Collection 4

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www.kaltblut-magazine.com

COLLECTION 4

THE NORTH

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I S S E V E R

B A H R I

S P R I N G | S U M M E R

2 0 1 3

Nature 6

chapel

-BJĂ–RK-

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Helena-Narra Kapidzic / Make Up artist / Singer

Editor-in-Chief

Marcel Schlutt mschlutt@kaltblut-magazine.com

Fashion Editor Art Director

Nicolas Simoneau nsimoneau@kaltblut-magazine.com

www.narra.cc Helena is a well known name in the fashion world and this has been that way for over 8 years now. She worked for a lot of magazines and designers. Based in New York, she is also a singer.

Fleur Helluin Artist / Writer

www.fleurhelluin.tumblr.com The French lady is taking care of our „Berlin Faces Section“. For a couple of years now, she has been based in Berlin. Music and art are her life. Being part of different music projects makes her to an expert when it comes to new faces in town.

Marianne Jacquet Artist / Writer

Art Editors

Amanda M. Jansson ajansson@kaltblut-magazine.com Emma E.K. Jones ejones@kaltblut-magazine.com

Movie Editor

Claudio Alavargonzalez Tera calvargonzaleztera@kaltblut-magazine.com

www.wrangelkiez.org Marianne has been a friend of our magazine for a long time now. Music is her life. But she also runs a very well known Berlin blog, where she is blogging about her Xberg-Kiez. For the second time she has written one of her nicest articles for us.

Bernhard Musil / Photographer

www.be-musil.com Born in Austria. The Berlin based photographer produced for this issue the „The Echo Vampers“ editorial.

The young photographer has worked for every major magazine in the fashion world over the last year.

Kevin Junk / Writer

Uk Editor

Aiden Connor aidenconnor@kaltblut-magazine.com

Brazil Editors

Mauricio & Aleesandro Lázaro brazil@kaltblut-magazine.com

Music Editor

Amy Heaton amyheaton@kaltblut-magazine.com

2nd Fashion Editor

Biki John bikijohn@kaltblut-magazine.com

Sales Manager

Alexander Danner danner@kaltblut-magazine.com

Translation / Proofreading

Amanda M.Jansson, Amy Heaton, Bénédicte Lelong.

KALTBLUT MAGAZINE Grünbergerstrasse 3 10243 Berlin Germany

www.kaltblut-magazine.com KALTBLUT Magazine is published by KALTBLUT Media UG Nicolas Simoneau & Marcel Schlutt All Copyrights at KALTBLUT Media UG All of KALTBLUT´s contributors are responsible and retain the reproduction rights of their own words and images.

Reproductions of any kid are prohibited without the express permission of the magazine, editor and each contributor.

KALTBLUT Magazine is printed in Germany Möller Druck und Verlag GmbH Zeppelinstraße 6 | 16356 Ahrensfelde OT Blumberg www.moellerdruck.de

www.wolfauftausendplateaus.blogspot.com Born in 1989, he lives in Berlin. He studied Japanese literature in Berlin and Kyoto. His writings on art, fashion, pop- and subculture try to explore contemporary discourses along with an analytical and personal stance towards what matters.

Bénédicte Lelong/ Social Media Manager benedicte_lelong@kaltblut-magazine.com

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a retarded stork messed up a delivery, resulting in an innocent tyke being dropped off in the wrong country... She‘s writting our Music Laden section.

Special thanks to Herr Von Keil, Suzana Holtgrave, Nico Sutor, ZILLMANN, Pascale Jean Louis, Alexander Danner, Laura Palm, Dimitri Rigas, Alexandra Vial, Benjamin Becker, Jana Schulze COVER

Photography by Ole Kirchmeier Model: Mats Udd

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Hello, my name is Anna

Wintour and I welcome

you to the

latest issue of

Playboy.

No, just kidding. Welcome to KALTBLUT Collection 4. The North, Ice-Land, Myth, Legends and Nature.

Our initial idea was to create an issue focused on Iceland, but then we got so many mails and work from artists based in Scandinavia as well as in Iceland, that we had to broaden the theme. Which was a good idea. We are proud to present you 404 pages filled with fashion, art, music and media from artists around the world playing with the theme.

But why is the North so interesting? Let´s be honest: people from the North are the most creative creatures in this world.

Is it because they live in a darker world than the people from the South? What do you do when you live most of the time in winter? You sleep or create art?

The Scandinavian countries are dominating the pop music world. Nearly each artist works at least once with a producer from Sweden. The best music videos are done by filmmakers from the North.

The fashion world would be super boring without the designers from Iceland and Scandinavia. Some of the most talented designers are coming from the North. I am a big fan of movies from the Nordic countries. They are always dark, especially criminal cinema is so sinister and well produced when it comes from there.

Yet the most beautiful part of the North is nature. Endless forests, the Northern lights, proud animals. The infinite wild nature is inspiring for so many artists and it always will be. Come with us on a little trip. We wanna show you how creative the Nordic world is.

Working on Collection 4 has been the most difficult project in our history so far. Not because the artists were stressful..

NO, the hardest part this time was dealing with those PR and advertising people. Arghh.. please don´t waist our time if you don’t understand us. Please don´t order free copies of our magazine and then in the end you don´t even take a look inside? If we all worked with an attitude like yours there would be no magazine at all. And just for the record, just to make this one thing clear: we are not a gay magazine, we are not a straight magazine. We are here for everybody. We don´t mind if you are young, old, gay, lesbian, straight, tiny, black or white. In KALTBLUT every human being is more than welcome. We don’t like to squeeze people into boxes. So get over this, advertising world.. If not.. we don’t mind.

KALTBLUT is and always will be open for everybody out there. No rules, no gender problems. It is 2013 wake up world!

Have fun with our new Collection.

Yours Marcel and the team

p.12 Lurking Innocence p.24 Jacky Hijstek Fashion Story

Photo Story + Interview

p.33 Marzena Skubatz Photo Story

p.40 p.46 Ólöf Arnalds p.50 The Rite p.60 Pat Perry p.66 Dear Bad Beg Bug p.68 Brunhilde p.78 Mats Udd p.80 Music Laden p.84 The Echo Vamper p.92 Mid Summer p.102 Snow Queen p.106 Top 5 p.108 Morten Andersen of the Grotestque p.114 Dandy Berlin Faces You Should Know

Interview

Fashion Story

Portrait

Fashion Story

Interview

Portrait + Fashion Story

Fashion Story

Comic

Interview

Fashion Story

p.120 Fjarlægð p.128 Edgar Avila p.136 Mental Postcards p.138 Saga Úr Sjó Fashion Story

Interview

Interviews with Tim Fite and Lasse Matthiessen

Fashion Story

p.148

JÖR by Guðmundur Jörundsson Fashion Story + Interview

p.158 Herr von Keil Says p.160 Natures Beauty My sounds of p.166 the north p.170 Villtur Sjó p.176 Valkyrje p.182 Must have of p.184 Outthe dark p.188 Adrenolytic Agent Rough Days p.196 for Diamond Trade p.200 Lille Santanen Of The Fallen Garden p.206 Princess p.216 Notes on Epic p.220 Metamorphosis Column

Fashion Story

Article

Photo Story

Fashion Story

Fashion Story

Fashion Story

Interview

Interview

Fashion Story

Article

Fashion Story

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p.228 Sóley Goddess p.234 HelOf TheTheUnderworld Interview

Fashion Story

p.242 Luxury Girl Fashion Story

p.246 Polly Balitro p.250 Here Comes The Storm p.260 Nicole Sabouné p.266 Svalbard Portrait

Fashion Story

Interview

Photo Story

p.272 Katrin Berge Interview

p.278 How the Nothern Lights p.288 took over the world glimpse of p.292 ASwedish cinema Fashion Story

Between Heaven And Hearth

Article

Article

p.294 Snow White 2.0 Fashion Story

p.300 Jacob Felländer p.306 Berlin‘s Best p.312 Madame Peripetie p.320 Melancholia p.324 Must wear Interview

Interview

Article

p.328 Blue Shadows p.334 Anna Gregory p.340 Paper Cut p.344 Ice-Cool p.348 The X-Insider p.350 Fox dot com p.356 #ThingsWeLove p.358 Susanne Bier p.360 Allerleirauh Beauty

Interview

Photo Story

Interview with Nico Sutor and Zillmann

Interview with Nina Legnehed

Photo Story

Portrait

FAshion Story

p.366 Vagabond Fashion Story

p.367 Trolltours Saami, the p.380 reindeerpeople p.384 The Outtakes p.394 Art Around The World p.398 CrayZay Giveaway p.400 Imprint p.401 (End).itorial p.402 Label Index Photo Story

Article

Fashion Story

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Lurking Innocence Photographer: Thanos Poulimenos Styling: Yorgos Mesimeris Hairstylist: Christos Bairabas MakeUp: Efi Ramone Photographer Assistant: Evan Baul Model: Anna @ X-Ray models

All clothes are from: Konstantinos Melis / by Laskos

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Jacky Hijstek

„A celebration of handwork.“ Photography by Dudi Hasson

25 Jacky Hijstek is a young artist based in Rotterdam/Netherlands.

When I saw her series „The Boys From School“ for the first time I thought WOW that is super nice and I want this in our magazine. Jacky is a little paper-handwork-photoshop genius.

She gains her inspiration from photos which she finds on the internet and is transforming them into new pieces of art. I am 100% sure that in the near future we will see her work in many galleries cause her motto is: Dream big! We at KALTBLUT, are happy to introduce you to Jacky Hijstek, a very special artist. Read our interview and enjoy some great pictures.

Max Threlfall and Philip Görs

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KALTBLUT: Hello Jacky. Welcome to our magazine. Some months ago when I opened my email and I saw your mail my first thought was: YESSSS! She is good. So I contacted you and now here we are. I just love what you do. How do you describe your art work?

Jacky: Thank you very very much! Stoked to be here. I guess you could describe my work as manual photoshop. A celebration of handwork but not effusively girly as you would expect. It has a bit of a dark twist, strange things happen in my work. It consists of some manual magic and is built up of many layers. I’m not here to tell narrative stories, I’d like to keep it a bit mysterious. Pictures do not naturally lend themselves to telling stories as stories. So I’m not giving into that. It’s not that I just want to make aesthetically pleasant things to look at but I also want things to be done the right way, to handle the material the right way. No hiding or disguising from anything. It is what it is.

KALTBLUT: Your mix of handwork, photography and laser print is very unique. When did you come up with this idea?

Was there any inspiration before?

Jacky: Well, it all started with the creating of The Haunting Period, where four prints from a self-portrait were interwoven into a new large scaled piece during my year of graduation. I wanted to do something with the traditional art of weaving but not take it back to a couple of centuries ago. Paper is quite an underrated material and easy to handle so that came easy to me. I scattered photos from tumblr pages which I printed out and hung on this massive studio wall I kept staring at, day after day, until I took some down, cut them up to pieces and started assembling them back together by hand. A very satisfying job. In the last month and a half of my studies I worked 12 to 14 hours straight on this work. That was a madly insane period. I changed the found footage into photos I shot myself, of myself, but I wanted to break free from that typical ‘female artist using her own body’ cliche.. It gave me the push to do what I’m doing now.

KALTBLUT: What does the creative process look like?

Jacky: For me making is thinking. Which means I don’t write or draw things out specifically. I start doing things and while I‘m doing something I see how it turns out. I listen preferably hours of hours to dark house and techno on my headphones. The tempo or bpm in those mixes sets me into a sort of state in which I can create best. Locking myself in the studio and switching off my phone usually helps too. Other than that, I’m traveling the world to see shows at galleries, museums but also have coffee in cafes and stare at people. I’m a restless seeker and always on a journey for something new.

KALTBLUT: Do you also shoot all the models or are those photos from other photographers?

Jacky: Unfortunately not yet, I gain my inspiration from photos which I find on tumblr. The Boys From School series is completely based on footage which I found online. The past few weeks, knowing that this entry was coming I spent many hours tracking back to the original owners.

Which is so hard to do. I might need a detective one day. I do not claim the ownership to anything I have found on the internet or that I’m using, only to the techniques I apply to it. I think you could see it as an unofficial reworking.

KALTBLUT: Your artwork looks like you have to spend hours to do that. How long do you need for one item? And how do you do this? It is soooo creative.

Jacky: It depends on the feeling really, sometimes I create a work in 4 or 5 hours, sometimes it’s lying around in my studio for days or weeks without being touched. There are times when I completely lose track of time. And then once again it‘s 3am. What I notice in my work is that things are getting much more complicated to do. I have a passion for manual labour so that is something I really want to express. It usually starts off with a very basic idea. It could be something I’d like to do contrast wise or perhaps a second cigarette that needs to be lit in the print. From there I start cutting into the paper. There is room for error of course, if things are not working out the right way, I throw it out and start over.

What helps is a pair of skilled and delicate hands. I’m always looking for a tension point to challenge myself and keep myself occupied. I set very high standards for the work I make but all I need is a knife to cut paper.

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Daniel Kullen by Kristina Soljo

28 KALTBLUT: Have you ever gone to any art school or something like that?

Jacky: Oh yeah, I’ve studied for 8 years at creative schools.

I started at a college for styling and window-dressing which wasn’t my forte as I look back on it, although it gave me the opportunity to test out all sorts of things, graphically as well as sculptural. During that period I made more installations than actual window displays for shops. Instructors weren’t happy but I was.

As a young kid I had this big dream of wanting to go to the Academy Of Arts. I basically spent all my time preparing for art school. I tried out loads of techniques at home and was basically always busy with creating something.

Once, I almost lit my carpet in my room on fire because I had the idea to do something with burned paper. Anyway, I recently graduated at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam where I took a course in Fine Art. While my peers produced very conceptual work I was always busy with the craft of things.

I moved for a period of time to Calgary, Canada, to do a double major in intermediate sculpture and glassblowing at the ACAD institute. I think I have been challenging myself in exploring new things and finally have found something I like doing best. Funny that it started off in my first year with works from cut up paper and ended with it too.

KALTBLUT: Ice-Land, legend, myths.. this is our theme this time. What comes to your mind when you hear those words?

Jacky: Mythic creatures, dark fairly tales, long nights and deep, rich contrasts. Also boys with very pale skintones, beards and red-ish hair. Iceland is of course an amazing country which I’d love to visit one day.

KALTBLUT: Is there any artist you would say is your personal icon?

And why?

Jacky: I’m able to find inspiration in all sorts of things.

There isn’t just one artist in particular. There is this Italian writer Alessandro Baricco, Yuri Pleskun by Damon Baker

29 who has written a book named The Barbarians. It is actually a collection of articles about the current way of gaining information, there is a richness without getting deeper into the core of the subject, scattering bits and pieces to get the info you really need, as if there are no deeper studies needed with books and encyclopedia. He argues that despite the pressure of technological innovation, social mobility and globalisation, there still is room for inspiration in the modern world. Baricco says there is no collision between civilisation and barbarians, but that contemporary culture is in a state of mutation, moving from an old to a new culture. Which set me off to a whole new way of thinking about art as well as my own work. While I was reading his book it got to me that there’s no wrong way of gaining inspiration or doing things. I guess I needed to see that in black and white.

In general I love artists who work with their hands. The exhibition: The Shape of Things To Come (2011) at the Saatchi Gallery in London still gives me loads of inspiration. They’ve published an amazing catalog with it.

Folkert de Jong is a great artist who makes over the top big ass sculptures. Next to that I would love to have a talk with Chuck Close, his story and work is impeccable. Close has been a printmaker throughout his career - he uses the most intensive labour techniques on portraits which he then fills in with paint by hand. So much layering! I can only take my hat off for that.

KALTBLUT: 2012 was a really successful year for you. You had some exhibitions. How does it feel to show your work in a gallery?

Jacky: I wouldn’t call it successful yet. Sure, there have been a couple of exhibitions and nominations after graduation and it got off to an amazing start but I know I can do so much better. I’m 25, the best is yet to come. Gallerywise it’s still a bit weird. It‘s quite surreal to hang at a gallery with work you have been creating. In the studio everything is safe and sound. Out there everyone has an opinion.

Ultimately you do it so your work gets seen, I tend to forget that sometimes.

Yuri Pleskun by Ronald Dick

KALTBLUT: You were also nominated for the BLOOOM Art Award and The Media Art Friesland Young Talent Award. Congratulations. What does it feel like to get recognized in the international art world?

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Jacky: When I hear someone else speaking about it, it really moves me. I’m full of pride. They were both amazing opportunities to show my work. The BLOOOM award one especially, was super special, my first international show on such an occasion with so many people who came to visit. My work was seen by powerful curators and hang at Art.Fair in Cologne between other established artists, with Chuck Close within 10 meters distance. Surreal.

KALTBLUT: What are your plans for 2013? Any new exhibitions coming up?

Jacky: I’m currently negotiating with a gallery about something that’s hopefully going to be a solo show somewhere near spring or summer. I’ve been asked to do a couple of artworks for music releases. I’d love to have a bigger and better studio to work in.

But what I’m really aiming for is a gallery or agent who is going to represent me. I’d love to team up with a photographer or some models to shoot my own material. My ultimate goal is to live from my art and not have to work at a boring job ever again. But who doesn’t. Dream big I’d say.

KALTBLUT: Do you have some advice for all those young artists out there to live their dreams? What would you tell them?

Jacky: Never stop.

KALTBLUT: Thank you very much for the interview and the stunning story you have produced for us. www.jackyhijstek.com Interview by Marcel Schlutt Max Schubert by Vincenzo Laera

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Stefan Heinrichs

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Marzena Skubatz Documentar y “This is an ongoing project about Dalatnagi / Iceland. Dalatangi is a small farm run by two people next to Brekka in Mjöifjördur which is in the East Fjords of Iceland. I spent a half year there documenting the everyday life of Billa, who is one of the farm owners. I got to know her family, who came by from time to time, and some of her friends and neighbours.

But most of the time it was just me and her doing the farmwork and talking about life and death. I dedicated my heart to this place and the project. What you see is a small selection of a body of work.” www.marzenaskubatz.com

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BERLIN Faces

“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.”

John M. Richardson.

KALTBLUT wants to introduce you to some of the kind who make it happen. They are extraordinary, creative, outstanding, special, notable and unique and they will change the world soon. That’s why we have to keep an eye on these three people and you should better do the same.

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By Fleur Helluin

Photo by Denny Wiebel d.wiebel@gmx.de

M a r t i n

B a c k e s

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artin Backes created a sensation a few month ago with his pixelhead. There’s something in his art meets activism that’s just completely fashion-forward. But the man isn’t only the dad of the protective piece; artist, designer, director, lecturer, performer, hacker and composer. Yes, it’s the XXIst century, let’s talk about it.

KALTBLUT: Your work is at the meeting point between visual and audio art, could you tell our readers a little more about background?

Martin: I started my career as an artist in the late 90s focusing mainly on experimenting with sounds, producing & composing music and DJ-ing. Later on, during my studies at the University of Arts in Berlin, I got myself more into the field of sound, video, new media, installation and performance art, and of course design. Most of my works are still using sound as a material, but some don’t. So I am also interested in working with other materials like graphic, light, fabric, interactive components, the use of sculptural materials, media, etc.

Talking about pigeonholes people would probably put me into categories such as new media, computational & generative, video, installation, sculpture, intervention in public space and sound art. At the moment my main focus is somewhere around failure, stability, mimesis, illusion, simulation and ambiguity I would say. Beside my artistic career and

teaching at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin I am also co-founder of a company called Aaconica - creative lab for sound + media which is so to say a studio for sound & new media design constantly working on commercial, artistic and independent projects in the fields of culture, industry and research. Within this platform we are currently working pretty hard on our first software product which is about to be released very soon.

KALTBLUT: You are living as an artist, working as a teacher and also being an entrepreneur. How do you juggle them all?

Martin: For me it’s just one hat, but yes, I know what you mean. Sometimes I ask myself exactly the same question (laughing). I am kind of driven. One could say that I get bored by things pretty fast, but I would say that I am getting interested in things pretty fast.

Things which arouse my curiosity and interest - things I want to know and understand. At the moment my biggest concern and problem is really to concentrate on just one thing, that’s hard

though. When an idea comes into my mind - I have to do it, no matter whether I have the expertise in it or not. My Pixelhead artwork is the best example for this kind of issue. I really had no idea about fabrics, sewing, designing a fashion piece, etc. but I managed to produce it with some help of good friends. And now I am very glad and thankful that I made it, because it attracted world-wide attention and I found myself in the news with Justin Bieber (laughing). I really do love this kind of lifestyle and variation.

Every day is different in the sense of not getting to the office from nine-to-five each and every day. If we talk about professions the combination of learning new things, teaching, working and trying to implement my ideas is what gives me the biggest freedom. But everything I do, whether commercial or more artistic, is somehow linked to each other. And we all know there are more things in life besides work which are important, but that was not the question (laughing).

KALTBLUT: What do you have next to your bed?

Martin: A medium called air, lots of space ;) KALTBLUT: Environment in a broader sense is an extremely important part of your work. What would be your ideal surroundings?

Martin: Yes, of course. I mean there’s always some sort of environment - surrounding or context. It’s very nice to exhibit artworks in a gallery, but it’s probably much more interesting to go into a public space for example - for both, analyzing and intervention. I mean we are not living in a clean laboratory roomlike environment. It could be interesting from a social, religious or political point of view or even perception-wise. I am also interested a lot in how we perceive things and what this does to us. When it comes to an outcome, doing works for more than just two dimensions and working for more than just one sense is what interests me the most as an artist. I think this comes closer to our human nature. So I am not sure what my personal ideal surrounding would be and probably never will, but I am working on it.

KALTBLUT: Where is your favourite place to listen to music?

Martin: I don’t listen to music, I am just listening to the every day soundscape ... I think our acoustic environment is entitled to be heard. Just kidding! There’s no special place. I surround myself with music when I am on the way, at home or during work (if I am not working with sound of course). But sometimes I’m listening to music or more experimental stuff in total darkness lying in bed and trying to immerse myself into the sounds and get fully absorbed by it. Have you ever heard of transducers, a technique which converts sound directly into vibration - you should try it!? Especially when your full body is connected to the corpus of a bed for example.

KALTBLUT:Is there a mantra or motto that you repeat to yourself ?

Martin: “I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It”. Surely not by myself, but I love this quote by John Cage. Pure Poetry!

KALTBLUT: Who most inspires your work?

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Martin: I’d rather decline answering that question. I think too many people categorize us by our influences. So I would say I’m influenced by everything that surrounds me: education, every day life, culture, politics, literature, art, design, media, technology, commercialism, history, reality, the power and strength of nature, etc.

KALTBLUT: To what extent is your work having an impact on your everyday life?

Martin: There’s probably not a distinction between my everyday life and working, at least not mentally. It could be a predominant political status quo seen in the news which pisses me off or a perfectly synchronized flight of a bird flock moving slowly through the air which triggers some ideas. I mean there’s basically no quitting time so to speak.

There’s no definite break like in a nine-to-five job where you go home in the evening and try to concentrate on the funnier things in life or whatever. So my head is constantly thinking on something and working on stuff. Even during the night I sometimes find myself awake while I am not able to turn off my brain. Which brings us back to your question “How do you deal with so many hats?” (laughing). But I am working on that - don’t worry. Asian philosophy and martial arts are good friends of mine. I am trying to have a well-balanced life and it’s working better and better nowadays. And talking about procrastination, I am living in Berlin. I’ve heard that you can have parties here each and every day (laughing).

KALTBLUT: Would you like to tell us about your current projects?

Martin: Beside teaching and working also on commercial projects (please see www.aconica.de) I am working on a bunch of new works.

A new audio-visual installation is nearly finished. Basically it will be a computer within an installation environment which presumes understanding human emotions and performance in the context of pop culture. The machine tries to perform the most emotional songs you can get unstoppably. If you are familiar with the movie “Terminator” you get the idea (laughing). So within this installation artificial intelligence/ emotion will rise up and attempt to take over, but more in a poetic and funny way.

Another audio-visual installation is about expressing the feel of a cos-

mic consciousness experience. Or in other words - it will be a generative installation which is about the poetics of natural sciences working with materials like sound, wind and transforming motion graphics.

Yet another work is dealing with perceptual coding systems, probably better known in the context of computation as file formats like JPEGs or MP3s. There will be also a follow-up to my Pixelhead work.

It will not be a wearable piece this time, more like a fully functional sculpture. That’s all I can say at the moment.

All in all there are a lot of things in the pipeline right now. So if you or your readers would be interested in those projects, please feel free to take a look at my websites below for more information.

www.martinbackes.com www.aconica.de

K i m

H i o r t h o y

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here are some rare treasures in life, and sometimes you discover one by accident. Kim Hiorthoy might just be one of them. He works as a graphic designer (for Rune Grammofon), a visual artist and a musician. I discovered his music some years ago with my bestie Magritte Jaco, and we were hooked! We’re part of Mr Hiorthoy’s devoted following.

Maybe you’ll become part of the club too?

KALTBLUT: Hello Kim, could you please tell us about what you do?

Kim: I mostly do graphic design for record sleeves and other printed matter.

I work as a musician and an artist. I’ve worked as a cinematographer for documentaries and feature films. Last year I finished a masters degree in choreography.

KALTBLUT: When you were a teenager did you imagine you’d be doing what you are doing now?

Kim: I always made drawings, but what I was mostly interested in was film and theatre. When I was very young I wanted to be an actor.

KALTBLUT: What would you like to say to the future version of you?

Kim: I don’t know. I thought this was the future.

KALTBLUT: What are your favourite smells?

Kim: They’re too many to mention, some are too personal for me to say. I like the smell of cut wood and cut grass. But who doesn’t? Fireworks.

KALTBLUT: Would you rather have leaves for hair, or stone for skin?

Kim: None.

KALTBLUT: Did you ever have a special master? Someone who told you something you’ll never forget, or played a role in your creative development?

Kim: I had a teacher once who simply said: if you want to do it you have to do it. I think he meant that studying something is all good and well but it’s not the same as actually doing it, and nothing will teach you how to do something in the way that actually doing it will.

KALTBLUT: What kind of music do you listen to at home?

Kim: Radio.

KALTBLUT: Our edition this time is Nordic special. Where’s your favourite place in Norway?

Kim: I don’t have a favourite place.

Hanging out with friends or working.

KALTBLUT: As a big fan there’s a question burning inside me and I have to drop it: are you going to release a new album or E.P soon?

Kim: Yes, a new album is coming in spring.

KALTBLUT: Finally, can you tell us what you’re up to at the moment and your plans for the future?

Kim: I’m working on the new album and an art show which will open at Standard (Oslo) in February.

www.smalltownsupersound.com www.standardoslo.no

45 s the thinking head of the Kaiku Studios based in Berlin, Jonas Verwijnen is bringing Finnish freshness into the productions of LCMDF, DENA, or Zebra & Snake. He’s working in the shadows and on stage as a 4x4 music expert. If you feel a bit lost in the music world, and don’t know where to turn your ears to, follow this dude.

Jo n a s Ve r w i j n e n

KALTBLUT: Hello Jonas! For the readers that don’t know you yet, could you please tell us what you’re doing?

Jonas: I mix, produce, manage bands/ acts and also do all kind of music related stuff from touring, curating, to playing.

All around craziness.

I call myself a music worker. I run a company in Berlin called Kaiku Studios with two other colleagues. I love finding new acts and developing them, also I love to work internationally, and travel around.

KALTBLUT: When you were a teenager did you imagine you’d be doing what you are doing now?

Jonas: I always wanted to be a music producer, somehow I was interested in how the records sound the way they do, how they have been made, and how to create that kind of sound. I was thinking about that actually last year when I was traveling somewhere every week. I was like “aww, again, I’m flying here and there, booo...” then I remembered that this is what I always wanted to do, hah. I always wanted to travel a lot, see shows, work in the music business. So I guess in a sense I’m doing exactly what I wanted to when I was a teenager.

KALTBLUT: What would you like to say to the future version of you?

Jonas: Focus. And stick to the plan.

KALTBLUT: You produce a lot of rhythmic music, is there a special way of formulating your relationship to rhythm, beats, groove?

Jonas: Hmm. I don´t know how I’m formulating. But I do get inspired by a lot of ethnic music. And old Hip Hop and R’n’B of course. I’ve always had a

love for beats. And wanted to create that perfect groove (haven´t done it yet). If you have a great song, you just need a great groove and you’re there. No need to fix anything or use tricks to make the record good.

KALTBLUT: How do you know when your work is going well?

Jonas: When people like what you do (now I mean not your mom or your friends).

It’s really hard for me sometimes to know this thing. I know when things are ready in a way. Sometimes I think something is great and every one is like “noooo”.

I think working well is coming together with working hard and a lot. I believe that a big output will lead into well working things.

KALTBLUT: Would you prefer to have fur or wings?

Jonas: Wings!

KALTBLUT: Did you ever have a special master? Someone who told you something you’ll never forget, or played a role in your musical creations?

Jonas: Yes in music composing/producing, less is more. It leaves space for the actual meaning.

KALTBLUT: What do you listen to at home?

Jonas: Nothing! Really I don’t even have speakers at home.

KALTBLUT: Our edition this time is Nordic special. What’s the best Finnish dish?

Jonas: Definitely Finnish salmon soup.

KALTBLUT: Finally, could you please tell us what you’re working on at the moment and what the future looks like for you?

Jonas: D E N A full-length album (producing, mixing), some songs for Hidden Cameras (mixing) album, Ballet School (producing, mixing) and Kakk Madda Fakka (recording) new album.

Just talking of doing Spencer Krug’smoonface- (producing, mixing) new solo piano album. Hmm... There was something more, can’t remember.

www.soundcloud.com/jonas-kaiku

„We recorded it in a

wooden

cabin by the sea.“

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Ólöf Arnalds

Ólöf Arnalds is an Icelandic singer and multi-instrumentalist whose sound first captured me when I heard her track “Surrender” featuring the vocal of Björk. As a classically trained musician (with the violin, viola and self-taught on guitar and charango) I still think that her most distinctive asset is definitely her voice – it has the most intriguing ‘otherworldly’ quality which I feel captures the spirit of her native Iceland perfectly. We had a little chat with her this winter to find out the inspirations behind her brilliant new album, “Sudden Elevation” due for release this February. It’s a sensitive, intimate collection of tracks that take you on a winding journey through the private and endearing world Ólöf paints with her songwriting. A true gem.

www.olofarnalds.com Interview by Amy Heaton KALTBLUT: Hey Ólöf! We’re very excited to be featuring you in our new issue. I’ve been listening avidly to your new record, “Sudden Elevation”, it is a truly beautiful collection of songs, are you pleased with how the album has turned out? ÓLÖF: Hey! I’m very pleased with the outcome. Skúli and I worked very carefully on every detail and I really feel like I’ve put all of my heart into the record.

KALTBLUT: So what is your composition process like, are you writing all the parts yourself or did you work with other musicians for the album? ÓLÖF: For this album the majority of the parts are written and in fact played by me. The producer, Skúli Sverrisson writes and plays his bass-lines as well as some electric guitars.

KALTBLUT: I can imagine you recording your album somewhere quiet and out amongst nature, I’m sure this probably wasn’t the case! How did you actually go about it?

ÓLÖF: Actually this was the case, so thumbs up to imagination! We recorded it in a wooden cabin by the sea in Hvalfjörður and had very little connection with the outer world. There was a fire place and every day I had the task of lighting it and maintaining the fire, which was sort of symbolic for keeping the fire of the creativity alive.

