I spent some time last month in Copenhagen, Denmark, working at the new DR Byen complex (Danmarks Radio City, above).

Sure, the project is over-budget and riddled with controversy. But if you ask me, DR Byen is beautiful. The symphony hall, still under construction, is by Jean Nouvel and contains several concert halls, the largest of which seats 1,600 people. The large hall is suspended in air on three columns and features, among many other niceties, a hydraulic roof that raises or lowers to adjust the room’s acoustics to the music being played inside. Time will tell whether the acoustics measure up but I’m all for trying new things.. and man, that organ by J. L. van den Heuvel Orgelbouw is going to be amazing.

DR Byen’s main building is actually four buildings by four architects, stuck to each other around a glass atrium. Each building is distinct. I got the feeling while walking around inside that I was in an episode of the Jetsons. Actually, a better comparison would be Royskopp’s video for Remind Me. Smiling Danes who have just arrived by silent, driverless, above-ground metros, people-moved around by escalators in their stylishly Danish clothes, unwittingly cooled by groundwater, warmed by solar panels, their TVs pumped satellite feeds from amazing Australian dual satellite antennas on the roof that automatically tilt and rotate to find the best signal.

The city itself is great, too. Yeah, it’s wildly expensive to eat out, but life is good. Great shops around the Latin Quarter, cool bars around Istedgade in Vesterbro, nice parks…

And the bikes, oh the bikes, they’re a truly beautiful thing. Beautiful people riding beautiful bikes on beautifully wide bike lanes. Man, these bike lanes are so big that some of them even have turn lanes. Bertrand Delanoë may have done wonders for biking in Paris, but after seeing Copenhagen we still have a long, long way to go. The guy I was working with said that around 35% of all Copenhagen residents take their bike to work every day. Think about that for a second. That’s an enormous percentage.

While looking across the water at the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden, through the giant wind turbines that rise mysteriously out of the water and across the cross-country bridge, I found myself thinking that it may be a cliché, but yes, Scandinavia is a glimpse into an idyllic future.

So today – you guessed it – we’ll be hearing some Danish music.

First up, Under Byen. I first heard these guys over at Aurgasm a while back. Their 2006 release, Samme stof som stof, is particularly good. You’ll hear one track off that album and another from 2002’s Det er mig der holder træerne sammen.

Next, a track off Anders Trentemøller’s interesting 2006 release, The Last Resort.

The fourth is by Efterklang from their 2007 release, Parades. You can see the video for Mirador here.

Last but not least, a strange but lovely track by Jomi Massage. I also caught her first on Aurgasm.. a constant source of great music.

See you next week.

Under Byen – Batteri Generator
Under Byen – Tindrer
Trentemøller – Take Me Into Your Skin
Efterklang – Mirador
Jomi Massage – Mission