:

On the Danish ticket sales website BilletNet it now says that Under Byen will play in the Copenhagen suburb of Albertslund at the venue Forbrændingen on November 23.

The official Under Byen website now has pictures from the Store Vega show in April in case it might have slipped people's attention.

At the label and artist collective Yo Yo Oy Oy's fabulously odd webpage there are now pictures from its little festival at the venue Ausland in Berlin last month. Nils Gröndahl played with some of the bands performing there. Pictures can be seen here.

The Concerts page has been updated.

Under Byen to play at the Hultsfred Festival
May 26, 2006.
On June 17th Under Byen will play at Sweden's big Hultsfred Festival. This will be alongside fellow Danes Nephew as well as Finnish Eurovision winners Lordi and stateside artists The Strokes and Lou Reed - and many more. Visit the festival online here.

Japanese release in July
May 20, 2006.
Morningside Records write on their website that Japanese label Ultra Vybe, who also released Under Byen's last album, will be putting out "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" in Japan on July 8th.

And if it hasn't been mentioned before on this page French label Telescopic put out the album on April 18. Visit them at www.telescopic.fr (where three songs are streamed).

The official site is back online after having been down for little over a week. Might be proof that even rock stars (he-he) have to pay bills like the rest of us. ;-)

Solo appearances and more
May 5, 2006.
As of writing this Nils Gröndahl is taking part in the three day Yo Yo Oy Oy festival in Berlin. Probably as part of one of the bands playing there. Read more at www.yoyooyoy.dk.

On July 18 Thorbjørn Krogshede will do one of his rare shows as Thunderbear at the Aarhus International Jazzfestival. This will be at the venue Voxhall.

A few quick notes:

Tickets for the Forum show are now on sale at Billetlugen, Gaffabillet and at FONA shops around the country. The fourth act to play that night has still not been announced.

Henriette's and Nils' performance with Howe Gelb at the Daniel Johnston tribute in London went well. You can read a little and see a nice picture of Henriette and Howe in his online journal.

Another solo show with Thunderbear is scheduled.

Danish megashow in August!
April 25, 2006.
On August 25 Under Byen will be part of a rather large show in Copenhagen - alongside bands a few of you might have heard about before. Massive Attack and The Cardigans! A fourth as of yet un-announced band (that is "not just anybody", according to music magazine Gaffa) will also be playing. The venue is Forum which has previous housed a lot of big events and concerts (among them Nordic Music Awards and U2 on their previous tour). The capacity is 10.000 standing and 8.500 seated.
Tickets will go on sale in a few days at Billetlugen, Gaffabillet and at FONA shops around the country.

Paris live photos / Vote for music video
April 19, 2006.
Photographer Robert Gil shot at bunch of nice photos at last night's gig at La Cigale in Paris. Visit his site to check them out.

And remember it's still possible to vote for the music video for "Af samme stof som stof" at Liga.dk.

On French radio tonight / Non-Danish reviews
April 18, 2006.
Tonight Under Byen will play the first of six shows on the French touring festival Les Femmes S'en Melent #9. Alongside Saint Etienne and An Pierlé. Radio channel France Inter will broadcasting the show live. Under Byen will apparently perform from around 21.00 to 22.00. The word is that the show then will be available as online stream until the same time the following night. Here's the link for the page (click on the headphone icon). Thanks to Philippe for this info!

Two non-Danish reviews have shown up. A quite positive Polish one at Post-Sounds. And also one at American webzine Stylus Magazine. Read the whole review here. They had attached a 'Recommended Album' on it and among other things have this to say:
"It’s not until nearly the two-minute mark that those guitars slip out of the chord that they’ve successfully battered into submission. Both moments are shocking, propelling the listener out of the discomfiting groove that has been established. It also serves notice that Samme is going to be an album unlike their previous work: muscular, weighty, and more evocative. (...) A culmination of their work so far and the best Danish album released thus far in 2006."

Under Byen to play at Spot Festival
April 14, 2006.
According to the Spot Festival website Under Byen will play there this year. The festival runs June 2nd and 3rd and it will be the fourth time that the band will play at Spot in its 12-year history - first time causing a splash in 1998 and later knocking the socks off Rolling Stone editor David Fricke in 2002.
Read more about Under Byen at the festival here (in Danish). Many nice bands have already been confirmed for the festival. Among them fellow Morningside label mates I Am Bones, Larsen & Furious Jane and Oh No Ono. Check all the bands out at www.spotfestival.dk.
Thanks to Agata for the tip!

Henriette sings in London tomorrow Friday
April 13, 2006.
Henriette Sennenvaldt will be taking part in the Daniel Johnston tribute concert tomorrow Friday night (the 14th) at The Barbican in London. Friend and collaborator Howe Gelb has invited her to join him for the show where the following other guests have also been announced: Teenage Fanclub, Jason Pierce (of Spiritualized), Vic Chesnutt and James Yorkston. It is a last minute invitation so Henriette is not mentioned on the page. More info on the show and tickets can be found here.
What Henriette will be singing and with whom is not known. But on Howe's albums she has both sung duets with him and Vic Chesnutt. And when Howe is involved anything can happen.

To learn more about Howe Gelb (of Giant Sand) go to www.giantsand.com. His latest solo album (with a gospel choir and Arcade Fire's drummer on board) can be heard in its full length at the Thrill Jockey label site.

For more on Daniel Johnston visit www.hihowareyou.com. His new cd "Welcome To My World", a best of compilation of sorts, will be released next week.

New live photos / Many fansite visitors
April 9, 2006.
Some pictures from this week's live shows in Denmark has been put on the site. Jint shot some really nice photos at Voxhall, Aarhus, which can be seen on the fansite here - and a few more at his own site. Your webmaster also shot a bunch of photos at last night's gig at Store Vega, Copenhagen, which you can check out here.
The shows in Aarhus and Aalborg were both sold out - and the one in Copenhagen was very close to being so. About 1350 people made it to Store Vega.

The number of average visitors a day at this fansite more than doubled following the release of the album. Usually between 250-290 pop by. But in March there was 557. The total visitor numbers for the last couple of months:

March 2006 - 17.270
February 2006 - 7.382
January 2006 - 8.840
December 2005 - 8.564
November 2005 - 6.376
October 2005 - 8.215

A lot of people around the world are hotlinking to pictures on this site (which is not very nice of them), but I don't know if that counts as visits. Probably not - just increases overall traffic. But it's certainly clear that an increased interest has been the case around March... for some reason. ;-)

Live review / #5 at Liga.dk chart / Guestbook changes / Discography updated
April 8, 2006.
Danish music magazine Gaffa gave Under Byen's gig last Thursday at Voxhall in Aarhus the maximum of six stars. You can read it and see pictures from the show here.
The setlist at Voxhall obviously contained several songs from the new album, but also old favourites from the previous album such as "Legesag" and "Mission". "Hjertebarn" being the lyst "Kyst"-song in the set for a long time were joined by a few more from back then - "Sylfiden" and maybe most notably "Fugle Og Ild" which the band hasn't played for a long time. The setlist can be seen next to the review at Gaffa.

The "Af samme stof som stof" video made it to number five on the Liga.dk chart on Danish national television. Go here to vote for it!

The Guestbook has yet again had problems with spam (or socalled "spambots"). So now there has been made a new one on the forum. This particular part of the forum does not required signing up in order to write there, so everyone can still use the site's guestbook (please do!). The messages in the old guestbook will be put up on a separate archive page in the near future. Go here to write in the new one.
I hope this new guestbook can avoid future "spambotting".

The Discography has been updated with the two releases by Stine Sørensen's other band Strumm.

Vote for "Af samme stof som stof" music video
March 30, 2006.
The video for "Af samme stof som stof" premiered today at Liga.dk. As of writing this the show's website is in a bit of a jam. Hopefully in the next couple of days it will be back in order, so people can vote and see the video online - before next Thursday when the votes are counted and songs enter the chart. Go here for the site

TV premiere of new music video / Official site awakens!
March 29, 2006.
Tomorrow Thursday Under Byen's brand new music video for their single "Af samme stof som stof" will have its world premiere at Liga.dk - the video chart show on national Danish television which also showed the "Plantage" video last year. The show airs at 16.00, but the video will also be available for online viewing at the show's website afterwards. And don't forget to vote for it on the website and/or via sms if you like it!

And finally - after a long slumber - the official Under Byen website is now back. The webdesign is making use of the new album art. A few pages are still to come. The site itself offers the basic info, so the band writes: "However, if you want the full story, the strangest facts, all the live photos and a community talk with other people that like what we’re doing, the place to be is still Lars Dideriksen’s Under Byen page."
But go to www.underbyen.dk right now anyway! ;-) The word from manager Jesper Majdall is that the band will do a better job at updating their site in the future.

The designer of the new website is Young - and you can visit her own enchanting website at www.oh-disaster.org. Good work, Young!

Vote for Under Byen at Tjeklisten
March 27, 2006.
Under Byen's single "Af samme stof som stof" is now a "candidate" at the chart Tjeklisten on Danish national radio DR. No need to sign up. It's all by e-mail. Go to this page for more info. But basicly you write your five favourites from this list and send it to tjeklisten@dr.dk. Most important is perhaps that it has to be done tomorrow Tuesday at the latest. Don't know at which hour. Also remember to write name and address.
Tjeklisten is the slightly more mainstream chart than the alternative Det Elektriske Barometer where Under Byen are still doing well.

Win the new album at Gaffa
March 26, 2006.
Danish music magazine Gaffa has started an Under Byen competition where you can win the new album. You have to be a member on their website, though, but that's just a question of signing in and making a profile there if you don't already have one. Go here to participate.

Alternative and sales chart / Under Byen at MySpace
March 25, 2006.
Under Byen is still in the charts. At number 24 on the weekly Danish sales chart (which does not included all the sales directly from Morningside Records' website) and number 3 at the alternative chart Det Elektriske Barometer. Vote here before tomorrow Sunday if you want to.

Under Byen also have a page at MySpace now. Actually they have two. One with their name and one without which was the first one made there - and now the latter is where things are happening. So go to this page if you want to "befriend" the band at MySpace and help spread the word about the music as well as keeping up with bits of news.

Interview / Discography update / Still at # 3 / Another mp3
March 21, 2006.
Danish webzine has an interview with the band. You can read it here.

The Discography has been updated with some pictures of the vinyl version of the new album and a note about the tracklist which confuses some people.

The "Af samme stof som stof" stayed at number 3 at the alternative chart Det Elektriske Barometer. If you want to vote for it then go here before next Sunday. The song is now in its seventh week on the chart.

Morningside Records have uploaded another mp3 from the new album: "Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det". So now there are two at this page.

# 12 on sales top 100 / Listen to the album
March 17, 2006.
Under Byen entered the Danish sales top 100 at # 12. Judging from the way Morningside Records writes about it at their site it comes as a bit of a surprise... "So, ...shit! Thanks people. It is really encouraging to find out, that there is room in Denmark for music that wants to be more than wallpaper." And the folks at the label have been really busy these days. The album chart only counts the cds sold in the mainstream shops. "It isn't counting all the orders we're getting directly to the office from people all over the world. (And those are keeping us busy, and delaying things...)", writes Morningside.

For those still waiting or who are just curious 30 second snippets from most of the album tracks can now be heard at Lytteposten. The tracklist has a little error, though. The song "Mere af det samme..." is part of "Film og omvendt" as on the cd - hence it's "Siamesisk" playing when clicking "Mere af det samme...". And so forth. The full-length "Palads" and "Af samme stof som stof" can still be heard at DR.

Discography update / Review
March 16, 2006.
Pictures of the different vinyl pressings of "Det er mig" have been added to the Discography. Just click on the links beneath the album cover on the page.

There is another Danish review at Diskant (8 of 10 stars).

Lyrics on the site
March 14, 2006.
The Danish lyrics for "Samme stof som stof" are now on the Lyrics page. An attempt at a decent translation will follow soon. More than ever Henriette uses puns and words in the Danish language that sound somewhat alike, but have different meanings. This part of the experience of lyrics listeners abroad will have to look at the Danish lyrics and listen to the album to get. Because this aspect of the lyrics will not be directly possible to translate into English. The translation will only be of the actual meaning of the words - with possible different meanings. Furthermore entirely new words have been made up, it seems, which of course makes a translating job even more difficult. :-)

About online orders and the cd / More reviews / #3 in chart / Pictures
March 13, 2006.
Morningside wrote the following on their website on the 10th of March:

"Those of you living in Denmark can expect your CDs tomorrow. The rest of the world will have to wait until next week. Mid next week for Europe. End of last week outside Europe. How to use PayPal you find out at www.paypal.com. Our address for it is mailorder[at]morningsiderecords.dk"

The Route 66 / Blight shop which sells the vinyl version will have their copies in their mail order department ready for shipping tomorrow Tuesday. The printing factory there the vinyl was made experienced a broken down printing machine, it seems. Hence the delay.

In the guestbook and elsewhere there have been questions about the fact that there are 12 songs on the new album and only 11 cd tracks. Nils Gröndahl answered this in the guestbook. The small instrumental track "Mere af det samme og meget mere af det hele" has been "eaten" by the previous song "Film og omvendt" so those songs are now on the same cd track. It is actually an error, which will be corrected in the next batch of cds being printed. There is nothing wrong with the sound, though, and it can be enjoyed just as much as a 12 track cd can be. :-)

Two more reviews in the Danish newspapers. A very positive one in Information (not online) and a fairly positive 4-of-6 star review in B.T. which can be read online (features a rather amusing intro in which the reviewer for some reason didn't like the previous albums - in fact they made him want to beat up his turtle... if he had one. Ooookay then...?! But the new album he finds strange and fascinating).

The "Af samme stof som stof" single moved up on the alternative chart Det Elektriske Barometer and landed at number 3 this Sunday. If you want to vote for it then go here before next Sunday.

The Various Pictures page has been updated with more tickets (thanks, Phillipe!), tour posters, setlists, promo material and more unique "Det er mig" hand-made art (thanks, Cyril!). Remember: it's chronological, so not all the new stuff is at the top. In fact there is even some "Kyst" material, so you have to scroll almost all the way down. If I have forgotten names of others who have sent stuff, I apologize.

During a cleaning up of old boxes in the basement this webmaster stumbled upon some old live photos made in the summer of 2000. Just "souvenir shots". Those are from the Roskilde Festival and the Skanderborg Festival in Denmark.
Also: the unknown photographer who shot the photo at Forbrændingen in 2002 turned out to be Halfdan Abrahamsen and he is now credited for it. He also shot some photos at Voxhall in 2002 which he has been kind enough to share with us on this site. It's also a chance to see band members sporting some of the "Det er mig" merchandise they were selling back then.
You can visit Halfdan at www.aviology.dk for other live photos etc.

The forum got a face-lift with one of the new press photos. Mads Vraa did the photos for the cardboard figures and Steffen "Jint" did the shooting of the finished set-up.

A better scan of the new album cover has been added to the Discography (as well as album details). And this webmaster would also like to kindly say thanks to the band for putting his name in the 'thank you' cover notes. It's an honour - also to be part of such lush artwork. Plus: having my name alongside an inspiring musician such as Mr. Howe Gelb and also next to Danish music history in the form of Steffen Brandt. :-)
The ever-so helpful Steffen "Jint" also made his way into the "thank yous" for his work on quite a few different things in connection with the new album.

Of course all the nice cover art could also be scanned and put online here, but why ruin the surprise? It goes well with the experience of also putting the cd in the player for the first time. ;-)
But the front cover you already know. Click here to check it out jumbo-size.

"Samme stof som stof" released today! / Reviews / Interview / Single still in the chart
March 8, 2006.
Today is the day! Finally Under Byen's third album "Samme stof som stof" is released. You can buy the cd online at Morningside Records and the lp at Route 66 / Black Light Records.

Reviews so far have been very positive. Here are a few quickly translated excerpts (sorry for any errors):

"Music that sounds like it has been thought out in free fall in feverish dreams 'behind closed doors in a house full of riddles'. But still characterized by an almost virtuos musicality. Challenging, yes, but never unapproachable. (...) They will never be popstars. They aim higher. They want your soul. And you get theirs in exchange. Music that enters resounding in the nerve fibres, that rush in the bloodstream, that tug in the brain and marks you for the rest of your life. Under Byen thoroughly does something to me. Affect me in my very foundation. And how often do you experience that?"
- 6 of 6 stars, Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

"Stronger. Harder. More difficult. But no banalities. (...) Actually there is a lot of fantastic music on Samme stof som stof. (...) A very unusually ambitious Danish pop release. It's heavier and with more substance than Det er mig der holder træerne sammen."
- 4 of 6 stars, Danish newspaper Politiken.