KALTBLUT: Your songs are so simple and patient – do you feel you are putting a lot of your own personality into your music? ÓLÖF: I think my music is highly personal. The composition have often been in my mind for years and when I feel ready, I turn them into recorded songs. The lyrics are all about very intimate things in my life as well.

KALTBLUT: There is a kind of melancholic atmosphere through the album, do you find yourself falling into that kind of wistful world when you’re composing? ÓLÖF: Not always. But for this record for sure. I have a feeling that my next one will be more cheerful.

KALTBLUT: Your vocal style is very unique, have you always had a similar way to sing or is it something you’ve developed over time? ÓLÖF: It’s hard to say. The voice is a bit like a living creature. It evolves with the person. I’ve never been very deliberate in developing my voice and I like to use it differently in different songs.

KALTBLUT: I’m sure many producers have asked you to collaborate with them or if they can remix your songs, did you ever think about going down that road? ÓLÖF: I’m a bit difficult when it comes to new collaborations, because I find making music together with someone a very serious and intimate thing. I like it when new musical relationships are born out of inspiration, friendship and dedication. Although I’m very open to using all aspects of my voice and developing further varieties in tone and character, and doing so with other people‘s compositions is a very good ground for this kind of work.. I am more sensitive to being truthful to my voice when I sing my own songs. Therefore I’ve been reluctant to work with people I don’t know. Especially when it comes to my voice.

KALTBLUT: Do you often relate back to your classical background when you’re writing music now or do you have other inspirations? It feels like there is also some folk-lore inspiration running through your songs? ÓLÖF: I think that the classical background always sneaks into my compositions through, for example.. chord structure. I’m drawn to folklore inspirations but when creating songs I feel that the process is very intuitive as well as my overall approach to music.

KALTBLUT: So your first instrument is violin (mine too!), did you find it a natural progression to take up the other instruments you later pursued? ÓLÖF: Although the violin is a brutally difficult beginners instrument (I assume that you have suffered like me!), it is a great instrument for developing a strong ear for pitch and texture. I think this has probably made it easier for me to become self taught on another stringed instrument.

KALTBLUT: The Icelandic language really fits to your vocal style, I think when I hear it spoken it can be like birds singing! What made you decide to write your lyrics in English for the new album, as opposed to your native language?

48 ÓLÖF: English is not that far away from me, because my mother is born and raised in England and most of my extended family on her side only speak English, although her parents were from Iceland. I’ve played in very many different countries and always felt that I could easily communicate the emotional content of my music without people understanding the words. This time I strongly felt that I wanted people to understand the words as well. It’s a different way of communicating with an audience. Especially live. The challenge of writing in English was also fun for me.

KALTBLUT: Your song writing is often like story telling. Did you enjoy tales from your country as a child? ÓLÖF: I was mad about the Brother Grim fairytales. I knew less about Icelandic tales.

KALTBLUT: Our latest issue is based all around the theme “ICELANDS” – Do you feel coming from such a cold place changes the sensitivity in your music making? ÓLÖF: I prefer cold to heat because I feel like I can think better when it’s cold. I also tolerate cold very well. The good thing about the cold in Iceland is the dry air, so you can always dress for it. I actually lived in Berlin for one winter as I was planning to study there then I took a different path and went to the Icelandic Art Academy… but that damp main land cold, that was really something else! No matter how much clothing you were wearing, it always crept to your bones.

KALTBLUT: That’s true! Well Iceland seems like such amazing place to visit, even with that cold. What do you like (or dislike!) most about your native land? ÓLÖF: I think the water, the air and the natural resources make Iceland very unique. I also like how the community is very much about self sufficiency and getting by rather than having the precise right person do each individual task. It makes every process (especially creative ones) much more interesting. Poor infrastructure is the only downside of this arrangement, but people‘s ability to work unselfishly and extremely hard to get things done fast makes up for it.

KALTBLUT: I was reading an article recently about how governments in Scandinavia and surrounding countries actively support art and music. Do you think this could be a reason why so much unusual new music is being created there? Have you had any experience of that during your career? ÓLÖF: When I was more an upcoming artist I had a lot of access to grants and financial support, which was very helpful. Grants in Iceland seem to be more aimed to fresh blood though, so usually this is a luxury that does not last long. It is interesting, because when you are no longer just starting out but in the period of emerging as an artist that could potentially become fully established internationally, that is the time when you need the most support. I think the growth of Scandinavian music has a lot to do with the life quality, safety and options that young people in these countries have. Not that I want to undervalue the purely artistic/cultural aspect of this increased musical activity.

KALTBLUT: Even so in your previous two albums you’ve collaborated with the likes of Björk and Kjartan Sveinsson (Sigur Rós) How did that come about? ÓLÖF: It’s all through friendship and inspiration. I’m lucky that those people have been so supportive and interested in my work.

KALTBLUT: Perhaps this is a silly question considering the facts above.. but if you could work with any other musician in the world who would it be? ÓLÖF: I think Skúli Sverrisson and I are just beginning, even though we’ve worked on each other’s music for 12 years. I’ve only spent one day experimenting with Cyril Atef and the dynamic between the three of us was quite extraordinary. Us as a trio is all I can dream about at the moment.

KALTBLUT: I love the music video for “Surrender”, it reflects your sound perfectly, has your music ever been used in a film before? ÓLÖF: Only very small, individual films. I would love to do some new work for film, since my relationship and understanding of music is very visual.

KALTBLUT: It seems like you prefer to play smaller acoustic sets as opposed to a big live set up on stage, would you agree? ÓLÖF: It has been a great practice for me to play so much alone, because it has made me a lot stronger as a performer. It is very economical as well. For me it’s becoming lonely and one sided now. So this time around I will be joined on stage by Skúli Sverrisson and Cyril Atef. Both amazing musicians that I really look forward creating a new live experience with for my audience.

KALTBLUT: What about your experience touring with Múm, how did it compare playing with them as opposed to your solo project? ÓLÖF: Touring with Múm was a good school. I learned my way around the stage and the technical things (although that is still a bit of an Achilles heel for me). I had very free hands when creating my parts and improvised, which was good practise. It was also just such a great adventure for a young person to experience all this touring, the friendship, playfulness and fun.

KALTBLUT: How much do you feel your music has progressed since your first release? ÓLÖF: I think this new record is my best so far, it somehow feels to me as a manifestation of my musical language in a resolution that is much higher than I’ve reached before. The first record was very clear and fragile at the same time since it was my debut. Somehow I feel that Innundir Skinni (the one in the middle) suffered a bit from lack of clarity, due to the long period and various collaborators. Skúli Sverrisson has an exceptional understanding of my voice as an artist, so to be able to work with him this intensively (that is non stop for 2 weeks) was life changing for me as a composer and a singer.

KALTBLUT: So what are your plans for the Spring, have you got a tour planned out already? We hope to see you play live sometime!

KALTBLUT: So I guess music was a big part of your life growing up, was your whole family musical?

ÓLÖF: Everything is in the making, and I can’t wait to get back on the road. And I will be coming to Germany for sure!

ÓLÖF: Yes, on both sides.

KALTBLUT: To close, can you share with us one of your most treasured memories of such an intriguing musical career?

KALTBLUT: Your cousin Ólafur Arnalds is also a well-known neoclassical composer, do you ever work with him musically? ÓLÖF: Not yet, we would both be happy to collaborate, maybe the difference in style and output might have had an effect of us not getting to do so yet.

ÓLÖF: I’d say singing an Icelandic rhyme off microphone as a “zugabe” in the Sidney Opera house.

Thank you so much for the lovely interview! We wish you all the best with your new album and the year ahead.

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The Rite 50

Photographer: Iris Bjork Stylist: Sunna Thorsteinsdottir Makeup and hair: Amrit Preet Model: Zoe Laxton @Eclipse

Jacket: Rex, Pants: Shireeka Devlin, Shoes: stylist own

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Jumper:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova

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Vest, shirt, tights: Ekaterina Gerasimova , Necklace: stylist own

Dress and Sleeves:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova, Hat: Stephanie Ghoussain

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Jumper:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova, Leggings:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova, Shoes: stylist own

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Leather jacket:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova, Shirt: Stephanie Ghoussain, Dress: Rex, Bracelet:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova

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Jacket, fur and tights:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova, Skirt: Elly Cheng

Dress:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova

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Coat:Â Ekaterina Gerasimova, Dress: Rex, Shoes: Ekaterina Gerasimova

P A T

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P E R R Y As I was looking on the internet for artists to collaborate with in the next Issue I found Pat Perry‘s page. After coming across his work on Alaska I knew from that minute that we absolutely had to do something together. His full „Alsaka“ series is really beautiful. I love the way he mixes the media to create a story. The blending of illustrations, photography and text give another dimension to his work. Pat Perry is the kind of person who draws every single day, he is really paying attention to details in the world around him, and one of his main hobbies is to travel : this is maybe the reason why I was so attracted to his work „Alaska“ when I saw it.. you can really feel the emotions, and kind of live the journey he made.

www.patperry.net/art/alaska

Instead of doing an Interview I asked Pat if he would write a text to share the story of his trip. I thought it would be interesting to mix his words with the work itself. By the way, we did not publish the full „Alaska“ series and I really do encourage you to have a look at it.

Text by Nicolas Simoneau

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I spent July up in Alaska working on an art project with the National Park Service. I spent the month in Katmai National Park backpacking, tagging along with park rangers, flying around, and making art.

It was such a wonderful month! The project was really challenging because soon after getting there, I realized that no artwork I’d make would possibly do justice to that place. I ended up deciding to try to focus on the human experience of a person being in the park and what that is like. This helped me be able to process a little easier, and I did my best to make something worthwhile.

Katmai is remote and even getting there was a challenge. I flew to Anchorage, then took a plane to the small town of King Salmon, just outside of park limits. There are no roads going into the park, so my only way in was to fly in a small bush plane that the National Park Service uses. We flew to the tiny peopled center of Katmai called Brooks Camp. This is the only place in the 6,395 square-mile park with structures and more than a couple people. We landed, and stayed in the plane while a grizzly bear strolled the beach by our plane.

I saw at least one grizzly bear almost everyday I was there. Many times, I‘d be walking alone in the woods when I‘d spot one and have to get out of the way. I didn‘t have bear spray or a gun, but would instead call out at the bear and face it. There was no use in running or hiding. The bears tend to not engage you if you stand your ground. Katmai has the most concentrated grizzly bear population of anywhere in the world. In July, a large group of bears head to Brooks Falls where I would often go to observe them.

62 If the bears didn‘t make me feel small, the landscape sure did. The vastness of Alaska was perfectly sampled in Katmai. I made quick friends with some park rangers that became my comrades for several hiking trips. We summited two mountains, and took small boats far into mazes of glacial lakes. The longest hike was one through the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes to Novarupta, a volcano that released 30 times as much magma as Mt. St. Helens. The Valley on the way there was completely dead and filled with ash.

There was no trail, so we used topo maps and a compass to navigate. There were no trees, only beautiful crevasses and pumice fields. We would often cross snow sheets, and had to eventually take our pants off to make a chilly 40 degree river crossing. I‘ve never felt further out and away from everything than when I was out in that valley.

63 Between daily grizzly encounters, volcanic ash valleys, and miles and miles of hiking, I managed to draw almost everyday. That was the most hands-on residency I’ve ever heard of. I often picture most artist residencies as an artist that is quietly painting inside a warm cabin, anchored down in a cozy corner of some national park. In Katmai, the rules were written a bit differently. My focus, and the park‘s focus was to be outside as much as possible, taking in wilderness, being humbled by it, and interpreting it. My hiking boots were dirty and completely destroyed by the end of it.

While I was staying in Brooks Camp, I‘d walk down to the edge of the huge lake each night before I slept. There would always be light, even if it was midnight. The dusky sky would be pale, and beyond the lake were snow-capped peaks. I‘d stand just a little ways in the water with my rain boots on checking left and right down the shore for bears.

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I‘d breathe in the clean air and remember that I wouldn‘t always be able to see that sight. I relished in it while I could, and even though its been months since I stood there, I can still imagine it perfectly. www.patperry.net

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DEAR BAD BED BUG Amanda M. Jansson & Emma E. K. Jones

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Brunhilde PHOTOGRAPHER: SCARLETT WERTH

FASHION STYLIST: JULIA QUANTE & DANNY SCHNEIDER HAAR & MAKE-UP STYLIST: PATRICIA PIATKE

MODEL: LINA (MEGA MODELS)

Dress: Won Hundred, Coat: Michael Sontag, Top: Dominic Knecht, Arm/Shoulder Piece: Moga e Mago

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Coat: Michael Sontag, Top: Sammler Berlin, Dress: Malaika Raiss, Trousers: Y-3, Socks: Falke, Shoes: Reality Studio, Shoulder Piece: An!mal, Earring: Perlens채ue

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Dress: Won Hundred, Dress: Malaika Raiss, Jacket: Dawid Tomaszewski, Necklace: Mango, Headpiece: Perlens채ue

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Blouse: ChloĂŠ Vintage, Shoes & Skirt: Won Hundred, Socks: Falke, Vest: Moga e Mago, lace Handkerchief (as belt): Stylist‘s own, Necklace headpiece: Rita in Palma, Necklace: In Odd We Trust, Leather bracelet: An!mal

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Dress & Cape: In Odd We Trust

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Dress: Vladimir Karaleev, Skirt: Dawid Tomaszewski, Jacket: Elisabetta Franchi, Necklace: An!mal, Shoulder Piece: Moga e Mago, Bag: seen at TK MAXX

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Dress: Adidas SLVR, Lacetop: Sammler Berlin, Vest: Isabell de Hillerin, Kette: Maria Black, Shoulder piece: An!mal, Fingertip: In Odd We Trust, Belt: Dominik Knecht

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Top: Dominic Knecht, Dress: In Odd We Trust, Jacket: An!mal, Necklace: Weekday, Bracelet: BjĂ˜rg, Hat: Reality Studio, Shoes: United Nude x Iris Van Herpen

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Dress: Won Hundred, Dress: Y-3, Blouse: Dominic Knecht, Vest: Guess, Belt: An!mal, Shoes: Adidas SLVR, Socks: Falke, Ring: BjĂ˜rg

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Mats Udd 79

M

ats Udd is a really special young director from Sweden. There is no way you haven‘t come across one of his really breathtaking music videos that are taking youtube by storm. Coming from a small town in the heart of Sweden he has been traveling and filming in all possible continents creating a world full of mysticism and wonder, full of blood and magic, strange shapes and all things surreal. A man with a vision, that is all his own, he talks to us about what he really wants to create and how it is coming from Sweden.

Photo by Ole Kirchmeier Interview by Amanda M Jansson and Emma E K Jones www.vimeo.com/matsudd

KALTBLUT: You make lots of different videos. What kind of video do you really prefer making though?

Mats: I‘ve always been a fan of storytelling, and I can do funny videos and videos with no point at all and even though it‘s great to do different things I really prefer to find my self in some sureallistic world where everything is possible. To put characters in strange situations, play with animal masks, make something different. The Susanne Sundfør video White Foxes is a good example of a video of a combination of a somehow beautiful and un-natural world where you actually can have a brain tumor shaped as a foster of a fox. That‘s the kind of world I belong in.

KALTBLUT: Are there any places in Sweden that you really love shooting at? Why is that so? What opportunities does Sweden offer in terms of location?

Mats: Every year I find Sweden more and more exotic. We have great nature and it‘s probably where I get most of my inspiration from. We also have a long time of tradition where you can find the soul of Sweden. There is something very sad about these good years now turning into bad times. People moving away from small towns. Shops closing down etc. I won‘t say I like it but I find something in it which is very sad, but also touching and beautiful.

The countryside of Sweden will always be in my heart.

KALTBLUT: Where does your fascination with blood and the macabre come from?

Mats: Don‘t know where it started but during my teenage years I always looked after the most extreme stuff on videos that you could get. I always had a great interest in serial killers, occult stuff and just very bizarre kind of movies. I guess I‘m fascinated to experience how much stuff I could handle, and also to lose the limit of what you could show to an audience. If there is someone saying „oh you can‘t show so much blood“ that won‘t be me. I guess I also have a feeling for showing things that the audience didn‘t know that they wanted to see.

KALTBLUT: What was your toughest, bad luck situation that happened to you while filming, and how did you deal with it?

Mats: One time we did this video which was all about the artist on a delivery trike, the problem was just that the trike‘s breaks stopped working during the shot and we were driving so fast down a hill and I was so glad he didn‘t drive off the road or into another car. I‘m sure he would have died. I‘m sure the video would had some more views on youtube… but still.

KALTBLUT: Have you ever worked with an artist you always admired? How was it?

Mats: Yeah, I actually have worked a few times with bands and artists I really admired years before I got the opportunity to make their videos. Joel Alme is a great example of that. I loved his first album and on his second album I got to do the video. It‘s a bit surreal but fun.

KALTBLUT: You are traveling a lot. How does this change your perspective of things, how do you see the world differently, and how does Sweden and Stockholm change in your eyes?

Mats: I‘ve been visiting the biggest cities in the world, but I also visited very poor areas in Asia and India which gives me a perspective and I can see how good Sweden really is. Therefore I try to take every opportunity I can to fight the rascism in Sweden. Most people in Sweden live a very healthy and rich life and and they should obviously be helping other people.

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MUSIC Album preview by Bénédicte Lelong Iconic American guru of pop Dick Clark once said „Music is the soundtrack of our lives“.

Music IS everywhere. We eat it for breakfast, breathe it on the dance floors and live it 24/7, MP3 players firmly glued to our ears.

An eclectic listener‘s paradise, our Musik Laden‘s motto is simple: „Open ears, open mind“.

Satisfaction guaranteed.

Interpret: Bastille Album: Bad Blood Genre: Alternative, Indie rock Label: Virgin / EMI Records Origin: UK Released: March 2013 Members: Dan Smith, Chris ‚Woody‘ Wood, Will Farquarson, Kyle Simmons

 There is in all honesty nothing I can say that will do Bad Blood, Bastille’s debut album, proper justice. These Brits have what it takes both sonically and lyrically to make it big, very big. Truth be told, Bad Blood is a thing of beauty.  Bastille will be touring Europe in the spring and so I would advise you to get tickets to one of their gigs as soon as you can since they’re already selling out shows and headlining festivals. You wouldn’t want to be the one who missed these up-and-comers, now would you?  Beautiful arrangements and spellbinding melodies, coupled with Dan Smith’s, the band’s founder and lead singer, equally spellbinding vocals make for an absolute gem of a record.

Not so bad for a “first”, if you ask me.  Bad Blood is nothing short of grandiose and epic. The title track itself should be enough to convince you that if there’s one album that you shouldn’t miss in 2013, it’s most definitely this one. That way in a couple of years you’ll be able to say not without a certain sense of pride, that you knew them before they were famous.  So first, get your hands on their amazing first album, then buy a ticket to see them live. Chop-chop! Get on it!  Must-hear tracks: Pompeii, Things We Lost In The Fire, Bad Blood, Laura Palmer

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Interpret: Theodore Paul & Gabriel Album: Please Her Please Him Genre: Folk rock Label: Belleville Music Origin: France Released: October 2012 Members: Théodora De Lilez, Pauline Thomson, Clémence Gabriel  I will admit that the only reason I gave Theodore Paul & Gabriel a listen is the cover of their album. Androgynous looking girls wearing ties and a tux sounded like my kind of thing.  As it turns out, there’s more than meets the eye with this trio.  With Please Her Please Him the band is paying homage to The Beatles debut album Please Please Me. And just as the Brits took over the world in the 1960’s, it seems that a French Invasion is in the works.  As a matter of fact a new breed of talented artists, who are part of the French Touch, appears to be more than willing to revive folk rock. The genre quite literally exploded in the sixties and seventies before reaching a climax during the Vietnam War, and then taking sort of a backseat in the music world.  The magic of Theodore, Paul and Gabriel is that you don’t even have to be into folk rock to fall in love with the band.  The voice of lead singer Clémence Gabriel, powerful, brazen and gritty, is one of a kind. It’s different enough from everything we hear right now that it will make you want to lend an attentive ear.  Every time I listen to „Chasing The Sea“, I see Simon & Garfunkel. The record’s true beauty lies in the fact that it’s a time machine, pure and simple. With Please Her Please Him there’s a very distinct air of 1960 nostalgia and melancholia, when music still felt rooted somewhere, meaningful.

When music had a purpose, when it was telling a story.

And that’s why this record is a definite must-have.  Must-hear tracks: Bad Mood, The Silent Veil, Chasing The Seat

 Mainstream is to music what Instagram is to photography. It‘s become such a terrifying word. Especially when Tegan & Sara, a band that has been touring (successfully so) the indie circuit forever, or so it seems, decides to take that dreaded leap. It’s an even harder pill to swallow when they admit that this risky move will most likely cost them a portion of their most loyal (and oldest) fans... and that it‘s basically OK.  The first problem I had with Heartthrob was its title.

And if Tegan’s new haircut was any indication, the thirty something twin duo had gone all out and caught Bieber Fever, earning a well-deserved spot on the Lesbians That Look Like Justin Bieber tumblelog.  In the end Heartthrob, their 7th record, isn’t their best but it isn’t as bad as some detractors had predicted.

And when you lend a closer ear, you’ll realize that things haven’t changed that much. Sara’s tracks are still a bit more edgy, deep and angsty than her sister’s catchier tunes -a sister who by the way sounds more and more like a prepubescent teenage boy.  Besides, change isn’t always all that bad. And in Tegan & Sara’s case, as long as they keep reinventing themselves on stage and offering their audience stripped down acoustic versions of old hits, chances are the world isn’t coming to an end anytime soon. Their sound might have taken a turn for the best or the worst, depending on where you stand, but if you manage to look past the surface, the old Tegan & Sara are still there somewhere.  So maybe you won’t like Heartthrob and maybe you’ll think that the sisters have really gone off the deep end this time. We‘ll always have The Con then... won’t we?  Must-hear tracks: How Come You Don’t Want Me, Now I’m All Messed Up, Shock To Your System

Interpret: Tegan & Sara Album: Heartthrob Genre: Indie rock, Synthpop Label: Warner Bros. Records Origin: Canada Released: February 2013 Members: Tegan Quin, Sara Quin

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Interpret: Merz Album: No Compass Will Find Home Genre: Alternative Label: Accidental Records Origin: UK Released: February 2013 Member: Conrad Lambert

 It‘s very hard to label Merz‘s sound, first of all because when you listen to No Compass Will Find Home (his third full length) you realize very early on that it doesn‘t fit any pre-defined category. This record is its own thing.  Saying that it is a bit different from all the crap that floods our ears on a daily basis is the understatement of the year. And as such of course it probably won‘t be everybody‘s cup of tea.  But don’t get me wrong, No Compass Will Find Home is different in the best possible way. Come to think of it, this record is so out of this world sonically, maybe Merz should have his own genre. I wasn’t that surprised to learn that one of the rooms where the album was recorded used to be Einstein‘s laboratory... in the end, it all kinda feels like the work of a mad (albeit incredibly talented) scientist.  Agreeing to listen to this record is agreeing to embark on a wild and unpredictable journey. Forget everything you know (or think you know) about music, No Compass Will Find Home is bigger and better, and it will reach deeper than anything you’ve ever heard before.  It’s true artists like Merz who completely redefine the way we consume music, experimenting and constantly reinventing the medium along the way, offering listeners this incredibly emotional patchwork of instruments and sounds.

Authentic, pure and disarmingly bare at times, No Compass Will Find Home forces you to reconsider your relationship to music. It is an adventure that will put listeners on the path to a musical (re)awakening: Merz‘s album might be the most honest work I‘ve had the pleasure to sample in a while. THIS is what real music is supposed to sound like.  Must-hear tracks: Arrows, Judge, Goodbye My Chimera, No Compass Will Find Home

 No need to be a rocket scientist to understand how the masked Los Angelenos of rap-rock band Hollywood Undead have managed to develop some kind of a cult following over the years. It’s not just the masks, it’s this hybrid sound that makes them an even more intriguing and interesting band to listen to. As such they shouldn’t be taken lightly as they might well be Linkin Park’s rightful successors.  Hollywood Undead likes to mix and match genres and influences and that’s a huge plus for any eclectic music lover. Their unique sound perfectly mirrors our generation’s relationship to music: it’s all about diversity. If like most children of the 80’s your musical tastes were influenced by a whole bunch of currents, from metal to rap, hip hop, dance or pop, then this band is right up your alley. And if like me you simply like to live dangerously, mixing things up a little when it comes to music (able to go from Metallica to Britney Spears in the blink of an eye), you won’t be disappointed either.  Notes From The Underground, the band’s third LP, manages to deftly switch from one genre to another in an almost seamless manner. Don’t let power ballads like Rain, From The Ground and Believe fool you: Notes From The Underground is nothing but poppy, sensitive lyrics in an ocean of metal-fueled choruses.  Last but not least, Another Way Out is almost too good to be true. It stands out hands down as THE most danceable track. Electric guitars, dance beats, hip hop vocals... an explosive combination, just like the rest of this record, not to be missed.  Must-hear tracks: Another Way Out, We Are, Rain, Believe

Interpret: Hollywood Undead Album: Notes From The Underground Genre: Rap-rock, Rap-metal Label:Universal Music Group Origin: USA Released: January 2013 Members: harlie Scene, Da Kurlzz, Danny, Funny Man, J-Dog, Johnny 3 Tears

83  In France, a new wave of musicians is finally coming to terms with the fact that yes, singing in English will most definitely open doors in the music industry. Better late than never. Lilly Wood & The Prick is no stranger to that trend.  They’re one of these up and coming French artists who along with Christine & The Queens, Pamela Hute or Theodore Paul & Gabriel seem to “get it”.  Lilly Wood & The Prick have been around for some time now with influences ranging from Johnny Cash to The Kills or Patti Smith.  The Fight, their second album, is so good you’ll most likely feel the need to sing along on every single track. The choruses are catchy. To be perfectly honest there’s so many good things about this record that I’m not even sure where to start. The bass line in Le Mas, for one. Eargasm-inducing as one would say today.  With Where I Want To Be, the first track and one of the first singles off The Fight, you’ll find yourself longing for California.  Also the way the album is arranged gives Hadida’s voice plenty of room to entice listeners, especially as there’s no overbearing instruments.  To quote No Mark (track 10): “You know how crazy it is when you meet someone and you feel like you’ve known them forever?” Well that’s kind of how I felt with The Fight.

Like I’ve known them forever. Familiar and comfortable.  It’s very apropos that these guys appear on the album cover wearing boxing gloves. The music industry sort of feels like a ring sometimes. Lilly Wood & The Prick have been playing the indie scene for a couple of years, from small venues to festivals, and this album feels like it is “It”. They’re here. And they’re ready to fight their way to stardom.

Interpret: Lilly Wood & The Prick Album: The Fight Genre: Electro pop folk Label: Cinq 7 Origin: France Released: November 2012 Members: Nili Hadida, Benjamin Cotto

Interpret: Marybell Katastrophy Album: Amygdala Genre: Alternative, Electro-pop, Avant-garde pop Label: Snowhite Origin: Denmark Released: March 2013 Members: Marie Højlund, Emil Thomsen, Jakob Schweppenhäuser, Q  Marybell Katastrophy, an alternative, avant-garde synthpop act from Denmark has been around for a while, touring most of Europe and being dubbed ‘best new band from Denmark’ in the process.  Their first LP, The More, was released in December 2008 and was almost immediately lauded by the press.

So much so that it soon became ‘album of the year’ in Denmark. And you know what they say, there’s no smoke without fire. So of course I decided to get on the Marybell Katastrophy’s bandwagon and give it a good listen. As it turns out, it’s every bit as good as I expected it to be.  From Björk to The Knife, Steed Lord, Flunk or The Legends if you’re a little bit familiar with bands and artists from the North of Europe (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland...) you must have asked yourself the following question at least once: is there something in the water up there?

I mean, how is it even possible to give birth to so many awesome bands, amirite?  Hard not to draw the comparison with Björk when you hear Marie Højlund’s ethereal and crystalline voice. But if the influences are obvious, the originality is undeniable.  Also don’t miss the video clip for the album’s single Somewhere Behind My Lips: the dancing skeletons and neon pink visuals are quite a sight.  All in all, Amygdala, Marybell Katastrophy’s second full length, is a wonderful, eargasm-inducing musical experiment that’s bound to please even the pickiest of listeners.

You’ve been warned!  Must-hear tracks: Heavy Industry, Wake Up, Dexter II

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The Echo

Vamper Photography: Bernhard Musil - www.be-musil.com Stylist: Biki John - www.bikijohn.com Styled looks in collaboration with The Echo Vamper Hair & Make-up: Theo Schnürer @ Blossom Management The Echo Vamper: Iza Mortag Freund & James Brook

James wears : All outfit-James‘s own. Blue shoulder pieces: wings Moga E Mago.

Iza wears: All outfit-Iza‘s own

86 Iza wears: Nude Playsuit - epanoui by Eva Poleschinski, Black Pumps - RENO, Black latex heel pieces & Black latex gloves - Très Bonjour, Harness - Moga E Mago, Tights - Iza‘s own

The Echo Vamper are dynamic duo James Brook (UK) and Iza Mortag Freund (Denmark) who recently brought their charismatic music, artistic charms and theatrical creations down to Berlin. The city will never be the same again…

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James wears : All outfit - James‘s own.

Iza wears: All outfit - Iza‘s own.

Black harness: Moga E Mago.

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89 Since exploding onto the scene a year ago the Berlin-based band’s music has received a sizeable positive response. It has been described as, ‘early electro rock’, ‘synths meets rockabilly’ and ‘DIY Rock n Roll’ mixed with a ‘Cabaret Voltaire Feel’. Visually, the pair make an arresting couple both on and off the stage, thanks to their love of retro and vintage statement pieces.

Last year, the girl/boyfriend duo independently released and financed their EP, ‘It’s The Echo Vamper’ which went to number 1 on iTunes in Scandinavia knocking Noel Gallagher off the top spot.

The band are particularly proud of this record as it was a labour of love which they wrote, recorded, mixed, mastered, and even went so far as designing the cover themselves. Both Iza and James agree that this was, ‘a strong statement’ of who they are and what they stand for, ‘both artistically and musically’.

This year, James and Iza are particularly excited about making the music for Lars Eidinger’s, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, which will be shown on the Main Stage of Schaubühne’s Theater, Berlin.

Apart from this project, the band is in the process of writing their first album which will be released next year. For this they intend to release a couple of singles as fore-runners. With regards to the singles, they promise to have some, ‘very exciting videos and conceptual works’ which they ‘can’t wait to release’.

When asked to share their thoughts on Kaltblut’s current theme- Ice. Land, Myths, Legends and Nature, this is what they had to say-‘Myths and Legends play an important part in all societies, as they are a way of communicating important social issues. They also reflect the inner life of all human beings, the conflicts and the feelings that we all share between us. Especially in rock, there is an old theatrical & Mythical tradition that we find highly fascinating, and is something we always strive to channel our music through.

In terms of Scandinavian Culture, the natural world has always been used as a way of mirroring the complexities and conflicts of human nature. The elements are represented strongly, as are the nature of men and women through strong archetypical characters and symbols that re-enforce the duality in all.

Because we have both been surrounded by Scandinavian culture for so long, we now carry those myths and understandings with us’.

After receiving phenomenal reception from their live shows in Berlin and a warm welcome from the community at large, the pair decided to move to Berlin. Now based out of here, they both agree that, ‘life in the big city affords you a snapshot view of life; concentrated, for good and for bad.’ They also observed that being, ‘surrounded by a very different culture and atmosphere challenges and broadens’ them in a different way. Being relatively new residents to the city, Iza and James both feel that they, ‘connect very strongly with the seriousness, poetry and theatrical foundation of the ‘German Way’.

