Kildemose Festival 2013, Ørbæk, Fyn, Denmark

This has to be one of the most relaxed and best music festivals in the world. It takes place on the beautiful grounds of a brewery and about 200 people descends on the place once a year to celebrate music and art. It never gets much bigger, which is strange as it is such a beautiful place and so relaxed and people have a great time. No idea why they don’t come out but that is fine, more space for the people in the “know”… 

I missed the first day of the festival on Thursday as I was still suffering from Jetlag from my return from the USA.. There were 6 bands that played (Lewd Flesh, Sensational Psycho-poppers, Baby in Vain, Sun Nexus, Mechanical Birds, A Trip without a Ticket) and I had seen two of them before. I heard that Mechanical Birds and A trip without a Ticket were really excellent. 

Friday Aug 2^nd

The Hedgehogs

The Road to Suicide

I arrived with Sabine from Sapphire Records about 14. The band Spåkraket (Flying Saucer in Swedish) were just finishing the soundcheck and about to play. We heard the entire concert while we were setting up our tents (did not get any pics, sorry..) and they were really loud and spaced out. Would have liked to have been sitting there and been really focuses on the music. Intense stuff. It was really hot today and we were totally soaked after setting up the tent and really needed a beer! Got a lot of nice greetings from folks I have not seen since last years festival. I gave Jan, the organizer, the double live at Kildemose vinyls and he was very happy for this. Good for us and good promotion for this excellent festival. The Hedgehogs, a young band on Levitation Records called Kasper (ex-Troldmand) is playing in this band as well as like 3 others at the festival this year. They are a 6 piece with three guitars and sound a lot like Baby Woodrose, 13^th Floor elevators, Love, etc.. Cool stuff but this strummed style of guitar makes too many of the songs sound too much alike. I liked the stripped down jamming three piece version of the band a bit better.  

Set List: Water, Don’t want, Every Door, your Eyes, Don’t owe You, Ny Sang, In the Light, Care about Me. 

The Road to Suicide, is a new young Danish band. Their music is not nearly as dark as the band title. They released a cool split LP with the Spåkraket. This band features two guys who used to play in the Wands. Anyway, these guys play really excellent spacey music. I loved their set. One of the three guitar players tried to play electric sitar but could not get it to work so had to give up and retune his guitar while the others were spacing out. Great set. Wow… 

Set List: Lys Søndag, Before Lexington, Golden Arm, Sitar jam, Step One, Sort Søndag

The DIFF

Next up we changed the music style from three psychedelic bands to a sort of rock-ska mix of sorts. This band had really good energy but the songs did not really grab me. Let’s see how they develop. I don’t know anything about them at all. The Kildemose house band, The Diff (an excellent Grateful Dead cover band) were next and played a very nice set of DEAD tracks including Sugaree, Mexicali blues, Cold Rain and Snow amongst other. People really enjoyed it a lot. Not many people dancing to any of the bands this year. Mali musician Basiri Suso finally played with this trio this year! This was a cool concert. Beautiful music and people really got up front and loved it. He came out and interacted with the people as well. He was very patient for his first number that he performed with a small kid with a shaker who was on the stage. Cute but he was not on time.. Cool bass player and great tabla, percussion player as well. 

Telestar Drone Sound

Now things started to get behind schedule as the next two bands insist on playing on their own gear and not using the backline or letting other bands use their gear. Otherwise, they have been able to keep on time. Telestar Sound Drone played an amazing set. Think it was the exact set they played at Studenterhuset. Very spacey music with a great vibe. The singer is very active and just absorbed into the music. My only complaint is they never take any of their songs to the next level, it is very predictable somehow. They could really fly if they would be willing to take that little risk but they don’t, always playing is safe, scared to strive for more, pity.. It will hold them back in the end. 

After another 60hr break to set up Bite the Bullet, with another full change out of drums, etc..  time was really ticking. Bite the Bullet opened with Paw taking on the Star Spangled Banner and direct into Everyboy has a Broken Soul and the amazing number, I Feel Love from their new CD-EP, which is a teaser for the new full length record. The band debuted a few new tracks (quite Neil Young inspired) today.  What a great band, fucking rocking and jamming with great solos and bass and drums. Kicking ass…

Set list: every boy has a broken Soul, I feel Love, Be like You, Going Out, Home, my Soul, Spacedrums, Girl’s got Soul, I will not Die

I was a bit surprised their set was not shorted as now there was only 25mins left for the curfew for Papir to play. They played incredibly intense but were supposed to have 75 mins and that really sucks for them. They were also so disappointed. Jan needs to make bands use their own set time if they take too long and want to use their own gear or just say, you have to use the back drums and amps to make thing simple. They have good equipment that is all mic’d up etc.. Pity for Papir. I felt bad for them. 

Day 3

Moon Mountain

B-tong

Moon Mountain were supposed to play yesterday but did not make it in time so were put on at 11. They were a duo with guitar, female vocals, drum, percussion, gong, and effects. She did most all the singing but he also sang. She has an intense voice and it really bothered me after a while. She is a good singer, it was just too much for me, maybe it was mixed too loud? A small crowd was gathered.

Set List: Intro-Music, Find the Sun, Let it Burn, Siham, Once Again, I don’t know the meaning of love, Black Mole, Release the Sins, Farewell, outro music

B-Tong, an ambient electronic project by my friend Chris from the Swiss band, Phased was next and he has a totally new set since last year but the same cool set up of gadgets. This was really cool music to start the day but it would also be great for late at night as well. I joined in for the last 15mins of his set and this was so much fun. I hope we can do it again. I think the set was like 45mins. 