"The album might have the teasing title Samme stof som stof [same matter as matter], but Shakespeare's famous line about 'the same matter as our dreams' describes the music more precise. (...) The band's music is original and full of tingeling life and unconventional beauty. (...) The lyrics - which singer Henriette Sennenvaldt render as a drug intoxicated elf maid - are also exceptionally good and fully equal with contemporary Danish poetry. (...) The sceptic reader might object: 'Yet another arty band which the music journalists compete about loving, but no one can stand listening to'. For many listeners this might be true. But with an open mind and a little alternative upbringing Samme stof som stof is a big experience. Believe me!"
- 5 of 6 stars, Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (read whole review in Danish)

"Weight and gravity are the keywords on the third album from the original Aarhus orchestra Under Byen, and the sound of Samme Stof Som Stof has the massive gravity of an imploding star. (...) Samme Stof Som Stof emphasizes Under Byen's position as one of Denmark's most exciting bands, but also shows that it is outside of Denmark that the popularity of the band must expand, because their heavy and dark music more than ever is not accessible enough for a mainstream breakthrough. Samme stof som stof is a no-compromise dark pearl from Under Byen."
- 5 of 6 stars, Danish music magazine Gaffa (read whole review in Danish)

"Just as silky and fine as Det er mig der holder træerne sammen begins, just as bombastic Under Byen open their new album with thundering drums. A clear sign that this is a new direction which heralds a fertile new chapter for the Aarhusian collective. (...) The at times introvert style that threathened to implode, now instead explodes several places on the album. That is really liberating. Under Byen has become more of a band, and even though Henriette's voice is still at the center, it is now to a higher extent only the small granite hard axis which instruments and arrangements rotate heavily around. (...) Likewise there is something wonderfully devilish in the shifts between vocal harmonies and punk outburts from Sennenvaldt. Under Byen have walked the plank and has become more sophisticated in big symphonic sound collages. A brave and correct choice."
- 5 of 6 stars, Danish music magazine Soundvenue and newspaper Metro Express (read whole review in Danish)

"The noise brings a massive gravity into the universe, and where there earlier was soft a forest floor, now it's more granite on which is danced. Henriette Sennenvaldt's vocals still reach for the sky, and the dynamics between the lightly hovering and the heavy elements result in a distinguished power of penetration. The experiments continue on the song Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det, which shows a complexity which surpasses everything that Under Byen has previously released. (...) Samme stof som stof is a great effort of an album and the band shows that they are still very much their own. The courage to never go the easiest way has luckily not decreased, and even if the band with a little more accessibility could get the world at their feet, Under Byen still prefer to ride into heaven."
- 5 of 6 stars, Danish music webzine Undertoner (read whole review in Danish)

"Impressively beautiful. (...) Not easily accessible, but unavoidable!"
- 5 of 6 stars, Danish newspaper Urban.

The review excerpts have been added to the Press Clips page.

There are and have been interviews in some of the above media. Online you will find an interview at the Danish National Radio website here. And for those of you who have only heard the first single so far. Both that song and "Palads" are streamed from that page.

The "Af samme stof som stof" single is still in the alternative chart Det Elektriske Barometer at number 5. If you want to vote for it then go here before next Sunday.

The Thunderbear album has also been reviewed (in Danish) a few more places: Politiken and Diskant. And they like it too.

Under Byen on Gaffa cover and online radio
March 2, 2006.
Under Byen has finally made it onto the cover of Denmark's largest music magazine Gaffa. And even with one of the oddest (and coolest) pictures on there yet. Inside the magazine there is a three-page interview with Stine Sørensen, Thorbjørn Krogshede and Morten Larsen - and several pictures of the whole band in a vicious snowball fight.
Later in the magazine readers will find a very positive review given five of six stars - plus a picture of a blindfolded Henriette Sennenvaldt in front of a snowball firing squad made up of her band mates. The reviews calls the album a "no-compromise dark pearl".
An excerpt of the interview has been put online here (in Danish). To see a larger scan of the magazine cover click here.

Monday at 20.00-21.00 Gaffa's online radio will broadcast a one-hour Under Byen special with focus on the new album. The program will be re-broadcast the day after at 14.00-15.00.

A funny side note: Under Byen's friend and collaborator Howe Gelb is releasing an album this month too - incidently titled " 'Sno Angel Like You " and with a cover to match it. :-)

Two day delay / Guestbook fixed / #4 on Barometer chart / Thunderbear review / Charity items stolen
March 1, 2006.
Morningside Records has announced on their website that "Samme stof som stof" is delayed from where it's being printed. It will hit stores two days later - on Wednesday March 8. The vinyl version should be ready for the same day.

Apparently the guestbook on this site has been out of order. No wonder no one was writing in it. :-) Apparently it happened when it was fixed to avoid spam. Let's see how long it takes before the spam starts again. Let's hope not... "knock on wood".

Under Byen's single "Af samme stof som stof" moved up one place at the alternative Barometer chart to number 4. If you want to then go here to vote for it before next Sunday.

A review of Thorbjørn Krogshede's Thunderbear solo album is now online at the webzine Soundvenue. A very positive one - getting five of six stars. Go here to read it (in Danish).

Last Saturday a show in Copenhagen with artists and bands such as Sarah Hepburn, Joy Lieberkind, Epo-555 and Speaker Bite Me (Jomi Massage's band) was making an effort to shed light on the illegal trafficking of women around the world. The show was at the fashion and music store Sacre Coeur and there was also to be an auction of clothes which had extra designs and things added by various Danish musicians - among others Kashmir, Track 72 and Under Byen. The money from the auction was to be used for projects by Reden - three charity-run centers in Denmark's biggest cities concerned with helping prostitutes and other women in bad situations. But a few days before the auction someone broke into the shop's backroom and stole the clothes. And only that. The shops regular clothes was left untouched. Which has baffled the shop owners. The show went ahead to still help the cause, though, without the items for auction. Hopefully the word about the theft is spread now and the thief will have trouble selling the things - or whatever he or she planned to do with these unique items.

Soundvenue Magazine interview / Roskilde Festival gig
February 22, 2006.
Today the new issue of Danish music magazine Soundvenue is out. It contains both an interview with Thorbjørn and Stine as well as a cd with "Af samme stof som stof" on it (among many tracks by other artists). Among other things Thorbjørn says with a laugh: "No one can accuse us of being 'fairy-like' anymore".
The album is also reviewed in the magazine and gets 5 out of 6 stars - and is praised for being courageous, experimental and this time around able to transfer the live energy better to the studio than previously.

The Roskilde Festival announced today that Under Byen will play at this year's festival (running from June 29 to July 2).

The Discography has been updated with the above compilation.

Six French shows in April
February 21, 2006.
Six shows are planned in France this April. One is still to be confirmed, though.

April 18: Les Femmes S'en Melent #9 Festival, La Cigalle, Paris, France (with Saint Etienne & An Pierlé).
April 19: Coopérative de Mai (La Coope), Clermont-Ferrand, France (with Elysian Fields and Vashti Bunyan).
April 20: L'Olympic, Nantes, France (to be confirmed).
April 21: Le Normandie, Saint Lô, France.
April 22: L'Astrolabe, Orléans, France.
April 23: La Ciel, Grenoble, France.

The Concerts page has been updated. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the dates - and to those French fans on the forum who beat him to it on some of them. ;-)

New album tracklist and release details
February 20, 2006.
At the Morningside Records website the tracklist as well as the album cover for "Samme Stof Som Stof" has been revealed:

1. Pilot
2. Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det
3. Tindrer
4. Heftig
5. Panterplanker
6. Af samme stof som stof
7. Film og omvendt
8. Mere af det samme og meget mere af det hele
9. Siamesisk
10. Liste over sande venner og forbilleder
11. Palads
12. Slå sorte hjerte

Some songs have gotten new titles from what they have gotten known as from live shows. And for those of you who know them by those names... yes, "Onkel", "Kærlighedstema", "Films jeg har set" and "Lill-Babs" are among them. :-)
Some of the titles are quite ambiguous - especially when taking possible slang words into account. So this webmaster will not yet try to translate them. But tracks 2 and 8 could be translated respectively as "This song as about making the best of it" and "More of the same and much more of everything". Track 10 translates (as previously mentioned on this news page) to "List of true friends and rolemodels".

The album will also be released on vinyl by Danish Vinyl Production. A 3-sided album no less! What the fourth side will be used for is kept under wraps until the actual release.

Thanks to manager Jesper Majdall for the news!

In other news: the "Af samme stof som stof" single went from number one to number five in the Det Elektriske Barometer alternative chart this Sunday. But it's still on there - so to vote for it (before next Sunday) go here!

Single for sale online as mp3
February 17, 2006.
Under Byen's first single from the new album, "Af Samme Stof Som Stof", is now being offered for sale online in mp3 format at the telecompany TDC's music shop. Go here to check that out.
Older tracks are also for sale and Morningside Records' other releases should now also be available at TDC, Payload and iTunes. "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" is exclusive to TDC, though.
The text on the TDC page also has a bit of information on the new album. Among other things it says that it will be released in all of Europe and Japan in the spring and in the USA in the autumn.
About the recording proces it says:
- The band played around and experimented with new sounds, different ways of recording and Belgian beer.
- Nils and Thorbjørn waged an open war on effect pedals - building up an arsenal each.
- Along the way Henriette fell in love with a "bullit" microphone that distorts her words.
- Drummers Morten and Stine found more steel waste to expand their drum kits with.
And about the finished album it says that songs had been in and out of the tracklist several times and new layers of sound have been added to the songs until the very last minute. The article sums up the album this way: There's a stiletto on one foot and a military boot on the other.

Under Byen hit number one
February 13, 2006.
Under Byen entered the alternative chart Det Elektriske Barometer at number six last week. This Sunday they jumped to number one. Go here to check it out - and vote for it again before next Sunday if you like it.

Under Byen in the chart / New official site on the way / Thunderbear reviews
February 10, 2006.
Under Byen made it to number 6 in the chart at Det Elektriske Barometer on Danish national radio. To vote for them again go here - before Sunday when the next show is broadcast.

The official Under Byen website has been updated for the first time in a long while. There is now a completely new front page - although it looks like a temporary one - with an entirely new design.

Thorbjørn Krogshedes Thunderbear album has gotten some good reviews. Some of them are online. Check out Gaffa's here and Undertoner's here.

Under Byen on the radio again
January 21, 2006.
The latest news from Morningside headquarters is that the Jazzhouse show - besides being streamed-on-demand right now - will be broadcast in the second hour of the show Det Elektriske Barometer on Danish national radio P3 tomorrow Sunday. The show is Denmark's alternative music chart. The second hour is usually on the web-only Barometer radio channel. Furthermore the Morningsiders write: "Rumours have it that they'll be testing the new single." So this is the first chance for Under Byen's new single to enter a chart. Their song "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" was in Det Elektriske Barometer chart back when the last album came out.

So go here and vote tomorrow - if the rumours turn out to be true.

Jazzhouse concert and new single streamed online
January 19, 2006.
Danish national radio DR is webstreaming Under Byen's January 5th show at Copenhagen Jazzhouse - where they premiered the new album. Go here to have a listen. The show will be online until February 16th.

The new single "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" is also streamed from the same site. Go to this page to have a listen.

Thunderbear album released and reviewed / New single webstreamed
January 16, 2006.
Today is the day where Thorbjørn Krogshede's solo album "Thunderbear" is released. It's for sale via the Morningside Records website. And even though they have yet to mention it on their site they apparently now also take orders with payment through Paypal. E-mail them for more info if you're interested.
Danish music magazine Gaffa has written a quite positive review of the album (in Danish).

The new Under Byen single has been played on Danish national radio and therefore it is now also possible to hear it in a stream of the radio show Radium. Go here and click the 'Radium Rock' link and then fast forward 32 minutes into the show - if you can't wait.
Manager Jesper Majdall wrote on this site's forum today that "the single will be uploaded for streaming at dr.dk/rock in a not too distant future."

And don't forget the broadcast of Under Byen's January 5th live show at Copenhagen Jazzhouse this Wednesday the 18th on P2 Radium at 23.00-24.00 CET. If you miss out on it there's another chance at P3 on Sunday the 29th of January where the show will also be broadcast. Those of you out of the Danish radio waves' reach can listen in on the web. All Danish national radio is webstreamed.

Gaffa interview / Jazzhouse pictures and reviews
January 10, 2006.
Danish music magazine Gaffa has a little interview with Thorbjørn about the new Under Byen album. When asked about how the band has evolved since the last album he says:
"First of all we have become better at playing because of all our live experience now. And we have had some changes in the band's line-up, which means that those that are in the band now really want to take this places - including touring abroad. It wasn't really possible with our former line-up, because some people had other priorities."
The article also mentions former main composer Katrine leaving the band. And that Thorbjørn had tried filling out that role. He is asked what he has brought to the band.
"Our songs have probably become more harmonically complex, which might be because I am very inspired by many other genres than rock - classical music, jazz, moderne composers. But basicly our songs go in two directions. The fairly short pop songs and the long and weird ones at 7-8-9 minutes. I always write the music from Henriette's poems, which set the mood and are difficult to get a grip on at first - and this time they have been written totally freeform without rhymes and regular verses. I take that as a big challenge."
The article mentions the coming Danish and French tours and that Morningside Records are currently negotiating with several interesting label abroad.
Read the full article in Danish here.

Gaffa have also reviewed the Jazzhouse gig and given the band five of six stars for their performance. The band also got great reviews in the Danish newspapers. Webzine Soundvenue also reviewed the show and pulled out five stars. At Gaffa and Soundvenue you can also see a few pictures from the show.

Some pictures have also been put on this site. Mind you, they are a bit "amateurish" (it was also difficult to shoot on the dark stage). But go here to see some shots. And stay tuned, because it's quite possible that more photos - that are much better - will find their way onto the site very soon.

And by the way, Under Byen-collaborator Howe Gelb's recent album "Arizona Amp And Alternator" (which features the nice "Man On A String" duet with Henriette) now has its own website. Here it's possible to download the lyrics. Hence the Lyrics page on this site has now been updated. Check out the site at www.arizona-amp-and-alternator.com.

Competition winners announced!
January 9, 2006.
These are the lucky winners in the Under Byen Christmas Competition:

Kyst cds:
Tor Simonsen, Denmark
Leo Verbeke, Belgium
Daniel Kørner, Denmark

Under Byen posters and 'århus:nu' books/cds:
Morten S. Bruun, Denmark
Søren Stistrup, Denmark
Verner Lundstrøm Hansen, Denmark

Under Byen sweaters with hood and print:
Andreas Bjærge, Denmark
Rasmus Rogvi, Denmark
Feliks Schünemann, Germany

Under Byen vinyl record package:
Peter Zalar, USA

Congratulations to all of you! And a big thanks to everyone of you who took part in this fun little competition. There were 52 participants this year. Ten more than last year - among them many new "faces". And geography and language barriers - as we have learned - does not mean all that much when it comes to liking Under Byen's music. We had nice answers and stories from Denmark, Norway, Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Austria, Finland, the USA and Israel.
A fair number of you forgot to include your postal address. Please remember that the next time we do one of these things. And don't worry - we only only want to send you nice things. :-)

A few of you apparently didn't feel comfortable writing in English, but that's okay. It was only so that everyone here could read your answer. And let me in connection to that give an humble and sincere official apology for posing such a difficult question. Because many of you really put in an effort to give good answers. And they were! But yes, it was not very nice of me. I see that now in retrospect. So, sorry about that. :-) It did however result in some interesting reading matter....

"Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" and "Legesag" shares first place as the song that most of you like. But many, many different songs were in play here - for a lot of different reasons. You can read the answers here.

Have a great 2006, everybody!

Lars

New single out
January 6, 2006.
Last night at Under Byen's live presentation of their new album at Copenhagen Jazzhouse the new single "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" finally saw the light of day. It is only a promo single, though. Still, last night it was not only given to the media people at the show, but also to everyone of the couple of hundred concertgoers who attended the album live premiere (from which pictures soon will be posted on the site).
The single has been added to the Discography with scans of the cover etc. And if you're not the lucky owner of the promo you will have to tune in on the radio to hear it. It will probably show up there very soon.

Tomorrow I will sort out the christmas competition. Stay tuned.

Jazzhouse show on the radio / Danish live dates
January 4, 2006.
Some Under Byen news has made it onto the Morningside Records website today. Under Byen's show at Copenhagen Jazzhouse this Thursday - which is now sold out - will be recorded by Danish national radio DR and broadcast later on January 18th in the program Radium - hosted by one of Denmark's best music journalists Ralf Christensen. The radio broadcast of the show starts at 23.00 Central European Time and those of you not able to receive Danish radio via the regular radio waves can tune in online at www.dr.dk/radium. Just click "P2 lige nu" when the time comes. Some of the shows sometimes also stay online as stream-on-demand.

Morningside Records have also announced more Danish live shows in April. At Voxhall in Aarhus on the 6th and at Studenterhuset in Aalborg on the 7th. And as previously mentioned the band ends their little Denmark tour with a show at Store Vega on the 8th - before going on a tour of France. Or as the Morningsiders put it "heading to France to eat camenbert and drink cheap (but splendid! it's France after all) red wine."
The Concerts page has been updated.

Forum updated / Competition well under way
December 26, 2005.
It seems the forum wasn't really properly updated last time after the hacker attack. The kind fella who goes by the name of Lollypork on the forum was so kind as to update it. Thanks a million, Porkysanta! :-)

The Christmas Competition is well under way. Until now there have been participants from many different countries - such as Denmark, Norway, Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Finland and the USA. There is still time enough to take part in the race for the nice prizes. Just answer the two questions and e-mail them along with your postal address (and sweater size) to this e-mail address before January 5, 2006: lsd_dk@hotmail.com. Click on the competition banner above to read the details.

Under Byen in Soundvenue Magazine
December 23, 2005.
There are two small bits of Under Byen in the latest issue of Soundvenue Magazine (# 04 - Winter). A small news story about the coming album. Thorbjørn says listeners can expect a different sound than on previous albums. He says about it: "It's a more unpolished album. Some of the tracks were recorded with all instruments at once, so we didn't make it easier for our mixer to do any changes on the sound. But it sounds different. It's got more edge / vigour."
About France he says: "It's a very attentive audience there. They like us and we like them. It has in a way become our second homeland."
Elsewhere in the magazine is an article focusing primarily on the band Larsen & Furious Jane and secondly on the city of Aarhus. Nils Gröndahl is also interview for the article - which has the headline "Come to Aarhus and play!".
At www.larsenandfuriousjane.com you can read about the many different people who have taken part in Larsen's albums and liveshows - among them some from Under Byen. Just click on 'Biography'.
In the previous issue of Soundvenue Magazine Under Byen's manager Jesper Majdall was featured alongside others of the new generation of Danish band managers.

