DISTORTION
Copenhagen Street Life & New Dance Music – since 1998
ANIMAL COMMUNICATION aka ACTIONHYGGE.COM
idea & event & media & consulting agency – since 1998
FONDEN DISTORTION KØBENHAVN
for arts&culture & social projects in the public space – since 2012
KARRUSEL
3 days of Disco, House and Techno in the woods – since 2014
HANGAREN
Venue for dinners & events & parties – since 2018
NUS/NUS
Secretariat & Agency – since 2008
In everything we do, two dominant feelings:
>> Copenhagen is amazing. Socially, politically, philosophically and aesthetically there is A LOT to say about the rare Danish blend of pig-farming and Scandi-cool.
>> Mobile events, impulsive celebrations, off-location concerts, street dinners, pop-up culture, the public space – any happening with an unconventional format – are breeding grounds for MAGIC MOMENTS. Call it the spirit of rave. Some call it jazz. We live to create human electricity.
>> In the period 1998-2008, the human office produced a 16-page guide for The Copenhagen Post. We wrote & edited & produced ca. 35 articles, every week, 531 Wednesdays in a row (!!) = a total of 18.000+ stories about Copenhagen culture (!!).
>> Distortion was originally a just-for-fun project: for 10 years, all events were small (like 20-200 guests), improvised, underground, mobile… no employees, no budget, all daytime events were 100% free, we didn’t even run bars (!!). We decided to go “pro” in 2008. Call it “volunteer work” or “product development” but it took 11 years before Distortion could pay one office salary.
>> In 2015, the Danish Parliament hired us to design & produce the 100-year celebration for the constitution of Denmark (an update in 1915 where women got the right to vote). We put 8 stages and hosted 15.000 guests all around the Christiansborg Palace – including a pool party in the canals (!!). Show us one country in the world who dares to celebrate a constitutional century with a pool party in the city canals.
>> Distortion, Karrusel and Hangaren are three of the strongest brands in Copenhagen youth culture. In 2018, professional analysts surveyed a sample of the population aged 18-30. They told us that Distortion was the most representative event for Copenhagen’s cultural identity (over all other events in the capital) and that 82% of the Copenhagen youth aged 18-30 had participated in the event personally (!!).
>> In the field of electronic music & DJ-culture, the Distortion Ø and Karrusel are the two largest festivals in Northern Europe. Not bad for a bunch of nerdy anarchists who started with nothing but a shitty van and a flip-phone.
>> Of course, we played Pump The Jam from the church bells of Christianshavn, recited poems with long-range horn speakers from the top of the Round Tower (over the entire medieval city centre during Corona lockdowns), we lift bridges as a hobby, we drew hearts in the sky with show-planes when iconic Copenhagener Master Fatman died – and we event-launched Vice Magazine, Politiken Pressen, iByen i byen, L’Institut Francais de Copenhague (for the Ambassade de France), Sensation White Denmark, Natfilm festival, CPH:DOX…
>> Just for fun, we did pirate parties at the Queen’s Palace – twice!! – in 2001 (Amalienborg courtyard with a bus and fire jugglers) and in 2018 (Christiansborg Banquet Hall with a chamber choir, disguised as a bus of tourists).
>> We hosted hundreds of street, parking lot & mobile parties with MØ, Kidd, Diplo, Krede&Madvig Jam, Powerplant, Bjarke Ingels, Henrik Vibskov, Medina, Suspekt, WhoMadeWho, Chicks on Speed – and we produced dozens of afterparties with DelaSoul, Justice, The Rapture, Simian Mobile Disco, Hot Chip, SuperMayer…
>> Our fallen heroes are Kjeld Tolstrup (Endelig Fri For Funk), Djuna Barnes (Rave On), Master Fatman (Love Is In The Air) and Queen Ritt (Hvil I Fred).
The human office is the small holding company of thomas dalvang fleurquin (tdf).
The team is employed at Nus/Nus ApS, secretariat & agency.
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That was our background.
And sometimes I still send a messy newsletter.
In 1999-2000, I was hosting a live internet tv show (today we call them “YouTubers”) on the Superchannel by Superflex, called Super Copenhagen. It was ultra chaotic and anti-aesthetic – some said dada – but there was energy and plenty of secrets from the world of arts&culture and the Copenhagen underground.
In 2001, the weekly web-tv stream became the human infomail newsletter. The core idea was to spread information about exciting events in Copenhagen and to make nightlife and the art world less pretentious, less closed, more free & open to all, more random.
Around 2006-2008 we reached 5.000+ email subscribers, including 380 journalists, 2.000+ culture professionals from art & music & media & promotors & DJs etc… and then of course our favourites: around 2.500 random subscribers whom we did not really know.
The human infomail also got into national shitstorms against the hard right (Pia Kjærsgaard), against the hard left (Modkraft & Strøm) and against the political correct centre (Politiken). And this was all before Twitter and cancel culture!! I deserve a t-shirt.
Nowadays I mainly send the email to promote our own events.
But you never know: randomness rules.
Words just appear and woosh!
-tdf.
LOVE: bottom-up from centre, bottom-up from left, bottom-up from right.
HATE: top-down from left, top-down from right, top-down from centre.