Strøm Festival 2023: Multichannel Round Trip

Imagine a weird mirror world of busy sewage people below your feet, reflecting the city life above through sound. Imagine rhythms from the underground unveiling and intensifying what goes on in your psyche.

This is what might happen when you dive into the Multichannel Round Trip at Lydbrøndene.

32 speakers are installed below ground in 32 wells all around the city square of Bent Fabricius-Bjerres Plads (Solbjerg Plads) on Frederiksberg, creating an underground sound system and a unique musical platform below our feet called Lydbrøndene (The Sound Wells).

This multichannel sound system allows for musicians and sound artists to create multidimensional and dynamic soundscapes that curious visitors and passers-by can walk through and explore on their own.

This year, Strøm has invited sound artist Julie Østengaard and music producer Alfredo92 to create a piece each for The Sound Wells.

You can experience their creations transforming the square throughout the Strøm Festival at specific times during the four days.

Just show up and explore your own sonic adventure in the city square. Let the sounds ripple through your psyche. Pay attention. Move from the surface of things to the depths. Discover the patterns and experience how the square transforms – and maybe your mind, too.

⚡️Alfredo92: Scuttle (Pond version)
This piece sets out to unveil the hecticness and chaos that the stringent concrete architecture of the urban city square attempts to conceal. It will embrace and intensify the hecticness of transportation that goes on every day in the urban space above ground. And maybe below. Jump onto the hidden rhythms and see where they take you.

⚡️Julie Østengaard: Sewage People
A sonic dystopia where fantasy creatures living in the wells observe the busy world above. This surreal collage blends humor and absurdity with reality: In a toxic, bubbling and absurd underground universe, a life of productivity, self-realization, and consumerism is mirrored through echoes of fragmented digital voices. Fake AI-generated advertisements playfully promise the impossible: To achieve it all without stress. A satirical reflection on the modern obsession with success and “having it all.”

⚡️When to experience ‘Scuttle (Pond version)’ and ‘Sewage People’:

Weekdays
07.30 – 07.55
16.00 – 16.25
20.00 – 20.25

Saturdays and Sundays
14.00 – 14.25
20.00 – 20.25

First playthrough Thursday 31st of Aug.
Last playthrough Thursday Sept 14th.

⚡️Alfredo92
Alfredo92 is a DJ and producer based in Copenhagen, running the label Axces Recordings which saw the release of his debut album ‘Transient’ in 2021 (https://alfredo92.bandcamp.com/album/transient
). Alfredo92’s style is rooted in dance music but incorporates leftfield elements and always explores new realms. Alfredo92 has also released as TAXA on the Mirror Zone label run by Spekki Webu – a release driving the tempos beyond logic – resulting in what can be described as a kaleidoscopic braindance with a sense of urgency.

⚡️Julie Østengaard
Julie Østengaard is a sound artist, electronic composer and performer spanning across experimental electronic genres like ambient, musique concrète and glitch. Julie’s works have incorporated elements such as warning sirens, mobile phones, brain impulses and the contents of an old shipyard. In addition to her solo projects, Julie has collaborated with companies like Convoi Exceptionell and Kollektivet Samling and has had her work presented at events like Klang Festival, Click Festival, Spor Festival, Göteborg Art Sounds Festival and Kunsthal Kongegaarden.

⚡️Lydbrøndene
This is the second year of Strøm Festival diving into Lydbrøndene/The Sound Wells at Bent Fabricius-Bjerres Plads (Solbjerg Plads). In 2022, Sofie Birch, CTM and Schacke composed pieces for Strøm Festival at The Sound Wells.