Discography updates / Reviews and interview
December 18, 2005.
Some updates in the Discography:
The order of things have changed a bit. After the official Under Byen releases now comes the solo projects on their own. And the compilations have now been moved down below the collaborations and guest appearances.
Releases added: Nils Gröndahl's noise music for the exhibition "Skabelsen - nutidskunst til syv dage", Sofus Forsberg's "Udefra", Larsen & Furious Jane's "Tourist With A Typewriter" and the French compilation "Music On My Radio 2".
You can listen til small bits from Sofus' album on this page.

Dutch VPRO radio have updated their page about Under Byen and a rather odd and amusing interview with Henriette from last year has emerged. You can read it here.
Dutch music site KindaMuzik has some reviews: the "Det er mig" album, a 2004 show and the recent show in Gent. If you don't read Dutch you can ask Babelfish for assistance (it can translate an entire page and give you the just of it).

Album title revealed
December 10, 2005.
The band has now decided on an album title for the new album. It will be "Samme Stof Som Stof". Like the first single... almost. It will be called "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" and will be ready for radio airplay on January 5th 2006. Possibly it will be a socalled "radio edit" version on that promo single.
The Danish word "stof" can mean more than one thing. According to the Danish-English dictionary: 1) fabric, material (as for clothes), 2) matter, substance (physics), 3) subject-matter, 4) drug(s). So one translation of the title could be "Of (The) Same Matter As Matter". Which might seem as the most plausible from only reading the title ifself, but of course one can never really be too certain. So maybe it's better not to write more about that just yet. :-)
Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the news.

By the way: today the site was hacked again. Even though security was beefed up after the last attack. This time it seemed like a milder one and simple adjustments seems to have helped, but the files on the forum will be checked to see if more has been "infected". It is the forum that causes this "backdoor" to the site which hackers use. But hopefully the developers at PHPBB will come up with some updated security measures to take this kind of attack into account.

Christmas Competition!
December 8, 2005.
Remember last year? We had a cool christmas competition with some really neat prizes. And all who participated told their own very interesting stories about how they got to know about Under Byen (the band enjoyed reading them!).
Considering what a laugh it was last year - and in the spirit of the season and all - why not have a competition again this year? :-)

Since last time the new album has not yet been released, so unfortunately we can't offer that one. But check out these lovely prizes:

3 copies of the re-released debut cd "Kyst".

3 big Under Byen posters - with a copy of the århus:nu book and cd on the side.

3 Under Byen sweaters with hood and print.

1 amazing Under Byen vinyl record package containing both the re-issued "Det Er Mig" album, the double 10-inch gatefold "Kyst" re-issue and the "Remix 2" album!

What a load great stuff, huh? :-)

So this is how it goes:
You enter the competition by answering two questions and e-mail them along with your postal address (and sweater size) to this e-mail address before January 5, 2006: lsd_dk@hotmail.com. Your e-mail address will not be used for anything else than this competition.

The questions:

1 ) Which Under Byen song do you like the best - and why?

2) If you win, would you rather have one of the prizes (cds/posters/sweaters) that is not the vinyl package? (yes, just taking into consideration that not everyone has use for them if for instance they don't have a record player). :-)

Anyone can enter - no matter where in the world you are. The winners are picked randomly, but don't let that stop you from writing something interesting if you feel like it! And - if possible - please write in English. Then we can put the answers on the website afterwards if we want (I'll leave off the names - unless you want it included).

Great thanks to the band and Jesper Majdall for delivering the nice christmas presents for the competition!

Merry x-mas!

Lars

Number #4 at Liga.dk / Thunderbear mp3
December 8, 2005.
The "Plantage" video settled at #4 this week on the Liga.dk chart. Vote at the Liga.dk site at DR and/or send the sms 'Liga 4' to 1212 if you want to vote for Under Byen.

Morningside Records uploaded an mp3 from the Thunderbear album today. It's the second track on the cd and maybe not that representative of the whole album, which has a lot of different instruments while this is one only has piano... but what a beautiful 7-minute piano piece it is. :-)
Go here to visit Thorbjørn's page at the Morningside website to download the mp3.

Thunderbear release date / Liga.dk once more
December 7, 2005.
Morningside Records has now set an official release date for Thorbjørn Krogshede's Thunderbear soloalbum. It will be made available on January 16th. Following that release comes an album by Under Byen friend and collaborator Jomi Massage with Danmarks Radios Big Band on the same label - on February 6th. And then the new Under Byen album arrives one month later (the Discography details on it have been updated - 11 tracks are being mixed, but only 10 was mentioned earlier as potential album tracks).

And don't forget: tomorrow Thursday is that time of the week again to tune into Liga.dk on DR TV. Last week Under Byen made it up to #2. This time we will know if they are still in the chart and whether it's possible to vote for them again via sms or online at DR.
While Under Byen will try and stay in the chart the talented labelmates Figurines are candidates tomorrow and will try to enter the chart. If you're curious about their brilliant popmusic visit them at www.figurines.dk.

Huge Under Byen article in Geiger magazine
December 6, 2005.
There is a huge article about Under Byen in the brand new issue of the best Danish music magazine - Geiger. And yes, it's in Danish. The article is a feature story in the part of the magazine's section done by The Danish Rock Council (ROSA) and is there also online at the council's homepage. You can read it here.
It wouldn't be all that wrong to say that the article - entitled "Ten years on the edge of existence" - is the longest and most honest Under Byen article done so far. It goes behind the scenes of the music biz ongoings of later years in relation to the band. And therefore deals with how the band had trouble coping with the first offer (and the demands) from US distribution company The Orchard - and how it affected the band. Actually during that period in time apparently all the different things happening almost broke up the band. But now they have come out on the other side - with new members - stronger than ever.
The article also tells a large part of the band's story - amongst that a lot of what's yet to come on this site's no-so-updated Story page (sorry about that).
And what's to say about the new album? They know it's going to show new sides of the band. And these words are attached to it: "Raw, pop, simple, complex, unpredictable, organic, liveshow-ish, big, little, hushed, violent/intense, new and recognizable."
That seems to suggest that Under Byen still - or maybe more than ever before - find their musical magic in the electrifying space between the extremeties they produce.

The head of ROSA, Gunnar Madsen, has also written an editorial for the same issue of Geiger where Under Byen are mentioned. Read that one here.

French festival and album release
December 5, 2005.
The Danish Rock Council (ROSA) writes on their website that Under Byen will be playing at next year's Les Femmes S'en Melent Festival in Paris in April. As headliners even. The band played at the festival in 2004. This 9th edition of the festival runs from April 17 to 23.

The new album which hits Danish stores on March 6th will be released in France in April.

Under Byen play at Store Vega in April / Album premiere live / Touring abroad
December 4, 2005.
According to Copenhagen venue Vega's website Under Byen will play at the 1500-capacity (900 seated) Store Vega hall on the 8th of April 2006. They played a double gig with Blue Foundation there in November of 2004. No details of any support act yet for the coming show yet. Tickets are a 140 DKK.
Two more Danish dates in April are expected. Go here to see the Store Vega Photo Special by Marco Germinario from last year.

As previously mentioned the band will before those shows play at the smaller venue Copenhagen Jazzhouse on January 5th. Here they will for the very first time perform all the songs from the new album live - according to Morningside Records.

In the Spring of 2006 a French tour is in the works. And yesterday manager Jesper Majdal wrote on the fansite's forum that the band will be back in Belgium too. Hopefully for some festivals as well as four shows in the Fall.

The Concerts page has been updated.

The mixers of the third album
December 3, 2005.
Manager Jesper Majdall wrote yesterday at the Morningside Records site who will mix the as-of-yet-untitled third album due out in March 2006:
- Carsten Heller (who produced the recent albums by popular Danish bands Nephew and Spleen United) will mix four songs,
- New York-based musician and producer Kevin Salem will do four songs as well (he among other things produced parts of Giant Sand's absolutely brilliant "Chore Of Enchantment" album - the band with Under Byen-collaborator Howe Gelb at the helm),
- Leafcutter John of Britain (who also spend time with the band at their recording sessions in Sweden) will mix one song,
- And the band will mix two songs themselves.

Under Byen at #2 / Jazzhouse tickets on sale
December 1, 2005.
This week Under Byen moved up a nudge at Liga.dk on Danish tv and is now at #2 - actually above their former label bosses in TV-2 this time. To vote for them this week send an sms with "Liga 2" to 1212 or vote online at DR. The show's host said this about Under Byen being on the chart for the second time since being a candidate: "We actually didn't expect them to enter the chart, but we are very happy that they did."

Tickets for the January 5 show at Copenhagen Jazzhouse are now on sale. The price is 140 DKK and can be ordered online at eBillet through the venue's website or at BilletNet (online or at your local post office).

Liga.dk once again
November 30, 2005.
Remember: tomorrow Thursday is Liga.dk day where you will find out whether Under Byen has stayed in the chart with their "Plantage video". Last week they entered the chart at number 3. From looking at the comments on the program's site even now more Danes are finally discovering this one year old video from the three year old album from this ten year old band. :-)
You can vote online as a member of the Skum community or via sms. And you should do so, he-he, because as they write at the Morningside Records site about the band at the number one slot on the chart: "Otherwise you might grow up in a world ruled by Johnny DeLuxe. And who would like that to happen?".
Tune in at 16.00.

The Discography has been updated with the 2000 compilation "Venue 2000".

(This news has been corrected)

Forum back in business / Gig reminder
November 26, 2005.
The ever-so-kind Mr. Jint who has taken a fair amount of great Under Byen pictures over the years had a look at the hacked forum. He provided invaluable help in getting it back in shape. So now it looks like the forum is working (if you notice any bugs please say so). It has also been updated with the latest version of the forum-code (with new latest security measures) so the same thing shouldn't happen again.
Thanks a million, Jint!!! Please visit his site with all his nice concert photos at www.jint.dk.

Don't forget: if you're around Belgium next week don't miss out on the three gigs there...

November 28: Handelsbeurs, Gent, Belgium (with Hanne Hukkelberg).
November 29: Cultuurcentrum de Doos, Hasselt, Belgium (with Xploding Plastix).
November 30: 30CC, Leuven, Belgium (with Xploding Plastix).

Hacking
November 24, 2005.
Apparently those no good Turkish hackers who have been messing about on the web recently have now hit the B-One server. Hence the Under Byen forum is currently suffering. B-One has been contacted on what should be done to remove it again. Please do not write on the forum until it's back in order. I will let you know when.
It is now possible to move on to part of the forum from the hacked Index page. But please don't write there yet.

Liga.dk / Updates
November 24, 2005.
Remember Liga.dk on Danish DR tv again today at 16.00 if you want to see if "Plantage" has entered the chart. You can vote for it via both sms and the web.

A few press clips have been added.

Ungdomshuset Photo Special
November 18, 2005.
Here is the promised second batch of photos from Casper Vildrik Justesen. They are fr0m the band's gig at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen (a venue often used for punk rock) back in August. And some of these shots are among the best and most action-packed live photos of Under Byen I have seen so far. Really cool black'n'white shots most of them. Thanks again, Casper!
Go here for all the goodies.

Rampelys Photo Special
November 17, 2005.
There's already a few photos by Casper Vildrik Justesen from the April gig at Rampelys in Silkeborg on this site. But Casper has dug out some more great ones. So they get a page for themselves. Go here to check out the new Rampelys Photo Special!
Tomorrow yet another new Photo Special will be revealed. Also with a whole bunch of great photos shot by Casper. Thanks a lot, Casper!
I wonder what's going on there on the picture on the right, though. "You see? It wasn't so bad, Morten"...? ;-D

Under Byen Danish music video premiere / Great review
November 15, 2005.
For the first time ever an Under Byen music video will be shown Danish television. That will be in the program Liga.dk on Thursday November 17 at 16.0o-16.30. The video is not entirely new, th0ugh. It is "Plantage" which has been living it's own life on the web for a while now - and has also been shown on German television earlier. But this is a first for Danish television.
If you have signed up as a member of the SKUM community at Danmarks Radio's website you can also vote for the video to keep it on the Top-5. Go to the Liga.dk website to read more. And vote if you like it. ;-)

And a review: German magazine Stalker has given "Det er mig..." a ten star review. Or in this case ten...deer?! Go here to read more (in English). A small quote: "Brilliant! Refreshing! Different! Once you get used to the unusual language, you wouldn't want to miss it. An absolute must-have for fans of the early Sugarcubes and Sigur Rós!".

Antophones album released
November 13, 2005.
Drummer Morten Larsen's other band Antophones release their debut album "Happy Failure" tomorrow November 14. An album which has been underway for quite some time now. Danish music magazine Gaffa has given it a quite decent review which you can read here (in Danish).
You can visit the band at the newly re-designed website www.antophones.dk where you can also download three mp3s.
Leadsinger Lise Blaase and backing vocalist Katrine Hald have acted as backing singers at a few Under Byen shows to great effect - and Antophones were also featured alongside Under Byen on the 'århus:nu' compilation cd. Thorbjørn Krogshede also plays bass clarinet on the album. Antophones bassplayer Johannes Hejl also played with Thorbjørn when he premiered his Thunderbear side project live in Aarhus last month.
The Discography has been updated.

Morningside web profiles / Updates
November 10, 2005.
Morningside Records have now added Under Byen and Thunderbear to their artist roster on their website. There they have also added the cover for the Thunderbear cd (which you can see here on the right). Read about Under Byen here and Thunderbear here (and album details for the latter here).

The Bootography has been updated - and so has the Discography with a few notes on the coming single (or actually Danish singles in general).

Thunderbear live photos and a bit about the music
November 1, 2005.
Thorbjørn Krogshede premiered his Thunderbear music at the Kulturama events in Aarhus this weekend - as audible backdrop for the video show "Tripling" by Von Baden . Steffen "Jint" Jørgensen shot a few very nice photos and you're humble webmaster also shot quite are few lower quality ones. Go here to see them.

The music was actually made before the visuals of the video show. But together they formed an interesting journey in sound and vision. Often quite disturbing, but at the same time also beautiful.

As mentioned earlier the cd will be out in January and without giving it all away I, your humble webmaster, must admit I'm quite thrilled by it. Some parts of it remind me a bit of Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor (maybe mostly the latter), but what makes Thunderbear interesting and sets it apart from the before-mentioned artists - and makes it distinctively Thorbjørn - is the pianoplaying which the other bands don't use at all or to the same extent. Sometimes simple slow moving pieces and other times as if the keys are caught in a whirlwind over the Sea of Japan or wherever. Morten Larsen delivers tight drumming to give the needed drive when things have to heat up. And Thorbjørn, amongst many instruments, also use his bass clarinet to great effect. Strings, kalimbas, guitar, marimba, pure noise and much else dive in and out of the landscapes he creates with this new project.
One thing I had to say to myself when listening was: It's not Under Byen. It's "part of it", so to speak. Which of course makes sense because it's a part of Under Byen doing it. Still, this is Thunderbear. And it's a very rewarding journey indeed.
Ooops, almost did a little review there. Well, it was just to give you a tiny hint of what is coming in January. I'll post more on it when I get more (like for instance the cover for it). If Morningside Records follow their own standard procedure with new releases then at some point before the actual release date (maybe a little month or so?) some sound will be available at the label's website.

Guitar hero Thorbjørn a.k.a. Thuuunderbear! Photo: Jint

"Andersens Drømme" show cancelled
October 27, 2005.
The show on November 17th where Henriette Sennenvaldt was to perform a song from the "Andersens Drømme" album with Jomi Massage has been cancelled. And that's actually all the info the website of the venue Vega has on the matter.

German interview / Thunderbear live details
October 25, 2005.
German magazine Persona Non Grata has done an interview with Under Byen. It's only online and you can read it here.

Now there is some information on this week's Thunderbear shows in Aarhus at the Kulturhus Aarhus website. They start at 20.00 both days and actually go by the name of 'Tripling' which is the name of the full show with video art and all. The band on stage will be Thorbjørn Krogshede and Morten Larsen - as well as Thorbjørn's brother Rune Krogshede and bass player Johannes Hejl (from Antophones, Klondyke and (formerly of) Sorten Muld).
Tiger Tunes play after the 'Tripling' show on the second night.

Discography updates
October 20, 2005.
Two compilations has been added to the Discography: "Denmark & Norway SXSW 2004" and "Spex #49". And the same goes for the cover for the other compilation "En Kvindes Hjerte". The available info on the coming album and the Thunderbear album has been put in the Discography until there is more of it (tracklists, covers etc.). The tracklist for Thunderbear is among the new info. Other small bits of information have also been added here and there on the page (including an extra page with the detailed credits from the official site).

First single out in January
October 14, 2005.
Morningside Records sent out their newsletter today with the news of them releasing the Under Byen album in March. They also added that the first single will be "Samme Stof Som Stof" and that it will be released in the beginning of January. A very little extra hint on what to expect was the sentence "Tubas, kalimbas and much else Under Byen" (kalimbas are African instruments also called "thumb pianos").
Morningside Records also added "we are happy, expectant, impatient and quite proud to release the album in Denmark". Seems like the right place to do it then. :-)

Release date on the next album! / New live dates
October 11, 2005.
Right... finally here is the answer to a question often asked on the forum... "when oh when will the next album be released?" Well, now you know: March 6th 2006.
So says manager Jesper Majdall today. It will furthermore be released on the Danish market by Morningside Records (and distributed through Playground). Mister Manager Majdall is still somewhat secretive about how the release will be handled on the international markets. He promises to deliver more information on the album later as he gets it.