If the stir they‘ve caused in their home city of Copenhagen is anything to go by then Berliners have a lot to be excited about with the arrival of this memorable pair.

James wears : All outfit- James‘s own.

Black shoulder pieces, wings - Moga E Mago.

Iza wears: Black hat and tights - Iza‘s own Black lace body - Stylist‘s own Latex hot pants & Black latex gloves - Très Bonjour.

Text by Biki John

www.theechovamper.com

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91 Opposite Page: James wears : Black latex mask - Très Bonjour.

Iza weras : All outfit-Iza‘s own James wears : All outfit-James‘s own.

The

End.

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MID SUMMER Photography: Vivienne Mok Model: Anne Claire Ameslon Styling: Sarah Cazeneuve Make-Up: Guilaine Frichot Hair: Sandra Yazoue

Long Embroidered Dress: Claudine Ivari Pearls: Vintage

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Halter White Lace Dress: Claudine Ivari

Silk Chiffon Dress: Etienne Jeanson Flower Crown: Vintage

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Dress: Claudine Ivari Necklace: PP from Longwy Stay Ups: Vintage

Pleated Lace Dress: Etienne Jeanson Bracelet & Ring: PP from Longwy

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Long Embroidered Dress: Claudine Ivari Pearls & Umbrella: Vintage

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Dress: Joseph Font Ring and Necklace (worn in hair): PP from Longwy

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Pleated Top & Embroidered Tulle Skirt: Claudine Ivari Vintage Ballet Shoes: Sansha

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TOP

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5

Facing North: This should be the real name of this

TOP 5. There‘s a boom in Scandinavian cinema, we all know that. In the last years northern European cinema has gone global the same way French new wave or Korean horror did before. Hollywood‘s hunger leads to all sorts of remakes and some of the most popular Scandinavian actors have a solid career in the American film industry these days. Max von Sydow, Lena Olin, Mads Mikkelsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Joel Kinnaman and especially Stellan Skarsgard and Noomi Rapace are some of the faces you can see in American cinema these days.But why is it we love Scandinavian movies?

It could come from the combination of beautiful sceneSelected by Claudio Alvargonzález Tera ry, good acting, smart screenwriting and a stunningly dark sense of humor. But it could also come from Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo‘s dark novels. In fact thanks to Larsson‘s literature we discovered a whole world full of crimes, death, moral corruption and stark landscapes.

All blended with a touch of a certain kind of realism and a sense of humor which makes it much more intriguing.

And you always thought they are not having fun up there!!

Here are our favorite 5 crime movies we have selected for you.

1.

INSOMNIA (Erik Skjoldbaerg, 1997) Just before becoming an international star after Lars von Trier‘s Breaking the Waves and Gus Van Sant‘s Good Will Hunting, Stellan Skarsgard played an experienced Swedish police detective in this Norwegian film investigating the murder of a teenage girl in a small town above the Arctic Circle. But the investigation goes as bad as it can get when he shoots his partner by mistake and tries to cover up his bungle and continues the investigation by trying to connect his partner‘s death with the teenage girl‘s killer.

Insomnia refers to Skarsgard‘s inability to sleep due to his guilt and the Arctic midnight sun. The film became a hit and opened Hollywood gates to Stellan Skarsgard. But Hollywood also saw the possibilities of the story and hired Christopher Nolan in 2002 (who was Hollywood‘s most wanted those days after filming Memento) to direct the American remake relocated to Alaska with Al Pacino (playing the detective), Robin Williams and Hilary Swank. The result was a global hit too, mainly because of Al Pacino‘s talent but we still prefer the original one and Skarsgard‘s performance. We can see Stellan Skarsgard in some of the best Lars von Trier movies and most of the blockbusters of the last decade including Pirates of the Caribbean, Thor or The Avengers. At the moment he‘s shooting a new version of William Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet with Paul Giamatti and Homeland‘s new star British Damian Lewis.

2.

EASY MONEY (Daniel Espinosa, 2010)

Easy money (Snabba Cash in Swedish) is a thriller film directed by Daniel Espinosa.

Again, like many of the Scandinavian films, it is based on a novel of the same name by Jens Lapidus. It‘s the story of Johan „JW“ Westlund, a poor man who leads a double life in the upper class areas of Stockholm, but after meeting a wealthy girl, he falls into the world of organized crime and begins to sell cocaine to afford his expensive lifestyle.

Easy Money was an instant hit in Sweden with more than 100,000 tickets sold during the film‘s first weekend in theaters.The film has become a trilogy with the third part right now in production. Joel Kinnaman stars in the lead role. Kinnaman was very well known in Sweden until he became famous worldwide after staring in the American TV series „The Killing“ that opened Hollywood gates. You could see him in the American remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo directed by David Fincher and he just signed for the main role in a new remake of the iconic Robocop together with Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson in the cast. He keeps working on both sides of the Atlantic so we will hear a lot from him in the future.

3.

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HEADHUNTERS (Morten Tyldum, 2011)

The second Norwegian film of this Top 5 is an action thriller about an accomplished headhunter who seems to have a perfect life with his wife, but in reality he‘s living far beyond his means so in order to keep that expensive lifestyle he steals pieces of art. Until one day he risks everything to obtain a valuable painting owned by a former mercenary and problems start showing up. Headhunters is based on a novel by Norwegian crime fiction sensation Jo Nesbo, whose Harry Hole books have sold incredibly well in Norway and abroad. The film directed by Morten Tyldum is in fact the first big screen adaptation of Nesbo‘s work.

We can‘t say the film is a masterpiece but the beginning is brilliant and cinical and some parts are a bit tricky but at the end it‘s fast and really easy to enjoy. One of the main highlights is the strong and charismatic interpretations of the two main actors, Aksel Hennie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (that Danish actor who plays the despicable Jamie Lannister in the acclaimed TV series Game of Thrones).

4.

JAR CITY (Baltasar Kormákur, 2006)

Yes, we know that Iceland isn‘t in Scandinavia , but Jar City (Mýrin in Icelandic) is definitely a Scandinavian crime film or what some critics call Nordic Noir, and it really deserves a place on this list. Once again a thriller based on the best-seller novel Tainted Blood by Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason about a never solved crime that took place in a small town in 1974 and an exhausted detective (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson) in the present day who begins to investigate a link between that notorious unsolved crime and the homicide of a local thug. But soon the investigation opens up a bleak trail of long buried secrets and corruption for the detective and his squad.

The film was a big national hit, becoming the highest grossing domestic title in Iceland to date (although Iceland‘s population is around 320,000). Internationally it wasn‘t a hit but garnered enough attention in festivals and some other countries to get the remake rights by one of the American majors. Kormákur is also working as a producer in the English-language remake.

5.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTO (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009)

Definitely not our favorite. But if we are writing about Nordic Noir and its boom worldwide it‘s because of Stieg Larsson‘s novels. He has had his trilogy of Millennium novels adapted into three feature films - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet‘s Nest. In all the three films starred now international star Noomi Rapace (Prometheus) as Lisbeth Salander, a computer hacker with a troubled past and Michael Nyqvist as journalist Mikael Blomkvist.

But why have we listed only the first one on this Top 5? Because it‘s the only one of some interest. Firstly, of all, it‘s based on the best novel, the one with the best plot. Secondly, because the producers thought of how much money they could get and decided to film the other two as a TV mini series changing the director (Daniel Alfredson directed the last two).

The result is like two kinds of cinema making, the first one is darker that the rest, the other two filmed with too much footage, some for the last films showed in theaters and the rest of the extra scenes for the mini series. But also the image quality and photography is worse, as it‘s not the same to use a cinema camera than a TV one.

Despite all that, the trilogy (the first one being the most successful one) earned hundreds of millions worldwide and having its American remake in 2011 directed

by David Fincher which wasn‘t as good as everyone expected.

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Morten Andersen

Interview by Oryanne Dufour

109 M eeting Morten Andersen and his stunning collection of visual art on a icy cold day was quite something.

In the studio his textured canvases jumped towards me, flashing colours like the Northern Lights. Contrasted with all the soft white snow falling outside it seems like winter is the best time to experience his extraordinary work.

110 KALTBLUT: What made you decide to leave your native Denmark and move to Berlin? Didn’t you feel you’d already had enough of snow for a while…?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: I wanted to

change my life. I was not fulfilled with what I had and what I was doing... everything was going quite well actually, I had a good job as a social worker, nice place to live, nice friends around, doing mad shows on the side, starting to sell well in fact. So you would think, why leave that?? Fact is I needed a change, more challenge. I wasn‘t pushing myself to the next level I somehow had in mind.

I also wanted to be with other like-minded individuals. Not just running around in my hometown with a few guys doing what at that time was for a very small crowd and not something that more established international galleries would really pay any attention to. I was in contact with a Berlin gallery that had already offered me some good and exciting shows so I decided to move down and give it a try to live exclusively as an artist. I have been here for almost 4 years now, on and off...

KALTBLUT: Working as a full-time artist is not always easy though… where do you look for your daily inspiration?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: I simply open my

eyes: the people living here, the underground, the different scenes, art, music, design etc., there’s just so much going on, such diversity.

Something totally random can inspire me in the painting process…like, you see a crazy odd man in the streets of Berlin, dressed like whaaat.. no way! and you might laugh a bit to yourself… then when you’re back in the studio, you use the brush like what you felt for that moment, out of norm, because you just witnessed something - according to me - quite extreme!

You allow yourself to override boundaries because what you have around you is more vivid and extreme. My paintings have got so much closer to where I really want them to be the last years. Considering how I would imagine them sitting back home in Aalborg - my hometown in Denmark - and not having been able to actually realise that kind of progression, this move was definitely important!

KALTBLUT: Can you remember any moments of intense revelation that opened your eyes as a budding artist?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: There is one

moment, before I got into painting graffiti in 1994. I used to go as a teenager to this infamous abandoned school hall, it was an amphitheater in a small valley in the middle of the woods. I went there one day to check for new pieces, it was winter time and mega cold.

There was these three walls and there in the middle, the longest of them, was totally painted by Swet: a crazy colorful burner piece.

With the snow all over, there was this totally white backdrop. I stood there amazed... for

111 like an hour I think! I was so stoked about this piece, a whole new world opened to me that one winter day. It must’ve been 92-93 I think…I still have the photo at home, me 15 years old posing in front of this Sweet burner! [laughs] It was definitely an eye opener artistically.

There was a line drawn straight in front of me.

And I thought „Okay dude, get into this graffiti thing and see what you can do with it.“ Graffiti had my attention for 10 years before going over to canvas work, new techniques and new medias.

KALTBLUT: Do you feel it’s important to have a balance between painting in the street and your gallery work?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: People ask me quite often to paint some huge walls and do collabs with other street artists but I can‘t paint huge walls... I‘m super afraid of heights!

Maybe it’s a challenge for me to overcome in the near future! [laughs] In general I don’t paint too many walls as I have not yet seen it possible to totally convey my canvas techniques onto a wall surface.. so the final wall piece would lack what I would really want it to be like! I can use many great tools, techniques and different styles when working on canvas.

Having these kinds of effects coming out looking the same way on a wall is very difficult so I‘m searching for new methods to convey my canvas style to standing surfaces. I’m not proud of that many walls I’ve done, a few in 2012 I’m happy with, like the facade of my main gallery in Denmark, Galerie Wolfsen. I have one wall running in downtown Glasgow that I like. That was painted in 2011 during the „Rudimentary Perfection“ show which was focusing on post-graffiti and modern abstract melting together. Great show! But I’ve been an old graffiti writer for 10 years, so surely messing around on a wall from time to time is super fun.

KALTBLUT: So do you have everything already planned out in your mind before you start on a new painting?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: I freestyle eve-

rything when I paint, so no, nothing is planed and I have no sketches. It‘s straight out of my head! I build up a small repertoire of designs and techniques for a new series. I like to play with the materials, see how they act, how they appear under different lights. The process is very exciting to me and I can always come up with something new to spice it all up.

KALTBLUT: How did you come up with this transparent and geometrical styling that runs through your work?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: I like how all different tools act out and look on the canvas: spray, acrylics, markers, inks etc... All these different media have their own unique utility and outlook, and I get different forms and surfaces

working with them. So at some point it‘s kind of hard to paint some of it over again because they all look cool in some way! I guess that‘s why I came up with this transparency style, to see all the different layers at one time. In the beginning, years ago, I was not really aware of it, but now it’s something I try to pursue and have as my fingerprint in my paintings.

Transparency, shadows and dimension are my keywords.

All the geometrical work is a direct extension of my background in graffiti which was based on outlines. I like sharp and correct lines. It gives energy to an empty area. Contrasts are very important in my paintings too. A very drippy wet area may be held together by straight lines to give a good contrast. I play a lot with dimension to have the canvas appearing more like a room where I put in elements, rather than a flat piece of linen.

KALTBLUT: Your studio is full of artwork. Are you working on all of them at the same time?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: I need to keep an

eye on all canvasses at once, to be able to push an idea to the extreme, to utilize it the best, to twist all out of the idea and to use it in different ways in different compositions. When a new idea doesn‘t fit with the current series then I keep it for the next one. I often see something new or some changes when I have this long distance view on my paintings. You need to get real close and very far away to see the complete effect of the abstraction and to correct it well you need distance. iPhone is good for that! I make small notes where to adjust and so on… watching and analyzing is a huge part of my work.

KALTBLUT: If we give you 20 million Euros but in return you have to stop painting, would you do it!?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: Hell no! 20 is not

enough... I work step by step, always with a goal in my mind to reach. So stopping right now would be so frustrating. I would have the feeling that I never achieved my dreams and my goals. If you’re a creative person, you’ll always be messing around with different materials that can be manipulated or styled into something new, something artistic, because you can’t help it. I guess Pele still kicks a ball around when he sees one, that’s still fun for him to see if he can nail a trick or two… It’s in you, it’s not something you learn at the academy or try to get into, you either have it or you don’t. You can process skills and techniques, but all these great things are nothing if you’re not able to do something unique and original with them. You need an artistic mind for that, see the unseen and go for your feelings. So I’ll always be doing something creative, I have a quite strong feeling about that. Maybe not to the same extend as now when I’m young and have much energy and power. I could see my abstract work going in a more physical form like sculptures.

112

Opening Page: Volatile, 130x200 cm, February 2013 Double page: Morten in his studio This page: Stand still and ricochet off the wall, 160x190 cm, July 2012 Right page Top: The Ultra, 200x200 cm, September 2012 Right page Bottom: Poly Cubo, 140x170 cm, Januar 2013 All photos of paintings are by Morten Andersen All photos of the studio are by Alison Tara

113 KALTBLUT: I’ve followed your work for 6 years now, and I love your unique and abstract style.. but how about if you had to paint a realistic face or portrait of someone, could you?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: Not at all! I can’t really

draw and I don’t practice it anymore like back in the days when I was writing and needed a sketch with letters to start. Abstract is an art form that is built on something different. Surely you need to be in control of the brush, marker etc... but abstract is nothing actually.

It’s forms, shapes, elements working together like a giant puzzle. People are often astonished by their own lack of knowledge to „tell what it is“, but when I tell them: „you’re absolutely right - it’s hard to understand because it is nothing! It’s like instrumental music, you’re not supposed to understand, there’s no lyrics, it’s about feelings!“ Then they’re feeling relaxed again.

KALTBLUT: What do you feel makes a good piece of abstract work? What makes abstraction special for you?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: It‘s when you can’t tell, but

Exhibition: „Extent Immeasurable“ Artist: Morten Andersen Location: Liebkranz Galerie Augustrasse 62 10117 Berlin - Mitte Open: March 1st 2013 Running: 6 weeks www.liebkranz.de

it hits you in the stomach and you get that feeling like, yeah it’s right on spot, have no idea why, but it’s there, I feel it! That’s what my work is about, I’m not telling you anything specific, anything political, pointing fingers or something. I’m trying to convey to you an experience through senses, something different, out of the ordinary. I once named a solo show „I see colors like you hear jet planes” - maybe this gives you an idea about how to try to attack abstraction for a better understanding. Don‘t try to understand it with a specific goal in mind or a special optic, because then you‘ll loose.

Feel free... open your mind and let loose.

KALTBLUT: So, the most important question saved till last, where can we actually see your work on show?

MORTEN ANDERSEN: „Pieces of the Sky“. February. Galerie Wolfsen. Aalborg, Denmark 2013 Soloshow. March 1st. Galerie Liebkranz. Berlin, Germany 2013 Museum groupshow. March 24th. Saarbrücken, Germany 2013 35 urban artists groupshow.

Amongst them: (Futura, Rammellzee, Quik, Retna, Dare, Reso, Invader, Doze Green, Shepard Fairey ...)

Best of BSA (Berlin Selected Artists). Galerie Wolfsen.

June. Aalborg, Denmark 2013 Soloshow. November. Galerie Wolfsen. Aalborg, Denmark 2013 KALTBLUT: Great Morten. Thanks so much for sharing that insight with us at Kaltblut! Any last words??

MORTEN ANDERSEN: Thanks to you, Oryanne,

for inviting me to do this interview, always a pleasure to work with you. High-fives and much respect to my Danish curator Rasmus Ejaas Fischer from Galerie Wolfsen and Kent Wolfsen who runs the gallery, these guys I owe a lot for believing in me and taking my art to new heights! My Berlin curator Uwe Goldenstein for pushing me down here. Any one who follows my art and have been watching over the years, keep following, I’m only just getting started.

www.m-andersen.com

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Dandy of the Grotesque Photography: Ole Westermann - www.olewestermann.de Fashion Styling: Timo Bloom - Nude Agency Model: Sasha Marini - Joy Model Management Hair/MakeUp: Timo Bloom - Nude Agency Location: Berlin - Studio Stockholm

all Garments are made in Berlin by - Dandy of the Grotesque www.dandyofthegrotesque.com

Slim Jacket: Dandy of the Grotesque Ring: models own

Bowler Hat: Dandy of the Grotesque Shirt: Zara Slim Jacket and Trousers: Dandy of the Grotesque Belt: Zara Ring: models own Shoes: H&M

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Vest, Bolero Jacket and slim Trousers: Dandy of the Grotesque Shirt: Zara Shoes: H&M

Wool Kimono: Dandy of the Grotesque Hoody: Dandy of the Grotesque Nosering: Naked Steel

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issue 10

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paint sound film flesh us

meet the artists we love roomsmagazine.com

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Fjarlægð Photography by Sebastian Donath | www.neoncolour.com Assistant Pascal Flor Colour Photos Styling: Janetta Benner | www.janettabenner.com Hair & Make up: Maria Ehrlich | www.maria-ehrlich.tumblr.com Model: Sophie Labowsky @ IZAIO models B/W Photos Styling: Lina Saleem & Isolde Richly | www.linasaleem.com & www.isolderichly.com Hair & Make up: Selina Reimann | www.selinareimann.com Model: Steffen Dietz @ IZAIO models

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Hairpiece by Zofie Angelic

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Necklace by Heubel Collection Provence Fur Coat by Butterfly Soulfire

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Coat by JULIAANDBEN, Glasses and Bag by Lina Saleem

126 Coat by JULIAANDBEN, Glasses and Bag by Lina Saleem

127 Coat by JULIAANDBEN, Glasses and Bag by Lina Saleem

Edgar Avila

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A quiet street in Paris 10th arrondissement, a typical Parisian building, climbing a wooden staircase, a door opening onto a vast kitchen and here I am in Mr. Edgar Avila’s apartment, also doubling as his atelier at the moment. A nice cup of tea is awaiting me as we discuss his artistic path, sharing insight into his works and constant search of the perfect scenery for his inspiration.

Edgar is a Parisian Argentinian who was adopted by the city of lights 20 years ago.

He studied architecture in Argentina and followed a path into fashion in Paris, studying at the Studio Bercot and working as a set and costume designer. His dreams came true as he went from studio intern at Lacroix, Chloé, Véronique Leroy to fashion editor for more than 10 years, but in 2009 he made the strong decision to dedicate himself to his art. As a polymorphous artist he is constantly exploring every medium and creating new ones, remaining open-minded and working closely with his environment, passions and his Iphone (yes!) His art is simultaneously nostalgic and unique, and he perfects his creations and discovers new techniques using everyday objects.

A Barbie doll, the sign of our childhood, becomes his heroine, a plastic mask now appears to him as a faun, he never stops morphing objects into his own wonders, and our own.

These days he is working with light. Light as a medium, an object, an assistant or a colour. Through one of the most familiar office tools: a simple scanner, he is playing with artefacts, wrapping papers, metallic foils and the edges of the unknown, he creates dreamy countrysides, a vague souvenir of a past, or scary volcanoes ready to burst...

Interview by Ya-Shi Emilie Photography by Nicolas Le Moal whyaintyoucreative.tumblr.com

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KALTBLUT: That’s a brave decision.

So how is it going so far?

Edgar Avila: It is picking up. I did an

KALTBLUT: Hi Edgar, let’s talk about you, who are you?

exhibition in Los Angeles and Milan, and Vienna might be around the corner; I need to visit the place first. I am also now part of a company catalog, which installs wallpapers and carpets in hotels and specific places around the world. They either do printed carpets or propose hand knotted carpets.

KALTBLUT : Why architecture?

KALTBLUT : Your work has been featured as part of a catalog which is more product focused, is it okay with you that your work is more accessible to the public?

Edgar Avila: It was the closest to

Edgar Avila: I think it is very good as

Edgar Avila: I am an Argentinian who studied architecture.

what I wanted to do which was theatrical sets and costumes a cross between fashion and theatre. I did that for a while in Argentina and then I discovered the Studio Bercot in Paris. I came to Paris 20 years ago to study at Berçot for a two year course.

I then interned everywhere you had to intern: Christian Lacroix, Chloé, Véronique Leroy… But like a lot of foreigners I did not have the requested papers to work, so I wasn’t able to get a steady job. It was a tough time. Luckily, I started to assist a fashion director from a magazine and ended up being a fashion editor for 10 years.

KALTBLUT: Fashion editor for ten years.. but then why did you stop?

Edgar Avila: So for 10 years till 2009,

I work in fashion as a stylist, an editor.

Since then it is a world that I am no longer interested in. There is a lot of pressure from the advertisers and the current (fashion) environment. As a fashion editor in a magazine, you are unable to produce interesting work. I quit in 2009 in order to pursue my dreams. Since then, I have dedicated myself to my works.

the company is very focused. They bought the flower series and landscapes, it is meant to be a big installation project. When I imagined these projects I really thought about the medium and knew that it should be in big proportion. You create a picture on a software medium, how do you want it to be exhibited? You can project it on a wall, paint it or print it out from its software version.

I don’t see it like a betrayal to my original work. You can do whatever you want with it.

I like it this way.

KALTBLUT: Indeed, but a lot of artists would feel that like was a betrayal of some kind…

Edgar Avila: Maybe the work is becoming more material and tangible. But it is a way of reaching everyone. After all it will be part of your everyday life. As part of everyday, I am currently making pictures with my Iphone and transforming them into a polaroids thanks to a mini software.

I snapshot things, it is very interesting, it can be printed in big format or very small ones like a polaroids... (he shows me some

works on his Iphone). For the carpets I did a porno series, but as I have captured just fragments of it so it doesn’t look like porno, you cannot see or guess what it is.

KALTBLUT: So how did you start to use digital processes?

Edgar Avila: I started in 1997, I prepared a series of works for a designer that I loved and wish to work for. The original work was photocopies on paper and tracing paper, with addition of nailpolish for color hints. That is how I discover that working on photocopies was really interesting. I also started to touch different media then such as ceramic. I worked in little neighborhood ateliers but then moved on as it was mainly full of women wanting to do little cute pots or gifts. I wanted to explore the ceramic medium with protean shapes. And then I started to work with fabric, to create these forms….(sculptures of fabric are picked up from his shelves of collections). I have also touched on embroidery. Looking for a way to do it not so neatly.

KALTBLUT: You currently work with a scanner, isn’t it a bit ‘flat’ as a medium? Don’t you still need to touch and feel the materials?

Edgar Avila: Nowadays I am really

into sculpture. I am nurturing myself with exhibitions, statues in garden, looking around... with the scanner I am working on creating volumes with the light. It is capturing a moment in one shot. I like that it is ephemeral. I hate to be too neat. I am very meticulous when it comes to tiny details, I see everything even the smallest details but when I produce it and do it, it is immediate.

It is hard to fix it. Like in my landscapes, I do it like I feel it. It is my own perception, If I mean horizontal it is horizontal. It is organic, it moves sometimes it doesn’t stay as I want.

131 KALTBLUT: Do you like the idea of it being ‘alive’?

Edgar Avila: Yes that’s exactly what I like about these researches. When you work with a scanner you have to work upside down, backwards, picturing the result. In Morocco there is a technique called ‘Zellige’ for the mosaic art. The designs are done upside down; so they don’t really picture what they do, they see the final result when they return it. My work is twice unexpected. You don’t know how the light is going to come out nor how the objects will be reacting. I happened to try and buy expensive material, in the end no result. Now I only work with the things that I find left alones, such as the hair pieces that I bought in flea markets. I understand why photographers are obsessed with the casting, the perfect fit and person.

Sometimes some models are not convincing.

Now I am also casting objects and dolls.

KALTBLUT: Let’s talk about “VULCANOES” the work that is featured in this issue, how did you realise it?

Edgar Avila: I did a first work on

landscape a few years ago and then moved to other things. When my tastes and techniques had evolved, I wanted to do a new series of landscapes with a volcano base. I became obsessed with it following a trip to Sicilia. I also come from a place where there are a lot of volcanoes.

KALTBLUT: Are you missing Argentina? (He is showing us some volcano landscapes) Edgar Avila: This is where I come

from. This is called the Six Thousands, it is a small space full of volcanoes, they are all extinguished. I am not missing Argentina, I have been living in Paris for 20 years, I have it in me.

KALTBLUT: What are your future projects?

Edgar Avila: I am looking for an

atelier. I need to have my own separate space to work. I can no longer work in my home.

I am working on the Vienna project and developing the wallpaper project. And…at one point I even thought of cooking, Most of my friends are telling me that I should be a home chef, but it is already another universe. I have tried to put it aside but it is part of me. I make snapshots of my cuisine and food setting with my Iphone. I do my own market. You have to snap shot it quickly before your guests eat it or it gets cold. Although I am not sure of the Iphone reliability as a serious medium. When I was a fashion editor I was using it a lot to snap pictures in the showroom of interesting things. But it is part of the new communication tools, you cannot be closed to new tools, well at least my new tool.

edgaravila545@gmail.com

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Into

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MENTAL CARDS

TIM FITE

Time Fite is an independent, ultra creative musician and visual artist from New York. He opened for Bonaparte during the last tour in Europe before going back to his various projects. He is currently rapping with GRANT$, an unconventional duet we should definitely keep an eye on!

To see some of his videos, prints and hear some free spirited music jump onto his website here : www.timfite.com Tim, close your eyes and picture a deserted landscape: It is very crowded in the front of the frame and open in the back. The land is red and the sky is a purplish-grey, the trees have ants running on the bark and there is a fence that breaks the crowded part of the land from the empty part.

There is a cube do you see it?

The cube in the landscape is green and it is glowing, filled with children.

Do you see the horse near the cube?

The horse near the cube is a little bit angry, I think he stepped on a nail.

What about that door there, a little bit further?

I can see it but it won‘t open, it is locked.

Perhaps I can knock on it and someone else could open it for me.

You don‘ t have the key?

No!

Text and illustrations by Marianne Jacquet, www.wrangelkiez.org

from Tim Fite and Lasse Matthiessen.

137 Ice-covered land, wild open field, fierce freezing wind, and extravagant, almost extinct animals.. I invite you to join my experiMENTAL trip into the imagination of two Nordic artists Tim Fite and Lasse Matthiessen! Both have opened their minds to embark on this creative journey driven by the sound of a narrators voice. Please read carefully and then close your eyes to picture this unique postcard of the mind, a place called imagination.

LASSE MATTHIESSEN

Lasse Matthiessen is a singer song writer from Copenhagen. He recently released a new album with the Icelandic artist Halla Nördfjörd and Ian Fisher (US).The trio will be performing in Berlin at the Nordic u see? hat do yo jell“ w s e y Embassy on the 16th of May. e r u close yo in the „F When you zen lake. We are ist ant over www.lassematthiessen.com f ro dd

w an f the er side o ing red and yello e mount ain tops. th o e th n th abin on n is tur wooden c clear and the su d e r a e e is it like?

Is , what is ings d ). The sky n s u in o s a t a n u ce is e str (mo If this pla ith the four dron ith the iolin w ...and w rdanger v al violin strings olume going a H le h v e norm ger Fe slowly n Hardan ing underneath th ia g e w r o N g e in r th up the It‘s Fender Telecast er with f a touch o , overdrive d reverb an e delay. Th ape is sound sc open e of the wid nd the space a om the reverb f r ains. mount l An anima g is comin ou towards y e s do you e it? b No… ut I hear a the moose in nd a … dist ance so I k o .. h …o toes and and when a t o p h it e call ose w I love mo It has this strang that huge aniw o h f o k y r.

I thin g close gh or cr ow‘s se comin re whether to lau bit like a horny c h“. o o m e th hear nds a „muu not su nd. It sou it you‘re you hear this strange sou e it? een given ou describ the y mal has b n a c , e s o a hou use of ding you t ‘s small but beca scape. I a le is d n in. It e land The sou e red cab y is owy whit Yes, to th nds out in the sn and hope it reall n. ke st a f roze colour it the deep f rozen la s s o r c se? er the hou d t n e u o y Do as I st an lake and the door e th s s o to cr turn t ake long ee door I le and go in. d It doesn‘t e massive oak tr han ront of th there in f which one … s t n e m u g? str e some in song are you singin I r a e r e h t u r. ront of yo o you pick or which it ar in the corne u Right in f d g se u ic o t h s u n ar t in aco d in a red woode sses“.

M d n a h e t my lef Oh, Uly I record I think it‘s play a song that uary 2012 called „ and y Febr pick it up in Norwa

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Saga Úr Sjó

Concept/ Production/Art Direction:

Nicolas Simoneau & Rut Sigurðardóttir

Photographer:

Rut Sigurðardóttir www.rutsigurdardottir.com

Stylist:

Erna Hreinsdóttir www.ernahreinsdottir.com

Make up:

Jamal Musa @ Nude Agency

Hair:

Persona Non Grata, Berlin Headquarters www.facebook.com/slutnongrata

Hair assistant:

Katie Jacques Foolsgold

Models:

anh & Lex @ Seeds Management

Special Thanks: Swarovski

White overall: TANJA HULD LEVY GUDMUNDSDÓTTIR Gold overall: BJÖRG SKARPHÉDINSDÓTTIR

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Dress, Denim Jacket, Jeans: EYGLO

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Vest: Hildur

Yeoman, Shorts: Ziska

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Dress: Hildur

Yeoman

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Sweaters, Knit piece: Eva

Br谩 Barkard贸ttir

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Hood: Ziska, Bra: Hildur

Yeoman

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Sweater, Trousers: Eva

Br谩 Barkard贸ttir, Shoulder Piece: Hildur Yeoman

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Sweater: Hildur

Yeoman, Top, Shorts: Eva Br谩 Barkard贸ttir, Bra, Trousers, Ring: Hildur Yeoman

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Necklace:

Swarovski, Swimsuit: EYGLO, Knit piece: Hildur Yeoman

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JÖR by Guðmundur Jörundsson Interview by Marcel Schlutt Photography: Íris Björk Styling: Sunna Þorsteinsdóttir Makeup and hair: Harpa Finns Models: Emil Þór Guðmundsson & Ómar Þór Ómarsson

Iceland, this little but extraordinary country in the North of Europe, with a population of just 320.000 human beings is one of the most creative places in the world. The fashion scene is very small but some of the most exciting young fashion labels are coming from this island. One of our favorite labels from Iceland is contemporary menswear label JÖR by Guðmundur Jörundsson, founded by menswear designer Guðmundur Jörundsson in 2012. The designer knows how to bring back men glamour and true gent’s style. The Spring/ Summer Collection is entitled Jewlia and I am in love with every single piece of it. Photographer Iris Björk produced this editorial starring Emil Þór Guðmundsson and Ómar Þór Ómarsson just for our issue. And I had the pleasure of talking to Guðmundur Jörundsson about his new label and the fashion scene in Iceland.

