This year's line-up focused on electronic dance music: IDM and techno were the main genres of the evening. Bergen's finest Todd Terje started off the party to colour the afternoon full of groovy hues. We arrived in a cab directly from the hotel together with Jon Hopkins and his manager at Domino Records. He has just released Singularity, an epic record that counts with sensational press reviews and many fervent admirers already. The expectation for his DJ set was evident.
“It’s great to be part of this festival. It’s a shame I didn’t get to see Todd Terje. I really like him. Recondite is really brilliant. It’s going to be a great evening," Hopkins explained right before taking over the main stage aka Förbindelsehallen. For the occasion, he used an Arteria midi controller, Ableton Live and Pioneer DJ set. The crowd went crazy with some of the new tunes like Emerald Rush, and especially, the epic Everything Connected.
Right after Hopkins' show, we had a chance to speak to Miss Dilemma. The Stockholm-based up-and-coming DJ and producer has been around for several years and it seems things are coming together for her. “It took some time to find my own workflow as a producer. I come from vinyl, although I don’t use it anymore. Now I work digitally with a small piece of hardware called Electribe. It is a music production box, so I can sit anywhere and make my music with my laptop. After that, I take it to the studio and work with an engineer,” she explained.
The recent tragic news about Swedish DJ and producer Avicii stroke the local scene, so we wanted to know some reactions from the inside, and Miss Dilemma told us, “I never met him but I know a lot of friends of him. I had two cases of proper burn out myself; I’m very familiar with what you go through with this mental illness. I’ve never been a fan of his music, it’s not my personal taste, but I of course respect what he did. I was really taken. Sometimes, it is very difficult to recognize how it affects you that you push yourself so hard. He killed himself when everything slowed down; as long as you are in this carrousel performing, you can’t”.
We also wanted to know about her experience within the electronic music scene as a woman. “It is awesome (laughs). When I started out, I think we were like three women DJs in Scandinavia. Now we have a rich equality. For good or for bad, I think I get more attention for being a woman. It is easy to get criticized but the attitude has changed in the last couple of years. Believe it or not, several years ago, it was like ‘oh, can she really handle it technically?’ Or, ‘Can be she as good as DJ A, B, or C?’ – all men. Now that has changed. Also, the DJ industry used to favour pretty girls regardless how good they were musically speaking. If you are a topless DJ woman, fine, go for it and entertain your audience (laughs) but don’t put me in the same category just because of the fact that I’m a female.”