The band will also play some shows early in the new year. First off is a show at Copenhagen Jazzhouse (a rather intimate venue, if I remember correctly) on January 5th 2006. Here they will play the new songs. Later there will be three more Danish live dates in April. And some French dates are also on the way. So stay tuned! :-)

Nils and Stine on I Am Bones album
October 10, 2005.
Stine Sørensen's former Strumm-bandmate Johannes Gammelby have just released his debut album under the name I Am Bones. Two of the Under Byen-folks participated in the recording process of "Wrong Numbers Are Never Busy". Nils Gröndahl plays violin on the two songs "Get With The Program" and "Honeytrap" and Stine Sørensen sings on "The Beat Is Satan" (the latter was previously released on the århus:nu compilation). Torsten Larsen of Larsen & Furious Jane (on whose album Nils also participated) produced the album.
There are songs available for download at www.iambones.dk. The album has been added to the Discography.

More details on Thorbjørn's concerts / Listen to duet
October 9, 2005.
Thorbjørn will be premiering the music from his Thunderbear solo album on October 28 and 29 at Ridehuset in Aarhus. From looking at the website of the venue it seems to be part of the month-long Kulturama events. At the show there will be video projections (done by Morten Lundgaard of the theatre company Von Baden) and five musicians on stage with background sounds on tape.
- It's important for me to stress my priorities in relation to Under Byen. Thunderbear just came from a need to be in the studio and develop myself as a composer. And there are definitely elements of the new Under Byen-compositions which I have developed in the Thunderbear-process. That we got the chance to play the music live surprised me a bit, but it's of course are really nice challenge, says Thorbjørn.

A little side note: The Thrill Jockey label which released the recent Arizona Amp And Alternator-album on which Henriette sings a duet has revamped its entire website. Now it's possible to hear the all the songs on an album in full-length. So go here and listen to "Man On A String" if you're curious.

Photo: David Vobubilis

Pictures from the recording sessions
October 8, 2005.
Stine Sørensen from the band was so kind as to sent a handful of photos from the recording sessions at the Silence Studio up north in the Swedish forests back in April. Stine's names for the pictures were used as comments beneath them. Go here to have a look. Thanks a lot, Stine.

New side project and guest appearance releases
September 23, 2005.
The new Howe Gelb album which goes by the name of Arizona Amp And Alternator is out just now. It features a nice acoustic lo-fi duet between Howe Gelb and Henriette Sennenvaldt called "Man On A String". There's no mp3 online of it apparently, but it has been played on Danish national radio. So if you're curious play this file and fast forward 19 minutes into the broadcast. The file can also be selected from this page (pick September 7th). Two non-Henriette mp3s can be downloaded here.
The lyrics for "Man On A String" have been added to the Lyrics page. A few of the song's lines are not entirely certain, though. Help is needed. :-)

Drummer Morten Larsen's other band Antophones is releasing its debut album on November 14th. No word on what label is behind it (maybe it's self-released?), but Danish music magazine Gaffa writes that it will come out. At www.antophones.dk three mp3s are available for download. Including the first single "Daniel".

On October 17th fellow Aarhus-band Larsen & Furious Jane release their new album "Tourist With A Typewriter". Violinist Nils Gröndahl played on their previous album and played with the band live on some occasions. He also plays on the new album and brought along Thorbjørn Krogshede and Morten Svenstrup for some piano and cello respectively. The album has already gotten some nice reviews and judging from a recent live show the album will most likely contain another fine selection of folky pop- and rock songs learning towards the "alternative country" style (although being not that "alternative" as such).

And lastly Sofus Forsberg is releasing his second album "Udefra" next week - on September 26th. It is the follow-up to 2002's "NO/1" on which Henriette Sennenvaldt sang on four songs. This time around there is only one Under Byen-related song, but it is an Under Byen song. Namely Sofus' remix of "Plantage". A review stated that the album included both experimental tracks, chill-out tunes and songs good for dancing. A talented musician and the album will undoubtedly be interesting in one way or the other.

Henriette to perform at "Andersens Drømme" show
September 22, 2005.
In June of 2005 the H.C. Andersen tribute album "Andersens Drømme" [Andersen's Dreams] was released. Henriette Sennenvaldt did a duet with Signe Høirup Wille-Jørgensen (Jomi Massage) called "Det skønneste smil" [The Most Beautiful Smile] for it.
When the album was performed live in the hometown of H.C. Andersen during this summer's 200 year birthday celebrations Henriette did not take part. But that is not the case next time, says manager Jesper Majdall.
Henriette and Jomi-Signe will be on stage at Store Vega in Copenhagen alongside the many other artists and a 12-man orchestra on the 17th of November 2005.
Check out the cd's tracklist Discography for an idea of who might turn up and sing. It is possible to listen to half-minute snippets of most of the songs at Lytteposten.

As a little side note Jomi Massage just released her second album "From Where No One Belongs, I Will Sing…". Two mp3s are available for download at Morningside Records.

Thorbjørn to release solo album
September 18, 2005.
Under Byen's man at the keys, Thorbjørn Krogshede, will release a solo album in January of 2006 - under the name Thunderbear. Aarhus-based Morningside Records is the label who will put it out when the time comes.
It will be possible to buy the album before the official release date, though. In October of 2005 it will be performed live for the first time at Kulturhus Århus and it will be on sale there.
Morten Lundgaard has made visuals for the music performance. He is the director of the theatre company Von Baden with whom Under Byen have worked with earlier on the projects "PortPolis" and "Totmacher".
Manager Jesper Majdall provided the information on this very interesting side project and added that it is not an Under Byen project. But it will no doubt interest fans of the band. Not only is Thorbjørn composer, but among the other musicians who took part in the making of the solo album are both Under Byen's former and current cello players Myrtha Wolf and Morten Svenstrup. Drummer Morten Larsen is also in on the fun. And so is Thorbjørn's brother Rune Krogshede who Danish audiences have had the pleasure of listening to on the few occasions when he played trumpet with Under Byen live.
The album is instrumental music and said to be somewhere between French composer Erik Satie and Canadian group Godspeed You Black Emperor. To read more about Erik Satie and his "furnite music" go here (or take a trip with Google). You can visit G.Y.B.E. here and download some mp3-tasters.
Thanks to Jesper Majdall for this very interesting information. When a live date for the first performance is known it will of course be posted here.

First news on the new album!
September 15, 2005.
Finally some news on the coming album. Latest word from manager Jesper goes as follows: the new album is almost finished and ready for mixing. The band has been working on the following songs so far, but please note that it is still uncertain exactly how many songs will be on the final album:

It has not yet been decided who will be mixing the album, but the band has some ideas on who would it might be. No possible release date was mentioned in the mail from Jesper. Still, thanks a bunch, dude! :-)

Copenhagen live photos / StumbleUpon group
September 3, 2005.
Another live picture page has been set up. It contains photos from the August 6 gig at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen shot by Janus Bahs Jacquet. Go here to check them out. Janus also host some of them at his own website where he has also uploaded a short little video from the show recorded with a digicam. The picture is decent, but lacks a bit in the sound department. Thanks a lot for sharing, Janus!

Furthermore: at the online community StumbleUpon American Under Byen-fan Yozef has set up a page for people who like the band. It seems the concept mostly revolves around recommending links (and making friends). You can check it out yourself at: http://under-byen.group.stumbleupon.com.

Belgian live dates
August 29, 2005.
Manager Jesper Majdall has now confirmed the "rumours" on the fansite forum that Under Byen will be playing in Belgium this fall. Three dates in late November:

November 28th: Handelsbeurs, Gent (with Hanne Hukkelberg)
November 29th: Cultuurcentrum de Doos, Hasselt (with Xploding Plastix)
November 30th: 30CC, Leuven (with Xploding Plastix)

Still no further details on the coming album, but it seems it won't be long before some will come. And you will of course be able to read them here on this page as soon as they are available. Stay tuned!

New live photos
August 8, 2005.
While waiting for more news on how the new album is coming along we'll pass the time with going to live shows and/or seeing the pictures from them. Casper Vildrik Justesen, who shot some great photos of the band at Univers in Aarhus earlier, now has a nice handful of shots from the Rampelys gig in April. Go here to check them out. Thanks a lot, Casper!

Kristina Dahlberg shot a whole lot of photos at yesterday's gig at the H. C. Andersen celebrations in Odense at Brandt's Klædefabrik. The pictures are not so big, so then there's room to put more on the page. Hence a lot of pictures... right here. Thanks, Kristina!
The show was a short one. Just 55 minutes. But featured a few of the great new songs. As did the longer show at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen the day before.

More photos from recent shows are expected soon. :-)

Paris photo session on fansite
July 30, 2005.
When Under Byen played at the Les Femmes S'en Melent #7 Festival in Paris around late April of 2004 photographer Vincent Ferrane did a photo session with the band. He has kindly allowed for them to be put on this site for your viewing pleasure. Many thanks to Vincent! Please visit www.veiphoto.com to see more of his great photos.
And go here to check out the nice pictures on this site.

Henriette sings on coming Howe Gelb album
July 29, 2005.
On September 13 a new record is released on US label Thrill Jockey. The band name is Arizona Amp & Alternator - which is new - but it is in fact yet another album by Giant Sand's Howe Gelb along with friends from near and far. Among them Henriette Sennenvaldt.
She is performing on the song "Man On A String" on the new album - as she has been doing twice already on the previous albums "Is All Over... The Map" and "The Listener".
Marie-Laurette Friis (of Tys Tys), Scout Niblett, Marie Frank, Matt Ward and Grandaddy also participate on the album.
The Discography has been updated with tracklist and info.

Two mp3s can be downloaded here. The track with Henriette is not among them, though.

And don't forget the two Danish gigs in August - in Odense and Copenhagen. :-)

Live pictures / Review
July 19, 2005.
Norwegian photographer Per Ole Hagen has attended some Under Byen shows and shot a few pictures. He has kindly enough supplied this site with those photos. Go here to see his shots from Henriette's performance at the Spot 11 Festival and here to see some from the Popkomm show in Berlin back in September of 2004. Visit his own site for more Spot 11 photos (as well as photos from a lot of other concerts with other bands).

Rasmus Zeuch shot a bunch of photos at the Danish Rampelys gig in April. Go here to check them out.

On this page there's a few different photos: Vega 2004, Roskilde Festival 2004 and from a Nephew show with a duet between Henriette and leadsinger Simon Kvamm.

And here's another (positive) German review of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" (on the site Hayfever).

Live pictures / Shops / Articles
June 25, 2005.
A lot of live pictures these days it seems. Very nice. First off Jint came with a handful extra shots from the Spot 11 Festival. Then Julia Spieß had to photos from the London gig. And David from Volubilis.net had a bunch from the Art Rock Festival in Saint-Brieuc. Many thanks to all of them!

After googling the band a few shops selling the music popped up in the USA and Spain. Check the Where To Buy page for those.

And then there's a few articles:

Under Byen – med franske øjne (written by French concert organizer Cyril Moya. Translated into Danish)

Udenfor Sæsonen: Eksperiment og tilløbsstykke (older article about the first "Udenfor Sæsonen" shows. In Danish)

Over 60 internationale branchefolk til dansk aften (older article about the Popkomm Festival. In Danish)

The Bootography has also been updated with a new title.

Spot 11 live pictures by Jint
June 20, 2005.
Aarhus photographer Jint shot a bunch of really great photos of the "Udenfor Sæsonen" gig at the Spot 11 Festival. For your viewing pleasure they are now here on this site. Thanks a lot!
There are plenty of other photos from Spot 11 and many other shows at Jint.dk - where you can also get print versions of the them.

Live pictures and scans / Jesper Majdall at Spot 11
June 18, 2005.
Henriette Sennenvaldt played two "Udenfor Sæsonen" shows this month (of which she also did some on the island of Bornholm last September). The first one was at the Spot 11 Festival in Aarhus and the second one at Team Teatret in Herning.
Henriette did the duet "Backwards" with Lars H.U.G. (which he recorded with Swedish singer Lisa Ekdahl back in 1996) and then performed the following three songs: Pilot, Hjertebarn and Henover Himlen. The last song was a cover song (from Lars H.U.G.'s 1984 album "City Slang" which he did with Danish poet Søren Ulrik Thomsen).

Webmaster at TV2fan.dk, Ingrid van Vliet, attended both shows and brought along a camera. She has kindly allowed this site to use the photos. Check the Aarhus photos here and the Herning photos here. Only the ones featuring Henriette are on this site. For more pictures of the other artists go to Ingrid's site (Aarhus - Herning). Many thanks!

Steffen Jørgensen at Jint.dk shot photos at the entire Spot 11 Festival. To see the photos of Henriette go here. Those photos (and more!) will most likely be presented on this site within a few days. Stay tuned.

Matt Sephton shot a few photos at the recent London gig. You can see them at his site here. Some of them have been put on this site too. Thanks a lot, Matt.

A setlist from Aalborg Studenterhus, October 2004, has been added to the Various Pictures page. To the same page has also been added a ticket from the Store Vega gig in November and also a ticket and flyer from the forthcoming August gig at the H. C. Andersen celebrations in Odense.

Under Byen manager Jesper Majdall did - as previously written on this site - take part in a discussion board at the Spot 11 Festival. Here he spoke about his experiences with working with Under Byen over the last two years. How it all started with a few small shows in Germany where the audiences liked the music despite the lyrics being Danish.
He also mentioned that Under Byen had been freed of prior contracts (to Danish EMI sub-label Pladeselskabet Have A Cigar) and is now without a record deal. A thing he described as positive, which baffled the discussion panel's moderator. But Jesper said it gave the band a lot of freedom and that he of course wouldn't see the current situation as a positive thing unless he knew labels outside Denmark were very interested in the band.

More "Under Byen" at Spot 11 Festival / Live photos
June 8, 2005.
Tomorrow night when Henriette Sennenvaldt takes the stage at Musikhuset in Aarhus for the opening night show "Out of Season" at the Spot 11 Festival she will not be the only one with relation to Under Byen doing interesting things at the festival.
Manager Jesper Majdall will be part of a discussion panel there. The festival being very much for the music business also has these kinds of events besides the live shows. This particular panel has the titel "The International Contract - A Report from Those Who Made It" and Jesper Majdall will be one of three people (among them also Johan Wohlert of Mew) discussing their experiences. He will of course most likely be talking about his succesful work with Under Byen these last few years. Still, he also works with such bands as Tys Tys, Figurines, Jomi Massage and Spleen United. Anyone curious about how things went the way they did should drop by and see Mr. Friendly in action. :-)
The one-hour event is on the last day of the festival, Saturday, at 17.30 in the small concert hall at Musikhuset.

Aarhus-based photographer Martin Dam Kristensen, who has shot quite a few pictures of Under Byen over the years, will have an rather "arty" exhibition at the Spot 11 Festival of his music-related photos. The pictures will be projected on a three meter high waterfall in front of the Musikhuset.

Dutch photographer Edwin van der Ende shot some photos of the band playing live at Gigant in Apeldoorn, Holland, back in October of 2004. He put them on his website. You can see them here.

More "Det er mig..." handmade art
June 7, 2005.
A while back some pictures of the unique "handmade added touches" to the booklet art from the first pressing of "Det er mig..." (1000 copies) was added to the Merchandise pictures page. And the site's visitors were then encouraged to do send in pictures of their booklets. Not much happened. But now we fianlly got another one. Kindly submitted by Kasper Würtz (thank you!). It features a snickering Under Byen bunny, an extra tree and yes, even Bugs Bunny! Take a look here. And feel free to submit your own (please mail in advance if it's larger files). It's rather amusing actually. :-)

"Hi-hi-hi". Messing up your own cover artwork is fun!

"Andersens Drømme" released
June 6, 2005.
The H.C. Andersen album, "Andersens Drømme" [Andersen's Dreams], featuring a wide range of Danish singers and poets has been released. Henriette Sennenvaldt is doing a duet with Signe Høirup Wille-Jørgensen (Jomi Massage) called "Det skønneste smil" [The Most Beautiful Smile] on it.
The cd also features singers Mikael Simpson, Thomas Öberg (bob hund) and Marie Laurette Friis (Tys Tys). It is possible to listen to half-minute snippets of most of the songs at Lytteposten. The album has been added to the Discography (with the full tracklist).

Paris live pictures
June 5, 2005.
French Photographer Nicolas Cuissard who shot some wonderful pictures at Under Byen's show at Café De La Danse in Paris in April of 2004 returned when the band did at the same place in November. Now he has uploaded a bunch of new photos from that gig. And just as last time they are very beautiful black and white pictures. He has kindly allowed for them to be presented on the fansite. But remember to drop by his own website, www.lecamembertmagique.net, where you will find many other great photos (among them some of superb French-American duo Berg Sans Nipple and Australian trio Dirty Three).
Many thanks to Nicolas!

London poster
June 4, 2005.
Knom Music's really cool poster for yesterday's show in London has been added to the Merchandise picture page.

Interviews
May 29, 2005.
German webzine Jazzdimensions has a rather lengthy interview (in English) with Henriette and Thorbjørn. Go here to read it. It's from back in April, but hasn't been linked to from this site, so maybe some of you haven't seen it before.
The website Cold Hard Flash has an interview with Jacub Dvorsky who made the Plantage web-video. There's also a bit of Under Byen in there. Go here for that one.

Live pictures, reviews and interviews
May 28, 2005.
Here are some pictures from the shows at Flex, Vienna, Knaack Club, Berlin and Star Club, Dresden, back in April. And some from way back in November at La Laiterie, Strasbourg.
After the release of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" in Germany there have of course been quite a few reviews there (and almost all of them very positive). There are also a few live reviews from. So check out the Reading page for those.
Among the German reading matter you will also find a nice long interview on the site Nordische Musik and another one at Westzeit.
If you don't read German you might want to try your luck with the Babelfish translator. :-)
The "Where To Buy" page has been updated with one German online shop, MusicLoad.de, where "Kyst" can be bought as sound files if you into that kind of thing.