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152 KALTBLUT: Congratulations for the successful launch of your very first collection and the label JÖR by Gudmundur Jörundsson. I love every single piece of your collection. Tell us what is your vision with your design?

Gudmundur: Thank you Marcel, that‘s great to hear. I guess my vision

for design runs on different obsessions, which makes every collection and the label in general a sort of concept label and concept collections. I like creating a different world for each collection.

KALTBLUT: What I like most looking at your designs is the mix of classic menswear with this special touch of futuristic style. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Gudmundur: Inspiration comes from all directions I guess, most

frequently from conversations, movies, photography and even dreams.

KALTBLUT: Ice-Land, Myths, Legends and Nature is the theme of this issue. How much has Iceland influenced your work?

Gudmundur: Probably more then I suspect myself. I spend a lot of time in nature, but it would be a cliché to say I‘m inspired by Icelandic nature.

Maybe I am a cliché after all. Nevertheless, living in an almost non-existent Icelandic fashion scene is fun. It‘s our time.

KALTBLUT: What kind of material do you work with? And do you work with fabrics from your home country?

Gudmundur: I am a lot into natural fabrics, and slowly adding more

and more of organic fabrics. I have been best described as a „linen pervert“. Guilty as charged on that subject. From Icelandic fabrics, I have only used leather -- There are not so many options when it comes to Icelandic fabrics, of course you have the Icelandic wool for knitting. It‘s rough and itchy, good for herding but nothing more. What I have used in the leather area? Icelandic lamb, reindeer and cod for example.

KALTBLUT: Looking at your first fashion show for JÖR I have to say: I love the type of guys you have booked for the show.

What does the perfect man look like for your garment?

Gudmundur: The guys play an important role in the making of a

collection and a lot of time goes into researching models. As to the perfect guy for my garments I have to say that it ranges also, depending on each collection. For example this collection is more ‚sud de france‘ than before, more delicate.

KALTBLUT: Can you explain: Why menswear and not fashion for women? What is the reason?

Gudmundur: Well, to tell you the truth I have just as much interest

nowadays in womenswear. And we will be adding womenswear to the JÖR collection soon. But at first I was more interested in menswear. There are so many rules in menswear to break, you don‘t have that in womenswear.

KALTBLUT: You graduated from Iceland Academy of Arts last year. And we can see that you are very talented in what you do. Have you always wanted to be a fashion designer?

Gudmundur: No, I guess not. I’m not sure I was aware of the existence

of fashion design until later in my life. I figured it out around 17 or 18. Then a little later I started working for Kormákur & Skjöldur at their shop. A little later I was studying fashion design; I had just dropped out of school and was kind of lost. When I started working at the Kormákur & Skjöldur store I withheld my focus on fashion or menswear. At first the K&S store was focusing on second hand formal menswear. I stayed back in the stock where all the Savile Row tailored suits were. They were from the old Bertie Wooster store in London. I remember I used to smell the Savile Row garments. Kind of sick when you think about it.

153 KALTBLUT: What was the first piece you ever designed? And what was it for?

Gudmundur: It was some ridiculous jacket with a Dracula collar and orange buttons. I made it for my application to the Icelandic Academy of the Arts. Unnsteinn, who is now the lead singer of Icelandic band Retro Stefson modeled for me. Good times.

KALTBLUT: How did you grow up in Iceland? Did you get the support from your family and friends?

Gudmundur: My childhood is pretty basic. Sports, fishing, skiing. I

grew up in Reykjavik. I was a pretty hyperactive child, although my mother says I was just an „active“ child with an „active imagination“.

KALTBLUT: The fashion scene in Reykjavik is growing a lot these days. The international fashion world is looking at your country. Why is Iceland the place to be for you?

Gudmundur: Iceland is the best and Iceland is the worst. I like the contrast and I need the over exaggerated contrast.

KALTBLUT: Are there any menswear designers you look up to? And if so, why?

Gudmundur: Alexander McQueen - He was a damn good designer and did a lot for modern menswear.

KALTBLUT: Can you name 3 must have items for a modern man?

Gudmundur: Linen jacket, linen shirt, linen trousers.

KALTBLUT: There is so much good work from music to art to fashion coming from Iceland. It is always a big inspiration.

Can you explain why your folk is one of the most creative ones in the world? What is the secret of Icelandic artists?

Gudmundur: There is a nice concoction between creative fields in

Iceland. The music scene in Iceland is the best example of how to do good - Everybody helps each other out. The competition is built on good terms and that‘s how it should be with every scene. Nearly all of my friends are musicians, it‘s kind of funny.

KALTBLUT: Which are your favourite artists from Iceland?

And why?

Gudmundur: This might be the most difficult question I have been

asked… My all-time favourite is Prins Póló. The new Retro Stefson record is also brilliant -- And at this exact moment I am listening to the new Hjaltalín album and it is really, really good. Ragnar Kjartansson, Apfelsin Bros - Sindri Sin Fang & Örvar Múm. FM-Belfast. Inga Birgis. I could go on and on.

KALTBLUT: Have you ever been to Berlin? Or Germany in general? And what do you know about our fashion scene here?

Gudmundur: Yes, I have been to Berlin. I spent 3 weeks there once. It‘s

a tremendous city and I hope to live there one day. Actually I love Germany, I support the German football team and I love German language. I am sort of a Germanophile.

KALTBLUT: Thank you very much for the interview. And good luck on your way with the label.

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„Maybe

Iaam

cliché.

“

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C O L U M N : H E R R V O N K E I L S AY S

“Please mind the prat between the train and the platform.”

“Step back please!”, the loudspeaker voice of tin is yelling at me.

Well I would, if I could.

I am standing in the U5 towards Hönow, it is shortly after 9pm and the metro is so packed that I can barely move. Doesn’t seem to be bothering the man behind me who is breathing happily down my neck, his deepest rotten breath.

Text by Magnus Von Keil

www.vonkeil.com

Same goes for the completely intoxicated group of tourists from Southern Germany right next to me, all the pushing isn‘t getting to them at all: shouting out lame jokes across the wagon, while the snow melting off the umbrella of the bloke in front of me is soaking my shoes.

Even though I feel the urge to free exponential aggression rising, I attempt to escape this merciless scenario, at least in thought. As I note a particularly smeary grease impression on the battered windowpane, I stare out into the darkness of the underground.

How you wish yourself far, far away at moments like this! Away from street dirt, shit on the pavements and drunk, partying tourists. Further away than the U5 could ever take you...to a place where you regain space, peace and finally a perspective; a view free of ugly concrete blocks and oversized Fastfood billboards. But as it is, I live in Berlin – a city in which you are never alone.

This is basically the reason why you live here: after

all. It is filled with people of progressive thoughts, people who want to move things, even if only from the pub next door. It is filled with people who are gladly playing music for free, sometimes during the night or right by your bedroom window. But it seems, there are also those people who apparently purely exist here just to get on all the other people‘s nerves.

Anyone who has ever played “Super Mario Bros” will surely remember the Thwomps. The Thwomps are big, spiky boulders, apparently just pointlessly hanging from the ceiling but falling just at the right moment when Mario stands directly underneath one. And this is exactly the type of people who can turn anybody‘s life into living hell: Boulderpeople.

Boulderpeople are those who during rush hour, push their dirty bikes or kids buggy into the hope-

159 to learn how to walk…

lessly stuffed SBahn so they can then unpack their file folders and study for an upcoming business studies exam.

Boulderpeople are also those who will push their way through a concert only to stop still right in front of you and then not move an inch until the show is over. Who in public spaces will always come a few centimetres too close, and violate your privacy.

Although all of these obstacles do not go by unnoticed by the experienced metropolist, no matter how hard you try -you can‘t escape them. If you do

Boulderpeople prefer to carry around particularly bulky objects such as hiking backpacks, violas, or partly wrapped IKEA furniture in order to drag them around carelessly taking no notice of anything in their path.

If you have to walk around in urban spaces a lot, you will come to recognise these Boulderpeople from afar. Like a sharp-eyed hunter who scans the rocky wastelands of the Siberian tundra for ptarmigan and arctic hare, the savvy urbanite scans his territory for hostile obstacles.

Illustration: Tim Brackmann

His trained eye instantly spots Boulderpeople based on their square stature, their practical polyester anorak and the large blank face whose emptiness is optionally amplified by a tasteless cash register frame.

There are no real sex or age differences between them -Boulderkids do obviously exist as well. Baby-Thwomps. This species is most commonly encountered occupying and often hampering public spaces: in the corridors of shopping centres, for example, or on the 30cm wide sidewalks of East Berlin – just at precisely those places where it is extremely inappropriate for newborns

it Super Mario style and just run, you could survive.. but although this plan works out pretty well in theory –there is a tiny hindrance: since we in fact don‘t live in the areal clarity of the Siberian tundra, but in a big city instead, the long distance visibility is somehow always impaired by a Starbucks sign or a „Cirque du soleil“ advertising placard - and before you know it, behind the next corner a fresh idiot will be waiting to stand eagerly in the way.

Let’s face it, you can either despair, or take your destiny for granted and embrace it. In the end, it is a cosmic law that on the grand escalator of life there will always be one arsehole that is blocking the natural organic flow of things.

And this is something that even the Siberian hunter himself can confirm.

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NATURES

BEAUTY

Photography by Victoria Bolkina Style by Diana Bogach Accessories by POSH Hair: Zina Morino Make up: Anna Kuzminykh Models: Marie Orlova @MSS, Luba Varga and Daria Savchenko @Star System

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MY SOUNDS

This is one part of the theme “ICE-LAND” that we can’t possibly ignore. That magical spark of creativity that runs through Scandinavian waters and surrounds.. flows into its musicians, out through their fingers and into our ears…

From the first moment I heard The Knife’s “Silent Shout” album it changed the way I listened to music forever.. and after wracking my brains for the last months I still can’t put my finger on it.. what makes music from the North so special?

Maybe it’s the cold atmospheres, the all-encompassing darkness, the inspiration from such unforgiving nature, the eccentricity, a heightened sensitivity… or maybe a collection of these combined that draws it out somehow.. either way, this shared intensity undoubtedly makes for some of the most eccentric artists and perfect sounds that I’ve ever heard…

It has been a massive task having to narrow it down to just these few of many, many more worthy of a place in this list, but for now here it is, a definitive guide to my favourite artists from the North..

OF THE

NORTH

Text by Amy Heaton

Iamwhoiamwhoami

Epic Escapism This strange title is the pseudonym for the mesmerising audio-visual experiment of Jonna Lee (with co-producer Claes Björklund). I first discovered her epic videos via YouTube, well that’s the way that she intended it, and was totally grabbed by her weirdness. It’s tasteful, full of details and each video runs into the next, featuring more and more strange and wonderful costumes, characters and locations tinged with that Scandinavian backdrop…. woodlands, washed out colours.. it’s really well worked. But the project is not only on this list for the art that she creates (as brilliant as it is), I’m also really intrigued by the way that Jonna went from humble unknown singer-songwriter to all out viral video hype machine. She really manipulated the press, sending links to videos featuring her blonde (unidentified) image and had them all head scratching, but then as the releases continued they seemed to catch on that the artist, whoever it was, was speaking directly with the audience. I love this level of secrecy she creates, keeps people thinking and waiting, she’s really thought about how to present herself and play with her image, a whole new way to expose her music that’s entirely her own in a way that is only possible through the internet. Love it!

Editor’s Pick

With Jonna it’s not enough to just hear her sounds, if you want the full experience go and watch them alongside her videos on her YouTube channel. The first one I watched was “;John”, think it’s still my favourite. www.youtube.com/user/iamamiwhoami

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Björk

Editor’s Pick

It’s got to be her 1995 album “Post”: that dark heavy energy of “Army of Me” and the visceral driving “Hyperballad” which both have classic music videos from her long time friend and collaborator Michel Gondry plus her all time hit, Betty Hutton cover, “Oh It’s Oh So Quiet” with the Spike Jonze-directed music video clip. www.bjork.com

Our favourite Icelandic icon

Her extroverted character and unique vocals have been leading audiences to either love her or hate her for decades, but either way, you can’t deny her originality for one second. Trying to sum her up in a paragraph is impossible.

She flits around the genres like a musical butterfly, from experimental electronica, rock, trip-hop and jazz to alternative dance, industrial and rave… and from musician to songwriter and producer she moved into film with her memorable performance in Lars Von Trier’s “Dancer in the Dark” (2000) and has made it onto every magazine’s fashion pages with her outlandish style and designs. Her unconventional approach to the music industry and her anarchistic affinity with nature has kept her firmly in the public eye but it’s her music that deserves the real press coverage.

Playful, intelligent, innovative compositions. True works of art. In 2011 her latest project “Biophilia” (One Little Indian) was released which aimed to combine music with technological innovation, science and nature, and an „app album“ was also released which made it highly interactive. With every new release she challenges us, and remains a current and relevant artist. Reported to be working on a book release and playing intense live shows in Paris in February of this year she shows no signs of slowing down, wherever will she take us to next!?

Sigur Rós The music that dreams are made of…

Whenever I listen to this band I’m totally overcome with a wash of complete awe. It’s surely some of the most beautiful music created in modern times. It sparkles through your mind, delicate and fragile, but builds up into moments that fill your soul and leave goose bumps rippling across your skin… frontman Jónsi Birgisson’s vocals ride high over the uplifting waves of noise in his native Icelandic tongue and if you close your eyes, you feel like you’re no longer listening to music from this world. Last year they released their sixth album, “Valtari” (2012) and experimented with various films to attach to their sound that you absolutely have to search for. They are currently on a world tour with an all new live show which includes an 11-piece band and claim to be taking their sound in a whole new direction with yet more new material due out this year, every concert ticket comes with a 3-track E.P of previously unreleased tracks, if you can get hold of one that is…

Editor’s Pick

The bands fourth album “Takk…” (2005) features their better known tracks “Sæglópur” and “Hoppípolla”, and you can hear why, but for me their latest offering “Valtari” (2012) is my favourite album of all, especially the track Varúð (Caution, in English), and the films that accompany the album, to be released on their own exclusive DVD collection this year.

www.sigur-ros.co.uk

I had her album “These Things Take Time” (2009) on constant repeat for about one month solid and I can still listen to it now from start to finish, it’s not very often I find a new record like that. I think it’s her frank, simple and witty lyrics that you can so easily relate to, themes of broken love, everyday observations and emotions.

It’s an endearing melancholy that pulses through her stripped back and unpretentious instrumentation: simple drum claps, melodic synth lines, repetitive and dreamy supporting her voice, she’s almost speaking her words to you and just doing her thing in a completely honest and unapologetic way, it couldn’t be more effective. Based out of Berlin she also has a collection of equally quirky makeshift music videos online and proved that first album wasn’t just a fluke when she released her brilliant second full length, “History” (2011) the same way she puts out all her music, on her own label ‘Dark Skies Association’.

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Molly Nilsson

The mysterious Swedish born siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer are cited by millions of electronic acts across the world as a source of inspiration and arguably sparked off a whole sub-culture of our time... but no matter how many poor imitations I’ve searched through never have I come across anything else quite like it. Nobody really knows much about them, they keep themselves and their influences extremely private, but at the end of the day who cares. Their self titled debut was a gentle introduction to the pair who later unleashed the full fury of their electoneon nightmare corridors in “Deep Cuts” (2004) and “Silent Shout” (2007) that twist before you in ways that would make even the great David Lynch’s toes curl. It’s unsettling for sure, but just as playful as it is horrible. For me it’s their intuitive mix of samples, patience, a shed load of good taste and of course those distinctive vocals that make their sound so impossible to replicate (and as if anyone would even dare..)

Every note seems to have its place, and you couldn’t rewrite it any other way. It’s been nearly a decade since their last release, and staying true to their own habits (despite the album title) their new album has been kept close to their chests until a teaser video was posted on their website late last year.

We can now confirm that they are releasing “Shaking The Habitual” in April 2013...

You have no idea how happy this makes me.

Vintage Pop Perfection

Editor’s Pick

I think there’s not a soul in Berlin who can’t relate to the words of “(Won’t Somebody) Take Me Out Tonight”… feel free to prove me wrong. “You always hurt the one you love” from “History” is a brilliant track too. www.darkskiesassociation.org

TheKnife Masterminds of electronica

Editor’s Pick

Listen to it all, from start to finish, then go back and start again… If I HAVE to pick one, it’s maybe either… “Forest Families” (Silent Shout) or “A Lung” but please, don’t make me choose! www.theknife.net

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Over to Denmark now with producer Anders Trentemøller, his deep ambient electronica stood out for me amongst a wall of Berlin minimal, techno, progressive house.. His debut album “The Last Resort” (2006) is one of my all time favourite electronic records; intense, driving, powerful, but washed with a melancholic resonance. On top of his own compositions it’s his remixes that really get me. His 2011 release “Remixed/Reworked” featuring various other great artists such as the mighty Thom Yorke. New and established acts alike he doesn’t seem to care which, but they all have one thing in common, that he clearly loves the track he’s rediscovering, and it’s this appreciation of the original sound and structure that so clearly comes through in the music. He also remixes a lot of his own work and I often enjoy the remix just as much if not more than the first version. Of course he also transfers this technique over into his DJ sets, so if you can catch a live set by him at Panorama Bar or wherever else absolutely do it. He’s due to release a new record this year with his own “In My Room” imprint and lining up festival dates for this year.

Trentemøller Intuitive Techno

Editor’s Pick

It’s got to be between his own remix of “Moan” and the Kollektiv Turmstrasse remix of “Even Though You’re with Another Girl”. www.anderstrentemoller.com

„So there you have it!

You can hear all of these artists and more in my mix for our collection at www.mixcloud.com/amyheaton/ice-lands“

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Villtur Sj贸

by Amanda M. Jansson & Emma E.K Jones www.amandamorganjansson.co.uk www.emmaelinakeirajones.com

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Photography by Lesha Lich Styling: Anna Bugera, Olia Svarga, Olga Sadovskaya Make up: Olia Svarga Hair: Yaroslav Rudakov Models: Helen Lee @InStars, Olga Qluckova, Kate Braga

Armor - ArtMaster, Dress - Yana Chervinska, Furcoat - Rybalko, Accessoires - Rybalko

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Furcoat, Rings - Property of stylists, Armor - ArtMaster, Accessoires - Rybalko, Anna Laty

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Accessoires - Rybalko, Elena Romanova, Fur of dear

MUST 182

You certainly can live without these ITEMS, but life is so much More Beautiful with THEM. Selected by Marcel Schlutt

CURVE BLUETOOTH® iDock Phillip Lim Charge your iPhone and sync it with iTunes. Simultaneous BlueShark Embossed tooth ® wireless connection to 2 devices with volume controls on and place to leave your iPhone at the base station.

Pashli Medium Satchel Whiletheyouryouphone are relaxing with the Curve wireless handset phone, iPhone is charging permanently on the base station.

If I were a girl I would kill for this bag. 3.1 Phillip Lim brings some fresh color in these dark months with his yellow design masterpiece. This 3.1 Phillip Lim satchel features exposed zip gussets at the front and two rolled top handles with a push stud secure. Interior features one exposed zip pocket.

100% cow leather www.31philliplim.com

You can use it for your iPhone, iPad and Android. www.nativeunion.com

Candies from The North I just love all the candies from The North. Wine gums, liquorice, toffees, hard boiled candy, lollypops and salty candy.

Hmmm it is so tasty. Yes I know salty sweets? Have you ever tried it? If not you should do so. Favourite brands are Läkerol, Cloetta, Jenkki, Kexchoklad, Malaco, Sportlife, Saila, Red Band and Sperlari.

Acne - Ankle Length Cut Out Boots

Chiara Natural could be your favorite boots for spring 2013. Those boots are looking clean, simple but also stylish. I wanna see big city girls in those great shoes. Acne is one of our favorite fashion labels from Scandinavia. Have a look in the online shop. I am sure you will find your personal Must Have Item. www.shop.acnestudios.com

Hasselblad H5D

The next step in the evolution of the world renowned Hasselblad H System, the Hasselblad H5D provides a powerful addition to any photographer’s toolbox and provides you with the competitive edge you need in today’s crowded marketplace.

The H5D features Hasselblad’s legendary image quality, a new stylish and more compact design, an updated lens line, new electronics, improved AF precision and speed, increased stability and performance, and a range of other new camera functions. www.hasselblad.co.uk

CK One

Calvin Klein´s perfume CK One is a classic. The Unisex Fragrance is timeless. He represents exciting purism and erotic naturalness.

Since we have a 1990s flash back: CK One should be on your body each day. www.calvinklein.com

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eL Masterpiece for Zumtobel The eL Masterpiece was designed by Polish-born architect Daniel Libeskind along with his astrophysicist son Dr Noam Libeskind, who developed an algorithm for lighting patterns on the luminaire that represents the development of the universe. These lights are stunning and futuristic. I watched Star Trek back in the 1990s and with the eL Masterpiece I will feel a bit like in the old days. www.zumtobel.com

Minio Cover Mk2 Do you love your new iPad? Do you want your new tool to be safe but still good looking? Minio Cover Mk2 is the perfect idea.

Technology and wood together.

Super easy handling with self aligning magnetic wood hinge.

It can hold your iPad in 3 different ways. And: it looks sooo good. www.miniot.com

IGL Jet desk

Pimp up your office. With this orange desktop your office or work space is turning into a 1970s lounge. The desk is also available in white and black. The retro limited IGL Jet desk collection is a multifunctional workspace. Available at Steelcase. www.steelcase.de

Mickey Crop Top

Yes girls. Comic prints are back and I would love to see you in this little Mickey Mouse top.

Seen at Topshop. Crop tee with roll back sleeves. www.topshop.com

Billionare Boys Club Partnering with Japanese fashion legend Nigo, Pharrell Williams and his manager Robert Walker founded Billionaire Boys Club in 2005, a line of high-end luxury streetwear. And I like this Burgundy Plaid Digi Shirt a lot. www.bbcicecream.com

Eve Fragrance Body Shampoo Founded by Hiroshi Fujiwara and Murakami, retaW offers up unique fragrances made in Japan with Japanese products and available across a line of personal care products and home goods. www.retaw-tokyo.com

Chuck Taylor ThunderCats / Converse

Getting the DC Comics license it was obvious that Converse had to do something with the Thundercats. The Chuck Taylor model in its two versions is selected, for surely this is the tip of the iceberg of this new collection. LionO, Panthro, Cheetara and Tigro appear on one side of a Chuck Taylor Hi, on the other side you can see the eye of Thundera. A Chuck Taylor Low is dedicated to the beautiful Cheetara, and finally a Chuck Taylor Hi dedicated to the antagonist, the powerful Egyptian sorcerer priest and Mum-Ra. www.converse.com

OUT OF THE DARK

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Dress: Danielle Romeril

Ph o t o g ra p h e r - A d a m- Pe t e r H i ck s C o l l a g i st - Jo r d a n L e l o n g St yl i st - M a r i n a G e r ma n St yl i n g A ssi st a n c e - I n d yA n n a H a i r St yl i st - E r i k a Se l va g g i o M a ke U p A r t i st - Â M a d d i e A u st i n Mo d els - Re b e c c a (M o d e l s 1 ), Ju l i e t t e (I M G ), D a sh a (P ro fi l e )

Dress: IndyAnna, Jacket: Jayne Pierson

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Dress: IndyAnna, Jacket: Jayne Pierson

Snug white fur: James Hock , Top: IndyAnna

Dresses: IndyAnna & James Hock, Shoes: Cleo B

Dresses: IndyAnna & James Hock

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Dress: IndyAnna, Bag: Barbara Boner, Shoes: Chinese Laundry

Dress: IndyAnna , Jacket: Jayne Pierson

Dress: Jayne Pierson

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Dresses: Gemma Fanning

L A V

29.06 — 07.07 2013

L A V I T !

S S E F S

ROSKILDE oF

I T m S o SFE E Aw S y A d 9

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E En

Busy FRom 29 June – 7 July? This is one FesTival you don’T wanT To miss ouT on! Roskilde FesTival is one oF The woRld’s laRgesT and mosT specTaculaR music FesTivals wiTh 80,000 daily visiToRs FRom all oveR The woRld.

phoTo: helena lundquisT

you geT aBouT 200 conceRTs wiTh huge household names as well as The Rising sTaRs oF TomoRRow. pack youR TenT, gRaB youR FRiends and Join us in denmaRk This summeR FoR 9 days oF awesome music, FanTasTic aTmospheRe, impRessive aRT and FaBulous people! geT youR TickeT aT: www.BilleTlugen.com

Roskilde-Festival.com

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Adrenolytic Agent Photography: Julia Blank / www.juliablank.com Models: Alexa / Miha Model Management & Annika Make-up&Hair: Kerstin J. Hajdu Styling: Miriam Lehle

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Blouse: Prose. Jacket: Stylists own.

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Jacket: Prose. Right Page, Blouse: Prose. Jacket: Desire.

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Blouse: Peter Hahn. Jacket: Daniela Barros. Bracelet: stylists own. Left Page, Jacket: Prose.

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Jacket: Prose. Right Page, Blouse: Prose. Jacket: Desire.

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Rough Days for Diamond Trade

n my quest to bring you the very best music coming down from the North I was starting to lose my mind in a sea of innumerable album releases.. but then I came across the sound of ‘Rough Days For Diamond Trade’. It’s the solo project of the Copenhagen based musician and award winning filmmaker Frederik Sølberg. For the last 10 years he has been a key figure on the Danish indie scene as a member of the bands Ghost Society and Lake Placid, making remixes, directing music videos and live visuals and he is seriously talented in both fields. The debut E.P “Somehow” was released at the end of last year and it’s stunning.

A perfect blend of his electronic and indie influences contrasting distorted guitars, electronic drum beats and catchy synths with his moody androgynous vocal.

“The sound of broken hearts on a dance floor” We talk going solo, music making and Scandinavian melancholia on a cold winter‘s night…

Interview by Amy Heaton

KALTBLUT: Hey Frederik. Thanks for taking some time to chat to us! Your E.P is out now in Germany! Were you happy with the response you had here in Berlin?

Frederik: Yes, Berlin was totally overwhelming, it was really

much more than I had expected, we played at “Monarch” and it was full.. I really hadn’t expected it! It was quite amazing to play. Even if we had played in Copenhagen there wouldn’t have been as many people.. Maybe the project is more hyped in Germany than I thought but the whole time was packed with interviews, and meetings and good response from lots of people and that was really, really nice. I also think maybe this kind of music fits Berlin…

KALTBLUT: Yeah that’s true I’ve found so many great artists coming from the North also being based out of here. Why do you think Scandinavian music is so popular in Berlin?

Frederik: I think because Berlin has more this sort of cosmopo-

litan feeling, that it seems that people are more interested in these kind of things, no matter which way you look at it Denmark is much more conform and so I guess some of the interest in my project could be the fact that I’m Scandinavian, which of course doesn’t add anything in Denmark but in Germany could mean something…

KALTBLUT: When did you first get into music, or did the interest in film making come first?

Frederik: I’ve been a music lover since I was very young, I don’t

have parents who are interested in music or anything like that so I think I got the idea on my own. My mother’s a librarian and I think I was around 9 or 10 years old asking her to borrow books and articles about Jimi Hendrix for me, so I had this kind of innocent interest in music since I was a child but I didn’t start playing until I was say 13, 14, with guitar, my main instrument... film came later, I was like 12 or something, but I started wanting to do fiction film and I did that for some years, I was working as an assistant director doing some short films, music videos and then I started moving towards documentaries…

KALTBLUT: Which one of the two would you say you put more of your time and energy into?

Frederik: I guess music comes more naturally to me, it’s very

easy, when I work on music I forget about time and space, I forget about my girlfriend.. I’m just totally immersed… but when I’m making

film, of course it’s still a creative process but it’s also a very rational process where you have to amplify, you have to develop, you have to sit in an office etc, so it’s not so instantly creative, so I think for me it’s two very different creative outputs. I think that’s the reason I made so many music videos because it’s the two things I know about… I think when I make films I also put a lot effort in thinking about the music so it’s interconnected.

KALTBLUT: You’ve been used to playing in bands most of the time. How does it compare being out on your own now?

Frederik: Totally different, it also means that you’re much more

vulnerable, like when we released the E.P in Denmark even though there we have an much bigger network, it was pretty much myself because our label and our promotion company are in Berlin so they took care of the German part, and I remember that there were lots of things I thought would happen here and then I got a bit disappointed when they didn’t and I was thinking like, “hey! I’ve been playing music in Denmark for so many years, I know journalists I know people etc…” and I’m not sure I would have had that same feeling if I’d have been in a band, you don’t get that feeling like “we’re all in it together..” and I like that! I’m a very social person, I enjoy sharing things with people, so when we played in Berlin last week and had all this great response, it was pretty overwhelming.. and I tried to call my girlfriend and share that feeling but it’s totally different when you’re in a band. Of course I have lots of friends around who are very sweet, and the musicians I play with, but still it’s not the same..

KALTBLUT: So did you plan out your solo sound from the start or was it just unfolding as you went along?

Frederik: In the beginning I had this idea that I would never

tell anyone that it was me doing it, I could put it out, on myspace or something, and I would never have to play live or actually release anything.. but then it just grew somehow, and I got more self-confident about it at some point, not only the music, but the thing about playing it live..

I’m so privileged to have a lot of friends who are musicians and I asked a few of them if they wanted to play with me, we did this show for a film festival and in the beginning when we started out rehearsing I was saying, “can we turn you guys up and my voice down..?” because I didn’t want to hear my own voice, and then I realised after this coup-

198 le of weeks rehearsing that I couldn’t hear myself and we had to turn it up and at the end actually it sounded pretty good! I don’t know how but I started to quite like my voice, because I used to hate watching myself on video or when I’m singing.. and my voice when I’m singing is pretty different from when I’m talking… I think the main challenge is playing live, but I’ve put quite a lot of effort into the show, visually with the visual expression, and I planned that but I didn’t plan myself..

I guess that’s the same with the music that, it just developed somehow..

KALTBLUT: How did you go about making the project into a live show?

Frederik: On stage we’re a live band,

but we keep a lot of the electronic elements, we have a backing track, and an emphasis on the visual part.. so normally, I’m standing further back, with a guitar player to one side of me and a bass player to the other kind of in a half circle… and then we have this visual show which is done by one of my friends. The concept of it is a laser beam and a diamond ring and he projects light to the diamond ring with a combination of pre-filmed material and live… it depends on where we’re playing because some places it works better, there’s no front light, there’s only light from the back and the visuals… the darker it is the better, I like it when it’s very dark because I’m not a traditional sort of lead singer type, I don’t want to be in front… I’ve been playing music for a long time and I’ve always been confident about playing live, but I’ve always been the guitar player you know, being off-centre and being a part of the band, now every single key is decided by me, every single word… and at the same time I’m not that fond of being the centre of attention, so, it’s not only about being shy, it’s about being concerned about a visual expression that I think supports music in the right way, and therefore we’ve done this kind of half circle thing with the diamond in the middle, so it becomes much more of an audiovisual experience…

KALTBLUT: Do you get more nervous performing alone instead of with a band?

