NEKO3 is a Copenhagen-based flexible experimental music ensemble directed by multi-instrumentalists and performers Lorenzo Colombo and Kalle Hakosalo.
Why have you decided to organise your own festival, and what does it allow you to do that you wouldn’t be able to do within a regular concert season?
It started with us wanting to do a larger-scale celebration to commemorate our 10th birthday. During that time NEKO3 has evolved a lot and taken on a wide variety of artistic expressions and media, so we figured the best way to celebrate it would be to portray our current state of being. And said state is so multi-faceted that there was no way we would manage to fit it in one concert. So we decided to set up a proper celebration, revisiting a bunch of old repertoire and collaborators and combining it with fresh collaborations and projects. Moreover, Copenhagen has so many things happening around all the time that we wanted to provide potential audiences with multiple possibilities to come celebrate with us.
The departure of our founding member, Fei, has made this a moment of change and reflection. The festival is therefore a simultaneous celebration of our history and a statement of the directions we are exploring. We see NEKO3 as a fluid ensemble: over the past decade, we have developed a distinct identity without wanting it to become fixed. The festival gives us space to bring together our past, present and future, and to share our openness to new collaborations and artistic exchanges.
The programme revisits our first performance piece, NEKO3 by Jeppe Just Christensen, alongside new works by Connor McLean and Sophie Meyer. It also welcomes new collaborators, including Marta Soggetti, Erica Giacoletto, Jonathan Swensen and Kristoffer Hyldig, while celebrating long-standing relationships with Mads Emil Dreyer, Jeppe Ernst, Simon Løffler and Alexander Schubert.
Another important aspect of the festival is our international activity and the artistic encounters we have developed through travelling and performing abroad. Through formats such as our micro-workshops, we want to bring these encounters into the festival by inviting artists we have met along the way, including Han Zhang and Liepa Vozgirdaitė, and presenting music by composers such as Lemon Guo and Ni Zheng. We will also revisit works developed through these workshops, reimagining them in new formats. One example is party/earth/museum/!!!!, an installation developed in collaboration with Nanna Lysdahl Søgaard and Pernille Kaufmann.
In a way, this is quite an atypical festival: NEKO3 is the only performing ensemble, but we invite friends and collaborators to join us in sharing our collective vision. Rather than creating a festival built around a wide range of independent acts, we want to create a space of our own: an intimate, welcoming gathering where audiences can encounter NEKO3’s artistic world, experience the exchange of ideas and perspectives that shapes our practice, discover the connections between our past and future, and join us as we embark on the next chapter of the ensemble’s journey.
How would you describe the contemporary music scene in Denmark today? What do you think characterises it, and which developments do you find particularly interesting?
In an interview we gave to Seismograf in 2020 we said the following: “Things are very anarchistic right now in contemporary music.” Six years later, we can only reaffirm that observation, embracing anarchy in the best sense of the word: as a creative force that allows music to develop freely, without being bound by traditions or the pressure to follow trends. Since our early days we have promoted the idea of getting rid of the elitism surrounding “classical” and contemporary music. We are living in the 21st century, but they still are surprisingly often portraying themselves as an artform of intrinsically higher value than many other genres of music. We are not exactly sure whether it is intentional or simply baked into its very essence and difficult to be gotten rid of. However, we are seeing an increasing amount of e.g. young composers and composition students rejecting these ideas, and doing whatever they want and wherever their inspiration is taking them - whether said inspiration comes from within in- our outside of the fields of “classical” and contemporary music - and doing amazing things with that inspiration. If an idea is good or inspiring enough, there is no reason to limit yourself from using it just because it is not within your field.
One of the greatest strengths of the Danish contemporary music scene is indeed openness and creativity, which allows younger generations of composers to explore new paths, develop their own artistic languages and imagine new ways of making music. We wouldn’t say that there is one dominant trend defining the scene today. There are many exciting composers emerging, alongside excellent ensembles working to keep the community alive and bring new ideas into musical research and artistic practice more broadly. What we find particularly interesting is the growing tendency to organise around collectives, joining forces rather than working exclusively as individuals - ourselves included. There is a genuine sense of mutual respect and exchange between composers, performers and ensembles, creating an environment in which ideas can develop collaboratively.