Henriette to perform at Spot 11 Festival
May 26, 2005.
In September of 2004 Henriette Sennnenvaldt performed at three shows called "Udenfor Sæsonen" (Out of Season) on the Danish island of Bornholm. TV-2 frontman Steffen Brandt was the "curator" and had invited her, Anders Stochholm, Dicte and Lars H.U.G. along to perform with the string group Ensemble MidtVest. For those who missed out on this there is another chance.
On the opening night of the Spot 11 Festival on June 9, 2005, the performers will be doing one more round of "Udenfor Sæsonen". This time Eivør of the Faroe Islands will be performing too.
The ticket for that evening costs 150 Danish Kroner and can be bought through the ticket office at Musikhuset Aarhus here. You can read more about the show (in Danish) at the Spot 11 website here.

Webmaster back online = Updates!
May 23, 2005.
Now your humble servant of a webmaster is finally re-connected to the world wide webmania from his homebase. The news written on the forum during these last few months has therefore been added to this news page. And the following pages have been updated:

Discography
The 'untitled new album' has been added with the details available so far - as well as new songs added to "Live songs not released".

Bootography
Bootleg from Les Femmes S'en Melent #7 Festival in Paris added - including artwork.

Lyrics
Translations of Palads, Hvor er man henne?, Kalundborgbåden, Under Byen's version of I'm Your Man, Nephew's Blå & Black have been added - as well as the English language song "A Classico Reprise" by Giant Sand.

Pictures
- Various Photos (new tickets, setlists etc.)
- Rampelys, Silkeborg 2005, including setlists etc.
- Henriette Sennenvaldt's exhibition piece "A Book Made of Snow".
- Forbrænding, Albertslund 2002.
- Miljøfestival, Copenhagen 2002.

Concerts
Yes, all the recent and coming shows have been added to the ever-growing list - plus a few new pictures and a clearer dividing of the different tours.

About
It would be a lie to say that I still lived in Aarhus, so I changed the text a bit. :-)

Dates and information:

July 29: Wolfenschiessen, Open Air Muisiglanzgmeind
www.muisiglanzgmeind.ch

July 30: Oron Le Château, FestivAlpe
www.festivalpe.ch

July 31: Lyss, 1to1 Festival
www.cinehappening.ch

And of course, don't forget the two gigs in the UK and France as well at the two Danish ones in August.

Silence Studios - Part Two
May 10, 2005.
The official site has been updated (in itself newsworthy, he-he ;-)).
Initially the return for more recordings at the Silence Studios in Sweden was mentioned as being in the autumn of 2005. But on the site it says the band will return in July - then adding "and then we'll see what happens". Apparently the first eight day recording session went really well.

Back in business soon
May 9, 2005.
On May 23 the fansite "homebase" will be back online so the site can be updated - like for instance the Concert and Reading pages. Furthermore pictures from the recent Danish gig in Silkeborg will be uploaded. And hopefully there will now be some time to continue The Story which has been hibernating way too long.
Best greets!
Lars

Under Byen's first ever UK gig in June
May 3, 2005.
According to British concert organizer website www.knom.co.uk Under Byen will play a show in London on Friday, June 3, 2005. This will be the band's very first show in the UK.
The venue is called The Mall and is part of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA - www.ica.org.uk).
As a nice bonus this is a Danish double-whammy of a gig. Efterklang will also be playing that same night. Under Byen's Nils Gröndahl played on the band's recently released album "Tripper". Visit Efterklang online at www.efterklang.net.
The following day Under Byen play at the Art Rock Festival in Saint-Brieuc, France.
The live set now includes some new songs - if one is to go by the setlist from the recent show at Rampelys in Silkeborg: A new intro sourced from the "2 Ryk Og En Aflevering" soundtrack as well as the songs "Slå Sorte Hjerte", "Pilot" and "Onkel".

Two Danish gigs in August
May 1, 2005.
Under Byen will play two more shows in Denmark this year, before recording more material for their upcoming album after the summer.
The first show will be at Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen on August 6 and the second will be at Amfiscenen at Brandts Klædefabrik in Odense the following day. The Odense show is part of the H.C. Andersen celebrations and rockband Saybia will also be playing on that night.

Happy 1st of May - to those of you who know what I'm talking about. :-)

Danish gig this month
April 16, 2005.
A nice surprise: Under Byen is playing a gig in Denmark this month. It will be at Rampelys in the town of Silkeborg on April 29th. The venue's website is www.rampelys.dk. Thanks a bunch to manager Jesper Majdall for the information.

Under Byen in the studio this month / New songs performed live
April 7, 2005.
On April 19th Under Byen will start the recordings for their next album. This first recording session will go on for nine days at the Silence Studio in Sweden - more precisely around the town of Koppom close to the Norwegian border and Oslo.
The place itself is situated in quite beautiful surroundings in the countryside with a lot of wildlife. Just check out the pictures beneath this text. Reportedly a good place for fishing and canoeing. Still, one's guess would be that the band might have plenty to do in the studio.

Other bands such as Atomic Swing, bob hund, Fläskkvartetten, First Floor Power, Hedningarna, Hellacopters, Lars H.U.G., Nina Persson (Cardigans), Nikolaj Nørlund, Sophie Zelmani and Wannadies have recorded there over the years.

You can read more about the Silence record label and studio at www.silence.se.

British electronic musician Leafcutter John will be joining the band for some days at the Silence studio as technician and fellow inspirational musician. This might seem as an odd choice at first, but maybe not so much when one listens to some of the mp3s at his website: http://leafcutter.33-rpm.net
He furthermore on occasion acts as teacher for the electronic music students at the Royal Academy of Music's in Under Byen's hometown of Aarhus.

Under Byen tried out some new songs on their recent tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Among them a re-arranged version of "Pilot" (played only once or twice last year) and the brand new "Slå Sort Hjerte".

Thanks to manager Jesper Majdall for the above information.

The Silence Studio is close to the border of Norway.

The Silence Studio in Sweden.

A word from the webmaster about the news
March 27, 2005.
Tomorrow I am moving from Aarhus to a town on Zealand. It will be a temporary living arrangement for me for a little while. Hopefully only the first few weeks until at find the right place to stay. This means that for a while I might not be able to update the site's pages. So I'll be using the forum for updating news until I get a proper internet connection in the place I'll be living from now on. Go here for the News thread.

All the best greets to you, folks!

Lars

Live photos from Lyon
March 24, 2005.
French photographer Gérald Tournier shot a lot of pictures at the Lyon show back in November of 2004. He was kind enough to send 24 of them to manager Jesper Majdall. And now they will magically appear on this site! :-) A great bunch in both colour and black'n'white. Check them out here. Big thanks to Jesper and Gérald.

Kyst and Det Er Mig now available on vinyl
March 23, 2005.
For the first time ever "Kyst" is now available on vinyl. Nicely done as a double 10" in a cool gate-fold cover (just like recent albums by Jomi Massage and Lise Westzynthius also done by Danish Vinyl Production). The band pictures and lyrics are printed inside the gatefold and the tracks are divided on the four sides like this:
A: Sejler, Hjertebarn, Vindeltrappe.
B: Gå ind i lyset, Vinterbørn.
C: Ingenting hos mig, På disse kanter, Fugle og ild, Syng hvide nat.
D: Sylfiden, Kyst.

The second pressing of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" is also out now - and this edition comes with a new inlay as well as a poster.

Black Light Records / Route 66 (who are in fact Danish Vinyl Production) will most likely have both for sale within a very short time. There are shops in both Copenhagen and Aarhus, but they also have a webshop: www.blight.gemm.com.

Katrine Stochholm talks about solo project / Pictures
March 22, 2005.
Danish music magazine Gaffa recently talked to Katrine Stochholm, Under Byen-founder and former member, about her solo album of which little have been heard for a long time.
Her brothers Anders and Søren will also be part of the project. The magazine had given a little of the new music a listen and described as thoughtful, dreamy and in Danish - actually not that far from Under Byen. Nothing was said about a possible release date, though. But Katrine is still working on the album.
The article is online here (in Danish).

Back in August of 2004 Under Byen played at the Belgian folkfestival in Dranouter. For a few pictures from that show go here. In a few days the band jumps on the tour bus once again and heads off for Switzerland - and then going back up to Denmark through Austria and Germany.

A short note: Apologies for the site's forum being down for about a day recently. The problem has been solved.

Band to record in April / 'århus:nu' on sale / Updates
March 7, 2005.
Latest news from manager Jesper Majdall is that the band will start recording new material in April of 2005. He adds (on the forum): "However, it's a long process and way too early to say anything regarding a release date. It might be in the fall, but then again: might be spring next year."

The 'århus:nu" book and cd has now been put on sale in both the shops and online. It features both a lenghty interview with Under Byen as well as an exclusive ten minute live track (easily the best live recording of "Mission" done so far). The new price is 40 Danish Kroner. It used to be 99 Danish Kroner.
Anyone outside Denmark interested in purchasing the book can get it at Gaffa's webshop (which accepts Eurocard, VISA, Mastercard etc.).
Inside the EU the price (including shipment etc.) will be 88 Danish Kroner (£8/$15/12 euro) and outside the EU (where Danish VAT/tax has been removed) it will be 100 Danish Kroner (£9/$17/13 euro). Danes can just order through the book's own website.
The book is in Danish and with pictures of the bands. The cd features a wide variation of music from Under Byen's hometown of Aarhus - including several of the band's collaborators. All in all 16 tracks on a 77 minute cd. Read more about it in the Discography and at www.aarhus-nu.dk. A medley of the cd can be downloaded here ("save as").
(Oh, yes, this is shameless advertizing from the webmaster here, but I figured it might interest some of you). ;-)

A large scan of the "Sukkerhjerte Hjertesuk" LP cover has been added in the Discography. Nice one.

Updates
February 24, 2005.
The Discography has been updated in a way so videos now have their own section.

An old article on the Spot 09 Festival in 2003 from Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende was missing on the Reading page. Now it's been added. Read it here.

Some more photos from the gig at Studenterhuset in Aalborg on October 14, 2004, are on the web. They were shot by Sune Petersen and you can see them here.

Henriette Sennenvaldt on H.C. Andersen tribute album
February 15, 2005.
2005 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of famed Danish fairytale writer H. C. Andersen. Needless to say a lot of things will happen in relation to this in Denmark during the year. Among them also a tribute cd - for which Henriette Sennenvaldt will be recording some material.
Nikolaj Nørlund of the Auditorium record label - which put together the recent Leonard Cohen tribute that also included Under Byen - is the man behind the project. The cd will be released in May and be entitled "Andersen Drømme" (Andersen Dreams / Dreams of Andersen).
Nikolaj Nørlund and lyric poet Naja Marie Aidt will do the lyrics for the album based on texts Andersen wrote (though not the famous fairytales apparently). The two will get assistance from Danish poets such as Peter Laugesen, Jørgen Leth, Pia Juul and Ursula Andkjær Olsen.
The line-up for the record does at the moment not seem to be all that different from last time around with the Cohen tribute. So far the following have been mentioned: Peter Sommer (Superjeg), Claus Hempler, Povl Dissing, Teitur and Henriette Sennenvaldt.
The music will be presented live at a concert on Amfiscenen at Brandts Klædefabrik in Odense on April 2, 2005.
The Discography has been updated.

Another Swiss gig / Bootography update
February 13, 2005.
Another Swiss gig has been added. On March 26 the band will play at Interlaken in Anker. Check all the live dates on the Concerts page.

The Bootography has been updated with a new title - Studenterhuset, Odense, 2004.

Swiss gig confirmed
February 5, 2005.
When Under Byen go touring in Germany and Austria in March and April they will swing by Switzerland first. One date at the venue Moods in Zürich has been confirmed so far - and a few more may be added later. Check all the coming ten live dates on the Concerts page.

The Shopping page has been updated with info from helpful e-mails sent from around the world. :-)

MTV debut with "Plantage"
February 4, 2005.
The latest news from Under Byen manager Jesper Majdall is that the made-for-internet Flash music video "Plantage" will now make it's way onto the tv screen. And it's even an MTV screen!
On February 7 the video will be shown in Markus Kavka's SPIN program on German MTV. This is Under Byen's music video debut on tv - anywhere! Simply because there really haven't been any videos to show so far. And this isn't even a music video in the normal sense - but a Flash animation.
If you can't wait until Monday the beautiful piece of arty internet by Jakub Dvorský is still online here.

Bootography update / Video clip
February 1, 2005.
The Bootography has been updated with the Paris gig in November 2004.

A small 35 second clip from the bands instore at FNAC in Paris is now online. Go here to download it. Go here to see the whole Live Souvenirs site.

Pictures page sorted out / Guest performance
January 31, 2005.
The fansite has now received so many live photos (more than expected - thank you!!!) that the Live Photos page has gotten really heavy to load. So now each show has its own page. These can be picked from the list (as usual) on the Pictures page.

At the Giant Sand concert last Friday at Lille Vega, Copenhagen, Henriette was lured on stage by the band's frontman Howe Gelb (on whose 2003 album "The Listener" Under Byen acted as 'backing band'). There the two sang the lovely duet "Classico" which is also featured (with Henriette) on the latest Giant Sand album "Is All Over...The Map".

Shopping guide / Reading matter / Live photos
January 24, 2005.
The page designed to help people find Under Byen albums around the world is now up on this site. The info on the page has been gathered from the experiences people have been writing about on the forum - and the tough research of this webmaster. ;-) If you can help to expand the guide don't hesitate to write a bit in the thread there or send an e-mail.

A little reading matter in Danish: Gaffa wrote a quite positive review and the band was also interviewed recently about their Rammstein remix in Danish music magazine LineOut.

Stephane Vendran shot a bunch of photos of the band playing live at Le Ciel in Grenoble back in November. Check them out here.

Competition winners!
January 15, 2005.
The wait is over! The winners of the christmas competition have been found (by a blindfolded webmaster fumbling little pieces of paper).

Kyst cds:
Marie Helmstedt, Denmark
Anders Mortensen, Denmark
Emanuel Wegh, Holland

Tour posters:
Kristina Dahlberg, Denmark
Troels Jespersen, Denmark
Gilles Baro, France

Sweater:
Gulle/Liban Aden, Denmark

'århus:nu' book & cd:
Marianne Jensen, Denmark

The webmaster felt like giving all 42 participants prizes because of the many funny and interesting stories that have been filling up the mailbox here.
Many of you have discovered Under Byen at live shows in 2004 and some of you also before that. Others have read about the band in internet forum threads discussing the band or some of their influences or similar sounding contemporaries.
One was slightly "hypnotized" by a live photo of Henriette and thought: "This I gotta check out!" Others have heard something similar from friends urging them to give the band a listen. Some heard the band on one of the very few Danish alternative radio charts that have played the band's music: Det Elektriske Barometer.
One of the more funny ones: one of the participants father bought the cd for himself, but he didn't like it and then gave it to his son - who loved it and still is a bit baffled that he got to know of the band this way.
Some participants around the world have Danish friends who sent them the music - which despite the Danish lyrics struck a chord straight away abroad. Others have gone to see bands that Under Byen were performing with on the same night and gone home with the feeling that Under Byen had blown them away - and also the band they had actually gone to the venue to see in the first place.
Articles in magazines and newspapers outside Denmark have also helped spreading the word about the band it seems. The bit-torrent live recordings put out on the internet from the last half of 2004 have also helped in that regard.
Another participant met an Under Byen band member at a bar in Aarhus and said: "So what do you do?". Others heard the name, Below The City, and instantly got curious. As simple as that.

Store Vega Photo Special
January 13, 2005.
There was a cd full of photos in the mail today! It was from Under Byen manager Jesper Majdall - with a small note jokingly saying "A Day At The Factory". Photographer Marco Germinario followed the band during their day at Store Vega in Copenhagen on November 27, 2004. Click here to see the Store Vega Photo Special. The pictures are rather large so please have patience when loading the page (just as it looks like the band had to have patience during the day while setting everything up and checking sound and light etc.). Many thanks to both Marco and Jesper.

By the way... Jesper Majdall's own band, My Friend George, is releasing their debut cd "Born In The USA" (after doing some nice 7-inch records earlier) on January 31 through Morningside Records. For some no-nonsense lovely 'slack'n'roll' check out the mp3s at the label site.

Live photos / French live date / Updates / Shopping help
January 11, 2005.
New live photos on the horizon! On this site you will find some from Univers in Aarhus from back in August of 2004 - shot by Casper Vildrik Justesen (and kindly passed on to this site by Kristina Dahlberg). Check them out on the Live Photos page.

At other websites you can find pictures from Under Byen's in-store show at FNAC Operá in Paris. Check out Stars Are Underground (how can we disagree with that? ;-) ) and Live Souvenirs. There are also some pictures from the Les Femmes S'en Melent #7 Festival at Stars Are Underground.

Photographer Per Bjarne Pedersen who there is already linked to on the Pictures page has made a few "wallpapers" with his shots of Under Byen. You can see them here.

There is also a single picture from the band's performance at the Danish Steppenulven Awards in 2003 at this site.

A show has been added to the Concerts page: the Art Rock Festival in Saint-Brieuc, France, on June 4, 2005. A few old live dates have also been added to the page as they have popped out of the fogs of the past. If you know of a show that is missing on the list (or have spottet factual errors) then please send an e-mail.
Word from Manager Jesper is though that the band will cut back on concert activities this year to spend time on recording a new album. I'm sure some of us won't mind that. :-)

Currently a page designed to help people find Under Byen albums around the world is in the works. Online shops in Finland and Japan now have "Det er mig..." so it's time for an update. The page will also draw on the experiences people have been writing about on the forum. If you can help in this regard then don't hesitate to write a bit in the thread there.

Updates
January 7, 2005.
Austrian newspaper Der Standard really seems to like Under Byen: Favourite album of the editorial staff. It's been added to the Reading page.

The Bootography has been updated with the recording from the "Culture Night" radio broadcast in Copenhagen on October 8, 2004.