Frederik: Actually I was quite friendly

on stage in Berlin, I was chatting with the audience etc, but normally I don’t say much, and that’s also a bit difficult because I don’t want people to consider me as being a bit arrogant…and if you don’t say a single word people might consider you as being pretentious or something…like ‘Fever Ray’ live and I’m not like that at all.. but at the same time I’m not gonna be this friendly lead singer who’s saying like “yeah, cheers” etc.. and winking at the beautiful young girl in the front or something, I mean that’s not me.

KALTBLUT: What about your musical inspirations when you’re composing.. what do you usually like listening to?

Frederik: I’m almost as inspired by

electronic music as I am by indie pop really,

for instance most of the songs on the E.P they have the same groove all the way, I’m playing in the same key all the time, and you would never question that on an electronic album, so I definitely think there’s some clear electronic inspiration in that way. I’m very fond of British electronic music, I listen a lot to Burial, Portishead and stuff like that, I mean I also listen a lot to O.M.D and The Cure and definitely wanted it to have that melancholic side, you know “broken hearts on the dance floor” – it’s melancholic but you can still dance to it.

I’ve always liked dancing and I’ve always had a sort of cheerful approach to life but at the same time I’m also a really melancholic person, so I like this combination of that where the rhythm and the body has a beat and it goes forward but the lyrics are much more softer, that’s also how you react sometimes in life, you stress yourself out, you get drunk, you fuck up… well I dunno, maybe that’s too much..

KALTBLUT: This project has moved in a much more electronic direction than your earlier sound. Was this an easy progression for you?

Frederik: Actually when I started out

in the beginning I wasn’t sure that it was ever going to be anything that people would want to listen to.. when I began writing songs for this project I was working with another electronic project together with a girl, we didn’t make that much progress but I was really keen on moving more into electronic stuff and I was thinking, that’s what I’m going to do, somehow, I dunno, I started working on it, and it took some time, especially for me to realise this change from being a guitar player to becoming a songwriter..

I have this very nice friend, who’s also a musician, I played one of the first songs I did for him and he was like “It’s really good, you have to do something about it…” and from there it took some time before I moved on… I mean, writing the songs was not the most difficult part, it was actually working on aesthetically developing it in a direction and finding my own expression but when I do music I get very concentrated and focused on it and it just leads me somewhere or I lead the music somewhere.. and I made it to here.

KALTBLUT: Do you still start your songwriting with the guitar though usually?

Frederik: I’m working in Ableton live,

I steal a lot… nah… haha.. I mean a lot of the programming of the drums is like taking samples and using different sounds from a sound bank or something like that, but everything was made on purpose rather than accidentally.

It’s also because I work somewhere in-between electronic and indie, so it has elements of indie rock and most of the songs have been written on a guitar, and most of the beats have been made on the computer.. though most of the songs were guitar based.. it sometimes

even started with the beat and then I created the song from that.

KALTBLUT: Our new collection is based all around the theme “ICE-LANDS” – Do you feel coming from a cold climate affects your music making? Maybe the E.P would sound differently if you’d recorded it in L.A..!?

Frederik: It’s funny you say that be-

cause the cello was actually recorded in L.A two years ago.. but not on a conscious level no. Maybe somewhere subconsciously or somewhere out in the periphery of your mind there’s definitely some kind of Scandinavian melancholia but I think when it comes to my more specific inspiration I think it’s more a question of being surrounded by musicians and a lot of my closest friends play in really good bands, so most of them have a similar expression to my own.. except for the fact that most of the people I know don’t make anything electronic and they’re all playing in indie pop bands or indie rock bands.. but I’d say the general atmosphere of my songs could be inspired by other Danish bands.

KALTBLUT: Did you collaborate with many other people whilst making the E.P then?

Frederik: I’ve been totally on my own,

100%, except, I was living together with a very good friend, also a musician, and I was recording over and over, and there’s an additional voice on one of the songs and he did that, and then I asked my friend Caecille Trier to play cello on one of the songs like I said and she did that, then I had some help with mixing, making the drums a bit bigger, but when it comes to songwriting and lyrics and expression and synths and everything like that I’ve done everything on my own.

KALTBLUT: How about your image.. do you ever think about experimenting with that as part of the project or is it more just about the music for you?

Frederik: I don’t know… I could be up

for trying styling but I want to have my right to refuse something as well, I didn’t think so much about these things, of course it’s nice to have a look at what pictures are going out, and so you know what kind of press is going around about, but as long as there’s an honest interest in the music that I’m doing.. I think for the listener there should be a balance between having a clear expression which is thoughtful and thoroughly developed and at the same time some kind of honesty, not like with these posers, I mean you just get bored of that, unless they really write good pop songs, otherwise people are just posing, wearing sunglasses all the time and it’s like… errm…I guess maybe at one point it could be fun to kind of play with this pop star thing, but it would only be to play with it, to play a character or something. I could see that as something interesting but this plain pop star image I

199 think is pretty boring and also I’m definitely not the one, if someone should do that it’s not me! I mean there’s some performers when you watch them and you can see this is totally natural for them to play in front of 20,000 people or whatever.. that’s just not me.

KALTBLUT: Do you feel like the concept is best it could be now or are you still in an experimental mindset about the whole thing?

Frederik: Well I don’t want to say I know everything but I

feel that after so many years making music and then doing a solo project now, I should be able to create an expression that fits to my inner aesthetic or something.. of course it definitely helps that I’m certain about the music, like, if I was doubting the music and the direction I wanted to go I would be doubting the rest of it.. so in that sense I’m sure but it’s also continuing to grow, for example regarding the videos we’re doing, I did one of them myself, but now we have 3 music videos and the other guys had totally free hands.. well, I had a bit of an input but not so much and the video we just released for the song “OK” is not at all what I expected, but I like that, and it’s so far away from what would be my expression. I think it’s also a question of choosing the right people and trusting the right people around you when you start to include different people.

KALTBLUT: Yeah I really like the music videos for the E.P! Really beautiful, sensitive, visceral. In your own experience do you usually find it works better if you’re making music for the video or the other way around?

Frederik: That depends. Some of the ideas were just random

ideas I already had but other times I got ideas when people approached me and asked me to make a video for a specific song so you know it changes, I don’t do that many music videos anymore, I got tired of it I must admit. I think for me, I started out doing music videos for indie bands who were really sort of grateful and open-minded when it came to the idea for the video and I think at the point where I moved to more major labels I realised that instead of being around people who were friends in a nice team and did something really creatively together, enjoyed and had fun doing it, you kind of start getting trapped at the hands of a machine that is already preprogrammed so there isn’t really any artistic freedom or anything, and of course you can’t expect to have 100% artistic freedom when it comes to a music video that somebody else is paying you to do, but there’s a difference between when people trust your choices and your creativity rather than people who say things like, “oh can you please cut in this bit because it makes us look better” or something like that. So actually I got a bit disillusioned about it in the end.

KALTBLUT: That’s a shame, well who would you say has been your most interesting collaboration to date anyway?

Frederik: I think the best time was when I convinced a

Danish band that I had to go to Japan and do a video shoot, and we couldn’t even afford to bring the band, so we did a casting in Japan and I got these kids to put on the bands clothes and then I went there with 2 friends and had a really amazing time doing this, like no pre-assumptions and just casting some kids and then filming around in Tokyo. It was such a great experience. I couldn’t believe they paid for that! But I think it’s also one of the best videos that it I’ve made it really fits with the music etc..

KALTBLUT: You’ve been involved in the Danish indie music scene for a long time now.. How do you feel things compare now to when you first started out?

Frederik: I would say that for some years we’ve definitely

had a more melancholic vibe for most indie bands. I mean, ten years ago I played in a band and it was a bit more cheerful that what was happening on the indie scene back then and so I would say that within the last couple of years it’s been a bit more shoegazing, melancholic, not that music style necessarily was shoegazer but all the expression, the live expression, but I think it’s changing a bit again,

I mean the bands I know and the friends of mine in really good Danish indie bands are quite relaxed and feeling good on stage, in a soulful kind of way, and I really like that, but that’s not part of my expression, but I’d rather keep it deep melancholic and a bit kind of dark..

KALTBLUT: What about releasing new music generally.

Does it feel any different for you with this E.P, especially with how the internet dominates these days?

Frederik: I guess things are also much changed in the music

scene generally, for instance going back to the music videos, to me it seems like today it’s not even enough to have a music video because there’s just SO many music videos and people have access to them all the fucking time! So you need to have a very good music video or a very interesting music video because sometimes I can just watch half a music video and I’m like, I get bored with it…

It’s also about the consumption of music now, I mean if you’ve got 8 tabs open on your internet browser and you’re on facebook at the same time, and then you watch a little bit of a music video, they’re embedded in there and you just scroll down.. it’s endless and you don’t give everything a proper chance. I remember when I was a teenager back in the 90’s and I would go the local indie record shop in Copenhagen, and I’d go to the guy and say “I’d like to listen to this record” so he’d put it on and then I’d just stand there and listen to it, maybe even half an hour, maybe the whole album through, before I made the decision to buy it, and it was like 20 euros or something and I wanted to be sure.. I mean of course I bought lots of albums I shouldn’t have bought, but I also got so many great albums because I waited and found out that song number 6 or song number 8 was the best, I’m definitely more impatient now.

KALTBLUT: How about the rest of the time… are you living solely from music now?

Frederik: No, at the moment I am currently working in

Copenhagen, on and off, as a freelance TV producer for a TV company, which… I mean, they’re nice people, they’re sweet, but they’re also people who are very fond of television, in any kind of way they like television, and they’re not so, I would say critical as I am, I mean I don’t even own a TV set, I don’t watch television in general…not exactly my crowd… I don’t think I’ve ever really had this pop star dream or dream of living from making music because I think also making music can be a bit, not when you’re in a band, but it’s hard to be depending on your own creativity all the time…

KALTBLUT: So what are your plans for the coming months, will you push forward with your solo project?

Frederik: I don’t know if I’m allowed to say exactly when but we have one date properly confirmed, there’s going to be a small European tour in March but we don’t know exactly how many dates yet and then we take it from there, but I’m totally happy with the E.P release so far, everything’s going in the right direction, it looks like we’re going to work on a UK release too.

Thanks a lot for the interview. We wish you all the best for the upcoming tour in Spring!

www.wearelooking forward.de

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Lille Santanen http://kadullesi.blogspot.gr http://lille-lle.blogspot.gr

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L

ille Santanen aka Lille Lle is a Finland based artist, barely 19, who doesn‘t enjoy talking about herself that much. Lille has been working on her print/illustration stuff for a couple of years now and you can surely see why they are becoming so popular. She says she is not interested in spreading a message through her art, but mainly wants to make nice looking things, put them on t-shirts and make them walk. Inspired by Nordic animals, nature, shapes and all things Scandinavian she lets the work speak for itself.

Enjoy this visual feast and if you see through a picture and can come up with any theory regarding the meaning, this will be pleasing to this young artist, who believes that the audience‘s imagination is a big part of the picture and should never be left out!

Interview by Amanda M Jansson and Emma E K Jones

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205 KALTBLUT: What does geometry mean to you? How much does it play a role in your everyday life?

Lille: Nature is all about geometry and numbers. Nothing is random and I love that thought. Nature‘s geometry is much softer and more mysterious than the geometry we humans build around us. Finding that balance between those two is what I do in my work perhaps. I don‘t really think about it, it comes naturally, as it is.

KALTBLUT: What‘s your favourite animal? Why do you like drawing animals?

Lille: My favorite animal is a bear, bears are powerful and simply designed. Also, the bear as an animal represents the whole start of my career since it was the first thing I drew and the reason I ended up in this business. I like drawing animals because their personality doesn‘t need to be explained the same way as humans‘.

I feel like humans need to have a name and story behind them and people automatically come up with many questions when they see a picture of a person, who is he/she? what is she/he doing? where?? and so on...

Animals are just animals and one can construct them as he/she will. Sure people are animals too, other animals just look cooler and aren‘t as complex as we are. I‘m not so good at human biology.

That‘s the real truth.

KALTBLUT: Has Scandinavian and Finnish art influenced you in any way?

Lille: Yes it does. But more than the art itself, the people and firms behind it inspire me. Artists, illustrators, designers and such people inspire me. Also, for example, Finnish textile industry, huge brands such as marimekko are my main role model. Despite the creativity in a fabric, cup, happening, music or exhibition there‘s huuuuuge amount of work behind it, and that‘s what I admire, people who actually get up and do stuff. The hardest part of working is getting it started and finishing it.

Nordic design is very timeless. Some prints and designs just last and survive through this time where nothing really lasts, and I‘m not talking about being ecological, I‘m talking about creating stuff that generation after generation can enjoy.

KALTBLUT: Do you prefer black and white or colour?

When do you use one and when the other?

Lille: I draw the originals using tiny tiny liners and ink. I don‘t use colors cause I‘m already filling the „empty“ spaces with other details, there‘s simply no room for colours or it turns into a mess.

Nowadays I‘m adding the colors afterwards on the computer. I‘m a bit afraid of using colors on the originals cause it‘s so easy to fail

with them. Can‘t fail with photoshop, and if you do you always have the original file.

I think photoshopping is a cool tool but it has also gotten me further from the actual colors and techniques.

When I draw it‘s just fun how a tiny little wrong line can turn the whole picture around. But if the bear shouldn‘t be blue there‘s no fixing it into yellow, unless it‘s photoshop.

KALTBLUT: How is life in Finland? Is there anything distinct or characteristic that makes it obvious this is Finland and not Germany or UK etc?

Lille: I love my home town Helsinki. It‘s not like it immediately loves you back and takes you in its loving arms showing you the prettiest side of it. But it‘s getting easier to get along with. A year in Helsinki is cut in longer cycles which are pretty much winter and summer. Summer is crazy, the city is full of life and happenings, festivals, block parties, restaurant days, flea markets all over the park... And then BOOM comes the winter and we either stay and get cozy and lazy at home or go abroad for the winter. Then comes the summer again. And it‘s super nice, I believe the long and dark winter has something to do with it. Even big cities in Finland are quite small and easy to go around, you can‘t miss the point where the city ends, it‘s clear and simple.

KALTBLUT: Where do you like to work? Is there a special spot or place that works best for you?

Lille: I have a working space in Helsinki which I‘m sharing with a few other artisans. It‘s been way better after I got the spot. Now I can have all my stuff there and also leave it there! No matter how much one loves his/her work I think it‘s important to be able to leave it there and go home. I love what I‘m doing but there are times when I‘d rather do my laundry. The most important thing still is to just sit down where ever you are. That‘s a problem sometimes, it‘s hard running around the city and drawing at the same time. I hope one day I will have a bigger and lighter working space where I could also make big paintings and run a showroom.

KALTBLUT: What was your first drawing that defined your style? How did it come to life?

Lille: The Karhu - print! I had some new friends from Stockholm visiting. They absolutely loved a Finnish beer label „Karhu“ (=Bear, in finnish), not maybe for the taste but for its logo. So after not drawing or painting for ages I decided to paint them a stylized version of it. I started sketching some bear illustrations randomly and everybody kept telling me I should turn the Karhu into a t-shirt print. So I did and here I am and Karhu is still my trademark and the bestseller. This was all in January 2011.

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Concept and photography by Suzana Holtgrave Styling by Jale Kustaloglu - Basics Hair & Make up by Anna Obendiek - Basics Model: Monika Hirzin - Colors / Zagreb

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Couture Dress: Sasa Obradovic „Cul De Paris“ Manner Flying Dress: Unrath&Strano Feathered Headpiece: Rentajalehouse/Stylist own creation

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Headpiece/Fabric Out Of Cream Coloured Lace: Pinned Up Designer Dress „Me+Blue“ Los Angeles Jewellery On The Forehead: Dolce&Gabbana Vintage Blouse: Dolce&Gabbana Vintage Black Couture Dress + Corset: Unrath&Strano Belt: Antique Market Berlin 17th Of Juneon

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Headpiece „Geisha“: Fiona Bennet White Fur Cape + Integrated Latex Reptile Print: Butterfly Soulfire Couture Wedding Dress: Unrath&Strano Leather Gloves with Jewels: Zara Faux-Fur Skunkcoat: Stylist own

Headpiece „Geisha“: Fiona Bennet White Fur Cape + Integrated Latex Reptile Print: Butterfly Soulfire Couture Wedding Dress: Unrath&Strano Leather Gloves with Jewels: Zara

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Red Couture Silkdress: BLAENK Black Leather Cuffs: Butterfly Soulfire „Birdy“ Feather Headpiece: Anna Dello Russo For H&M Black Organza Scarf: Stylist own

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Couture Wedding Dress: Unrath&Strano

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Black Italian Lace Gloves: Agent Provocateur Vintage High Heels: Jimmy Choo Vintage Paillette Embroidered Nipple Jewellery: Sisley Bunny Head Piece: Fiona Bennett

Head Piece „Geisha“: Fiona Bennett Dress: unrath & strano

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White and Black Lace Headpiece: Fiona Bennett Couture Lace Dress: Unrath & Strano

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Notes on

Epic!

Illustration by Apostol Kardamov

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W

hether you’re browsing through fashion magazines, watching music videos or TV series, you no longer have to go to a museum to see heroic figures, epic tales or myths, nor is it just a geek‘s business to deal with fantasy creatures. The epic seems to be a major narrative in pop-cultural discourses and has become state of the art in so many arenas. The very fact that the epic has returned as a prevailing modus of representation says a lot about the times we are living in.

Okay, admitted: it had never really gone anywhere. Below the surface sub-cultures continued to embrace it, metal shirts always depicted weird creatures and troubled teens messed around with magic in their bedrooms, but now suddenly these themes are a big thing again and just by cutting off the sleeves of something ugly, you have a club outfit. Or music: does anyone remember witch house? Yes, it‘s this music which sounds like “The Knife” forgot to take their antidepressants. Talking about club fashion: since when is gothic back? There is also a big bunch of online shops springing up, offering all kinds of satanic, esoteric and supposedly magical designs, bloggers encouraging you to play tarot with your closet. No matter which intersection you focus on, there is apparent resemblance within all kinds of art and expression when it comes to the virality of epic images, designs and narratives.

218 “Hipster bashing” has become a big thing in mainstream media lately, they say that our generation has nothing else to do than curate a retrospective of fashion on our young bodies. Perhaps a more considered view on what is actually happening is slightly more rewarding. In order to create something new, we need two movements: remembering what is actually there and what actually happened. This is what retro styles are about.

By reconfiguring techniques, sounds, ideas and trends of times passed, something different will be created. And to boost this creativity, there needs to be space for dreams and tales. What else, if not the modus of epic, is giving us space for such irrational thoughts? The epic, so far, seemed to be a lot about the past indeed. We all know about Greek mythology, northern sagas and grew up with fairy tales. But every era mediates these discourses in a different way, and this way says more about the contemporary than about the actual past.

A longing for alternate realities or times is as old as modernity itself, so art, literature and history is crammed full of references relating to other spheres and worlds. From back when rationality arose, there was always an alternative conglomerate of thinkers questioning the pureness of thoughts or challenging the reign of the brain over the heart. The irrational is the naughty little sister that the rational wanted to leave at home while playing with the other kids. It seems like finally, after (post-)modernity was overcome more than once, rationality is about to say bye. If you don‘t know someone is wearing “MMORPG1-“ merchandise or is on the edge of fashion that clearly shows that epic is appealing to a broader audience than ever before.

In times of crisis after crisis, when the future is no longer sure, safety becomes more and more of an illusion. We either become as small minded and conservative as possible to protect ourselves or we try to figure out new ways of expression. As everything fast-forwards in transit there’s a feeling that systems are about to alternate. It is the fatigue of never ending watersheds, political struggles and post-modern coldness, which generates the lust for something else. We want to be seduced again, we want to long for something, we want to dream and go somewhere else. The mythological and surreal is sexy. Just think about “True Blood”.

Beyond the hotties getting it on all the time, it is nice to think about the possibility of another reality. Vampires exist? Raww. Bite me. (and I’m not even talking about “Twilight”). Our saturated yet insatiable minds are desperate to believe that maybe there is something more. Maybe the world is not what it seems. Maybe there is something else to discover. Come, let‘s follow the little rabbit and let‘s see what happens if we go through the looking glass. The same sexiness that made “The Matrix” a big success, made parents and children fight about who is going to be the first one reading the new “Harry Potter” novel. “Game of Thrones” was definitely another major step for the epic in pop culture. No clue how many times I heard the statement, “Actually I don‘t like fantasy, but…”

219 In the worst case, epic fails can turn into kitsch. But stop, what would be wrong about kitsch? Kitsch or even camp is all about exaggeration. As Susan Sontag said in the late 1960s; camp is nothing but an aesthetic phenomenon.

According to her, camp is due to its mere naiveté, something that on the first glance is neither complex nor serious, and it just looks simple. At the same time, by “dethroning the serious”, it turns into a subversive strategy, setting free non-hegemonic thoughts. As camp was arising, and virulent strategy in mainstream discourses, it seems like the epic might be an equivalent mode of representation for our times. The examples above are my proof and evidence.

Keeping the subversive potential of camp in mind, may the epic be another subversive strategy? Something that was always there, but right now turns into a distinctive contemporary aesthetic, even a phenomenon? The modus of choice for avant-gardes? Epic kitsch might be the suitable cure for the disease of an evidently exaggerated life constrained by rationality.

The paradox is obvious: the epic is something already told, known and commonly spread. At the intersection of things known and unknown, the epic mediates. As much as we want to escape, we hope that these images will affect our lives and our minds.

There is a craving for something new.

The epic is giving us the space for this.

More than escapism, it is guilty and escapist pleasure. We want something bigger, something nicer, something more naive and at the same time more aggressive. We are longing for realities far away from things we see in daily life and media. The appealing aesthetics of the epic, thought in a more futuristic manner, feed the hunger in our souls for something new, non-retro, and nonrecycled.

Thinking epic, living epic, wearing epic, walking epic, laughing epic, drawing epic, cooking epic, smoking epic, dancing epic... There is nothing, which shall not be epic in our lives anymore.

Even though it is dreamy, irrational and adolescent – this stance towards the world will help to reveal hidden boarders in our realities and can lead to new ways of seeing things. At the intersection of known and unknown, cozy and uncanny, confusing and enlightening, let the epic dethrone the serious.

Text by Kevin Junk

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Opposite Page: Necklace: Topshop, Dress: All Saints, Bracelets: Hermès, Vintage, Boots: All Saints, Rings: Gavilane, Vintage

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Necklaces: Zara, Fashionology, Belt: Maison Martin Margiela

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Shirt: Maje, Panties: Wolford, Necklace: Hardware, Rings: Gavilane, Vintage, Shoes: Zarae

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Shirt: Eleven, Necklace: Maison Martin Margiela for H&M, Bracelets: Jean Paul Gaultier, Rings: Gavilane, Vintage

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Rings: Gavilane, Vintage, Bracelets: Vintages

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Opposite Page: Necklace: Maison Martin Margiela for H&M, Leggings: American Apparel, Bracelets: Jean Paul Gaultier, Rings: Gavilane, Vintage

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Sóley Stefánsdóttir, best known as Sóley is perhaps more well known for her collaboration with Icelandic artists Sin Fang and Seabear, but it’s her solo project that I find most intriguing. Dusky piano chords set out the rhythms rather than the drum beats of her electronic contemporaries and her dark yet colourful lyrical tales spin out over the cloudy minor tones. Only discovering her singing voice properly for the first time a few years ago the naivety of her vocals shines through but the lyrics themselves are a sophisticated narrative of a fantasy world inside her head, her very own wonderland, that she explores as her ethereal instrumentation unfolds below. We were excited to hear that she’s setting out to record her new album over the next year, so we got in touch to find out more….

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Sóley Interview by Amy Heaton Photos by Inga Birgisdóttir

SÓLEY: Yes kinda. I started in music school when I was four years old playing this wooden flute that every kid needs to start practicing on and at the age of 8 I started playing classical piano which in my teenage years turned into playing more jazz music and being in bands and stuff. In 2007 I was approved into the art academy of Iceland studying composition, which helped me to become who I am today but in a different way.

KALTBLUT: How does working alone as a solo artist compare to being in the band with Seabear?

SÓLEY: Being solo is being your own boss. Being in a band is being with a group and everyone has an opinion.

KALTBLUT: Is it a really different experience playing live on your own then as opposed to with a band behind you?

SÓLEY: Since my project started I have had some people playing with me so I haven’t really experienced being alone on stage apart from few times but my main difference between being solo and with Seabear is that while I’m solo I have to sing and talk between songs and be the front type. When you’re not that person you can just relax and play, haha!

KALTBLUT: It’s clear from your tracks that you feel quite an affinity with the piano, is that your first and main instrument?

SÓLEY: Yubb, as I said I started playing piano when I was 8 and I have this beautiful piano that my grandmother had and I love playing it, though I stopped playing classical music I still play and play and play…

KALTBLUT: Is it true you never really thought you had a nice singing voice? We find that a bit hard to believe!

Album: We sink Artist: Sóley Out: NOW

SÓLEY: I didn’t know how my voice sounded and I know that my tone range is not very much but all you gotta do is practice and that’s on my to do list, learn more singing techniques.

KALTBLUT: How about when you’re writing your lyrics, do you draw on your own experiences or is it a more imaginative process for you?

SÓLEY: It’s all something that pops into my head. I tried not to use anything from my daily life and I think I’ll keep on with that idea.

KALTBLUT: Hey Sóley! Welcome to KALTBLUT. We’re

big fans of your sound! How did you start your solo project?

SÓLEY: Hey! So my first album Theater Island (EP) came out in march 2010 on Morr Music. By that time I was touring a lot with Seabear, another band I play in, and really not planning any solo career! It all kind of happened, which I’m really happy about! So after my E.P came out there was no turning back, took a little time to suddenly be solo and my biggest fear ever was to sing alone on stage. Times have changed, I sing on stage now though it sometimes can be a challenge!

KALTBLUT: Going back to the beginning for our readers

who don’t yet know your album, can you tell us a bit about your musical background, I read that you studied composition, have you always studied music over other subjects?

KALTBLUT: Where do you usually get the inspiration from to start working on a new song?

SÓLEY: Some poems or maybe just a sentence that I see or hear.

It’s really random what makes me wanna write about. If I think of anything nice/weird I try to write everything down so I can come back to it.

KALTBLUT: It sounds like you create your own little world inside your music, do you ever feel like that’s the case when you’re composing?

SÓLEY: I try to think of the whole sound, colors and atmosphere when I’m writing so if that’s where I’m aiming for I would try to keep that world “in the making” process also.

230 KALTBLUT: How about your other inspirations aside from music, what would you usually be doing if you’re not writing or touring?

SÓLEY: Oh, I hang out with my boyfriend, friends and family. I go swimming and running, I go dancing, I drink coffee, make more music, read books and poems, watch something nice, party a little and chill a little more!

KALTBLUT: I really loved the track

“Smashed Birds”, and you use the bird imagery quite a lot, is there a reason for that?

SÓLEY: I love animals and I like birds, they can fly!

KALTBLUT: What about recording

and producing your music, do you like to stick to one special studio or do you move around?

SÓLEY: I just moved into a new apartment which has a garage. I am right now working on making that garage a studio, takes a while though, but I think I’ll work my next album’s demos there and then I’m just gonna see where life takes me!

Of course it would be cool to be in a very good studio with great mics and instruments but unfortunately it’s very expensive.

shy

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„I was just too KALTBLUT: So would you prefer

to spend time at home writing music in Iceland or be writing whilst travelling away on tour?

SÓLEY: Home writing music, I’m not really good at writing music while I’m on tour. Well I write poems on tour and then I come back home with tons of poems that I can try to fit some music to.

KALTBLUT: You’ve been touring

around North America with Monsters of Men recently, how’s that been going?

SÓLEY: It was fine. They are great kids and it was lovely to hang around with them! Concerts were big and I learned a lot on this tour.

KALTBLUT: What about the most amazing gig you’ve ever played?

SÓLEY: Few of my last year’s favorite gigs were in Stuttgart, at Dockville Festival in Hamburg and oh also in Brussels at Palezein 12. And well I had a great time at Iðnó during iceland Airwaves!

KALTBLUT: Talking of live shows, how do you go about playing your music live (usually), do you prefer to keep a simple set up?

SÓLEY: I’ve had a simple set up yes,

we are three on stage, me who play keys, guitar, sing and do some loops, Jón Óskar who plays drums and Albert who plays keys and guitar. First it was only me and the drummer but I thought we needed a bit more bass in the set so I added Albert and I’m really happy with the set up. It’s easy to travel with and boys are great! But who knows if I’ll add one more to it… who knows…

KALTBLUT: How about your music videos? They are beautiful artworks. Are people usually approaching you to make them or are you reaching out to the directors who fit your taste?

SÓLEY: The video for Smashed

Birds was done by my friend Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir. She won the “best video” at the Icelandic Music Awards last year.

Máni my friend did the video for Pretty Face and a girl who contacted me who lives in Holland and it was very random that I answered her (!) came to Iceland and did I’ll Drown video which was also her final project in her art school in Holland. And yes various people contact me about doing videos or some have already done them and I think it’s great to see how many people are doing something with my music.

KALTBLUT: Your imagery surrounding the album is also the same style, you’re mixing soft graphics with your photos, do you work on that yourself ?

SÓLEY: I used to draw but I kinda stopped doing that, don’t know why but Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir she does the artwork for me. Sindri my friend and her boyfriend actually came up first with this idea of the facepaint. I really like it.

KALTBLUT: What about the Iceland

Airwaves festival next year, it looks like an amazing line-up! Are you excited?

SÓLEY: Sure, I love Airwaves!

KALTBLUT: Who else would you say

to sing.“

SÓLEY: Probably the darkness… no…

I don’t know. Iceland? We have to do something that is fun, we are stuck on a damn island!

KALTBLUT: The image you’ve crea-

ted to accompany your music is a humble one with no gimmicks, it’s great! Did you ever play with the idea of creating a character or pseudonym for your solo project?

SÓLEY: Yes, and I’m still thinking but I don’t give myself enough time to finish it… maybe for next album!

KALTBLUT: You use social media in

a really personal way to connect directly with your fans, do you feel like this is an important part of being a musician these days?

SÓLEY: Ya, I like it. It’s nice. If someone that I like or adore in music would write something from the heart I would definitely “like it”! I think it’s an important way of keeping in touch with fans.

KALTBLUT: What about for the fu-

we have to check out there?

ture, do you see any drastic changes on the horizon for the second album?

SÓLEY: For next year, I don’t think that any bands have been announced but you should just go for the Icelandic ones, I think that is safe!

SÓLEY: I don’t know, I’m about to start and I’m very excited to see what comes from my mind!

KALTBLUT: Our latest issue is based

KALTBLUT: When can we hope to hear it!? We hope not too far away.

all around the theme “ICE-LANDS” and we’re all engrossed by the stunning images of your native land! Do you feel the icy landscapes inspire your music at all?

SÓLEY: No… now is January, maybe in a year? Maybe sooner?

SÓLEY: no… sorry… I don’t think so…

coming to play for us in Berlin any time soon??

KALTBLUT: When would you say is

SÓLEY: Nothing planned but I wanna come at least once this spring! Love Berlin!

