Ja Ja Ja will be back in Hamburg and Berlin in November, with three of the best new Nordic artists for you to discover!
Don’t worry guys – the winter nights might be getting longer and colder, but Ja Ja Ja is back to provide a cosy, music-filled Nordic hub at Molotow in Hamburg and Musik & Frieden in Berlin. Over the course of two November nights, we’ll be bringing brand new Nordic music and toasty northern vibes to the two cities – so without further ado, let us tell you who’s set to play!
Finnish trio Lake Jons, Norwegian duo Apothek and Danish collective Lowly will all be making their way to Hamburg and Berlin for November’s Ja Ja Ja shows – each of them causing ripples within their home countries and beyond, and each of them widely acclaimed for the splendour of their live performances.
Tickets for the show are available for Hamburg and Berlin now – priced just €5 in advance for Ja Ja Ja members (not a member yet? Then sign up for free here!) – so make sure to grab yours soon to be able to join us!
Ja Ja Ja Proudly Presents:
Lake Jons | Apothek | Lowly
Hamburg
Wednesday 23rd November 2016 – 8:00pm ’til late
Molotow, Nobistor 14, 22767, Hamburg – Facebook Event
Berlin
Thursday 24th November 2016 – 8:00pm ’til late
Musik & Frieden, Falckensteinstrasse 48, 10997, Berlin – Facebook Event
Lake Jons [FIN]
Lake Jons are a Finnish trio, formed by a happy accident in 2014 when singer/guitarist Jooel Jons found himself accompanied by guitarist Jaska Stenroth and drummer Mikko Pennanen while performing his songs at their friend’s graduation party.
The trio soon started working together as Lake Jons, creating their beautiful folk sound at a garage somewhere in Helsinki. Since then, Lake Jons have gone on to appear at many live shows, charming people with their music which combines the spirit of dusty garages, rumbling canyons and Nordic woods. Gorgeous vocal harmonies and moods that cast thoughts to Bon Iver, Josh T. Pearson and Beck lie in the centre of it all, and the band released two acclaimed EPs – Explode and Explore in 2016.
Apothek [NOR]
The phrase ‘opposites attract’ could not be more apt for Norwegian duo Apothek. One, an accomplished acoustic raconteur, the other an established electronic producer, have been drawn together by a mutual creative goal to create shimmery electronica with nerdish attention to detail and a certain lyrical sparsity. The duo’s debut album features the triumphant trifecta of previous singles ‘Family’, ‘Waiting For The Thunder’ and ‘Reunion’, plus their latest cut ‘Invited’.
Apothek came together slowly. The meeting of producer Nils Martin Larsen and songwriter Morten Myklebust in the small Oslo scene was, according to the band, inevitable and music quickly followed in 2013. “When we did ‘Family’ there was something we couldn’t really put our fingers on…it felt really interesting from the beginning and the result was really special. But when it came to work flow it took a bit longer to figure it out,” Larsen explains. “Every track on the album has a completely different pattern of creation…there’s no formula we’ve followed for the record.” As for the other half of the duo, a minimalistic use of vocals strikes again for Myklebust: “We have separate and very different methods of working and I think that’s why it sounds the way it does.”
Armed with their self-titled debut, Larsen and Myklebust combine the synthetic with the organic – robot meets poet, if you will. Apothek would not exist if it was one without the other: “It’s not a singer with a production underneath, or a production with a singer on top. It sounds like two people playing it, and that’s important. It has to feel organic.”
Lowly [DEN]
Lowly got together in 2014, having met at the musical academy in Aarhus, Denmark. Despite all five members being involved in different studies, and having their own bands on the go, Nanna Schannong (lead vocals, guitar), Soffie Viemose (lead vocals, laptop), Kasper Staub (synthesisers), Thomas Lund (bass, Moog) and Steffen Lundtoft (drums, percussion) soon found common musical ground; a restlessly inventive and exquisitely melodic sound that refutes easy categorisation.
The band themselves call it “noise-pop, and everything in between”: in this case ‘noise’, explains Kasper Staub, refers to the textures and treatments via laptop and guitar. This gives Lowly songs unpredictable, shape-shifting qualities (brilliantly layered by the band and co-producer Anders Boll, Efterklang’s long-trusted engineer/soundman), though a core of wistful melancholy remains, further intensified by the enigmatic lyrics. “We think of our music and lyrics more like a painting, we think it should all melt together,” says Staub. “We’re all interested in developing ourselves as songwriters, and working in new ways, with different ideas.”
‘Deer Eyes’ is the latest single from Lowly, and follows three independent releases in Denmark, which saw the Guardian include Lowly in a ‘Five must-listen new tracks from around the world’ round-up, while The Line Of Best Fit swooned to an “idyllic, height of summer sonic landscape… total bliss… Nordic pop does not get bigger.”