Updates
January 2, 2005.
The Discography has been updated with extra cover scans of the early releases and in the Bootography "Voxhall 2004" has been added.

Thanks!
December 31, 2004.
The band and Jesper Majdall, their manager, just wrote a little greeting to you all in the Guest Book. I'll just post it here too:

Happy new year / Statistics and a flashback!
December 31, 2004.
The best new year wishes to you all from your humble servant of this wacky little site! :-D

If we have to bring a little news today it would be this: this website ends the year of 2004 with slipping past 4000 hits a month. November peaked at 3824 and December has reached 4458 as of writing this.

The fansite opened on June 7, 2004 - and immediately the regular 800-1000 hits a month were doubled. And it's been climbing steadily ever since.
From June the daily number of hits have gone from around 30 to more than 140.

As the hits have been going up the percentage of Danish visitors have been going down. Of course because more and more people drop by from countries outside Denmark. The countries match the ones were Under Byen have been playing live (like Holland, Belgium and France). The United States, the other Scandinavian countries, Germany and Japan are also growing in the statistics - while Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Australia seem to be getting curious too.
Of course it's impossible to actually know if the ones abroad are Danes, but without a doubt this site's Forum reflects the fact that Under Byen is attracting more and more attention outside Denmark. He-he, and it also reflects that Under Byen's fans seem to be among the nicest people on the planet! Nice meeting ya'! ;-D

Yes, new and curious music enthusiast have joined the Under Byen crowd. Welcome! :-)

While the band is working on new material and gearing up for more touring abroad we can only guess at what 2005 will bring. But it would probably be safe to say that it's not going to be boring - neither for the band or the audience.
Actually much like 2004! This year brought us - besides extensive touring with many superb shows - a live EP, a remix album, a Rammstein-remix, a "Kyst" re-release, a "Plantage" music video, new band members, new songs, many great album and live reviews, a Leonard Cohen cover, several new collaborations and finally "Der er mig..." was released outside Denmark in several European countries - with more to come around the world soon.
And yes: 2004 also saw the birth of this Under Byen "fansite". In the beginning I was a little uncertain about actually doing it, but soon I got the idea confirmed as a good one from all the kind and positive response on the forum and in the guestbook. Thanks a lot! :-D

Happy new year everyone!

Lars

Spring tour dates in Germany and Austria
December 29, 2004.
New tour dates in Germany and Austria. From March 28 to April 4 Under Byen will play in Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Hamburg. Venues and exact dates can be found on the Concerts page.

Christmas Competition (updated)!
December 16, 2004.
Well, now we're talking! The band has decided to throw in a few extra prizes to make things a little more interesting. Now we've got the following to offer those who win the competition:

3 copies of the "Kyst" cd.

3 posters from the fall tour 2004 (see photo).

1 Under Byen sweater with print.

1 århus:nu book & cd.

To repeat what was written earlier: you can enter the competition by answering the following question and e-mail it along with your postal address (and sweater size) to this e-mail address before January 10, 2005: lsd_dk@hotmail.com.

How and when did you discover Under Byen?

Anyone can enter no matter where in the world you are. The winner is picked randomly, but don't let that stop you from writing something interesting if you feel like it.

Great thanks to the band and Jesper Majdall.

And just so you know: your e-mail and postal address (and sweater size!) will not be used for anything else than this competition.

Merry x-mas!

Christmas Competition!
December 16, 2004.
At some point someone in the guestbook suggested there should be a competition with prizes here on the site. Well, now it's christmas and time for presents, right? While this webmaster doesn't have any regular Under Byen releases to give away there after all is something else that can be offered: a copy of the book and cd "århus:nu" which was released earlier this year.

The book is in Danish and contains interviews with a lot of bands from Aarhus - including Under Byen. In the back of the book there is a 16 track cd - which includes a brilliant 10-minute live track by Under Byen. Read more details about it in the Discography and at the book's website www.aarhus-nu.dk (site in Danish. Regular ordering of the book is done by mailing aarhusnu@yahoo.dk).

Anyone curious about the cd's content can download this mp3 which contains tasters from all the tracks.

To enter the competition please answer the following question and e-mail it along with your postal address to this e-mail address (before January 10, 2005): lsd_dk@hotmail.com.

How and when did you discover Under Byen?

The competition is not limited to Denmark. Anyone can enter. The winner is picked randomly, but don't let that stop you from writing something interesting. ;-D

Happy hunting - and merry x-mas!

Lars

The book and cd "århus:nu" up for grabs in the Christmas competition.

Leonard Cohen tribute on Danish tv
December 9, 2004.
Tomorrow Friday the Leonard Cohen tribute concert from Copenhagen earlier this year will be shown on Danish tv channel DR2. Under Byen will be playing their Danish version of "I'm Your Man" and other bands will do their versions of their songs from album "På Danske Læber".
The one hour shows starts at 20.00. Saturday the show will be shown again on the same channel at 22.50.
The filmed concert was very recently released on dvd. You can visit the cd's/dvd's website at www.paadanskelaeber.dk.

Rammstein in Discography
December 3, 2004.
The 6 track remix single of Rammstein's "Ohne Dich" containing Under Byen's version of the song has been added to the Discography page.
Anyone curious as to what the cd sounds like can download one-minute mp3-tasters of each track here at Juno Records.

Bandpage updated / Live photos
December 2, 2004.
Now the Band page has been updated once again. This time with bigger and better pictures. :-)

Mark Anderson has shot a whole bunch of great photos at the recent gig at Studenterhuset in Aalborg. You can see them here. To enter from the front page go to Fotom.dk.

Danish live photos / Review / Plantage video
November 29, 2004.
Lots of pictures from the recent shows in Aarhus and Copenhagen are now on the Live Photos page. To see the full set of Aarhus pictures visit Jint.dk.

Danish magazine Gaffa has reviewed the gig at Voxhall in Aarhus. Five of six stars. Read it here.

The Band page has been updated with some new pictures.

A small note: The "Plantage" Flash has been taken off the official Under Byen website because it resulted in too much traffic. But the video is still available for viewing at Amanita Design.

Picture page / Photos / Interview and reviews
November 28, 2004.
A new page has been added. Still in a rough form, but hopefully it will look a little better later. For now it's called "Various Pictures" and contains scans of flyers, tickets and setlists as well as photos of merchandise and cover artwork. Go here for a look.
Unique handmade touches were added to the first Danish pressing of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" and anyone thinking it could be a laugh seeing what the different cds look like are very welcome to contribute to the page with a photo or a scan of it. Could be fun. :-)

A few more photos from the gig at Studenterhuset in Aalborg on November 14 has been added to the Live Photos page. Thanks to Line Møller for sharing them.

Webzine Reaktiv Zone has interviewed Thorbjørn Krogshede at the La Lairerie concert in Strasbourg - and also written a nice review of the show where they also shared the evening with Julie Doiron. There are som photos from the gig - and apparently also one from either before or after it in a quiet moment.
Read the interview here and the review here.

Norwegian newspaper Hamar Arbeiderblad has reviewed "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" here.

Libération writes about Under Byen after seeing them perform at the French festival Les Rockomotives in Vendôme. Babelfish translates the headline to "Under Byen, Danish shiver". Read the French text here. Babelfish translates the French text in English this way (be warned: it's sounds weird from time to time).

Website Foutraque has reviewed the gig at Café de la Danse in Paris with Minor Majority on November 1. Read it here. Babelfish does it this way in English. The same website has also reviewed the cd.

The Sportludwig weblog writes about the gig at Rotown in Rotterdam here.

Swedish release date
November 23, 2004.
According to the webpage of Swedish record label Exergy they will release "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" on the 3rd of December. So there you go... Yet another country primed for the Danish goodies.

Band page update
November 20, 2004.
A little while ago the band's manager Jesper Majdall answered some questions about the current band line-up on the forum, because some concert-goers were experiencing some confusion in this regard. Now the Band page has been updated accordingly - including former band members and the years everyone has been in the band.

Cohen tribute live-DVD released / Discography update
November 19, 2004.
On the 26th of September the Leonard Cohen tribute album "På Danske Læber" was performed live at Store Vega in Copenhagen. As on the cd Under Byen performed their Danish version of "I'm Your Man". The event was filmed and will be released on DVD on this Monday the 22nd of November. It is directed by Martin De Thurah and features bonus material in the shape of interviews and the music video with Jens Unmack (of Loveshop) which promoted the album. The sound specifications are: 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo.
The label Auditorium, who also did the cd, will release the DVD.
Visit the cd's website at www.paadanskelaeber.dk. And see some livephotos from the tribute show by Martin Rosenauer here.

Furthermore: The Discography page has been updated so it now features information on Under Byen's music videos. Not that extensive and informative yet, but hopefully that will improve soon.

Album to be released in Japan / Shows in the works
November 18, 2004.
The Danish Rock Council (ROSA) writes in an article today that "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" will be released in Japan in February of 2005. The label getting the album out there is Ultra Vybe.
The same label has just released the album "USADSB" by fellow Danish band Nephew - with whom Henriette Sennenvaldt did the duet "Blå & Black".
Jomi Massage, who did a remix for the recent vinyl release by Under Byen, also has her album out in Japan now - although on Loveless Records. But "Aloud", as the album is called, will be out on Under Byen's French label Telescopic soon, though.
All three acts are expected to perform live in Japan in the near future - Under Byen some time in the spring.
Jomi Massage will play at the Les Femmes S’en Melent Festival in Paris in the spring - the same festival that Under Byen played in April of this year. Yes, it's all connected! Did you get it or did you need to read it again? ;-)
The ROSA article (in Danish) can be read online here.

"Plantage" already in the spotlight
November 16, 2004.
The website Favourite Website Awards made the Amanita Design's Under Byen video 'Site Of The Day' yesterday. Later "Plantage" will enter the contest for Site Of The Month with other clever sites which "use cutting edge technology, together with inspirational ideas", as they put it.
About the Plantage video they wrote: "This is an extremely well produced and atmospheric video for Under Byens excellent Plantage track. The organic look has been perfectly executed and combines with the music to create an awe-inspiring ambience.
We found the video to be captivating as well as charming and are confident visitors will thoroughly enjoy watching from start to finish. Overall, a unique and original piece."
View the Flash-animated video here.

Online "Plantage" video premiered!
November 15, 2004.
The online Flash music video for "Plantage" is now finished and available for viewing at both Under Byen's official site and the director Jakub Dvorský's site Amanita Design. Dvorský is mostly famous for creating the online game Samorost which very much has the same visual style as the new Under Byen video. It is the very first publicly shown music video by Under Byen as "Kyst" from 1999 apparently was made, but not shown anywhere. Hopefully Under Byen fans will get a chance to see that one too at some point. But for now there's the quite mesmerizing "Plantage".
Check out more great stuff at the Amanita Design site.

All images grabbed from "Plantage" video by www.amanitadesign.com.

Paris in pictures
November 14, 2004.
At the website Lotitanie.com there are 25 very nice pictures from Under Byen's gig at Café La Danse in Paris on the 1st of November. They were done by Jean-Marc Luneau. Check them out here.

News about Under Byen on vinyl
November 9, 2004.
Latest word from 'Mr. Majdall Manager' is that - as mentioned before - "Det er mig..." will be reprinted on vinyl. This time there will be a poster too - in size A1. It should be ready around the first of February 2005 at the latest. Furthermore there are now also plans for a vinyl version of the band's debut "Kyst" and it will be made as soon as all formalities are in order. Which should be around the same time as "Det er mig...".

Discography update
November 5, 2004.
The Discography page has been updated with the "Det Elektriske Barometer" compilation. Many thanks to Søren Meincke Persson for the cover scan and info.

Lyrics update / Rammstein info / Roskilde feature / Review / Pictures
November 1, 2004.
The lyrics for "Films jeg har set" have been added to the Lyrics page. Apparently it was actually printed in the flyer for the PortPolis-performance! With a slight adjustment from that one it is now on the site - alongside a translation and a few notes.

Danish webzine Soundvenue asked Under Byen manager Jesper Majdall about the Rammstein remix. He said: "We have known for a while that Rammstein were excited about Under Byen because of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen". But them wanting the band to remix one of their songs came as a surprise."
Under Byen worked on the track at the Sweet Silence studio in Denmark and has recorded new instrumental parts for the song, but kept the original vocals - although adding some effects to it.
You can read the article here.

The website Lejreguiden has a feature from this years Roskilde Festival. There's a little bit on Under Byen as well as two photos. One of them shows nicely the whole stage. Check it out here.

French webzine 20Six wrote a review of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen". It has been added to the Reading page.

At the French website Imperial there's a nice big picture (the one used for this fall's tour poster). So if you need a new wallpaper for your computer this will probably do. :-) Go here for that one.

Under Byen remix Rammstein / New review
October 27, 2004.
When German band Rammstein releases its single "Ohne Dich" (Without You) on hometurf on November 22 the cd will contain a remix done by Under Byen. So says an article in Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet today - where it also says that the cd will not reach Danish stores until after christmas.
The band is currently on tour, but according to the article Under Byen afterwards hopes to start recording new material in December and January for a fall album release.

German webzine Cd-Kritik has written a long review of the recent gig in Aalborg, Denmark. And with plenty of pictures to go with it. You can read it here.

The Discography page has been updated a few things - among them the new Efterklang debut album "Tripper" on which Nils Gröndahl plays violin on some songs.

Discography update / Article
October 20, 2004.
The Discography page has been updated with info and covers for the two versions of Lisa Rydberg's album on which Henriette Sennenvaldt contributed her vocal talents back in 2001. The lyric for the song "Mitt hjerte altid vanker" has also been added to the Lyrics page (but not translated yet). Hopefully the Swedish text is right - the font in the booklet was a bit odd.
Thanks to Henriette for lending the cds.

Danish newspaper Urban had a little article on the band prior to the gig in Aalborg on the 14th of October. You can read it here.

Tour changes & live pictures
October 15, 2004.
The show at Checkpoint Charlie in Stavanger, Norway, on November 11 has been changed to Samsen Kulturhus in Kristianssand instead. For a hopefully easier overview little flags have been added to the live dates. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the info.

Almost 30 photos from Under Byen's gig at Atak Poppodium, Enschede, Holland (the Rockarty Festival) on October 2 are now online at the Atak site.

The Live Photos page on this site has been updated with some photos from last nights gig at Aalborg Studenterhus.

Review & pictures
October 13, 2004.
Dutch VPRO Radio website writes about the recent gig at Ekko in Utrecht. Check it out here (it's in Dutch).

A few pictures were taken at the Rockarty Festival in Enschede, Holland. Check out the pictures at the festival site (direct link).

The Discography page has been updated with a picture of the cover for the new "Remix 2" album - a white label with a white cover. :-) A few new and old songs added to the "live songs not released" part of the page.

Surprise live broadcast
October 8, 2004.
Pretty much unannounced - except for on the webpage Danmarks Radio's P2 channel - Under Byen was broadcast live and direct from within the new headquarters of Danish National Public Radio tonight. It was part of Kulturnatten - "Cultural Night" (various different cultural arrangements in cities across the country). The hour long set was somewhat quiet and very different from recent energetic shows. And it also seemed like the band wanted to try out some new material such as unreleased and re-arranged songs - including a totally new song. The broadcast was unfortunately troubled by bad sound. The setlist was as follows:

Lenin
Siamesisk (new live version) (unreleased)
Plantage
Jeg er din mand (cover of Leonard Cohen's "I'm Your Man" from the recent tribute compilation)
"Lill-Babs" (PortPolis Part 4) (unreleased)
Tindrer (alternate version of "Skøre som glas" from the "2 Ryk" soundtrack)
"Pilot" (new song - with tremolo guitar!) (unreleased)
Byen driver
Hjertebarn
Legesag

Thorbjørn Krogshede was interviewed afterwards.

Leonard Cohen tribute pictures / Album out in Sweden
October 7, 2004.
Under Byen participated in the Leonard Cohen tribute concert, "På Danske Læber", at Vega in Copenhagen on September 26. Photographer Martin Rosenauer shot some great photos that night. Among them a handful of Under Byen. Click here to go directly to the Under Byen photos and click here for Martin's site.
Martin was also kind enough to "donate" two of the pictures for the Live Photos page on this site.

According to Danish music magazine Geiger "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" will be released in Sweden later this year through the record label Exergy. Read the article here (in Danish).

Remix LP out now!
October 5, 2004.
The new "Det er mig..." remix LP is finally in the shops. It's 37:29 minutes long and has been printed in 300 copies.

Here's a few humble first impressions on this mostly electronic release. So if you will keep the surprise element intact until you put the vinyl on your record player do not read on.
Xploding Plastix's "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" features a small electronic beat, a new synth melody and samples of Henriette's vocals cascading into each other. Very pleasant.
Mikael Simpson's Legesag-mix called "Under Skyen" [Under The Cloud] is a slow and dusty hip-hop-like beat with some added guitar, organ and distorted harmonica (very much in the trademark style of Danish band Loveshop). The strings stand more on their own in this mix - to great effect. The vocals seem even closer to the listener's ear than on the original. A few slight dub-like sounds are also present. Quite simplistic all over.
DJ Ilz's strange and amusingly titled "Torsdagshugo" [Thursday Hugo] mix of "Plantage" puts some echo on bits of melodica and trumpet - and adds some mellow saxophone to the clicky minimalistic beats which lie underneath the slightly sped up and repetitive vocal samples.
Mikael Simpson's second "Legesag" mix is very much his new the title indicates an "Interlude" as it is a less than two minute long and a piece only using the string parts with a little added guitar in the background. Quite evocative.
Jomi Massage's "Kvinde-Mission" [Woman-Mission] is probably the most courageous remix on the album. Which just confirms the fact that Jomi Massage's Signe Høirup Wille-Jørgensen seems most at ease going out on a limb. Only the vocals of the original version is used and she accompanies them with her own vocal stylings in the shape of repetivitive humming and other things. It really works great.
Sofus Forsberg's "Plantage" remix clocks at just around nine minutes and features some harsh electronic beats and uses the most breathy parts of the vocals and twists them through various electronic filters. Synth figures cut through the abrupt beats.
Wäldchengarten's version of "Om Vinteren" has no beat, but is a floating distorted humming sound ("noise") with some elements of the original - like the trumpet and saw - added in the mix. It rises to a climax and cuts out just to leave the trumpets on their own at the end. The track can be downloaded as mp3 from the band's website.
Puzzleweasel confirms his position as a madman when it comes to programming beats. His "Lenin" is quite mellow from the start, although the small beats are all over the place. The original sound of "Lenin" floats somewhat altered beneath it all and some short and sharp synth sounds follow to the fast little drummings. At the end it all explodes in a dizzying drum'n'bass excursion.