Our mission as an ensemble is to remain open to these changes and to act as a platform for emerging artists and composers to collaborate with us, allowing us to enrich one another through the exchange of ideas and artistic perspectives. We welcome artistic transformation and want to be active participants in the ongoing evolution of the contemporary music scene, rather than just observers.
Are there particular musical ideas or trends that you see recurring among the composers you work with, or is it precisely the differences between them that you find interesting?
Our philosophy for quite some time now has been that artistic ideas and people behind said ideas are the most important thing in any given collaboration, and the artistic medium in which they choose to communicate their ideas is secondary. So we would not categorically say it is the trends, or their differences, that particularly interest us - it’s simply that if the idea and its creator strike a chord within us, we are willing to explore it further. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, but either way this knowledge is an important part of the process that guides us further.
We believe that the differences between the composers we work with are precisely what make these collaborations so valuable. Every encounter should be unique. Rather than replicating approaches or searching for similarities, we are interested in discovering what makes each artistic encounter distinctive and what it can bring to our practice. As an ensemble and as individual performers, we are naturally curious and open-minded. We seek to work beyond our comfort zones, constantly challenging our abilities and learning new things.
Our festival offers a good example of this diversity. We will present works in which phrases, harmonies and melodies must be expressed entirely through gestures and body language. We will perform music where we move away from conventional forms of human expression, approaching the mechanical or artificial, through e.g. vocoders and stylised gestures. There will be works where the virtuosity lies not simply in technical mastery, but in the creation and shaping of sound itself, and in the ability to explore its most fragile and subtle qualities. We will explore diverse DIY instruments and post-instrumental approaches, working with pieces that challenge conventional ideas of musicianship and instrumental performance has broadened our horizons and deepened our sensitivity to musical material.
All these diverse experiences have encouraged us to reconsider and expand our skills as performers, developing new ways of engaging with invented instruments, unfamiliar aesthetics and alternative forms of musical expression. They also define the way in which we build relationships with composers. Every aspect of NEKO3, from our performative work to our musical research and multimedia projects, has been shaped by our curiosity and by the generosity of the composers we work with. Through these exchanges, we have discovered new aesthetics and gradually integrated them into our own artistic practice.
We believe this openness is essential to keeping an ensemble artistically healthy in the long term. Rather than identifying recurring patterns or settling into familiar approaches, we want to remain curious, embrace differences and continually challenge our own comfort zones. For us, the real value of collaboration lies precisely in the possibility of becoming something different through an encounter with another artistic mind.
How does the dialogue between you and the composers you work with usually unfold, from the first rehearsals to the final performance?
In a variety of ways. These days we are mostly interested in creative collaborations (rather than having a simple PDF score delivered at the end of a deadline), wherein we get to offer input in the compositional processes of the composers, actively shaping and personalizing the pieces we end up presenting. We believe this way they will become the best versions of themselves, at least from our point of view, which reciprocally drives us to both perform them with more devotion, and to have the drive of finding new performance opportunities.
We usually begin with an idea, which we consider the most important starting point of any project. This central concept determines the medium, the instrumentation and whether multimedia elements are needed, rather than the other way around. We approach each project by imagining our ensemble in service of a broader artistic vision, one that may require us to question our established practices and move beyond what we already know. From there, we work closely with the composer through a series of workshops, exchanging ideas, sharing knowledge and experimenting with different possibilities. The process is not simply about learning how to perform a piece, but about growing alongside it and allowing it to transform us as musicians and as an ensemble.
Depending on the piece, the premiere is only the beginning. Every subsequent performance becomes an opportunity to refine the work, explore new possibilities and improve its performative dimension. We continually question how a piece can evolve, how it can become more adaptable to different contexts and how we can make it more sustainable by presenting it nationally and internationally. In this sense, sustainability is not only about the longevity of a work, but also about keeping it alive through continued research, touring and artistic development. Ultimately, our mission is to keep growing through our repertoire, constantly asking ourselves where there is room for improvement and what new possibilities remain unexplored. We resist allowing works to settle into crystallised forms. Instead, we want every collaboration to remain an ongoing, living process, one that continues to challenge us, transform us and open up new ways of thinking about performance.
A particularly meaningful example is “Angel Death Traps”, our collaboration with Alexander Schubert that will be performed in the festival’s final concert. The creation process lasted almost three years and involved an exceptionally close exchange with the composer. It became a genuine learning experience for us, requiring us to acquire new skills, learn how to sing and perform instruments we had never played before. The project challenged our established identities as performers and became a process of profound artistic transformation. We have since performed and toured the work more than fifteen times, and each performance has given us a new understanding of the piece, of ourselves as individuals and of our identity as an ensemble.
How do you approach making music that might seem demanding or unfamiliar to new listeners more accessible to new audiences (if that is something you aim to do)?
We have always been aware that our music can be demanding and, at times, inaccessible to a wider audience. However, audience development and the opportunity to present our work to people from diverse backgrounds are among the most important aspects of our mission.
We believe the main challenge lies in finding the right contexts and channels through which to engage with audiences beyond our immediate professional and artistic circles. We have presented our music at festivals where audiences had little idea of what to expect, yet were captivated by the experience. These encounters often generated questions, doubts and reflections. We believe our music can be challenging, but it also reveals the complexity of contemporary life that can feel overwhelming simply because we have not yet developed the tools to navigate it. In this sense, we want to encourage audiences to look beyond what mainstream media and major cultural industries tend to promote, and to discover alternative ways of listening and experiencing music.
“Angel Death Traps” is yet another great example of an step in this direction. By exploring the intersection of hyperpop and experimental electronic music, we created a hybrid and distinctive sonic language that could connect with references closer to contemporary popular culture. This approach gave us an opportunity to engage with younger audiences without compromising our experimental vision, using familiar aesthetic elements as a point of entry into less familiar musical territories.
We also believe that accessibility does not necessarily mean making the music itself simpler. Sometimes, planting a small seed of curiosity is enough: a question, an unexpected sound or an experience that encourages someone to explore further. At other times, the key is to find ways to present unfamiliar things in moderation, together with familiar things, and make the entity and curation feel coherent for the audience to get something out of it. Our aim is not necessarily for every listener to understand everything immediately, but to create the conditions for a lasting curiosity that might lead to a deeper engagement with experimental music.
We are still struck by the contrast between the strong engagement of younger generations with contemporary visual art and museums, and the greater difficulty of attracting the same audiences to experimental music concerts and related activities. This gap is something we actively want to address. Through collaborations with visual artists, the development of a compelling visual identity and the exploration of interdisciplinary formats, we try to build bridges between different artistic worlds and reach people who might not otherwise encounter our work.
Ultimately, we see audience development not as a compromise with our artistic language, but as an integral part of our mission: to create opportunities for discovery, to challenge established listening habits and to invite new generations to experience something unfamiliar, unexpected and potentially transformative.
What do you hope audiences will take away from the festival? Are there particular aspects of the works you’re presenting that you would especially like them to listen out for?
We would love the festival to evoke thoughts in the audience (both in experienced listeners from our field and in first-timers). The nature of these thoughts is of course subject to everyone’s personal experiences and preferences, and we are not aiming to control them - in our opinion good art is supposed to do exactly that.
Moreover, we wish for people to leave the festival thinking that we appreciated the time they took and the money they invested in the tickets, by giving in return the best possible performances we possibly can. This relates to the quality of performance, production and concert & festival curation.
And finally, we would like to make our potential less-contemporary-experienced audiences feel welcome. Regardless of their previous experience within our field of music, we have worked hard on e.g. the curation to make the concerts and performances comfortable and conceptually reachable and not feel too foreign, whilst holding on to the artistic quality and sense of exploration we greatly value in our work.
TIME & PLACE
NEKO3 Festival takes place 5+6 November in Koncertkirken in Copenhagen.
The programme includes works by a variety of composers represented by Edition·S:
Jeppe Just Christensen: Neko
Sophie Meyer: Plantae
Mads Emil Dreyer: Bølger
Jeppe Ernst: Nocturnes (for a human body) Routine B (02:01 - 03:00 AM)
Simon Løffler: Dreamwork
Jeppe Ernst: Offertorium: Behandling A
Mads Emil Dreyer: Lament, Music Box Music
Find more information about the festival and full concert programme here.