SÓLEY: July if you wanna camp and

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions for us and all the best for your coming year!

but it’s beautiful!

the best time to experience Iceland in all its glory?

travel around. Fall if you like fall. Winter if you wanna see snow and be cold and dark all the time… January and February are hard to survive, so much darkness!

KALTBLUT: And finally, will you be

KALTBLUT: We’ve been overwhel-

med with how much beautiful music comes out of the North in general, any ideas about why that could be..?

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HEL The Goddess Of The Underworld - Photography LAURA PALM - Model JANINE HENKES - Hair and Make-up THEO SCHNÜRER @BLOSSOM - Styling MADLEN UHLEMANN - Assistant SWANTJE NEUBOHN

Fur by FENN WRIGHT Body by PRINCESSE TAM TAM Hat by GUIDO MARIA KRETSCHMER

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“You cannot separate light from its shadow.”

Dress by VALENTINO SEEN BY TK MAXX Skirt by SAVA NALD Trousers by AUGUSTIN TEBOUL Fur collar by GUIDO MARIA KRETSCHMER

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Dress by GUIDO MARIA KRETSCHMER Headpiece by STYLISTS OWN

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Jacket by GUIDO MARIA KRETSCHMER Dress by ASOS Skirt by DSTM Shoes by UNITED NUDES

Jacket by GLAW Skirt by MONKI Dress by FADE TO W BY WEEKDAY

Leathershirt by MUUBAA Skirt by OAKWOOD Long skirt by KILIAN KERNER Collar by AUGUSTIN TEBOUL

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Dress by WAREDROBE Jacket by GLAW Headpiece by RITA IN PALMAY

LUXURY

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Photos by Marcel Schlutt Model: Mimmi Symphony Hair and Make up by Fleur Heullin All scarves by Erfurt Luxury Accessories www.erfurt.dk

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olly Balitro Text By Amanda M Jansson and E m m a

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248 Polly Balitro currently lives in Helsinki, Finland. She’s interested in analogue image making, traveling, culture and history and is especially inspired by the natural environment; her works are mainly photographic series of places that she visits and finds revealing and registrations of certain moments and details that she encounters: natural sites are among her favourite subjects and forests are definitely the places where she likes to be the most - luckily there are plenty of them in Finland.

Forests are truly unique and special places for her: as soon as she enters them, she becomes aware of the vegetation growing all around her, which is abundant and overwhelming with smells and sounds, and she also feels the presence of other living creatures that inhabit the trees and the bushes; sometimes she hears these creatures calling and singing and sometimes she even meets them, but most of the birds and other animals of the forest prefer to keep on hiding.

During her trips to the forest, she usually finds the traces and the signs that its inhabitants leave around - like footprints in the snow or feathers - and she occasionally meets some birds, such as coal tits, black birds and even woodpeckers, but she very rarely has the time to photograph them and she never spots more than a few at a time. In her collages, the photographs she takes in the forest become suddenly populated by various species of birds, which gather together - as if they were chatting to each other - and don’t seem to be scared by her presence at all. She likes to think that, every time she walks deeper into a forest, the clearing she has just passed immediately fills up with animals looking at her leaving.

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Storm Photographer - Mika Ceron - www.mikaceron.com Styling - Biki John - www.bikijohn.com Hair and Makeup - Wiebke Olschewski - www.basics-berlin.de Using for Hair - Kiehls and Makeup - MAC cosmetics Models - Dalia Günther from Model Mangament, Hamburg and Lukas Ziegele Post Production - Mika Ceron and Federico De Luca (DIAZO) Casting Director - Oliver Ress (Artform Group) Photographer Assistants - Minatha Condé, and Angela Hechtfisch With very special thanks to Studio Berlin - www.studioberlin.eu Props Equipments - Objets Trouvés

Dalia wears Black lace dress - Fade to W, Black corset belt - Dawid Tomaszewski, Black leather roses headdress - Augustine Teboul, Blue/Green Necklace - Weekday, Black leather and velvet gloves - Dawid Tomaszewski.

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Lukas wears Chainlink necklace - Shokay, Blue jeans - Cheap Monday, Navy jumper- Kilian Kerner, Blue loafers - Levi’s Footwear.

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Dalia wears Black dress with metal embellishment, Black and copper shoes , Black Gloves, Black leather Belt - Dawid Tomaszewski, Earrings - Vintage, Pink rose bracelet - Sabrina Dehoff,

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Dalia wears Green dress, Black leather trousers - Dawid Tomaszewski, Black belt and gloves - Dawid Tomaszewski, Black peep toe patent shoes - RENO, Blue/Green necklace - Sabrina Dehoff.

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Lukas wears Beige knit scarf, Chainlink necklace - Shokay, Beige bomber jacket - Soulland, Blue jeans - Cheap Monday, Blue loafers - Levi’s Footwear.

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Lukas wears Chainlink necklace - Shokay, Mustard leather puffer jacket- Kilian Kerner, Brown jumper, Mustard trousers - Kilian Kerner, Brown loafers - Levi’s Footwear, Bracelets - Model’s own

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Dalia wears Necklace - Sabrina Dehoff, Pink rose bracelet - Sabrina Dehoff, Beige sheer top - ep_anoui by Eva Poleschinski, Beige sheer skirt, Beige Swarovski leggings - Dawid Tomaszewski, Silver and beige shoes and belt - Dawid Tomaszewski,

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Dalia wears Blue and Green necklace - Weekday, Ring, Spine ring - Bjørg, Pink rose bracelet - Sabrina Dehoff, Lace body - Stylist’s own, Black transparent dress, Black belt, Black leather jacket - Dawid Tomaszewski, Black gaiters - Augustin Teboul, Black peep toe patent shoes - RENO. Lukas wears Grey and pink scarf, Houndstooth jacket, Black jumper - Marc Stone, Black jeans - Weekday, Blue loafers - Levi’s Footwear.

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Nicole Sabouné We were first captured by emerging Swedish starlet Nicole Sabouné when she released her debut single, “Unseen footage of a forthcoming funeral” back in the Autumn. Composed by legendary rock vocalist Ola Salo (The Ark) who also mentored her through “The Voice Sverige”, the track is oozing with feminine post-punk energy which perfectly showcases her stunningly husky vocal. If that wasn’t enough, when we watched the tasteful music video from talented Swedish director Mads Udd (also featured in this very issue) we had no doubt that she was on the road to a successful musical career and had to grab her for an interview. So here she is, let us introduce you to Collection 4’s newcomer, Nicole, as she starts recording her very first album….

Interview by Amy Heaton Photos by Viktor Flumé www.nicolesaboune.se

261 KALTBLUT: Hey Nicole!

Thanks for taking some time to talk with us. Can you tell us a bit about your musical background first, how long have you been singing for? Was it always a dream of yours to become a musician?

NICOLE: Music has been a big part of my life since I was a child.

Not only that I sang all the time, music was a world full of freedom and a room that I could escape into whenever I wanted. And it’s still like that. Music is my best way to communicate and I feel that I am understood when I use music and words. So to be able to create and work with music today is a dream come true!

KALTBLUT: So did you already have a plan for your music before your success on “The Voice Sverige”, or was that really the beginning for you?

NICOLE: The Voice was abso-

lutely a door into the music industry but I moved to Stockholm two years ago to focus on my music and to find a way to grow within my writing. So my plan and dream has always been to be an artist.

KALTBLUT: What about your experience with the show?

What made you decide to apply?

what the song actually is about for them. So the challenge was to play around with the idea of the song, get a story of my own, and do my best to make that story show. But nerve-wracking? YES, haha!

KALTBLUT: Your mentor Ola Salo loves you to bits and has even composed your first single! How was it working with him? Did you learn a lot?

NICOLE: Ola is now a part of

my world and he’s the person I trust the most in this. To write my first single with him was wonderful! I am still working with him on a few more songs, and it’s great!

We work very well together with a clear and straightforward communication.

KALTBLUT: Do you ever do some composing of your own, or do you prefer to work with other people making music that fits your vocal?

NICOLE: Yes, I do! I love to write and compose. I also love to write with others. I feel that I need to be involved in every song and every story. And if I write with someone else or by myself doesn’t matter as long as I can stand

for every word and every note I sing. Co-writing with others is interesting because you get more perspectives and some songs need that.

KALTBLUT: What about singing in English, does it feel natural? Do you ever think about making some tracks in your native Swedish?

NICOLE: I have always imagined my music in English. It suits my emotions and my thoughts. So I never think I decided between Swedish and English, it just turned naturally into English. My dad is French and he spoke English with me when I was little, so I grew up with that language too and had a lot of emotions connected to English words even then. Languages are fascinating! And who knows, maybe I’ll start to write in Swedish, some time when it feels right..

KALTBLUT: You have a great vocal range, must make it really interesting to record you!

Where do you feel more comfortable and expressive? Up with the sopranos or something in the lower octaves?

NICOLE: My song coach recommended me to the show.

They called me up and asked me if I wanted to apply, I checked who would be in the jury and saw Ola Salo’s name, and decided to go for it. He was one of the big reasons that made me apply. And I will never regret it! It was a fantastic experience and I learned a lot, and I met Ola. It means a lot to me.

KALTBLUT: We love the energy coming through in the single, somewhere between the lo-fi rock ‘n’ roll of the 1970s and 80s post punk. Has this always been the kind of music you listened to? Who would you say are the artists from these eras that most inspire you?

NICOLE: Thank you! It’s hard to say ‘always’. Just like the clothes, I’ve had different periods in music too but rock has been with me the most and it’s that kind of music that I started to feel a real and true connection to. My dad played Pink Floyd in the car when I was little so I grew up with rock as a central piece in my choice of music. But it was when I heard David Bowie for the first time that I realized what music really felt like and how it affected my soul and mind. Bowie became my house god among artist like The Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, The Clash, Sex Pistols and The Doors….not far from that I got “Transmission” by Joy Division sent to me by a friend, and since then; I’m stuck! Ian Curtis has taken a place among the house gods too. So it’s a lot of 70’s and 80’s music in my speakers. But I also listen to new bands like The Vaccines, The Drums and DIIV. Music is so much fun! There are so many different worlds to find a place in…

KALTBLUT: We posted a piece on our website about the music video back when it was released, how did you go about creating the concept with Mats? Did you guys get on well working together?

Was it fun to make?

KALTBLUT: How about your song choices on there, big challenges like Florence and he Machine, Robyn or Kate Bush must have been a bit nerve-wracking right?

NICOLE: Yes, absolutely! I always think it’s hard and tricky to sing other people‘s songs. It’s interesting to do it, but hard. The artists have a world they want to share with their lyrics and melodies, and it’s hard to get inside someone else’s head to see

NICOLE: Oh, Thank you so much! It’s a good question. It depends which song I sing, I think. I love to sing in the lower octaves, I feel the singing in my whole body when I hit the low notes and it’s a cool feeling.

Single: Unseen footage from a forthcoming funeral Artist: Nicole Sabouné Out: NOW

NICOLE: Mats is a fabulous director and we worked very well together. He really listened to my idea about the old archive clips and created a room for it so people could relate to the song and experience a journey of weirdness, hehe. We sat a whole evening just to pick out what clips we wanted to use. It was so much fun and we laughed a lot. He’s really good! I hope he wants to work with me in the future too!

262 KALTBLUT: Do you reckon your first album will stick to this sound and image then? Or do you have any other ideas in mind?

NICOLE: “Unseen Footage From a Forthcoming Funeral” is the best presentation of what you can expect from the album. I will stick to the post-punk vibe, with a mix of 70’s rock n’ roll and some songs have more melodic melodies. It’s a mix of what I like the most in music. So exciting! Hope you’ll like it!

KALTBLUT: For an emerging artist it’s always a rollercoaster ride through the first year..

Which would you say you find more exhilarating so far…the pressure of a studio recording or the adrenaline of a live show?

NICOLE: The live shows for sure! I love to be on stage and see the people I sing to, and I love my band. They are great musicians and

true post-punkers! Hihi!

KALTBLUT: How about connecting with your new fans?

Does it ever feel strange to be suddenly in the public eye?

NICOLE: It’s overwhelming to hear beautiful words from someone who’s really into what I do. I never think I will get used to that. I’m so grateful! But I don’t think of it as I’m in the public eye, I think of it as I invite people to be a part of my world and they can stay if they want or leave if they want.

KALTBLUT: You’ve created quite a strong dark image, lots of black! Have you always had a darker style and taste in fashion?

NICOLE: It feels like I had every style in the world before I really knew what I felt comfortable in. I think I needed to go through a lot of different periods of my life to find what I liked and how I wanted to present myself.

It comes with age I think. Clothes for me are a part of my personality and I see them as a way to make myself feel safe in my body and mind. And I love black, it’s a fascinating colour.

KALTBLUT: Do you enjoy doing photo-shoots and experimenting with your image too? All the make-up, hair, amazing clothes…lighting, must be like a dream, right!?

NICOLE: It’s always

fun to experiment! I don’t wear a lot of makeup in private, and I don’t spend a lot of time on my hair, so it’s fun to work with creative people in those kinds of situations.

But I will never do something that doesn’t feel a hundred percent me. To be on stage is my dream, and everything that comes with that is a great bonus.

KALTBLUT: Our upcoming issue is all around the theme “ICELANDS” - Do you feel the cold climate intensifies the emotion in your music?

NICOLE: I definitely

think that the environment, the weather and the people affect me.

Not only in music. I like the time of the year when it gets dark outside early and I like to write when it’s dark. But some songs have to be written when the

sun hits my face. Some things are said in sunlight and some things are said in the dark. The challenge is to capture the words and the feelings when they come around. That’s why I feel that it’s important that I get a change of scenery sometimes so I get some perspective.

KALTBLUT: If you could live anywhere other than Sweden, where do think would suit you best?

NICOLE: Hard to say. I can only relate to the places I’ve been to, but I think London would suit me. The indie rock culture and the history over there really inspires me! Many of my friends tell me to go to Berlin, and I have to go because I’ve never been there.

Only seen some beautiful pictures of art and music. I love to travel so hope my music takes me all over the world!

KALTBLUT: You’ve been getting lots of great feedback from the media in Sweden and it’s spreading further afield now too! What would you say has been your most surreal or amazing moment of the year?

NICOLE: To release the single for sure. It feels like my newborn child that I have to take care of now. It’s an amazing feeling.

KALTBLUT: So are you happy with how things are working out? What are your plans for the coming months, shows/a tour?

NICOLE: I’m super happy! The plan and vision for these coming months is to finish my album and take one day at the time from there! This is my first album so I really don’t know what to expect from this situation but I’ll try to be a part of this reality and grow as much as I can.

KALTBLUT: Thanks again for having a little chat with us. We wish you all the best for your bright future ahead and look forward to the album!

NICOLE: THANK YOU! I’m so happy that you like my music and it’s a pleasure to be a part of your amazing magazine! I wish you all luck with your work and hope to meet you in the near future. All my Love, Nicole

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„ The artists have a world they

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Svalbard Photography by Christian Aslund www.christian.se

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Katrin Berge.

Katrin Berge is a true artist and her illustrations are just pure magic. With a Bachelor and a Master degree this young Norwegian surely deserves all the attention she gets. We made her tell us all about Northern Mythology in her work, what it is like drawing your own home, emotions and how surrealism is present in every day life.

Interview by Amanda M. Jansson and Emma E.K. Jones

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274 KALTBLUT: You use a lot of “magical stuff” in your work, has the northern mythology influenced your art, and if so, how?

KALTBLUT: Blank faces, you use this concept quite often, what does it mean to you?

Katrin: Facial expressions reveal a lot of our emotions and state of

Katrin: Northern mythology has definitely influenced my art in many ways, consciously and unconsciously. I grew up with fairytales by Asbjørnsen & Moe and Theodor Kittelsen which I was fascinated by from an early age. The surreal elements in my drawings often emerge from an intuitive state of mind and the things that I especially like to draw at that time. I can be influenced by music, a trip to the mountain, a really beautiful book and so on. I rarely know the outcome of the drawings I make - they emerge bit by bit. I think it‘s difficult to have 100 % control of what I make, maybe that is what makes it so much fun to work with?

KALTBLUT: What is the shortest and what is the longest time you ´ve worked on a sketch/drawing?

Katrin: The shortest amount of time I‘ve used on a drawing (I rarely make sketches) is perhaps three hours. The longest is maybe 50 hours on one drawing where I struggled a lot with a complex composition and a lot of elements. I used the eraser diligently on that drawing, and I did a good job with covering all of the mistakes. I almost ripped apart this piece of artwork, but in the end it survived my anger and frustration!

mind, and when we‘re not able to see a person‘s facial expression in any given situation we become very curious of what kind of answers the faces are hiding. Blank or partially blank faces is a way of mystifying the characters and make the viewer curious and looking for answers in other elements than the face. We learn to interpret facial expressions from a very young age, so we rely on them telling us a lot about a situation, but sometimes you have to look for other ways of expression and answers.

KALTBLUT: How did you start working on this kind of drawings?

Katrin: The blank faces appeared more and more in my drawings a few years ago, and I honestly don‘t quite remember how it started...

I especially remember one drawing where I covered up the faces of five children around a beetle on a box because I wanted the children to have a mysterious appearance and force the viewer to look for answers in other things than facial expressions. I remember that it was so much fun to just show parts of their faces and put more emphasis on the strange elements covering the faces. I think it was here it all started with the indistinct appearance, and it has become a part of my expression up until today.

KALTBLUT: Most of your works are pretty surreal, surrealism always hides a secret meaning and tries to state something, what do you want to say through your art? What would your sketches/drawings say if they could speak?

Katrin: Perhaps I want to say that there are not always answers to everything we want to know. We have to wonder and make up our own theories in both small things and big things in life. I can‘t and I won‘t give my viewers all of the answers in my art, it is made for wonder and mystery, questions and secrets.

KALTBLUT: What kind of equipment do you use? Do you have some favourite ones? Like some kind of pencil you prefer the most etc?

Katrin: I use a lot of mechanical pencils and I have several different ones besides regular pencils. I use leads with thickness from 0.3 up to 0.7 with different degrees of soft- and hardness. I especially love the mechanical pencils from KOH-I-NOOR HARDTMUTH. They have the most wonderful tools for drawing and artwork! I‘m considering purchasing a mechanical eraser, but I‘m worried I would never use it anyway, it‘s just a fun geeky thing to have. I visit every art supplies store when I‘m traveling, like any other geek would!

KALTBLUT: If you had to draw your city/country, What would the drawing look like?

Katrin: The cities would probably be overgrown by wood and overcrowded by wild animals and birds which represent Norway. Such as deer, fox, wolf, rabbit, otter, weasel, owl and eagle – all of them typical animals in the Norwegian fauna. And since I especially love to draw the wild animals these would represent Norway in a rich and varied way where each animal has its own purpose and qualities in nature. The cities and traffic is slowly taking over areas where wild animals live and threatens more and more species, so I guess my drawing would be a protest against this.

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KALTBLUT: Do you prefer drawing people, animals or insects and why?

Katrin: I have to say a mix of these because they are all interesting to draw in different ways. What I love to draw about people is the clothing with nice textures and interesting patterns that I often create from my mind. I love to make simple and subtle geometrical patterns in clothes that look a bit old fashioned. I love to draw haircuts that look combed and proper – „hipster haircuts“ is perhaps what one would call them today? But they were hip in the early 20th century too! Insects are fun to draw because they are so different from humans, a little sci-fi I guess!

www.katrinberge.com

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Earring – Camila Klein Dress – Cholet

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B E T W E E N HEAVEN AND EARTH

PHOTOGRAPHER FASHION EDITION BEAUTY MODEL PHOTO ASSISTANT

BRUNA CASTANHEIRA @ABA MGT MAURICIO MARIANO AND ALESSANDRO LÁZARO @ABA MGT LIEGE WISNIEWSKI USING GUERLAIN ELLEN PINAFFI @ WAY MODELS NATÁLIA CANESHIRO

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Dress – Casa Juisi

Cape dress – Cholet Dress – Daniele Mabe Rings – Camila Klein

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Cape – Casa Juisi Dress – Antix

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Earrings – Camila Klein Dress – Lia Souza

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Blouse – Casa Juisi Lace blouse – Agatha Skirt – Pat Bo

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Necklace worn as a craw – Camila Klein Dress – Tigresse Bra - Darling

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Necklace – Camila Klein Dress – Saad

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Blouse – Casa Juisi Shorts – Tigresse

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How the Northern Lights took over the world.

Text & Illustration By Amanda M. Jansson and Emma Elina Keira Jones

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s it is today Icelandic, Scandinavian and Northern Art is literally everywhere to be found and with it goes all the culture and the spirit of the North, because in one way or another Scandinavian art and design is deeply rooted in magic and mysticism and the special aspects of the country itself, no matter how clean or modern it might seem at times. If you think that all the geometry and innovation coming your way has nothing to do with Valhala and Thor and fairy tales of old, frozen land and endless woods and all that, think twice.

If you‘ve ever been to one of these Nordic countries, however, you will know that the true spirit and heart of the North are still alive and breathing and this is probably what makes their art so popular.

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irst of all we need to look into the background of all these countries who differ widely yet do have enough in common to be considered a bunch. What makes Scandinavian art Scandinavian art? First of all, geographically speaking, we are talking about vast fields and mountains and woods, surely not densely populated and pretty much cut off of the rest of the world. We are talking about endless winter nights and midsummer nights, ice and wild seas, strange lights and strange colours. Then, culturally speaking, there are goblins and trolls, witches and fairies, heroes and gods, all of them stemming from the same mythology, affected by the land itself and the dark imagination of its inhabitants, rough and tough people who used imagination, colours and simplicity to get through the struggles of every day life.

If you look at the work of all great Icelandic and Scandinavian and even Baltic artists what is the first thing to strike you? You can guess, without looking. Nature. Endless wild landscapes.

Animals, snow, lakes, sea, ships, forests. One must not forget how nature and its riches had been the only means for the Northern people. Yet, all that, is definitely also the perfect setting for all the fairytales and

mythological creatures native to these lands. The power the forces of nature had over people in this northern isolated part still remains today, partially. When myths speak of enchanted woods like Járnvid, home to every creature associated with the North -trolls, giants, witches- and of ash tree gods, brook horses emerging from the fog, and wolves like Skoll and Hati chasing the moon and the sun, and finally everything ruled by the most famous tree ever -The Yggdrasil, it is not possible to ignore this. Painters like Marcus Larson, Anders Zorn, Gustaf Fjaestad, Peder Balke, Hans Gude, are some of the dozens of artists who could not resist the animal symbolism and the wilderness of their home countries and incorporated it into world famous paintings.

OK, to be honest, another thing that always comes to mind when speaking of Scandinavian and Icelandic art: creatures.

And not just their ghosts haunting these beautiful landscapes, but the actual creatures. Mind, one of the most famous story tellers, Hans Christian Andersen is Scandinavian and a little mermaid is all many people actually know of Copenhagen. Yes, hairy and slow trolls, forest maidens and seductresses, werewolves, dangerous but also friendly mermaids who can see into the future, longnosed witches of the woods or domesticated vicious ones, cats with superhuman powers, music playing fossegrimen, shapeshifters, ghosts of dead sailors, dwarfs and giants, and beautiful elves , even dragons and worms. When paganism and folklore is so rich wouldn‘t you be tempted to draw some inspiration from this infinite pool? John Bauer remains one of the most well recognized illustrators, same goes for Theodor Kittelsen and Nils Blommer.

Now as time went by, and even though these parts of the world still remain the most Pagan ones, for sure, the Northern tribes were faced with modernism, modern life, industrial revolutions and all the forces and trends from the South. This would have a tremendous impact on people whose whole life was the old ways and whose mythology was interwoven with fact. The result of such a clash was evident in Northern art. A world that is surreal to them as it was to the rest of Europe, a world that fills the artists with agony and despair, having lost faith in many of their given values. Spectacular artists emerge. Pioneers, like Edvard Munch whose screaming man has become a symbol for mankind. Or Sigrid Hjerten whose bold canvases helped reinvent Scandinavian art. Or Eugene Jansson with his bold nudity, the first openly homosexual painter when being gay was still illegal.

By now, you will have recognized parts and pieces of Scandinavia and Iceland all around you. One of the biggest elements of Northern art is just about to be revealed though: bright bright colours. It is impossible you have never noticed the feast of colours when you are dealing with anything Icelandic or Scandinavian in the broader sense. From places so dark, coming such lively colours and shapes, would seem odd or actually would seem totally expected. People needed to bring colour into their lives and that‘s just what they did. Think of how Iceland is covered in ice for such a long period of the year. Think of the dim lights, of the Aurora Borealis. And then also think of the crazy geometric shapes and the colours of folklore costumes of the North. Doesn‘t it all fall to place? People create what they need most. Like Asgrimur Jonsson, or Svavar Gudnason with their explosive use of colour, or Josef frank with his clean patterns.

Having read this you will hopefully have understood how an area of the world so lonely, isolated, cold, and mystic has come to invade everyone‘s hearts and everyone‘s homes, especially when it comes to art and also design in a way. It is because all these contrasts and secrets are simply irresistible.

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A GLIMPSE OF There are many many things Sweden is known for. Some of them are the beautiful girls, „Swedish porn“ (most of the time made somewhere else, perhaps in a basement in Brooklyn, but hey, there is always a blonde wig to use and a sausage like in Fäbojäntan), our nudity, clothes that all look the same from ACNE and Whyred, August Strindberg, radical feminists, polar bears walking in the streets (and it´s just a myth), Björn Borg, ABBA, Swedish meatballs, the chef from the muppets and finally our depressing movies.

I guess every Swedish film maker wants to be the new Ingmar Bergman.

To live in Sweden is alright. It´s really dark and cold in the winter, so you become melancholic or depressed easily, just get seized by this melancholic, depressing mood in a second and then the summer just rains away to the sound of pouring rosé wine.

You get depressed because you´ve got really nothing to be depressed about, or at least that is what most Swedish film makers would like us to think.

Swedes call it „Radhusångest“. A radhus is an ordinary house that looks just like all the rest on the same street, the type of house that Malvina Reynolds sings about in „Little Boxes“ on The Weeds-jingle. Ångest is just angst. Ordinary fuckin‘ angst.

Everyone‘s got their luxury issues going on and I just wanna scream AAAAAAAHHHHHH when I see one of those boring, melodramatic films CAUSE EVERYTHING IS TOO ALRIGHT! Where is the intrigue? Where is the background story? Where is the drama? Should I relate to all that bullshit about your life is being a mess and the only reason you´re life is a mess and you´re depressed is you having a 40 years old midlife crisis and nothing ever happens to you except from feeling guilty cause you fantasize about sleeping with the neighbour just to feel alive?

Are we so just alright, just fine, just so ordinary, that we have to complain about how ordinary our lives are? Everything is filmed in a light that makes you think of abduction more than anything else. Or someone just sitting and staring out of the window with empty eyes to the sound of rain drop indie. Well, true, it is a fact: If you‘re making a comedy you will never win one of those prestigious prizes they give out at indie film festivals. Your movies have to be dark and complicated but totally uncomplicated in the background. All you need to remember is if you´re writing about a happy happy joyful reality it is just not OK on film.

So, every Swede I know hates Swedish movies and nobody wants to watch them because of all the cliches. We laugh at the miserably drunk like in Sällskapsresan (Lasse Åberg, 1980) and at people characters representing the stereotype we´re so afraid to be. The Svensson. The Average Jones type. The ordinary guy sitting next to us on the bus (OK not next to us, more like five seats behind us because here you don´t sit next to someone on the bus if it´s not filled).

But here we also have something we call „Jäntelagen“, it´s the idea of believing that you are not better than anybody else. You should never think you are somebody special and if you say it out loud, well, then you´re just a braggart. Lets keep that in mind as well.

What I miss in Swedish cinema are real scripts of real problems.

Perhaps you still wanna give it a try though.

Do you have Radhusångest?

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SWEDISH CINEMA

by Charlotte Signell Photo by www.flickr.com/photos/ichimusai

My top 5 Radhusångest movies: Sånger från andra våningen (Roy Andersson, 2002) Vuxna människor (Felix Herngren and Fredrik Lindström, 1999) Farväl Falkenberg (Jesper Ganslandt, 2006) Flickan (Fredrik Edfeldt, 2009) Äta sova dö (Gabriela Pichler, 2012)

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SNOW WHITE 2.0 Design & Styling: Aynur Pektas Make Up: Kristina Loos Hair: Milko Grieger Photographer: Patrick Styrnol Model: Marijana Jurcevic @Brodybookings Stuttgart

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Jacob

Jacob Fell채nder is one of our favourite Swedish artists, no doubt. He is famous for his collections of really large scale abstract photographs of cityscapes but also landscapes around the world in magnificent double exposures. He has a degree in Fine Art photography and Graphic Design and began experimenting with landscape photography in the late 90s. He talked to us about the similarities of big cities around the world, how it feels showing his work and basically just everything.

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Fell채nder

Interview by Amanda M Jansson and Emma E K Jones

„

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Differences or

similarities

depend on the context.

“

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KALTBLUT: You’ve been to many places. How different and how similar were they? What where the similarities and differences between them?

JACOB: Differences or similarities depend on the context, photographing is one thing, the people another. Going in one lap around the world makes me see similarities mainly. A stock broker in New York City has the same problems and dreams as a taxi driver in Bangkok.

Traveling and photographing sometimes feels like going through the same country, only with different scenery and colours. It makes me feel human kind is all one. Sounds like a Miss Universe speech, but everyone actually had the same things to do daily, everyone worried about the same things, about money or if they had money then about time.

Same problems, same joys. In terms of photographing I chose places that actually look alike a lot. In a way it‘s almost like large cities are 1 country all over the world.

KALTBLUT: Has Sweden influenced your art and if so, how?

JACOB: I don‘t think so. The rest of the world has. Sweden is like a blank canvas. A good place to leave from. A good place to start from.

The rest of the world is inspiring to me. The journey around the world but also inside myself.

KALTBLUT: You shoot both cities and landscapes, what are the major differences for you? How do you approach each?

JACOB: No difference for me, at all. Sometimes I just feel like making something pretty in nature and then something dark and dense in the city.

KALTBLUT: You have published three books, what is most important to you when you are putting together a book and what is the last book about?

JACOB: My images are very very large so it‘s hard to carry them around. A book is good for showing. What is important is that the images are well represented. My latest book “Anatomy” is only black and white. It is also in multiple exposures like the rest of my work and comes in a cool box with my name on it.

KALTBLUT: You often speak about time, why is this concept so important to you?

JACOB: Time is an aspect of photography. Like with painting, photography is all about space, light, and time. Where you are, how much light you let in, and for how long you let the light into the picture.

Usually a photo is a moment frozen in time and history. My pictures are more like a film actually, because they are many different moments in time. For instance, a picture can be a flight of 15 hours, from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. While producing one single image, time shifts, you cross time boarders.

KALTBLUT: If you had a time capsule which era would you like to go back to or forward and why?

JACOB: I don‘t know. It depends on whether I get to be me or someone else. As myself, being a white male, I could get away with pretty much anything, during any era in history. It hasn‘t always been so fortunate for women or black people and so on. I guess I would choose the 60s. Late 60s. Lots of art took place back then. Lots of big steps forward in art and music were happening. Much more was going on than now really.

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KALTBLUT: What cameras do you use and how did you come to experiment with them in the first place?

JACOB: I use all kinds of cameras. Different one for every image. An old Polaroid camera is one of my favourites, film cameras, a Mamiya, an old Leica. I experimented a lot and through experimenting you always discover something. Through experimenting, you make mistakes and this is the only route to discovery. Some of the greatest inventions were all about experimenting and accidents.