Puzzleweasel. Photo by Jint.

All in all it's seems like a better remix record than last time around. It seems more inventive. But the styles of the individual remixers do take over a lot from time to time. Still, one would think it would not be an easy task remixing Under Byen, so it's interesting to see what they can use the original sounds for in their own little sound labs.

If you want to get hold of a copy your best shot would probably be Blight Records/Route 66, as they are actually the ones who made it (under the name of Danish Vinyl Production). Visit them online at www.blight.gemm.com. The record will also be sold at live shows.
The Discography has been updated.

From the top: Xploding Plastix, Mikael Simpson,
DJ Ilz (as performing with Je M'Appelle Mads),
Jomi Massage, Sofus Forsberg and Wäldchengarten.

All photos by Jint - except Mikael
Simpson by Jesper Haggren.

New Dutch live photos
October 2, 2004.
A bunch of new photos have been added to the Live Photos page. They are from the venue Ekko in the Dutch city of Utrect on September 28 - and Manuel was the photographer. Not all his photos are hosted on this site. So if you want to see all 26 of them go to the Under Byen gallery on his site. Elsewhere on the site there are some photos from Under Byen's hometown of Aarhus (seems like it was a summer Sunday as the inner city streets are almost deserted). Anyone more curious about what the city looks like might want to check Virtual Aarhus.

Thanks to Manuel for the photos.

Norwegian reviews
September 26, 2004.
Following the release of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" in Norway here are some reviews: Panorama, Musikkguiden Groove, Fedrelandsvennen, Bergens Tidende and TA.no. And in general they seem to like the album very much. The articles have been added to the Reading page. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the links.

Remix album tracklist / New distribution
September 22, 2004.
The tracklist for the coming "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" remix album on vinyl will be as follows:

Xploding Plastix – Det er mig der holder træerne sammen
Mikael Simpson – Under Skyen (Legesag)
DJ Ilz – Torsdagshugo (Plantage)
Mikael Simpson – Interlude (Legesag pt 2)
Jomi Massage – Kvinde Mission (Mission)
Sofus Forsberg – Plantage
Wäldchengarten – Om Vinteren
Puzzleweasel – Lenin

It will be released on September 25 and be available at the live shows in the near future. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the news.

The original "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" album will now be released in the socalled "G-A-S" market (Germany-Austria-Switzerland) by Germany's largest indie label SPV. So it says in an article on the Danish Rock Council ROSA's webpage. Here Under Byen manager Jesper Majdall says of SPV - a label mostly dominated by heavy metal:
- They are dedicated, enthusiastic and willing to spent some money on marketing.
Previously the band have had talks with American distribution company The Orchard, but chose not to make a deal apparently to maintain complete artistic freedom.
The ROSA article also says that Under Byen's French label Telescopic is currently exploring the possibilities of distributing the "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" album in Argentina and Chile.

A few articles have been added to the Reading page.

Pictures from "Udenfor Sæsonen"
September 21, 2004.
Ingrid van Vliet of www.tv2fan.dk attended the "Udenfor Sæsonen" shows on the Danish island of Bornholm a few days ago. She brought her camera and took some nice pictures from two of the three shows.
These shows were arranged by TV-2 frontman Steffen Brandt - who is also one of the men behind Under Byen's Danish record label. Hence Henriette Sennenvaldt was invited to sing. Anders Stochholm also went along for some drumming alongside a string ensemble and other singers. One of these singers was Lars H.U.G. with whom Henriette sang.
In the part of the show where Henriette participated she performed "Hjertebarn", a song unknown to Ingrid, "Henover Himlen" (from the Lars H.U.G. album "City Slang") and "Backwards" (as a duet with Lars H.U.G.). Anders Stochholm played on the three first songs mentioned here as well as other songs through the set.
Ingrid has been so kind as to allow this site to host the pictures from the "Under Byen part of the set". Go to the Live Photos page to see them.

The Bootography has also been updated.

Live pictures / Tour merchandise
September 20, 2004.
The webmaster here was not the only one who brought a camera to the band's recent performance at Univers in the Aarhus Festival Week. So did Per Bjarne Pedersen. He has 31 pictures from the show at his website.

A bunch of images from the Berlin show at Roter Salon in April have been put up on this site. They have been grabbed from the video that was shot at the show (on which this webmaster is still working - with some technical difficulties).

The people going to the coming Under Byen shows in Europe and don't have all the cds yet, will be happy to know that the band will bring along all their releases currently in print. Plus they also have different kinds of clothing. These are the goodies:

Det er mig der holder træerne sammen (CD) - 15 euro
Det er mig der holder træerne sammen (LP) - 18 euro
Det er mig der holder træerne sammen (Remix LP) - 15 euro
Kyst (CD) - 15 euro
Live at Haldern Pop (12" vinyl) - 10 euro
Live at Haldern Pop (CD EP) - 8 euro
Sweatshirt with hood - 35 euro
T-Shirt - 17 euro
Underwear - 5 euro

Seems a bit of a return to the merchandise from the Danish 2002 tour. Although this time apparently there are no sweat wristbands, "wifebeater" shirts or girlie panties (unless that of course is the 'underwear' in question). :-)

And some new reading matter: the website Stayfun recommends "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" here.

Discography update
September 18, 2004.
Two new cds have been added to the Discography. The "Ride" promo single and the festival promo compilation "Les Femmes S'en Mêlent #7". A new and better scan of the "Gå Ind I Lyset" promo single has also been added (both cover and cd).

Brand new feature: Bootography
September 14, 2004.
Well, here it is. Finally. The Under Byen Bootography! A page with all the info this webmaster has about unofficial cds with the band. For now it's live recordings - some of them with interviews as bonus tracks and in some cases old rarities.

As much artwork as possible have been collected and is hosted here as well.

If you want to get hold of the recordings please do not e-mail the webmaster of this site. The Bootography is not intended a "copy central", but is solely made to provide information of what is out there. Use the Under Byen Forum to get in contact with people for some cd-r-trading.

On the Bootography page you will also find other suggestions on how to obtain these recordings - like other forums and peer 2 peer networks.

A few more titles might be added to the Bootography later. Not all cds and info has been sorted out yet.

The reason there are quite a few Under Byen bootlegs by this point is that the band don't mind fans recording their shows.

Remember when dealing in bootlegs: No money should ever change hands when trading recordings.

Live photos
September 12, 2004.
When Under Byen played at the Les Femmes S'en Melent #7 Festival back in April at Café de la Danse in Paris a bunch of great photos where shot. The photographer's name is Nicolas Cuissard and he has put the pictures from the show on his website. To go directly to the them use this link.
But don't forget to check out the rest of his site. There are a lot of really great photos there - besides the black and white concert photos there are also some very colourful and beautiful shots done with a Lomo camera. The address is www.lecamembertmagique.net.

A handful of Nicolas' photos have been added to the Live Photos page. But if you want to see them all visit his site.

On the Concerts page photo links have been added to the shows. Just one for each (where available) even though there are more links. Check the Pictures page for the rest.

Site update
September 10, 2004.
The Giant Sand album "Is All Over The Map" has been added to the Discography - the brand new album out on September 14th on which Henriette Sennenvaldt sings a duet with Vic Chesnutt.

Nils Gröndahl at art exhibition / Lyrics translations
September 6, 2004.
Right now Under Byen's violinist and sawplayer Nils Gröndahl is part of an art exhibition in the town of Silkeborg, Denmark. The title of it is "Skabelsen - Nutidskunst til 7 dage" ("Genesis - Contemporary Art For 7 Days") and he has made some music for it which is played in a room featuring paintings by painter Tove Dammand-Jensen. The music could apparently be categorized as a part of the "noise"-genre. A thing that also seems to have found it's way into the more energetic and loud climaxes in Under Byen's recent live sets where Nils pushes his many effects pedals to the max.
While this site's webmaster does not know how Nils' solo efforts in "noise" sound one can only (for now) present a hint of what it might be a bit like by referring to Under Byen-remixers and fellow Aarhus-residents Wäldchengarten. They work exclusive within that genre. You can visit them at www.waldchengarten.dk where you can download mp3s. Wäldchengarten has just released a new EP, "Uncomfortable Positions", exclusively as mp3 on the Fukk God (let's create!) label who deals with "drone music" of this kind. Check www.fukkgod.org for that. Exciting stuff, very evocative.
The exhibition with Nils' music is at Art Centre Silkeborg Bad and it runs from September 4, 2004 to January 2, 2005. There is a bit more info at www.silkeborgbad.dk.

On the Lyrics page the lyrics to Under Byen's only English song has been transcribed (as good as possible for now). And an attempt have also been made to translate the German traditional "Totmacher" into English. Any Germans (or other nationalities for that matter) who feel an urge to improve on it are very welcome to do so. Send an e-mail to the webmaster or use the forum.

Live pictures
September 4, 2004.
A bunch of photos from last week's show at Univers in the Aarhus Festival Week is now online here on the Live Photos page. They were not taken with a digital camera, but with an "old school" camera with light sensitive film. And the stage was quite dark. It gives the pictures a rather grainy look. The pictures were taken from both the audience and from the stage - by this site's webmaster.

Photographer Terje Martin Pål took a neat fish eye picture of Under Byen at the Øya Festival - with Nils' nice shoes featuring prominently. Pål howeever seems to have mixed up the names of Under Byen and another band: The Beautiful People. Well, why not. ;-D
Here's the direct link for the photo.

MAGIC Revue Pop Moderne
September 3, 2004.
French magazine 'MAGIC Revue Pop Moderne' have written about Under Byen in the new issue (August-September). On the front page are Nouvelle Vague which Under Byen are going to play two shows with this fall. Read more about the contents of the magazine here.

And for those it might interest: Under Byen are now online in the Webster Dictionary and The Free Dictionary. :-)

Norwegian live dates / French interview
September 1, 2004.
Right, here are the new Norwegian live dates: November 10 at John Dee in Oslo, November 11 at Checkpoint Charlie in Stavanger and November 12 at Garage in Bergen. The Concerts page has been updated. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for these dates.

French webzine Musiczine has an interview with the band and a review of "Det er mig...". These texts translate reasonably well into English with Babelfish if you're curious about what Nils and Anders have to say about the band and their music.

The Discography has been updated (the Haldern Pop compilations and the Cohen tribute).

New shows in France and Norway
August 31, 2004.
Under Byen will play a show at Studio 1 in Lyon on November 3 with the band Nouvelle Vague. Soon after that they will play in Norway. In Oslo on November 10 and then Bergen and Stavanger in the following days. There are no exact dates or venues on those yet, but as soon as they are confirmed they will be added to the Concerts page. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the news.

Henriette does new duet / Pictures page
August 28, 2004.
Henriette Sennenvaldt is singing a duet, "A Classico Reprise", with American singer Vic Chesnutt on the upcoming album by Giant Sand called "Is All Over The Map". It will be released on Thrill Jockey on September 14 2004 and also features other musicians from Under Byen's hometown of Aarhus - which Giant Sand frontman Howe Gelb (of Tuscon, Arizona) has made his second home during the summertime.
The song is a very slow piece with acoustic trip-hoppy drums and a grinding cello as bass - spiced up with some of Howe Gelb's trademark pianoplaying in the background. The vocals of Vic and Henriette are quite "upclose and intimate". The rest of the album features all out rock tunes as well as bossanova-ish ballads (done in Gelb's dusty country style).
On Howe Gelb's recent album "The Listener" Henriette did a duet with Howe himself called "Torque (Tango De La Tongue)".

The Pictures page has been sorted out as it was becoming a bit confusing with all the links. They are now in chronological order under the name of each show.

At the same time a page for hosting "fan photoes" has been made. First up is a little handful of pictures from Paradiso in Amsterdam by Thijs Stalenhoef. You can see them here.
If you've got a couple of good photos that are not hosted anywhere feel free to send an e-mail.

Danes invade Germany
August 19, 2004.
According to the websites Trinityconcerts and Bands in Berlin Under Byen will play at this year's Popkomm in Berlin. This will be alongside fellow Aarhusbands Tiger Tunes and Powersolo - as well as other Danish bands Blue Foundation, Saybia and Figurines (the latter being signed to the Aarhus-based label Morningside Records). The title for this show is "The Prime of Danish Talents", which would certainly apply most of them. It is on September 30, 2004 and at a place called Silverwings. The ticked price is 11 Euro (read more here).

Archive / Sofus site / new reviews
August 18, 2004.
A News Archive has been made so this news page isn't so large.

Sofus Forsberg, with whom Henriette Sennenvaldt collaborates, is currently in the process of making a new website at www.sofusforsberg.com. There are some live pictures and music on the site already.

Some new live reviews have been added to the Reading page. Mostly from Dutch and Belgian websites. Funny to notice that the reviewer calling them "Björk-clones" is also the one that didn't take the time to spell the band name right. In two different ways. ;-)

Pictures / Video / Reading
August 17, 2004.
During a bit of Google archaeology a few things appeared from the depths of the internet:

Photographer Jan Chrillesen took a look of photos of Under Byen at the Roskilde Festival this year. So if you didn't get enough of this site's photo special then go here.

When Under Byen toured back in April of this year they played a few shows with Tamara Williamson. She has made a little music video from that tour. Henriette Sennenvaldt and drummer Stine Sørensen appear briefly in the clips for this very nice song. It starts when you visit the front page of www.tamarawilliamson.com.

An American called Tony Swarthout has made a few (very) short films. For some reason he used a couple of Under Byen songs as the soundtrack. Even "Veninde i vinden", Under Byen's out of print first single, which actually seems to fit slightly with the content. You can download these two small "lo-fi" videos here.

The movie "2 ryk og en aflevering" (to which Under Byen made the original score) has a website that I forgot to link to: www.2ryk.dk. There is a bit more info in English on the film here and here.

At Rockfeedback.com there's an article that takes a look at a host of Danish bands (including Under Byen) - as seen through the eyes of an Icelandic music writer. Read it here.

And last but not least Atelier Clandestin has an online exhibit of concert posters. One of them is for the gig Under Byen did with Sophia back in May of this year. Click on the first box on this page.

A few pressclips have been added to the pressclips page. And on the forum a thread has been started as a call to Belgians, Dutch, French and Norwegians to help translate a few lines from some reviews. Please help out if you can. :-)

Under Byen live at the Rockarty Festival
August 16, 2004.
Yet another Dutch show for Under Byen's tour schedule. On October 2 the band will play at the Rockarty Festival (Atak Poppodium) in the town of Enschede. Read more at the festival site.

A new photolink has been added to the Pictures page. At Dramatisk.dk there are some pictures from Under Byen's first show outside Denmark - the "Under The Sky" performance in Prague back in 2002. Check out the pictures here and read more about the project here.

And older article on a Norwegian show in December 2002 also popped up on Google. It has been added to the Reading page - where there now is also a menu for easier access to the articles in the different languages.

Re-releases on the way!
August 13, 2004.
Now it's official. In two weeks Under Byen's debut album "Kyst" will be available again as another pressing is currently being made. The same goes for "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen", which recently sold out in Denmark too. This is only for the Danish market, but several Danish online shops will then be selling them. You might want to try places like these: The Other Music (foreign orders/site in English), Rillen (foreign orders), CD Skiven (EU only), Guf Musik, CDON and Moby Disc. Also try your luck at sites such as Gemm and Netsounds if you can't find it in the before-mentioned shops.

The vinyl version of "Det er mig der holder træerne" will also be reprinted, but this will take about two months before it hits the shops (which would make that some time in October). As mentioned earlier on this news page the new vinyl edition will quite likely include a four-colour poster (credits and pictures on one side and a band picture on the other side).

On the same day as the vinyl album release the brand new remix album will also see the light of day. This will only be out on vinyl and contains remixes of songs from "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen". The remixers announced so far are Xploding Plastix, Wäldchengarten, Jomi Massage, Thomas Knak (Opiate), Sofus Forsberg, Mikael Simpson, Puzzleweazel and B&B International. For a sneak peek check out www.waldchengarten.dk where Wäldchengarten's remix of "Om Vinteren" can be downloaded as mp3.

Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the news on the re-releases.

Under Byen take on Norway
August 12, 2004.
"Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" was released in Norway this week on Honeymilk Records - this coincides more or less with their show at the Øya Festival in Oslo on the 14th. Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has given the cd a five-star review and interviewed Henriette and Anders.

More live dates / Video clip
August 10, 2004.
Three new live dates have been added to the Concerts page. Two Dutch gigs in Utrecht and Apeldoorn, and one Danish gig in Odense. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the news.
The band will play festivals in Norway and Sweden next weekend. Altogether there are now 26 performances (gigs, instores and a few solo shows with Henriette) in the coming months. Make sure you don't miss them if they drop by your town.
The latest additions on the Concerts page will now get a NEW sign for an easier overview.

A few video clips have been added to the website for the Leonard Cohen tribute album "På Danske Læber" - among them a clip from Under Byen's recording session. You can download it here.
Snippets from most of the tracks (but not the best) can be heard at Lytteposten.

