copenhagen

danish trance scene

by May Britt

The danish trance scene is very varied, and very active.
Loads of parties, underground ones and more trendy ones - make almost every single weekend a complete joy. Many Norwegians and Swedes come down here to enjoy our scene.
To my knowledge, the danish trance-scene in Copenhagen really kicked of round about the time when I discovered it -1995. Before then, some small underground psytrance parties had been thrown in old factories and similar places. But, it was completely underground, and not known to every man. The house-scene was the first who started playing some actual psy-trance back in 1999 in between the housetracks. At a club named Geomarlix it all really kicked off - seen from my point of view. DJ Alexis started playing Dragonfly in between - and people loved it. It was such a seriously needed break from all this happy house-music. This split up the crowd, and an actual goa crowd and scene evolved in 1996. Clubs started specialising in playing goa, or similar genres. People quickly caught on to the vibe and it became quite popular in this secluded crowd - still being underground - but the underground had gotten bigger and the type of people more varied. Some big and great raves were thrown at Pakhus 11 and Amager Bio, the police quickly caught on to it, the media did as well. Loads of TV-shows in techno and drugs were made, and - unfortunately Pakhus 11 was shut down.
Goa mixed with trance, and now got it's own term; psychedelic trance. The scene has actually, at least in Copenhagen become quite huge. Amager Bio still has some great parties, with live-acts such as X-Dream, Astral Projection, Etnica and soon Miranda. Clubs such as the The Tube and Blue Note also tend to play psychedelic, but the crowd is often a bit too rough. We have some major great partythrowers, such as Maya Connection, Athom and the newcomer Magic Forest throwing parties outdoors, at "weird" places and small underground clubs. These parties mainly attract the "real" crowd - and if you ever come to Denmark - these are the parties to go to!
On the production side we have record companies like Iboga Records, we have DJ's such as Frank E., Jean Borelli, Jay and Omid. The danish scene is developing and growing fast. New and innovative artists contribute to the fact, that what started as a house-scene has now turned into an active and innovative trance-scene.
At Århus, the other side of Denmark from where I'm sitting (Copenhagen), the scene seems also to be quite active. I'm sad to say, I don't know much about that part of the danish scene - but, I'll keep you posted as soon as I get more info on that.
All I can say for now, in regards to our scene; Come visit - you won't regret it!

PLUR
May Britt