From Chaos to Export-Ready Scandi Pop

SPOT kicks off 2019 with the addition of ten new acts for this year’s line-up – six Danish acts and four from the rest of the Nordic countries

If chaotic, intoxicating, impenetrable darkness is your thing, The Love Coffin’s concert is unmissable. Since last year’s festival, the quintet have taken their first international steps both with the band’s debut album “Cloudlands” and some gigs abroad, one of which was at the Synästhesie Festival in Berlin. And if you should still harbor doubts concerning the general wellbeing of rock music anno 2019, go see punk/grungy Mavourneen, and you’ll realize rock is indeed alive and kicking.

With a tangible change of pace, let’s move on to Hanne Mjøen’s Scandi pop, which has already been hailed as Norway’s next big export article and has both garnered kudos in the UK from BBC and The Line of Best Fit, while her countryman Magnus Bechmann was labeled “New Band of the Week” by The Guardian in the wake of the EP “Loners Get Lonely Too”. Swedish Linn Koch-Emmery’s lo-fi indie rock is on the rise, and right now she is definitely one to watch at the international showcase festivals including SPOT, while Icelandic Indridi impressed everyone with his slacker rock at the latest edition of Airwaves.

In addition, there is r’n’b with Jens Nørhave; Ravi Kumar is hip-hop with in-your-face lyrics, The Oceans belong in the Britpop-inspired department, and finally there’s acid folk from M.Rexen.

See presentations and full line-up (so far) here: