Urban Festival to bring electro beats to Istanbul

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Urban Festival, which will take place on Sept.30 at Küçükçiftlik Park will bring Royksopp, 123 and Trentemoller on the same stage.

Lounge FM’s Istanbul Urban Festival has been organized for the fourth consecutive year, bringing three famous electronic groups to the city along with multiple high-profile DJ artists for a one-day electronic music event.

Norwegian duo Röyskopp will join Danish electronic music producer Trentemoller and the Turkish band 123 as headliners of the one-day music festival, which will be held Sept. 30 at Küçükçiftlik Park. A favorite among Amsterdam’s club set, Trouw’s resident DJ Patrice Baumel will scratch and spin on the turntables at Urban Fest along with Mehmet Garan, Low Earth, Doğan Aktay, Altan Balgır, Yeşim Unan and Tufan Demir.

With a career spanning 10 years, Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp was formed in 1998 by Svein Berge and Torbjorn Brundtland. Since their inception they have been a steady force to be reckoned with in the international electronic scene. Berge and Brundtland were introduced to each other through a mutual friend in Tromso, Norway. They both enjoyed the same films and music and shared an interest in electronic music. The two experimented with various forms of electronic music before they bought a drum machine together during the Tromso techno scene boom but ended up going their separate ways. Several years later, the two met up again and formed Röyksopp during the Bergen Wave in Norway. After experimenting with different genres of electronic music, the band solidified their place in the electronic scene with their 2001 debut album Melody A.M., released on the record label Wall of Sound.

Experimenting new horizons

Royksopp has consistently experimented with various genres pertaining to electronica. Stylistically, the band makes use of various genres, including ambient, house music, synthpop and African-American sounds. The band is also known for its elaborate concert performances, which often feature eccentric outfits.

Since their 1998 debut, the duo has gained critical acclaim and popular success around the world. To date, Röyksopp has been nominated for one Grammy Award, won seven Spellemannprisen awards, performed worldwide tours and produced albums which have topped the charts in several countries, including four consecutive number-one albums in their native Norway.

Trentemoller, a Danish electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist based in Copenhagen, Denmark, will perform a live, two-hour long DJ set as part of Urban Festival.

Trentemoller’s musical career has taken him from the DJ booths of the hottest clubs to the music production booth of movie sets. Trentemoller’s name became well known among electronic music fans in 2006 when his Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1 was voted Essential Mix of the year by listeners. In 2008 Trentemoller composed the soundtrack for the Danish film “Det Som Ingen Ved” (What No One Knows) and launched a live tour in the summer of that same year. The tour, Trentemoller Live in Concert, featured Trentemoller and a small band comprised of Henrik Vibskov on drums and Mikael Simpson on guitar and bass. The group performed tracks from Trentemoller’s album, The Last Resort, with visuals provided by video producer Karim Ghahwagi. In 2010 he released his second album, Into the Great Wide Yonder with the single “Shades of Marble” played in the trailer for Pedro Almodovar’s film “The Skin I Live In.”

The band 123 will perform on stage, promising to bring fans one of their spectacular, signature-style stage shows, which often tell fairytales through their unique musical style. Urban Festival has been organized with the support of Lounge FM 96, FG 93.7, Radio Oxi-Gen and KüçükÇiftlik Park, while Ford Fiesta, Red Bull Music Academy, Tuborg Gold, Puma, Bridgestone, Istanblue Vodka and Mentos contributed to the festival.

Festival tickets range from 50 to 140 Turkish Liras.