KALTBLUT: Have you been influenced or inspired by the work of some other photographers or artists or a movement?

JACOB: Yes. A lot. Many people have influenced me. A very interesting photographer I had discovered in the beginning of my career is Robert Frank. Then while studying, there have been some great teachers who have been truly inspiring for me. I love photography a lot in general, and well all types of art and music inspire me.

KALTBLUT: How has Stockholm changed through the years? (in every day life but also in art) JACOB: I don‘t know. I lived in the States for 8 years and when I got back here it was difficult to tell how much of all the change had happened inside me or around me. Had I changed or Stockholm?

What‘s me and what‘s Stockholm?

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KALTBLUT: So many people are talking about your work worldwide…how does it feel? Did you expect this?

JACOB: I don‘t hear people‘s conversations, so I don‘t know how many talk about my work, or who it is, and what they say. I love consuming art, we are consumers in a way. For art lovers to consume someone must produce stuff. It is my responsibility to produce works, this responsibility is what makes it worth it. I keep producing and consuming. I wouldn‘t know people in Greece or anywhere else are talking about me, so I don‘t know how you or anyone views it. By producing and exposing your art you become subject to other people‘s opinion.

Some part of me wants to be pleased, my ego needs

to hear it‘s good, but there‘s part of me that really doesn‘t care at all. It‘s not always good to hear only good things, some artists like Van Gogh were not necessarily acknowledged at first. In fact, naming art good or bad is a threat to art. You need to take these labels away so you can experience it. We are trained to have an opinion on everything and that stops us from really experiencing things.

www.jacobfellander.com

BERLIN‘S 306

Best

Selected by Nicolas Simoneau

307 One of the first things that came to my mind when I thought about Ice-land is the SAUNA. You know I always picture naked people taking these hyper warm baths in the forest..I wonder where that comes from. Maybe it‘s time for me to have a serious chat with my father.

Anyhow, I digress. Let‘s get back to talking about saunas. My ‚little‘ issue convinced me to give you some tips and talk to you about the best places to go for a good sauna in Berlin.

But before I get into this, did you notice how we all love going to the sauna but that nobody really knows how to do it properly? That‘s why I‘m going to explain it to you, and then you‘ll be ready to go sweat out all your stress and worries.

Try this method first, and once you have, you can always adapt it to your tastes: 1°Start by taking a shower. This helps to keep the hot room clean.

2°Enter the sauna and sit on the upper bench. You may want to use a small towel to sit on.

3°Sit back for a few minutes and let the heat permeate your body and open the pores of your skin.

4°You may adjust the air moisture by throwing water on the stones of the heater. The steam will make

the room feel hotter.

5°Go for a cold shower and relax a bit before you come back 6°You may go back to the heat a few times, taking your time to relax and enjoy the warmth.

7°Finally shower to clean yourself from the sweat.

8°Allow yourself to cool and dry properly before putting your clothes back on.

Complete the sauna with a peaceful rest and a drink.

To get the most of your sauna session, you will need: At least half an hour, preferably an hour or more, so you have ample time to relax.

A large towel to dry yourself You may also want to consider these: A smaller towel to sit on A moisturising lotion for after the sauna A bathrobe to wear while cooling down Flip-flops Ready? GO! By the way if you want to go in your birthday suit, go for it, we are in Berlin after all, the city of the FKK (Freikörperkultur).

Illustration by Alexandra Vial

www.funghii.com

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If you want to be selfish, don‘t hesitate to indulge in a guilty pleasure : this is definitely the thing to do.

LUXURY is the first word that comes to mind when I think about this place. When you‘re there, it is just somehow like you were cut out from the rest of the world. First of all when you arrive at the Soho House, you need to go down to get to the sauna. Once you get there it already feels like your mind is letting go, submerged in an ocean of peace and quiet.

You will have a private bathroom, where you can change, the lockers are electronic so no need to cary a key around. Everything has been thought of for your own comfort. So first let me talk a little bit about the private bathrooms: These are just HUGE, of course you‘ll find a shower with an assortment of Coswed products for your hair, your body, the full experience, Yes Sir - Ma‘am!

Once you‘ve changed into something more comfortable, you will enter a little space with a HUGE sofa that can fit in at least 10 people, easy. There are magazines if you feel like you want to chill and relax for a while.

This place is basically the room that separates you from the sauna. It‘s cosy, and the atsmophere is so smooth, it almost feels like your whole body is wrapped in cotton wool.

Here you are in the sauna. When you finally go in, take a minute to look around you: the place is beautiful, with tiled floors everywhere.

Two big separate places, one sauna and one Turkish bath / Hammam. What struck me was the smell of this place: it smelled incredibly good, I can‘t explain.

The whole atmosphere feels like something out of a fairytale: the light is really soft, and in the middle of the room there is this cute little fountain if you want to wash your hands...

And here‘s the cherry on top : if you do not want to relax with people all around you, that‘s not a problem, there are 3 little private salons where you can read and chill all by yourself if that‘s what you‘re into. You can have your privacy thanks to a velvet curtain, and then it‘s just you and no one else.

COMPLETE SILENCE. I could have slept there if I wanted too. The only drawback is, everything feels quite boxy and tiny, so that if there‘s more than 10 people you might feel crowded and uncomfortable.

Price: 20 euros for a day pass but seriously you‘re not gonna stay the whole day there, I mean I wouldn‘t, because quite frankly I get bored at some point.

Be selfish!

Looking good, feeling gorgeous.

C ow s h e d : S o h o H o u s e B e r l i n To rs t ra ß e 1 10119 Berlin w w w. s o h o h o u s e b e r l i n . d e Photo by Soho House Berlin, Cowshed

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Back to the Future: here it really feels like you are in Roman times.

Forget about luxury, this a city Building. Still, the baths were re-opened in 1998 and now offer Roman-style bathing in exquisite surroundings. The architectural centerpiece of the baths is a circular marble hall with a stained-glass skylight which the sun glistens through on bright days.

In Stadtbad Neukölln you can enjoy magical surroundings and architecture in which you can do your lengths… Corinthian columns, bronze gargoyles and multi-colored mosaics make for a sensual swimming experience, similar to bathing in a traditional Roman bath. With a large regular pool and a smaller but warmer second pool… you can also have a lovely time in one of the 8 different saunas and steamrooms ... herbal steamrooms, some hotter saunas… a real oasis of rest and relaxation.

NOW a little word of advice for you, first about the swimming pools : you do not really want to go there to swim : the length of each pool is 20 and 25 meters : a bit short if you wish to exercise, but perfect for relaxation.

This being said, the place itself is a definite MUSTSEE, and I‘m talking about the swimming pool and the sauna Area.

You won‘t find any hipster here, only real people from Neukölln. And to be honest sometimes its also good to go to a place just to relax and not to show off.

Definitely one of my favorite spots in Berlin.

14 euros for a day pass ( including access to the swimming pools).

G a n g h o f e rs t ra ß e 3 12043 Berlin w w w. b e r l i n e r b a e d e r b e t r i e b e. d e

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Ok so the thing about the Liquidrom is, it can become your Paradise on earth just as quickly as it can turn into a Hellhole. If you want to enjoy the place (and yourself), I would advise against going on the weekends, and forget about Friday and Thursday evenings as well … Yes I know it does not leave you that much of a choice, but now you‘ve been warned.

Oh, and also if you do want to try to go there on the weekend ( do not say that I haven‘t warned you) you might have to wait something like an hour before you can actually go in. YES! Well actually it‘s a good thing they limited the amount of people inside…But still weekends = overcrowed = endless queue = thanks, but no thanks = pizza quadri fromagio at home.

Well if you want some time to relax and if you happen to be with a friend, this is a good place. A bit expensive though ( count something like 20€ for 2 hours and 25€ for 4 hours), but I do like the place , you know the kind, really design-oriented, something that looks like it belongs in a architectural magazine somewhere or on a poster. The place is very clean and peaceful ( depending on when you go of course, I think you get that now).

Liquidrom is definitely a place to visit and here‘s why: 1° They have this huge floating pool of salt water, which makes for a uniquely relaxing experience. The pool is very nicely presented with low lights and music piped through the water ( oh yes, music under water…great way to relax) 2° There is an outdoor courtyard with a really warm pool. Needless to say, the best time to go there is when it‘s snowing outside, how it feels on your body is hard to put into words, it‘s just awesome : there‘s nothing quite like sitting outside in the freezing cold after a hot sauna and watching the steam rising off your body, just like sitting in a warm pool in the open air.

And of course like in every respectable sauna, there‘s one thing you should not miss: the „Aufguss session“. Every hour the Saunameister will perform this sort of ritual during which he will pour water on the hot stones to increase humidity and then proceed to wave a large towel around in order to allow the hot air to circulate through the sauna, thus intensifying the heat -and making you sweat some more. Keep in mind that according to sauna etiquette, it is deemed disrespectful to either enter or leave the sauna during that time.

Piece of advice on this one : the higher you go in the sauna the warmer it will be, so if it‘s your first time I would encourage you to sit down next to the stones.

And there is also a hammam.

Oh and if you need some refreshments the bar is here for you. Actually I do not find it that expensive (compared to the admission price) and you‘ll find some good products too : carrot juice with infer tea, healthy sh*t.

TIP: you are allowed to bring water with you from the outside, sooooo if you remember it, try not to forget a big bottle, because it‘s always good to drink a little between saunas.

M o e c ke r n s t ra s s e 1 0 10963 Berlin w w w. l i q u i d ro m - b e r l i n

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Persona Non Grata Hairdressing Berlin Headquarters Facebook: Persona Non Grata

modvark@gmail.com

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Madame Peripetie „Dream Sequence“

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t is a big honour to introduce you to a very special artist and photographer Madame Peripetie. I have been a big fan of her work for some years. Madame Peripetie alias Sylwana Zybura is a pardoned award winning photographer and her work has been shown in many exhibitions. Reality is a stranger to her. She shows you a different world of Dadaist mythical creatures. There is so much creativity involved and I love the composition in her pictures, the colours.

Now in 2013 she is on her way to publish a book: „Dream Sequence“.

A project she has been working on for more than 3 years. Each photo is a piece of art.

I had the pleasure of having a little chat with Madame Peripetie about this upcoming release.

Interview by Marcel Schlutt Photography + Creative direction: Madame Peripetie www.madameperipetie.com Styling: Stella Gosteva Make-up/Hair: Marina Keri Models: Yana@M+P/ Mark&Caleb @D1/David@AMCK

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314 KALTBLUT: Welcome to our magazine.

I have been a big fan of your work for years so it is my pleasure to introduce you to our readers. Your work is outstanding. Please tell us, when did you start with photography? And how long did you need to create your own style?

Madame Peripetie: I started around 5 years ago, and because it was a very thoughtthrough decision I already had a precise idea of how I would like my images to look. Photography happened to be the medium that helped to visualise my staged ideas of character design.

KALTBLUT: Let´s talk about your longterm project, „Dream Sequence“. You are working on the project now for 3-4 years which is a long time. What was the idea behind this project?

Madame Peripetie: The project started in 2009 as a commission for one of the NY magazines and turned into a long-term project that I have been photographing infrequently ever since. It was inspired by the Salvador Dali dream scene from the Alfred Hitchcock’s film Spellbound and so it is closely connected to archetypal dreams (investigated very closely by Gustav Jung) that occur in a transitional period of one‘s life and often leave you in a sense of awe and reverence, staying in your mind long after you experienced them. The main idea was to create unconventional characters that radiate the contemplative and poetic artificiality of Sugimoto’s wax sculptures, the hallucinogenic beauty of abstract surreal objects and incorporate physicality and intangibility at the same time. The hypnotic visual experience is being intensified by ephemeral flowers, hazy light and an illuminated black background.

KALTBLUT: Looking at the pictures I can see there is a lot of work to be done just for one shot. Where do you find your models and stylist to work together? Or do you have a fixed team?

Madame Peripetie: It is a very analytical approach towards a very specific colour palette and a strong composition involving both solid preparation – costume and modelwise - and experimental approach on set, where the magic happens! It is a mixture of theatrical images that has been composed fully by myself and also in collaboration with stylist Rolf Buck. The 2012-2013 part (partially presented in your magazine) is being created together with a stylist Stella Gosteva and make up artist Marina Keri, who both understand my vision completely and implement the ideas with an immaculate precision and skill. It is difficult to say how exactly a character will appear and evolve – sometimes it is the garment I see somewhere that inspires me, sometimes the texture and shape of the flowers that capture my attention or an unusual model that is being transformed into a bizarre persona. In the end, the interaction of all elements constitutes a final result.

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KALTBLUT: How important is the fashion aspect in your work?

Is fashion something you use to create your style? Or do you take what the stylist presents you?

Madame Peripetie: Fashion is important but only in terms of

structure, colour and in order to illustrate a character and specify attributes that belong to that entity. See the visually arresting costumes of Eiko Ishioka or Colleen Atwood that envision the final character in all his subtleties.

KALTBLUT: Can you describe the process of creating your awesome photos, especially during this project?

Madame Peripetie: As I said before it is a mixture of research, solid preparation and a sparkle of spontaneity on set. The project itself fluctuates, the protagonists transform from session to session, the light set up differs slightly as I am working in different environments and it is becoming more and more mosaic and complex to tell the same story with a surprising, bold twist – keeping the idea fresh and creating new

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captivating characters that will mesmerize you. I find myself comparing the actual part with the older one that I shot in 2009 – but it is pointless in a way because I see it as a perpetual creative process with heterogeneous evolutionary stages connected by the architecture of proportion and chromaticity.

Madame Peripetie: The book is planned for later this year and will include around 40-50 images from the series.

last few years you have shown your pieces in a couple of big exhibitions. How do you feel when you see your work there?

KALTBLUT: Where will the book be published? Or do you look for a publisher?

If so, where can a publisher contact you?

Madame Peripetie: It is always good to showcase your work and get constructive feedback from the audience on it.

KALTBLUT: Do you have moments where you don‘t get inspired during a photo shooting? And if so how do you get past that?

Madame Peripetie: I don’t have a publisher yet as the project is still progressing but I have a few publishing houses in mind that would be a perfect fit.

Madame Peripetie: Not that often actually, as I am always very well prepared so plan B and C are always there. The concept is being developed beforehand and if something is not working as it should we always have a back-up and a pinch of improvisation.

KALTBLUT: There is also an exhibition coming up this year in New York. Where will it be? In which gallery can we visit your work?

KALTBLUT: Your work has been featured in various different art and photography magazines.. and you can call yourself an award winning artist. Are you proud of your awards? Or which is the most important one for you?

KALTBLUT: You are planning a book with your project. How big will it be?

How much of your work will be inside?

Madame Peripetie: Yes, it will be a part of a group exhibition at The National Arts Club that is taking place in September in New York City this year.

KALTBLUT: I would be proud like hell to see my work in a gallery. During the

Madame Peripetie: I really appreciate it but it is only to satisfy your ego for 5 minutes and make you realize that you have to work even harder to stand up to the task.

KALTBLUT: You worked for some big names in the fashion world like Maison Martin Margiela or our friends from Moga E Mago. But as an unknown designer, could I contact you to work

317 together? Or do you choose your clients?

Madame Peripetie: It all depends on the project and visual interpretation. I love working with Moga e Mago not only for their beautifully crafted pieces but because of their conceptual approach which makes you cherish their piece even more. It is always possible to collaborate – it is all about concept, dedication and unconventional ideas. The Margiela shoot was very relaxed and I quite enjoyed it. I don‘t differentiate between brands – I am always involved 100% no matter how big the client is.

KALTBLUT: If I wanna have a print of yours for my home what do I have to do?

And how much do I have to pay?

Madame Peripetie: Contact me or my agent with the details for bespoke images or editions.

KALTBLUT: Are there any photographers you look at or let’s say more, are there any artists who are influencing you?

And if so why?

Madame Peripetie: There are so many – from the surrealistic movement, architectural Heatherwick Studio designs, JG Ballard short stories, and independent cinema. At the moment I am obsessed with new technologies! I am also exploring the phenomenology of visual noise, silence and boredom.

KALTBLUT: We wish you a lot of success with your project! And publishers if you wanna show Madame Peripetie´s work, please contact the outstanding artist, because we want this book!!

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Melancholia feeds the North with 320

Text and illustartions by Agnes Lindstrรถm Bolmgren

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omething is happening to the mind when one half of the year is full of light and endless nights where the landscape offers dreamy pictures, and the other half is sudden darkness and bitter cold, only lightened up by cold quiet snow.

I think this melancholia is present in a lot of different contexts in Scandinavian culture and it’s something many of us learned not to be afraid of but to even regard and make use of. Maybe it’s even simpler than we think. It could also be the result of our survival instincts that made us deal with the winter depression and loneliness like this. For some of us it’s even grown to something that we’d like to feed and let grow. If you somehow manage to use this melancholia for creativity and productivity it almost makes you achieve the quite opposite: a feeling of satisfaction and achieving something.

I think this Scandinavian melancholia has become a necessity, if not even vital tool for the creativity.

Most of the Scandinavian writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers and photographers have a preference for Melancholia. I think creativity needs this mood to breathe.

I do think that you’ll find not only the lack of light causing this state of mind but also the nature itself. In Sweden the conditions for melancholia are superb. The silent, well-meaning but reserved attitude of the people combined with apathetic void, early mornings, naked trees, thick forests of fir trees, funereal nature, dreamful beauty, trudging animals, surprised elks, scared rabbits, brutal birds, myth-like haze and fog.

It definitely puts a solid ground for the melancholic soul.

You can see a connection between the climate and the nature with the old sagas and northern mythology and the modern melancholia present in the arts.

The old Nordic myths are most of the time based on mysterious beautiful creatures in the forest or around the water that usually hide pretty brutal secrets.

There are a lot of warnings for temptations. If you can’t handle the temptation right it does not seldom have a fatal end.

We have the story about Näcken. A handsome naked guy who’s sitting in the river in the deep forest and plays the violin. Some traditions describe him as making people drown in the river with his charm and his beautiful melodies. Others describe him as a harmless depressed person who couldn’t have his freedom.

Another example is the myth about Huldra.

A breathtaking beautiful naked woman who hangs out in the forest and likes to lure men into the forest to have sex with them, often killing those who don´t satisfy her.

We can also see how this melancholia has been

forming the humor. There’s a lot of tragicomic connected to it. Dark humor and subtle details. The Swedes like joking about themselves. And about how Swedish we are. It’s something about the melancholy and everyone recognizes a little part of themselves in the idea of the tragicomic Swede.

The Swedish photographer Lars Tunbjörk has definitely got an eye for this melancholic humor in Swedish culture. His images often content human loneliness, tragicomic scenarios, dejection, vacuum like landscapes, rainy Midsummer, depressing caravan vacations. Tunbjörk portraits people with a humorous sense but without looking down on them.

Some of the characters in his photographs are like modern versions of old Swedish myths about beings in the forest.

The cover photo of his book of selected work is quite a good summary of Swedish melancholia; an unambitiously made snowman without hat and carrot but with a smile and dots made with spray color on dirty snow.

If you look at the filmmaker Roy Andersson’s work there is a lot of speechless melancholic pictures of landscapes and all of his films show a very typical Swedish mood. There are silences and doubting and a melancholic breeze. He works a lot with beige and grey color scales and by building up every single scene in his famous studio in Stockholm he manages to create his own cities and therefor keeping an almost fantasy-like anonymousness. All of the actors are being type-casted from the streets and usually have no experience in acting. It’s not a secret that he has a preference for small fat elderly men with cartoon-like faces and a lot of character. This is very typical for his later films like “Songs from the second floor”(Sånger från andra våningen, 2000) and “You, the living”(Du levande, 2007) but there is another type of melancholia in his first film. The beautiful movie “A Swedish love story”(En kärlekshistoria, 1969). It’s a wonderful portrayal of a love story between two very young people and the soundtrack by Björn

322 Isfält is so melancholic but beautiful that it makes you want to cry. He’s also the composer behind many of the screen adaptions of Astrid Lindgren’s children books.

Another more obvious example is one of the most famous Swedes; Ingmar Bergman. Many of his films, for example “Persona”(1966), are shot at his beloved Fårö, a small island close to Gotland, famous for this landscape with wounded rocks, beaches of broken stones, grey scale surroundings and the wind mourning in the background.

His characters are also not less melancholic with often a dramatic inner life filled with angst, regret, helplessness and melancholia. I think he made an important base for following artists and filmmakers on how to welcome and not avoid the greyer shades of life.

You can track down this melancholia not only in films but also in the art and in the Swedish fashion. Designers like Nakkna and Diana Orving are working with colors and materials that make you think of the Swedish forests and the sagas about the elves and trolls.

I think there is even a certain melancholy that connects the old sagas and their nature with the modern surroundings and the city and its buildings. I think about the suburbs with the 60s function houses almost GDR-like. I think about how Thomas Alfredsson uses them in “Let the right one in” (2008) and how he connects this modernity with the mystic almost mythology-like story.

In comparison to Germany I think the melancholia is more present in Sweden because Germany has been struggling with many other problems and has got a unique dramatic history that Sweden hasn’t had. Sweden didn’t experience the same kind of dramatic events the last centuries and I think it has given people more time to start growing this other state of mind. The Melancholia. www.agnes.given.se

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Andrea Pompilio Selected by Marcel Schlutt

MUST

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Nicolas K

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Richard Nicoll

Frankie Morello

Raf Simons

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Peter Pilotto

Tracey Reese

Nicole Miller

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Creatures Of The Wind

Hermes

Vivienne Tam

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Blue Shadows Photographer, Hair & Make-up: Pascale Jean-Louis

Art Direction:

Nicolas Simoneau

Models:

Maria Br채utigam mariabraeutigam@gmx.de

Special Thanks:

Swarovski www.swarovski.com Uslu arlines www.usluairlines.com

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Spotlight on Upcoming Designer

Anna Gregory

By Biki John

Anna Gregory’s eponymous label, ‘Anna Gregory Designs’ is greatly inspired by the Nordic countries, and her collections are said to be marked with a, ‘distinct Scandinavian mood’. As such, her naturally sourced pieces have a rugged and yet gentle beauty. Her collections which are sourced from natural fibres such as silks, cottons, wools and linens have recurring themes of rustic texture, fullness and wood; and in her words, ‘nature’ remains her primary inspiration.

Photography by Gokhan Goksoy www.vragency.co.uk Models: Emilia Samelsson and Leanne KALTBLUT: Tell us about your background, how did you get into fashion design?

ANNA GREGORY: My mother is an interior designer as well as an

artist, so growing up I always wanted to be an interior designer.

However when I applied for the University program in Poland, I was unsuccessful. You see in Poland, the competition for universities is extremely high- you can only apply to one university at a time, which leads to thousands of applicants vying for one spot. So instead of wasting a year because I didn’t get the place I wanted, I decided to go to a fashion design school. After my first year, I loved the courses I was studying so much within the program (which included fine art, drawing, painting and interior design) that I decided to stick with fashion.

KALTBLUT: Where did you go after your fashion design course?

ANNA GREGORY: After doing that program in Poland for two years, I then did a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design at the University of East London, BA (Hons).

KALTBLUT: How would you say your art background has influenced the pieces you make today?

ANNA GREGORY: Well, my old professors in London who see my

work today say that my pieces have an artistic edge, so this is probably because of the Fine Art subjects I studied when I was in Poland.

KALTBLUT: Currently, you have designed two collections- S/S 12 and A/W 12. How would you describe the aesthetic of your designs?

ANNA GREGORY: All my designs are hand-made and I label each

and every one as, ‘Scandinavian’ because my inspiration comes from there. This is why I only use natural fibres in earthy colours and oversized, cocoon shapes. Also, I made the wooden jewellery you see in my first collection.

KALTBLUT: Oh, really? I assumed that the wooden jewellery pieces were made by a jewellery designer who collaborated with you for that particular collection.

ANNA GREGORY: No they were all made by me, I decided to make

chunky, wooden jewellery because they really fitted the natural vibe of that collection, and it made sense to add pieces that had been sourced from nature. With the wooden pieces, I was wholly inspired by my trips to the Fjords, Norway and as a reference I used the pictures I had taken in the forests, paying particular attention to the tree patterns I saw. Every piece was painted, hand-dyed and dip-dyed, meaning that each piece is unique.

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337 KALTBLUT: Is there anything in particular you remember about those trips?

ANNA GREGORY: Yes, how magical the waterfalls and mountains were and how eerily

quiet the Fjords were; it has a special kind of silence. Also in relation to my work, I remember how dedicated I was in ensuring my pieces reflected as much as I was able to capture during those journeys. For example, I would lift a wood pattern from a tree and put it on a dress, and for a whole week I photographed the stones on the pavement, in order to imitate the patterns on my fabrics.

KALTBLUT: Could you tell us about one of your earliest, most memorable Nordic trips?

ANNA GREGORY: That would be the summer when I was ten years old. I went on a road trip with my parents where we started in Bergen, Norway and travelled along the coast, all the way to the North Pole. It was such a magical trip! I’ll always remember being fascinated by witnessing the Sami people first-hand. Even from the car, I could tell that they were a strong community of people who lived a life that was totally dictated and inspired by nature.

KALTBLUT: If I had to use two words to describe your clothes, I would say- texturized shapes. I like the way you play with different lengths, volumes and silhouettes with your pieces- a straight fitting waistcoat there, a ruched, puff skirt there- is this a reflection of your own personal style?

ANNA GREGORY: Well, the oversized pieces in my collection are definitely a reflection of

my style. If you open my wardrobe, it is crammed with oversized pieces. My own personal style is understated and yet distinct and this can be seen in my pieces.

KALTBLUT: As of now some of the recurring themes in your work are milk-paint, sustainable, wood, hand-made which are all said to be marked with a distinct Scandinavian mood’. How do you see this evolving in the future?

ANNA GREGORY: I see myself being even more inspired by Scandinavia and continuing

my design explorations in that area. I will also continue to be faithful to my use of natural fibres.

KALTBLUT: So far in your current base- London, you have shown your pieces at London Fashion Week (Off-Schedule) as well as Alternative Fashion Week and Graduate Fashion week. How much do you think London supports emerging designers?

ANNA GREGORY: I believe that as a city it supports emerging designers very well. You can

see this from the fashion week it hosts where the city pays special attention to new designers like LFW, Off Schedule, where I’ve shown my work. Also from my personal experience, there are boutiques that have approached me because they want to promote new designers; so I assume that if I am getting this assistance, then other emerging designers are too. There are also many London- based online stores that cater to selling pieces from new designers.

KALTBLUT: Which public figures would you most like to see wearing your clothes?

ANNA GREGORY: Oh my God, Sienna Miller! I also love the Polish model, Anja Rubik.

KALTBLUT: What kind of woman do you think you design your clothes for?

ANNA GREGORY: Stylish, relaxed women who are able to combine luxury with second

hand clothes effortlessly. So for example, she can wear Yohji Yamamoto with pieces from a fabulous retro shop.

KALTBLUT: Is there any designer you would like to collaborate with for a one-off collection?

ANNA GREGORY: Stella McCartney, I love the cut and lines of her pieces. Also I admire the stance she makes against fur, as I am anti-fur as well.

KALTBLUT: What kind of music do you play in your studio to stir your creative juices?

ANNA GREGORY: I tend to listen to a lot of classical music or Jazz which used to confuse me because normally, I listen to Hip Hop which is weird.

KALTBLUT: Why is listening to Hip Hop weird?

338 ANNA GREGORY: Well, people say it doesn’t suit me…

KALTBLUT: If you don’t mind me saying, that’s a very silly thing to say. Music is universal, that’s the whole point of it.

ANNA GREGORY: Well, the thing is when I

listened to Hip Hop in my studio, I just couldn’t concentrate. So I began to listen to classical music and I discovered that due to the rhythm and pace that comes with that style of music, my design team and I was able to concentrate more.

KALTBLUT: I can imagine... The theme for this issue is Ice.Land, Myths, Legends and Nature- what imagery do you conjure up when you hear those ethereal words?

ANNA GREGORY: I actually think of a mood

board I made in university a few years ago where for inspiration I used those exact words!

KALTBLUT: Really?

ANNA GREGORY: Yes, the mood board

borrowed from themes and subjects that were derived from childhood tales like the Ice Queen and ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’.

Really, when you say the theme words of the magazine, my imagination goes straight to these tales.

KALTBLUT: As you know, lots of fashion businesses are driven by social media.

How have you found balancing promoting your brand through social media and creating your designs?

ANNA GREGORY: I find it very difficult to keep

the balance because even though I use social media platforms like Facebook to engage with my market- it does not come to me naturally.

Also, I am an artist and as such, I would rather use my time designing than sitting in front of a computer.

KALTBLUT: What are your dreams for the, ‘Anna Gregory’ brand for the future?

ANNA GREGORY: For the future, my dream is

to have my own boutique in an area like Islington or Shoreditch. In this store I would be in charge of everything from the visual merchandising to the design of the shop. It may sound like a small dream but in London, getting those locations is very difficult.

KALTBLUT: I am intrigued, I expected you to say that you would want Anna Gregory stores around the world!

ANNA GREGORY: Yes that would be great but I feel to achieve something so formidable, you need a lot of help or contacts in the industry.

Take Stella McCartney for example, she is undeniably talented but having the surname that she has helped to open a lot of doors for her.

So for me now, I want to dream small before I dream big.

www.annagregorydesign.co.uk

„Idream want to

small

before I dream

Big“

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Photographer: Svetlana LK / www.SvetlanaLKphoto.com Hair & Make up: Helena Narra Kapidzic/narra.cc Stylist: Josephina Rigall Stylist Assistant: Marie Pedon Model: Martina Dimitrova / Soul Artist Management

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AW 13/14 ICE-COOL

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Some weeks ago we presented our very first KALTBLUT AW 13/14 Collection during Berlin Fashion Week. The idea behind this project is to give young and unknown fashion designers a platform to create their designs and show them to the fashion world.

For our first collection we worked together with two Berlin based fashion labels. NICO SUTOR who has created an intense black and white themed collection. Her theme is: ICE. Accessories for our collection come from ZILLMANN. The designer has created some outstanding pieces for us, stunning and eccentric headwear and masks. Her theme is: COOL. The presentation during fashion week took place at the FIER Showroom and was really well received, it seemed that people really appreciated the collection and are excited about it, we are so happy that our plan worked out!

I had a little chat with both designers, speaking about their designs, the concept and fashion in Berlin.

Interview by Marcel Schlutt Photos by Pacale Jean Louis and Marcel Schlutt Hair and Make up by Pascale Jean Louis Models are: Adrian Dorsch, Lukas Sauer, Andreas Milz, Elizabeth Ehrlich.

KALTBLUT: First of all I want to say: Thank you!

To both of you for creating such a great collection for our magazine. It is the first time that KALTBLUT is working together with 2 designers in this way. You are part of the family now forever. What was your first thought when I asked you to work with us on this?

Nico Sutor: Yes! Ålisa Zillmann: COOL! Nico Sutor and Zillman already work well together, we were already married! but we were excited to enlarge the family. More importantly it‘s a privilege to work with you. Thank you.

KALTBLUT: Is there a difference between creating a collection on your own and being commissioned to make one for a magazine? Do you feel like we’ve given you enough space to be creative?

Nico Sutor: No, there‘s not really a difference, maybe just a different form and direction as far as where the inspiration is coming from. I think 404 pages is definitely enough for inspiration… and enough creative space too ! Ålisa Zillmann: It is different. I was concentrated and focused but I didn‘t feel imprisoned. Nico and I were immediately inspired by the „kalt“ in „Kaltblut“ and named the collections: Ice and Cool.