My band Øresund Space Collective was up next and we decided to spend a little extra time and set up Mantric Muse, who would play two acts after ØSC and include all the members, at the same time. This went pretty smooth and we only started about 15mins later than scheduled and we actually only played 82mins, our shortest set ever at this festival. We had a great sound and vibe straight off and everyone played very well. You can hear the concert at the link below. I think it was the biggest crowd we had ever had at the festival and the response was great. People loved it. 

http://www.archive.org/details/OSC2013-08-03-FLAC

Next up was Kristian from the Danish band Dream Jockey. It was just him with his acoustic guitar and a load of effects, looping gear and his sweet daughter standing infront of the stage blowing bubbles! Beautiful and for some reason, I just got sucked into his set. I really liked his songs, his use of effects, switching voice, etc.. I was mesmerized at times. A huge surprise. Great….

Set List: Float, ??, Queen, First Applause, The Rock, Walk with Thor, Soul Collector. Sole Dancer

Mantric Muse

The all instrumental psychedelic space rock band Mantric Muse were up next and were able to start 15mins early and play a 90min set that included their entire new CD (Transubstans Records) and two extra songs. They started with a really old song and a cool opener called DMU. The next 5 were from their CD and Magnus was handing all the guitar and synthesizers (a lot of which is pre-programmed), since Ola, the Swedish synthesizer player, can rarely make it to their concerts. A song they made a demo for in 2000 has reappeared in a new form called Wobbegong Wookie! IT has a really cool guitar riff and line. I like this one a lot. The next new songs was Armh and this is slowly becoming a favourite of mine. They ended the set with my favourite song on their CD, Deep Sea Cheops. Great set. I think people enjoyed it a lot and there is not a band anything like these guys that have played the festival before, mixing electronics and space rock the way they do. ØSC is as close a comparison but something quite different really. Most people don’t know that these guys have been around in one form or another since 1996 and I first met them in 1998. They are just slowly allowing the world to appreciate their music and I highly recommend their new CD. One of the best of 2012. 

Set List: DMU, Cinope, SFunx, Azur, Gnoxience, Nanoid, Wobbegong Wookie, Sinbad Søfarenen, Armh, Deep Sea Cheops

Shiva's Nat

The 70s style hard rock band, Shiva’s nat, featuring the singer from Highway Child (he also plays all the guitar) and Morten from Fuzz Manta on bass, played an amazing set. I was also totally blown away by these guys. They had been tripping on mushrooms the night before and were in the right headspace for playing really improvised blues rock on a high level. The addition of the organ, which they did not have last year when they played, gave them a real Deep Purple feel sometimes. I don’t what songs they played but due to wanting to use all their own gear they also were running late so they were told to stop after only like 35mins. Powerful set. 

Måneskjold (Moon Shield) are a new Danish band playing a spacey heavy hawkwind (without the electronics) like stoner rock. They also had three guitar players (why do all these new young Danish band have three guitarists???), but the singer only played on a few tracks did a great solo on the last track otherwise, Kasper (ex-Troldmand) provided most of the lead guitar. Really cool stuff.

Next was a UK trio called the Underground Youth.  They had a tall lady singing and playing standup drums (she had a snare and floor tom) and two guitar players, who mostly played nearly the same thing. They did the occasional guitar solo and had different guitar tones but in the end it was a bit too much the same and me and all my friends got pretty bored. 

Nickolas Hill and the Univerzals

Nickolas Hill (The Univerzals) had a new group with two Russian guys, both named Alex backing him up in power trio format. I had seen the drummer playing with the Judas Priest cover band but never this other Alex Choub, who plays the 6 string bass like it was a chapman stick.  This was all new songs and no Univerzals songs were played even though that is what the band was still billed as. The first song was really messy and I thought what the hell was this, I hope it gets better and then suddenly, everthing came together and they played really cool stuff, with songs like UFO, Grapes of Jesus and the new classic, I’m a Guitar Man, for which Nick only wrote the excellent lyrics to two hours before! The crowd was all up in the front and totally into it and when they ended their set at 40mins as this was all the songs they had, we all made them play I’m a Guitar Man again as people were really into it. Great show and a huge surprise. Nick is an amazing guitar player and hell, ya a guitar man!!!!!!!!!!

I was starting to really feel strange and tired and I had been hanging out with the Papir guys and drinking a few too many beers so I only watched the Elevatorfører guys set up and the first couple of songs, which were really cool. They had a projector, green laser light, cool props, etc.. it was a full on psychedelic freakout show and they can make it more freaky for people since it is all sung and Danish. Real trip rock like is should be done. Super nice people as well.  I did not see the German band, Excessive Visage but heard they were good. I wonder where they were hiding the whole festival as I was everywhere on the small site and did not hear anyone speak German? Hum.. 

Another great year at Kildemose and a lot of new psychedelic bands, an new Ecological pilsner that was very tastey, the good cheap food was back, and if you were early enough in the evening very nice Thai food for 45kr. All was well.. Great sound, all bands were multitrack recorded and the first 25 or so minutes was videotaped as well. thanks to Jan for making this happen every year. I feel so honoured to able to play and be part of it as well. 

http://www.kildemosefestival.dk