A diverse group of Copenhagen artists charge the city’s cultural landscape with politically engaged, community-driven work rooted in alternative spaces like Kapelvej 44, a long-running hub for art and activism now threatened by gentrification. This playlist includes tracks from this epicentre of Copenhagen subculture.

HVAD
“40 hz transformeret taknemmelighed” (excerpt)
From DØGN
(ULLLU)

Composed as a 24 hour performance for the subterranean art space Cisternerne, DØGN is the most ambitious work to date by HVAD, aka Hari Kishore, a stalwart of Copenhagen’s underground electronic music scene. A continuous sonic ritual performed from 3:33pm to 3:33pm, bathed only in candlelight, DØGN draws on years of spontaneous long-form experimentation by HVAD. The piece was both a physical challenge and spiritual offering. Audience members drifted in and out, some staying for hours, while HVAD remained, channeling energy from the cistern’s womb-like quiet into a meditative, time-bending transmission.

ML Buch
“Slide”
From Suntub
(15 Love)

Parallel to his own musical practice, HVAD also plays a critical role in the Copenhagen scene via Kommunal Dubplate Service, a lacquer cutting and mastering studio that he’s operated since 2008 from the Kapelvej 44 community centre in central Copenhagen. The dubplate studio is a hub for local artists and labels, including 15 love, a Copenhagen label known for blurring indie, electronic and experimental music in its releases. One such is Suntub by ML Buch, cut by HVAD and released by 15 love in 2023. “Slide” is a luminous example of ML Buch’s skewed, ethereal approach to experimental alt.rock.

Xenia Xamanek
“Recitative 2 – The Volcanoes”
From Germinate [Imprint] Wilt [Stay]
(Scorpio Red)

Kapelvej 44 incubated the early efforts of Copenhagen collective UUMPHFF, a platform dedicated to amplifying BIPoC voices in the local scene and fostering inclusive spaces for experimentation. One of its co-founders, Xenia Xamanek, has just released a new album for London label Scorpio Red: Germinate [Imprint] Wilt [Stay] is a carefully structured, densely vocalised exploration of Central American and Nordic folklore. Xamanek intertwines mythic narratives with abstract soundscapes and quasi-operatic forms, as on “Recitative 2 – The Volcanoes”, where contested oral histories and legends are intensified through the artist’s carefully layered vocal polyphony

abji_hypersun
“yeye”
From 4REAL
(Self-released)

Simin Stine Ramezanali, another co-founder of UUMPHFF, wears multiple hats in the Copenhagen scene, as a musician with several active projects and in-house booker at the storied Den Grå Hal venue in Freetown Christiania. Kapelvej 44 has been a critical space for their work as an organiser and as a musician as well: “It’s a place that has been and still is super important for the underground and DIY music scene in Copenhagen,” they say. Ramezanali’s project abji_hypersun is a vehicle for solo experimentation blending electronic, ambient, and references to Iranian music.

SLIM0
“TRENCHES”
From FORGIVENESS
(15 Love)

SLIM0, the trio of Ramezanali and high school friends Lena and Mija Milovic, distills its heavy, doomy grunge rock energy into FORGIVENESS, an album that brims with emotional tension and raw, cathartic release. What began as an ad hoc performance concept morphed into a band that has become a mainstay of Copenhagen’s alternative rock and punk scene – the trio recently headlined a fundraising benefit at Kapelvej 44 to support gender-affirming surgery. “TRENCHES” is a good place to start: a magmatic flow of distorted guitars, pummelling drums, and introspective lyrics, emanating a sense of struggle and resilience.

abolish i
“bbb (swan songs for fear)”
(Self-released)

abolish i, a collaborative project between Ramezanali and Berlin-based artist moraya, is a visceral exploration of grief and catharsis. It fuses distorted electronics, detuned instruments, and field recordings into a mutating blend of ambient, shoegaze and drum ’n’ bass. Sampled material from Afghan human rights activist Ramin Mazhar’s “بیانیه‌ای در محضر تاریخ” grounds the piece in a political context – a further reflection of Ramezanali’s commitment to channeling activist and communitarian energy through music. “This spirit of community and collaboration is really integral to our identity,” they say of their work as an organiser at Den Grå Hal. “I think this way of organising is unique in a venue with capacity for 1,750 people.”