New reading matter and live photos
August 9, 2004.
After a bit of "googling" some new interviews and reviews have popped up. They are in Dutch, Belgian, German and French. Check the Reading page for them - they are marked with a NEW sign.

Pictures from the band's gig at Vera in Groningen, Holland (on June 24, 2004) are now online here.
And some pictures from an "after hours show" at Gasthof Tepferdt, Haldern (on May 12, 2004) are also on the web here (the gig has now been added to the Concerts page).

Regarding forum sign-up
August 6, 2004.
Some people seem to have had problems getting to write on the forum. I don't know if it's a technical problem yet. Until now it has been like this: when you sign-up an e-mail will automatically be send to the address that you have entered in the sign-up procedure. In that e-mail there is a link what you have to click in order to confirm the sign-up. In some cases this e-mail might end up in your spam mail box.
Now this e-mail confirmation is no longer needed and you can just sign up and start typing straight away. Hopefully this solves any problems there might have been.

New Dutch live dates / German interview
July 31, 2004.
A few new live dates in Holland have popped up:
September 29: Rotown, Rotterdam.
Oktober 31: Effenaar, Eindhoven (read more)
...and more are on the way.
At the moment there are as many as 20 Under Byen shows on the 'upcoming concerts' list - as well as one tribute performance and three Henriette Sennenvaldt 'solo' gigs.

Furthermore there's a new German interview at Bloom.de. Henriette Sennenvaldt is questioned about what the future might bring and she answers: "We want to do as much as possible! For now it's just a question of saying 'yes' when we get an offer. We want to play live as much as we can, so that people can learn about us that way and decide whether they like the music or not." If you can read German this is the way to go.

Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the news.

Discography updated
July 30, 2004.
The Discography has been updated. Older coverscans have been replaced with bigger ones - and new ones have been added. Furthermore the expected release date for Katrine Stochholm's solo album has been moved a bit.

Forum no longer a "pop-up"
July 29, 2004.
The Under Byen Forum no longer opens in a new browser window. It's now more part of the site and has the entire menu at the top. Nice and easy. Furthermore the forum is starting to come alive. There have been some discussions about how to get Under Byen's releases and about when older releases will become available again. Under Byen's manager Jesper Majldall has been answering a few questions regarding this. There is also a thread about other music than Under Byen, so knock yourself out. Thanks for using the forum, folks! :-D

New translation of "Ride" lyrics
July 28, 2004.
Yesterday I got an e-mail from Sven Lange of the Zoological Museum at the University of Amsterdam, Holland. His very polite and nice e-mail revealed that a correct translation of the song "Ride" might require a certain degree of zoological knowledge. Well, more than the webmaster of this site had anyway. :-)
A 'ride' is the Danish name for a 'kittiwake' - a certain species of seagull. It is pronounced 'riderne' in plural form.
The Probert Encyclopaedia says: "The Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a native British seagull so named after its call which sounds like 'kittee-wake kitte-wake'."
Of course all songs are always open to interpretation, but the lyrics for "Ride" makes much more sense in this new light, he-he. Well, you learn something new every day! :-D
Many thanks go out to 'zoologically well-informed' Dane Sven Lange for this interesting insight.
The Lyrics page has of course now been updated.

Belgian contest / New interviews / Cohen tribute website
July 27, 2004.
I can't read Belgian, but from what I can guess you can win the "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" cd at Kwadratuur. Go to this page - and quick. It's got to be before July 31, 2004, if I understand correctly.

Latest news from Under Byen's manager Jesper Majdall is that a few gigs in Holland (around September and early October) are currently in the planning phase. And the new vinyl edition of the second album will likely include a four-colour poster (credits and pictures on one side and a band picture on the other side).

Here is more new stuff that surfaced after a little "Google-session":

Belgian radio Cucamonga recently interviewed Henriette about the band's origins and her lyrics. Among other things it offers an insight into songs like "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" and "Mission. Listen to the whole interview here - and read the complete transcript here (very handy when trying to decipher the Belgian host). "Wat filosoof, die Henriette!", he-he. ;-) The interview bits are in English.

The same goes for German webzine Musicscan's interview. You can read it here and also have a bit of a laugh ("I remember someone saying that our band sounded like Kelly Family on acid") .

A website for the Danish Leonard Cohen tribute "På danske læber" has been made. Check it out at www.paadanskelaeber.dk. The page about Under Byen is here. There you can see the Danish lyrics, a nice collage-like picture as well as some photos from the recording sessions.

The Under Byen version of "I'm Your Man" has been added to the Lyrics page - alongside Cohen's original which is somewhat longer.

Some new Belgian, French and German reading matter has been added to the Reading page. There is also a new link for some live pictures from the Amsterdam show in June. Also: I tried making the text size on the site a little smaller as several people have been saying it was very large. Yes, I have a quite small screen here in Aarhus so that might explain it. Sorry for the inconvenience. :-)

Re-issue details
July 26, 2004.
When "Kyst" is re-issued it will not be distributed outside of Denmark. Nevertheless, Under Byen plan to sell the cd on their tour in October and November. Once the cd is out again it should be available at webstores like these: The Other Music (foreign orders/site in English), Rillen (foreign orders), CD Skiven (EU only), Guf Musik, CDON and Moby Disc. Some of these shops still seem to have copies of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen". The French FNAC store also has that album.
By the way, the "2 Ryk" soundtrack can be bought at VibraShop and CDON - and the "Live at Haldern Pop" EP at Haldern Pop Recordings, Alphamusic Shop and Amazon (Germany).

The Links page has also been sorted out a bit.

New European live dates
July 23, 2004.
The Concerts page has been updated with new shows in France and Belgium (Strasbourg, Brugge etc.). Futhermore there are now also four 'instore' appearances in Reims, Paris, Strasbourg and Grenoble. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the news.

Easier access to the forum
July 21, 2004.
The link for the forum is now in the menu bar at the top - as well as part of the menu on the main page. It still opens in a new browser window so you can easily return to this part of the website.
Some of the current threads on the forum are "How did you get to know about Under Byen?" and "Best Under Byen release?". You're welcome to come up with some new and more exciting discussions. That's shouldn't be to hard. ;-)

The Discography has been corrected and a little information added in places.

Rockomondo Interview Special
July 20, 2004.
The ever so kind Jean-Pierre Moya of French indie radio Rockomondo has provided the site with the interview he did with Under Byen at the Eurosonic Festival in Holland in January. Excerpts from this conversation were broadcast on French radio (in English) and is now presented here in mp3 format. Go to this page for this little treat. Thanks to Jean-Pierre. Check his site out at www.rockomondo.com - where you can also read the full interview.

Under Byen live recordings
July 19, 2004.
Judging from the guestbook and e-mails sent to the site, there seems to be an interest in live recordings of Under Byen. No surprise, he-he. They're a great live band.
So just to let you know: The web forum Sharing The Groove currently has a thread where an Under Byen show is being shared as a socalled "bit-torrent". If you know how to deal with that sort of thing this is the page to go to.

In the future this news page will not bring news of bootleg tradings as this is not the mission of this site, but people can of course post on the Under byen forum if they wish. And through it contact each other and give tips on where to get live recordings.

A small note: Under Byen welcome bootleggers as long as it's for non-profit purposes and free trading - even recording directly from the soundboard/mixer. There have been made some very nice bootlegs this year.

And by the way, don't forget the recently released and very nice live EP, "Live At Haldern Pop". Brilliant live action on that one. :-)

Part one of "The Story" finished / More Roskilde photos
July 18, 2004.
The first part of The Story is finished and the second part is begun. So now the band's first five years are covered and you can read what the band was doing up until the release of "Kyst". If you discover any incorrect information in it, please let me know by mailing me. Then I will look into it.

Photo journalist Marco Germinario took some pictures at the Roskilde festival - including some of Under Byen. You can see them here. He also interviewed the band for the Italian magazine Il Mucchio Selvaggio, so some time soon there will be an article in it.

Roskilde Festival 2004 Photo Special / Lyrics
July 17, 2004.
A nice selection of pictures from Under Byen's performance at the Roskilde Festival is now online at this site. Great thanks to Jint for providing the photos.
The pictures are rather large, so please have a bit of patience when loading the page. This way you can not only see the band in action, but always the beautiful light setting at the show - done by John "Skæg" Hedegaard.
Check out the Photo Special for the Under Byen pictures and visit Jint.dk for more Roskilde-pictures.

Furthermore: the Lyrics page has been updated with the words for the duet "Blå & Black" which Henriette did with Nephew for their new album "USA DSB". For more info on them visit www.nephew.dk.

Update
July 16, 2004.
For anyone curious about who the webmaster on this site is, I wrote a little text on the About page. Then you know why I'm actually doing this. :-)

And don't be shy - go ahead and use the forum. It's for you. ;-) I have started a few threads there to get things going. And of course feel free to add your own.

Re-issues / New recordings / New shows
July 15, 2004.
For those who didn't manage to get a copy of Under Byen's debut album "Kyst" in time there is good news. It will now be re-issued. The same goes for "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen". More details to follow later.

Even better news: the band is currently in Brussels, Belgium. There they have borrowed a big house where they are now recording new material.

Under Byen will be performing their Leonard Cohen cover song at a show in Store Vega in Copenhagen on September 26 where other artists from the tribute cd will also play.
The band will also do to concerts in Denmark in November. On the 26th at Voxhall in Aarhus and on the 27th at Store Vega in Copenhagen. The last show will be together Blue Foundation.

Also check the Concerts page for new French dates in Paris and Grenoble as well as new details on previously mentioned dates.

And now the official Under Byen website has linked to this site. Great!

Thanks to Jesper Majdall for all the above info.

Nils Gröndahl appears on new Efterklang album
July 8, 2004.
Nils Gröndahl has lent his talents and violin to the Copenhagen-based band Efterklang. They will release their debut album "Tripper" in the autumn of 2004 and Nils plays on four of the nine tracks on it. The album is the follow-up to the EP "Springer" (released spring 2003). Efterklang's music might appeal to fans of Icelandic band Múm - even though their styles are not entirely the same. Some of the songs also sound a bit like tracks from Piano Magic's "Low Birth Weight" album. You can download Efterklang's music at www.efterklang.net (under 'arkiv'). Thanks to Rasmus Stolberg of Efterklang for the news.

Roskilde Festival pictures / Site updates
July 7, 2004.
Under Byen played a great gig at the Roskilde Festival last week. Photographers from Rockphoto covered the festival as usual. Although many of the pictures they did were not as great as the previous years they did two great shots of Under Byen. For a direct link to the pictures go here.
At the Roskilde Festival Henriette Sennenvaldt also performed with Nephew - just as she did on the recent Spot 10 Festival in Aarhus.

Soon Jint.dk will also have pictures from the festival - including Under Byen. When that happens it will be mentioned on this page.

The discography has been updated in the Compilations section and a page with details on the music in the movie "2 Ryk Og En Aflevering" ("Kick'n'Rush") has been added. The latter is a socalled 'music cue sheet' that can be accidently stumbled upon after extensive searching with Google. :-)

Henriette Sennenvaldt & Sofus Forsberg Sonar 2004 streamed / Details on Bornholm shows
June 27, 2004.
Denmark's national radio DR has done a special web feature about the recent electronic festival in Barcelona - Sonar 2004. Sofus Forsberg performed there and brought along Henriette Sennenvaldt to do the vocals for his electronic music. The site features pictures and 12 minutes of live music from their concert. Read and listen here. On the same page you can also listen to the madness of Sofus' labelmate Je M'Appelle Mads.

Henriette with Sofus Forsberg at Sonar 2004 in Barcelona.
Photo: Danmarks Radio

Details on the "Out of Season"-shows on the island of Bornholm (where Henriette Sennenvaldt are performing) are now available. Apparently is only three shows and not four as previously mentioned. Dicte, Lars H.U.G. and TV-2's Steffen Brandt are also singing - with the string quartet Ensemble MidtVest. The shows are:
September 16: Hotel Sandvig, Strandvejen 99, Sandvig.
September 17: Møbelfabrikken, Gl. Rønnevej 17, Nexø.
September 18: Musikhuzet, St. Torv, Rønne (Gala performance).
All shows start at 20.00. Ticket price for the first two shows are 125 DKR (140 DKR at the door) and for the gala it is 140 DKR (160 DKR at the door). Ticket sales: Musik Eksperten, Rønne (phone (+45) 56 95 33 45) and Nexø Radio, Nexø (phone (+45) 56 49 21 58).
You can download the entire program (in Danish) for the Bornholm Cultural Week here. The events on this island - one of Denmark's most popular holiday resorts - run from the 10th to the 19th of September. Read more in the news from June 21, 2004. Thanks to Henrik Nielsen for tip.

New liveshow streamed / Nephew-duet preview
June 25, 2004.
Under Byen's VPRO session from the 23rd of June is now streamed online. There are 20 minutes of sound ("Det er mig der holder træerne sammen", "Mission" and "Legesag") as well as a 10 minute video of "Legesag". Go to this page to check out these high quality streams. There you will also find two other shows with the band (53 and 44 minutes). If you can read Dutch there's a bit on the Club Lek show here.

Under Byen live at Club Lek in Holland two days ago. Photo: VPRO.

The new album "USA DSB" by Nephew is now streamed online at Danmarks Radio. Henriette's duet with leadsinger Simon Kvamm called "Blå & Black" is there too. Just click "hør pladen" on this page and choose the song.

And remember: next week Under Byen will play at the Roskilde Festival - duking it out with none other than David Bowie at an almost similar time slot. Nephew are also playing - as well as Under Byen-remixers and great noise act Wäldchengarten who are also from Aarhus. Other Aarhus bands at the festival include Tiger Tunes and Powersolo.

"På danske læber" in the shops
June 24, 2004.
The Danish Leonard Cohen tribute album is now in the stores. Three tracks from the cd are streamed - alongside a very positive review - at Danmarks Radio. Not Under Byen's "I'm Your Man", though. The review concludes that it after all is possible to translate Cohen's lyrics into Danish and still keep most of the flow and feeling of the originals intact.

Autumn solo gig, reading matter and audio interview
June 21, 2004.

Henriette Sennenvaldt will be performing with the string quartet Ensemble MidtVest on the Danish island of Bornholm in the autumn. Again this year TV-2 songwriter and singer Steffen Brandt organizes the annual event - under the title "Udenfor Sæsonen" (Out of Season) - and therefore invites the singers. Besides Henriette Sennenvaldt Steffen Brandt himself, Lars H.U.G. and Dicte will also be performing. Altogether four shows - three on different places on the island and one gala performance at Musikhuset in the town of Rønne.
News from Danmarks Radio Bornholm. Read article in Danish here. Thanks to Henrik Nielsen for that piece of news.

After a lot of "googling" the Reading page now has a large selection of reviews, interviews and articles in various languages.

On top of that there is now an audio stream interview (in English) from when the band was in Belgium recently. Go to CuttingEdge for that one.

Music videos / Album out in Norway / Vinyl re-issue / Remix-release
June 20, 2004.

Although a video apparently was made around "Kyst" and never shown it now seems that Under Byen will go on screen - in one form or another. A music video for the song "Mission" is currently in production by director Rie Hougaard. A video will also be made for the song "Plantage" - in Flash format for the web. The man behind this one will be Jakub Dvorský who mesmerized many online users in the last year with his beautiful and original game "Samorost". You can play that one here.

Samorost-creator Jakub Dvorský will do Under Byen music video.

At the time of the Øya Festival in Oslo in August the band's second album "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" will be released by Honeymilk Records in Norway.

When the band goes on its autumn tour the vinyl version of "Det er mig der holder træerne sammen" will be made in a second pressing. At the same time the new remix record should see the light of day. This would be around September 25.

Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the news.

More shows!
June 18, 2004.

Check out the Concerts page for several new gigs in Belgium, France, Holland and Denmark. The band is also going to do a radio session for Dutch VPRO Radio on the 23rd of June. Thanks to Jesper Majdall for the info.

Forum on the site
June 15, 2004.

Today a little forum was put together for the site. Feel free to post there anytime. The link is on the front page for now. And right here (opens in a new browser window).

Track on Leonard Cohen tribute album
June 8, 2004.

On June 21, 2004, the Danish language Leonard Cohen tribute album "På Danske Læber" will be released on Auditorium. Under Byen have done an interpretation of "I'm Your Man". The tracks are as follows:

Steffen Brandt & Tina Dickow - Halleluja (Hallelujah)
Claus Hempler - Alle Ved Besked (Everybody Knows)
Jens Unmack - Minder (Memories)
Aud Wilken - Her Og Nu (Here It Is)
Allan Jensen - For Skønheds Skyld (Came So Far For Beauty)
Niels Skousen - Miraklet (Waiting For The Miracle)
Thomas Troelsen - Susan (Suzanne)
Swan Lee - Din Gamle Blå Frakke (Famous Blue Raincoat)
Povl Dissing - Fugl På En Snor (Bird On A Wire)
Lise Westzynthius & Maria Friis - Ved Den Mørke Flod (By The Rivers Dark)
Allan Olsen - Alexandra Tabt (Alexandra Leaving)
Olesen-Olesen - Hvem I Ilden (Who By Fire)
Camilla Munck & Martin Ryum - Du Ved Hvem Jeg Er (You Know Who I Am)
Under Byen - Jeg Er Din Mand (I'm Your Man)
Nikolaj Nørlund - Pergament Hotel (Paper Thin Hotel)
Ulla Henningsen - Lukketid (Closing Time)

New shows have been added to the bands calender on July 9: Cactus Festival in Brugge, Belgium, alongside Patti Smith and Macy Grey. The band also plays at Univers in the festival week in their hometown of Aarhus on August 28.

Welcome to the site
June 7, 2004.

Welcome to this new Under Byen "fansite". I hope you find what you are looking for.

Main - Forum