We‘ve known each other for years and so our ideas fit together easily without much need to work on it. for example, the triangle. that was cool!

KALTBLUT: We showed the collection during the last Berlin Fashion Week just 4 weeks ago and the people loved it. Can you tell me about your different inspirations for our collection?

Nico Sutor: Since I visited Iceland, I‘ve been fascinated by glaciers and I’ve always wanted to do something using that topic. One thing lead to another with the theme of the issue also being „ICElands“. For Kaltblut I wanted the design to be strict and linear, stern and strong, just like the magazine.

Clear concept, clean lines, clean cuts. Ålisa Zillmann: I‘m a big fan of Disney, Tim Burton and 80‘s style series and films. With the experience that I have, and that you wanted me, what I thought was: cool! So it made sense to call it that. After cool came: cat. Of course I immediately thought about Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman (Directed by Time Burton), but in the 90‘s in a jazz club...poetry slam...also I love animals... at the moment I have two canaries (Bonnie Tyler and Maedchen)... when I got them I worked with feathers. The cat masks are also inspired by a cat I once had called Emily Strawberry.

KALTBLUT: Ålisa, everybody is in love with your masks. Some people even wanted to have them directly after the show. What kinds of materials were you working with? And how did you create your show pieces? Ålisa Zillmann: I always work with all kinds of materials and try making more editions than collections. For example, neoprene with feathers, copper pipes.. For the base I use this rather uncool, old kind of felt material, because it is stable and it allows me to make 3D designs. I love to build things, or demolish things, like walls.. you get that rush. With the masks it was no different.

It‘s a sexy adrenaline kick !

KALTBLUT: Nico, we’ve known each other for around one year now and it’s actually not the first time that we’ve worked together. Can you tell our readers how long you’ve been working on your collection? And which garments did you use?

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347 Nico Sutor: We had our one year anniversary on 17.01 during Berlin Fashion Week! I still love this moment and remember it fondly The actual work was about 2 weeks, but finding the ideas and the forms takes me around 1.5 to 2 months. My favourite material is and always has been jersey, but it creeps now more and more in the direction of chiffon. I like to play with transparency of a material and then put it against something more dense.

KALTBLUT: How did your friends, family and customers react when you told them that you will be designing a collection for a magazine?

Nico Sutor: Cool. Ålisa Zillmann: My family, friends and customers (I can call lots of my customers friends too) they know how hard it can be to be self-employed: so proud!

KALTBLUT: Our idea is to support young fashion labels and give them a platform to show their designs in the international fashion world. What is your fashion background? Since when do you work in fashion?

Nico Sutor: My first victim was my Barbie, so I‘d say I’ve been in fashion my whole life, and then I also studied fashion. After my studies I worked for a Berlin based label and started Nico Stuor in 2011. Ålisa Zillmann: I also dressed my Barbie dolls with couture clothing as a child, handkerchief and sellotape creations... that counts as fashion design, right? In my youth I never found cool clothes, it was also really hard, because I never had a specific style. I had a design in my head but I didn‘t know how to create it. My clique went the way into fashion, so I also wanted to become a designer. I guess officially though since 2005.

KALTBLUT: I am a little bit disappointed about the Berlin Fashion Week. I think the German Government should support young labels much more. Do you get any support from the state or if not, how do you survive?

Nico Sutor: I also think there should be more support given, if they advertise Berlin and the fashion here, they should also promote the designers better! That doesn’t even necessarily have to be financially, when you consider how many rooms and shops could be let for free, it‘s the least they can do to just make that available to showrooms and designers for Fashion Week.

Berlin advertises „poor but sexy“ but if the fashion dies then we‘re just poor! Ålisa Zillmann: No, if you don‘t

have a customer base you can‘t be considered for credit, without credit you get no money, without money you can‘t buy materials, without materials you have no product, and without product you have no customers, then you find yourself drowning. Luckily I put on a regular night club „ENKLAVE“ that goes well and makes me some money, and I am also an illustrator, a well paid job!

KALTBLUT: Which designers inspire you? Who are your personal favorites?

And why?

Nico Sutor: Vladimir Karaleev and Michael Sontag! I love their aesthetic!

KALTBLUT: Can you both name 3 must have items for a fashion victim in 2013?

Nico Sutor: Fun… “Cool” by Zillmann and “Ice” for KALTBLUT. Ålisa Zillmann: Masks, because then you don‘t need make-up. Cool leggings. Clothes that you can easily fall in love with.

So many „in“ items have become standard, for example studs, you can easily wear them now in everyday life.

KALTBLUT: What is coming next for you then? Our collection is ready to get sold, some stylists booked pieces for shootings and we can’t be more happier! But what are your plans for the future?

Nico Sutor: A holiday, a new collection, more shops, more happy customers. After my father comes to visit us at Fier in January he‘ll also want us at the Fashion Week tent…. Ålisa Zillmann: There will soon be the ZILLMAN slim edition. T-Shirts with my illustrations and jute bags in my style: with ears. Otherwise I let life surprise me and wait to find some new materials.

KALTBLUT: Thank you very much for your work. What I like the most about you both is that you don’t have this weird attitude which we experience each day in fashion. You’re down to earth and live in the real world. Please keep this forever. Love you both!

www.nicosutor.com www.alisazillmann.tumblr.com

The Insider

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Text and Interview by Amy Heaton Illustration by Nicolas Simoneau

As we delved deeper into the Scandinavian psyche with our issue I caught up with the lovely Nina Legnehed for this collections X-Insider. She and her partner Steffi von Kannemann run the brilliant Berlin-based PR Agency called “Nordic by Nature” and represent bags of Scandinavian music talent through tasteful promotion and events. She shared a bit of insight about Swedish nostalgia and why moving to Berlin was the scariest, but most soul-satisfying decision she’s made…

„ Just work really hard and stay true to your taste and your concept.“

349 KALTBLUT: Hey Nina, thanks for having a chat with us for our X-Insider! So tell us a bit about your story, why did you come to Berlin? Nina: Well I’m from Göteborg, the second largest city in Sweden, and I have a background there dj-ing, running club nights etc.. but I studied in Human Resources, so when I was in my 20’s I don’t think I really realised that it’s so easy to get a job in the music industry! So I moved to Stockholm and I started working in normal companies but I soon realised that’s not what I wanted to do. It’s funny, because when I quit my job there another guy quit to become a professional poet that day.. I suppose there was always a small clique of people who were not fitting in there and were really somehow unhappy or unsatisfied.. it’s not that big companies are bad to work for, I sometimes end up defending that experience because people think big corporations are evil, but any experience in life is valuable for later on. During that time I had been coming to Berlin, visiting a friend of mine who was living here.. Berlin for me was this kind of haven that I could go to and get away from everything I didn’t like about my life in Sweden and then I just decided to move, leave everything and try something else. It was really scary, but I had some money and some time to work it out, and then I met Steffi and we started doing club nights, events etc, all with the Scandinavian theme. KALTBLUT: I think it’s normal for these kinds of office jobs to drive people into creativity eventually..! How do you think your experience of setting up a business here has been different from if you’d done the same thing in your hometown? Nina: We weren’t so business minded in the beginning but then we realised we had found a niche in Berlin. I guess the cultures are completely different and since the Scandinavian music scene is so small there’s some politics to consider, like always very friendly, but you have certain allies in a way, and you’re working with labels who are usually putting out good stuff. Here in Berlin it’s more about this idea of helping each other out a lot more.. but in Sweden people are really competitive, even in the creative industries, even amongst your closest friends it’s not normal to share contacts, if someone has a valuable contact it’s somehow special and they want to keep it for themselves, but if it was Berlin and somebody knew someone who could be good for you to meet for some reason, work, or hobbies or whatever, you would be straight away like, “Oh you have to meet my friend…” so it’s very different in that way. KALTBLUT: Do you think that makes it harder to get things moving in Berlin, than it would back home, because that competitive spirit is missing? Nina: Personally I think that by helping each other out you get further. I mean we’ve gained so much from other people sharing their knowledge with us and as I see it I’m not competing with the other agencies or the other creative PR companies around Berlin. If I was back in Sweden I couldn’t ever admit if I had an unsuccessful event or if things aren’t going so well but with Germans they’re just so honest, they just say it how it is and that’s brave!

On the other hand I guess that also means that Germans won’t be nice to you if they don’t like you and I think the Swedish way is complete opposite, it’s not about conflict so much but we don’t like awkwardness or it’s hard for us to be rude, you would always have to have an excuse to leave or something, I think that’s very Scandinavian. KALTBLUT: Why do you think Scandinavian concepts like your own do so well in Germany at the moment? Nina: I guess we try to have this Scandinavian attitude so I don’t think people mind if it’s a bit strange to them, they like it, for example the way we write a press release, or an event text, the way you write it might normally be different between Hamburg and Berlin, but we have this Scandinavian touch we always use so that’s really our style, and the way we do the night we want people to feel like that could also be the way it feels to be at a club in Stockholm.. we do a lot of stuff that a music export agency would normally do but it’s not so formal, we really do it out of love, not just love, but really a kind of taste.

We want good music to come to here and people have caught onto that. KALTBLUT: What about the difference between the scene over here and back in Sweden? Nina: I think that Germany is definitely more divided, and all the major cities have their own different scene. Also the German media climate can be frustrating. I mean on a national scale, and I don’t want to be negative here, but I feel like the whole German scene is a bit behind in a way, also with the idea of being selective or exclusive, that we think is important, but I find that if I contact someone that I have a good relationship with they never say no to me.. maybe that’s just because they like what we’re doing! But I want there to be better blogs in Germany, more influential, more powerful and I think that the ambitious new ones who start writing really good stuff are great, but if they write about all the stuff we give them, and they also write about lots of other stuff that other people give them, then you kind of lose the edge a little bit, like the thing about ‘Pitchfork’ or something more exclusive, it’s so hard to get in, because it’s so hard to get in there everybody

knows it really means something if you get in there. In a way you need a PR agency in Germany because this hype thing doesn’t happen, if we send out a press release, nobody writes about it, nobody just picks it up, I mean things can get spread so quickly outside of Germany, using blogs or social networking, but that doesn’t seem to happen here, but then if I call people up or write them and ask them to write about something they’re like “Yeah, sure”! They’re actually just sitting back and waiting for people like me to call them.. but where’s their ambition to find it, and be the first ones? That kind of ambition is what drives the Swedish scene at least. KALTBLUT: So do you think that means the quality is somehow reduced over here than there in that case? Nina: Maybe it might be true just for the Berlin scene, but music wise at least it’s like you can always get a gig, even if you’re not very good you can get a gig.. and you can play somewhere. But in Sweden there’s a lot of competition and judgement, there’s some circles you want to get into or something, like when I talk with Swedish artists they are really self critical and they’re thinking “am I really making something new here, am I really adding something to music history..” and why would you do it if you don’t feel like you’re adding something? but in Berlin people don’t seem to think that at all. I’ve known Swedish bands who even announced that they wouldn’t release the album that they made because they didn’t think it was good enough, it was so hyped up and there was so much expectation that they couldn’t bring themselves to release tracks that they didn’t think were good enough. It’s kind of cowardly but it’s also a really interesting cultural observation about such high ambition to the point where it could stop the whole process. They’d written the songs and everything, it’s not like they had writers block, but I think that is so super Scandinavian to do that…

KALTBLUT: The big question is…. What do you miss most about Sweden!? Nina: Before the interview I was thinking about it, what’s unique about Scandinavia? Or what do I miss most about it. I really miss the cleanliness, even like housing and stuff, I was at a friend‘s flat recently and everything was so perfect, the walls.. the toilet.. Here I’m living in an Alt-Bau and of course that was my dream when I was moving to Berlin and when I was looking for a flat I really wanted that and now I’m so sick in a way, everything’s so, well it looks pretty but there’s always some kind of dust in the corner, you don’t know where it comes from.. KALTBLUT: Maybe if you could bring that kind of cleanliness down to Berlin you’d have your perfect life then? Nina: Haha, yeah maybe, but in a way it’s good for me to start questioning those things a bit, I think I have quite a nostalgic view of Sweden and it being so perfect. Actually I think there’s this pressure to actually be perfect in Sweden and I feel like being in Berlin is kind of a relief from that. KALTBLUT: Do you feel that you dress differently here than you would back home? Nina: Sure, I’m walking around in clothes here that I would never wear in Sweden. It’s much more casual, and I think that’s mostly good, I don’t know if it has something to do with size or something, because Sweden is still small and it’s hard to be really anonymous in a way, but I do feel like people know who other people are and you’re much more judged all the time.. KALTBLUT: We love your concept at ‘Nordic by Nature’ and you’ve represented some pretty high profile artists (before they were famous!) and things are going from strength to strength..! Do you have any words of advice for other ambitious Scandinavians thinking of moving here on a whim? Nina: Yeah, I mean I’m proud to look back, that’s also kind of our goal, to be the first ones to bring in a band and then they make it in Germany. It was really difficult in the beginning, it’s like a lesson you have to learn yourself because people think it’s easy but putting on events can be really hard, and I guess that can be whatever you start doing here. We have changed a lot in the way we do things since we started, you have to be careful with how much money you spend because you’re going to lose money here. Just work really hard and stay true to your taste and your concept. KALTBLUT: Why do you think so many Scandinavian artists are migrating to Berlin right now? Nina: One idea is that Sweden has been a bit behind traditionally, for example in the kind of pop music revolution, like what happened in other places where it was like years before, and that was a very interesting music scene then, Sweden was more conservative, more song writing, and then this real new indie pop wave came to Sweden much later. So in a way that’s happening now that we’re creating our identity and building up our own scene, so I think that’s why it’s so exciting and so interesting right now, maybe in 20 years it’ll be different. The thing with Scandinavia is that you have to go internationally otherwise you can only play 3 gigs and you’re done, so even small indie labels are pushing acts to break out into the European scene. In Germany you can sell a lot more records than in Scandinavian countries. Or maybe it’s just that we like better music in Scandinavia…!

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FOX Photography by Camilla Storgaard www.camillastorgaard.tumblr.com

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#ThingsWeLove

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Selected by Nicolas Simoneau

If we spent as much time doing (productive) things as we did surfing the internet, well... LIFE WOULD BE SO BOOOORIIIIIIING! You know, i have to check my Facebook profile, comment posts on different blogs, re-tweet my friends, and watch my Klout score, keeping it from going down #CRAZY. Surfing day and night, we always find things that NEED to be shared. And yes, we are so #connected here @Kaltblut-magazine that we want to share with you what we find everyday on the world wide web #ThingsWeLove dot com.

Did you notice how, when it‘s time for you to get ready in the morning, you never (ever!) seem to find two socks that match? Or it is just me?

Well, I did notice that somehow I always find myself in a situation where i am like: „Shit! Are you serious?! why can‘t I find two matching socks again today?“. Come on, fess up it HAS to have happened to you too! You go to the doctor and he asks you to take your shoes off, and oh surpriiiiise one black sock and one white one (with a hole the size of Texas, of course). Hmmmm : awk-weeerd, right? Or you go to buy shoes with your boyfriend/girlfriend and when you decide to try them on, hmmmm lookey here! Nice grey sock that matches quite perfectly your Mickey Mouse one.

But this? This was before I found out about „HAPPY SOCKS“.

These Swedisch sock makers have some really nice stuff.

Bye bye depressive socks, HEL-LO colorful, playful, patterned socks!

I mean it is rather unusual to come across a brand that‘s 100% focused on our feet and the way to dress them.

Picky sock wearer, are ya? You know what they say: Swedes do it better (I‘m sure whoever came up with that saying was talking about socks).

You‘ll find the sock that‘s right for you at Happy Socks: stripes, dots, argyles, squares, leopard patterns, whatever you‘re into, they‘ll have what you‘re looking for.

Look at you... you‘ve never looked so sexy wearing nothing but socks.

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www.happysocks.com

SUSANNE BIER

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From Dogma to Hollywood

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still remember watching the 2010 Academy Awards ceremony when the stunning presence of Barbra Streisand showed up on stage to introduce the five nominees for best achievement in directing. It was a special night, although James Cameron was the main favorite, for the first time a woman and an African American director could win an Oscar. But when Barbra opened the envelop something in cinema history changed and her first words were: „Well, the time has come!“ and a very nervous Kathryn Bigelow won the golden trophy. David defeated Goliath.

The Hurt locker defeated Avatar and a woman defeated a man called James „The King of the World“ Cameron.

Only 4 women had been nominated for this Oscar. Lina Wermüller in 1976, Jane Campion in 1993, Sofia Coppola in 2003 and the winner Kathryn Bigelow. It seems directing is still a man‘s world. Hundreds of men but only dozens of women. Jodie Foster, Penny Marshall, Julie Taymor, Agnieszka Holland or Isabel Coixet to name a few more.

And one of these brave fighters is the Danish director Susanne Bier.

At the moment it‘s easy to see many Scandinavian directors working in Hollywood but some years ago it was unthinkable to see people like Lars von Trier (Melancholia) or Thomas Vinterberg (Dear Wendy) directing a very fresh and light comedy with Julia Roberts for example. Things have changed and some names like Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch), Niels Arden Oplev (Dead Man Down), Lone Scherfig (An Education) and of course Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, who can be considered an American director) but in 2012 he was back to his native Sweden to shoot the thriller Hypnotisören with his wife Lena Olin maybe following the recent boom of Scandinavian crime fiction (see our Top 5 in this issue).

Susanne Bier was born in Copenhagen in a jewish family and was an important part of Dogma movement where she became very popular with films like Open Hearts (2002). Bier always tended to show these emotional relationships pushing her characters to the limit with a deep and effective morality and soon she turned into one of the most popular Danish film makers working with the best of Danish cinema like Mads Mikkelsen, Connie Nielsen, Mikael Persbrandt, Ulrich Thomsen or Trine Dyrholm in masterpieces like Brothers (2004), After the wedding (2006) and In a better world (2010).

Bier (who also won an Oscar in 2011 for Best Foreign Language Film with her excellent film In a better world) is a „rara avis“. A director who comes from Dogma and fits perfectly in both sides of the Atlantic or perhaps somewhere in the middle. Susanne Bier is able to develop her cinema between the borders of two continents, between both ways of making cinema, the emotional drama, the „made for TV“ short of narrative and social critic like most of Lars von Trier‘s works (producer of many of her films). In her films we usually find a common line that has become something really characteristic in all of her works: the portrait of emotional links between families and couples.

Of course the American industry didn‘t take long to discover her talent and call her and in 2007 she released Things We Lost in the Fire with Benicio Del Toro and Halle Berry (in probably her best role after Monster‘s Ball) but the reception of the film wasn‘t as good as the producers expected perhaps because the audience thought it was a regular romantic drama with the two popular stars. In my opinion Things We Lost in the Fire is one of her finest films, a chronicle of a very painful redemption, an elegy of survival when the external and internal fire, fate or soul‘s demons have devastated every existing thing around us. I still remember the first time I watched this film, I remember the way it touched and moved me. I have to admit I‘m quite a cryer but this time my tears were extremely dry.

I imagine there are no formulas or rules in fiction to make the audience cry. Everyone cries when or how he/ she feels like it, even when the melodrama is heading that purpose. Susanne Bier is one of those directors who takes you to that place where your eyes start to get wet maybe because our own life gets related in a certain way to the fate of some of the characters on the screen in front of us. And that feeling is simply priceless.

In her last film Love is all you need, staring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm, Bier has gone back to comedy after many years. But not the typical romantic comedy made in USA. Susanne Bier has the ability of making comedy from the drama of a woman healing from cancer while she discovers her husband‘s infidelity. Again, love, family and human conditions as the main engine of her films. The film never loses its humor and although this last film seems to be lighter than the rest, it keeps that exquisite taste of the Danish director while taking the human side of drama and never forgetting Bier‘s films identity: a wedding (After the wedding), dysfunctional families (Brothers, Things We Lost in the Fire) or cancer (In a Better World) but also pain, vulnerability and seeking happiness.

She has completed her second American film called Serena about a couple in North Carolina during the Depression-era staring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. The film will be released later this year. Let‘s see how it will turn out.

Of course no one is perfect and it is said that working with her is hard as she turns out to be very authoritarian. But like her i do believe good directors have to be a bit dictatorial. If an actor wants to risk and be able to get to hidden places that actor must know there‘s a director covering his back who knows what he‘s doing. And Susanne Bier seems to know very well what she has in her hands.

Some of her critics say her films are just a bunch of high standing „soap operas“ but in my opinion, if Susanne Bier didn‘t exist we should have to invent her.

Text by Claudio Alvargonzález Tera

360 Earring: Made by Stylist Top: Goldknopf Couture Clutch: Friendly Fur Trousers: Stylists own Shoes: Miroike

Allerleirauh

Photographer: Pia Schweisser Photo assistance: Anja Kerth Hair&Makeup: Kerstin Hajdu Styling: Irmela Schwengler Model: Tonia Farber @ Tune Model MGMT

361 Mask: Stylists own Earring: Made by Stylist Jacket: Prose Studio Dress: Unrath&Strano

362 Fur: Strenesse Clutch: Friendly Fur Dress: Goldknopf Couture

363 Wedding Dress: Unrath&Strano, Shoes: Vintage

364 Accessoire: Prose Studio Fur Vest: Strenesse Trousers: Stylists own Boots: Miroike Â

365 Fur: Strenesse

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www.nicosutor.com

www.kaltblut-magazine.com

www.alisazillmann.tumblr.com

VAGABOND

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Photography by Phoebe Cheong (www.phoebecheong.com) Photography assistants by Matthew Aland,Charlotte Ellis, Jonathan Fleetwood & Alejandro Torija Hair & Makeup by Clare Greathead Styling by Victoria Child Styling assistant by Emma West Modelling by Kristie @ Leni‘s Model Management Set Design by Larissa Gauger (www.larissagauger.co.uk)

Vintage, man’s blazer: Stylist’s own Hand knitted man’s overalls by Stephen Garvey Vintage bowler hat: Stylist’s own Leather Ankle Boots with fringe detail by ASOS

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Wallpaper print midi dress by ASOS Leather Ankle Boots with fringe detail by ASOS Black socks. Stylist’s own Coat by Zara Vintage, women‘s coat. Stylist‘s own Vintage Faux Fur Hat

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Tweed Boiler Jumpsuit by ASOS 3D Check Oversized navy Scarf by ASOS Platform Ankle Boots by ASOS

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Fur collarless coat by Zara

Gortex man’s coat by Michael James Vintage white skirt. Stylist’s own Ear muffs by ASOS Suede Knee High Boots by ASOS

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Gortex man’s coat by Michael James Fingerless gloves, Vintage Dress. Stylist’s own Vintage leather trousers by Cow vintage Leather shoes with cut-out detail by ASOS Khaki Felt Cap by ASOS

Faux leather dungarees by ASOS Sheer white shirt by H&M Oversized Scarf with pom pom’s by ASOS Leather shoes with cut‐out detail by ASOS

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Handmade plastic dress Devore dress by Georgina

Mullholland

377

378 TROLLTOURS

by Stini Mimissonsdottir

The 70 pages long book TROLLTOURS displays visionary and vibrating images in a playful way. Produced by Berlin based photographer Stini Mimissonsdottir, 4 fictional characters meet for a holiday trip to the unknown, underlined by commercial quotes from nail polish or tampon ads right out of the American lifestyle magazine „PEOPLE“, which is their constant companion on this trip. Put into new settings those quotes turn from Kitsch to Pop. The photos show a subjective but very fictional journey through Iceland‘s fascinating nature and bond with the old Icelandic stories and traditions which were collected in the so called Sagas. The book displays its own unforgettable insight into a hidden world of Iceland‘s spirits. It is like a diary full of memories and magical moments in a riot of colour and kitsch which turns this book into a modern Saga itself.

Performers: Jonathan Löwengart, Sabrina Köhler, Uta Sanchez Artist Book 70 Pages limited, hand signed issue - 50 Copies Englisch 2013

www.mimissonsdottir.tumblr.com

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SAAMI, 380

the reindeerpeople

When you think Scandinavia you might think of snow and reindeer sometimes, but admit it, you don‘t think of Sami people. If you even know what the Sami are.

Saami are the indigenous people of The North. Our northern European natives so to speak. Sadly a minority today, they used to inhabit large parts of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia before Germanic tribes pushed them even further north.

The Sami being referred to as Fenni or Phinnoi are mentioned for the first time in 98 AD in Greek and Roman sources. However, it is pretty certain that the Sami date back to 5,000 BC when other evidence found in their areas suggests they existed as early as 10,000 BC. Now a little more history, because you just love it.

Sami, and definitely not Lapps -as lapp means piece of cloth and is a silly and derogatory term, kept moving around in the north but also the south of what is today known as Scandinavia depending on the movement of glaciers in the area.

By Amanda M. Jansson and Emma E. K . Jones

By Photoglob AG ZĂźrich [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

381 Gatherers and hunters for thousands of years, they lived off wild reindeer and fish, two food sources that would keep them going for a long time. Yet, in the middle ages as the “other Scandinavians” kept expanding and the wild reindeer population began to shrink most Sami began keeping reindeer herds, especially those who didn‘t live near the coasts. As the bubonic plague crawled up north and many Norwegians died on it, the Sami always keeping to themselves didn‘t get affected really but continued to thrive both in coastal areas as well as in the mountains and inland.

However, before long, the first church was built in “Lapland”, and it is easy to imagine what followed.

The so-called civilization process was forced upon the Sami. The mine in Nasafjäll, Sweden was opened and the Sami were employed to work and were cruelly punished if they refused to. Many Sami tried to flee the land and abandon the areas they had inhabited for thousands of years, but the government sent troops to prevent them from leaving.

So the colonization of the Sami areas began with settlers who moved into their land. The new ways of life contrasted with the traditional ones and of course the extensive hunting brought many species to the brink of extinction and the Sami had to face starvation.

Towards the end of the 17th century things got worse. The Christian religion that had become the official religion of all Scandinavian countries hit the North. Sami drums were burnt, people who practiced the old religion were persecuted and holy sites and idols were destroyed. Soon the burning of people at the stake followed

on any occasion that could be related to “witchcraft”. After the turn of the century the Sami were gathered and deported to the “Lappish administrative region”, which meant they would have to continue reindeer herding in restricted areas upper north. A hundred years later, Sami people were stripped of all property rights and the land they were allowed to use for their animals kept shrinking.

The 20th century didn‘t make things any better for these indigenous people. In 1905 the nomadic mountain Sami had to decide which country they wanted to belong to and then moving wouldn‘t be possible for them anymore. Next, a bill was passed to grab all useful lands and give them to the white settlers. After the first world war racism was institutionalized in Sweden and race segregation became the norm while the Sami language was forbidden in public and a racebiological institute was created in Uppsala. The Sami tried to organize and protect their rights but even as recently as in the 70s they were not allowed to have a house bigger than modest, while many forest Sami populations got extinct.

When the UN declaration of human rights was introduced in 1948, Sami people started hoping but they still continued losing land, their land was being polluted by new power plants and even the Chernobyl disaster ruined them, compensations promised were never given to them. The lakes and areas reserved for the Sami are given away to non-Sami who exploit the areas thoughtlessly and basically all Sami rights are being violated. Split into many different organizations the Sami are still fighting for their rights and trying to make their voices heard.

Today, if you go to Finland you can actually visit real Sami habitats, even though non-Sami dressed in inaccurate traditional costumes are often employed for tourist entertainment, as well as Sami-ish ceremonies and giftshop artifacts. The religion and art of the Sami people should not be overlooked.

It is much more than cheap methods to attract naïve tourists. The roots of all Scandinavian and Norse mythology is to be found in the Sami pantheist religion and many sacred sites have luckily managed to survive, while all bright and colourful geometry that is typical in Scandinavian art can be traced back to traditional Sami art and culture.

Beyour

friend.

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friend‘s

true Return gift gift. for

Repay laughter with laughter again but 383

betrayal with

treachery.

- The Havamal / Book Of Viking Widsom -

384

the outtakes

Photography - Ram Shergill Styling - Aiden Connor Make up - Ahmed Chami

Jacket - Rick Owens

Hair - Aaron Charlo Model - Bianca, Simon @Nevs David @Nevs

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Dress - Vintage Oscar de la Renta

Lace top - Christian Lacriox from House of Liza Gloves - Vintage @ Relik Trousers - Versace menswear @Relik Shoes - Bernard Chandran

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Printed bodysuit - Ziad Ghanem

Jacket  - Ziad Ghanem Couture Bag - Marjan Pejoski

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Top - Adidas Pants - Ziad Ghanem Coat - Lanvin @House of Liza

Bodysuit - Rokit Head Piece - Ziad Ghanem Couture

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KALTBLUT is calling all artists!

Theme is: The Male Issue!

The 5th issue will be focusing on Boys, Boys and Men. What makes a man to a man?

Do we live in a men‘s world?

Why are guys so sexy?

What are your visions when you think about boys?

Do you want to share your vision with the rest of the world?

Be it fashion, articles, photography, art, if this theme speaks to you, if you play with this theme, contact us!

Artists from all over the world are more than welcome to work with us.

393

BE PART OF COLLECTION 5! collection5@kaltblut-magazine.com

Photo by Marcel Schlutt, Model: Mo

ART 394

We have selected 6 events we would kill to go to. We can’t afford travelling the globe but there’s surely something near you that you will get excited about.

Thoughtfully selected by Amanda M. Jansson & Emma E.K.

Scandinavian art kicks ass and so does Helsinki and all the events we came across. This breathtaking exhibition presents a special selection of art in 5 exhibition rooms. Symbolism in Finnish art from the 1890s to the late 1910s is all about religion and mysticism, the world of ideas and death. Visual symbols and metaphors emphasizing on the Platonic concept of a world of ideas which the visible reality remotely reflects. Timeless and fundamental truths, emotions and states of mind come to life in the work of Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Magnus Enckell, Hugo Simberg, Väinö Blomstedt, Pekka Halonen, Ellen Thesleff and Ville Vallgren. This could even make you fly to Helsinki.

Atheneum Art Museum In the Spirit of Symbolism till 28 April 2013 www.ateneum.fi Kaivokatu 2, FI-00100 Helsinki, Finland

This one is all about illusions. Trompe l‘oeil translates into tricking the eye or something. So you get the picture. An amazing collection of not frequently shown work will be at your disposal Trompe-l‘oeil art originated in painting, in which the illusion created by a painted object relies heavily on perspective and chiaroscuro. The objects displayed are of various different forms, from the most modest ones to the most sumptuous and they all imitate some other material. Wallpapers that looks like wood or velvet or framed pictures. Ceramics imitating porphyry or gold, this game of patterns and illusions knows no limits, especially not in the 18th and 19th century when it was spreading to fashion and the theatre. This one should be an unforgettable experience.

Paris: Les Arts Décoratifs Trompe-l’œil. Imitations, pastiches et autres illusions till November 2013 www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr Les Arts Décoratifs , 107, rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris Rene Magritte - Ceci N´est Pas Une Pomme.

T

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Tate Modern Lichtenstein: A retrospective till 27 May 2013 Bankside, London SE1 9TG www.tate.org.uk Photo: Roy Lichtenstein, Oh, Jeff…I Love You, Too…But… 1964 Private Collection © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/ DACS 2012 Tate Modern is known for its amazing exhibitions and is now proud to present a retrospective of one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century.

This is the first full-scale retrospective of this important artist in over twenty years, with 125 of his most definitive iconic paintings and sculptures. For those not familiar, Lichtenstein‘s work is based on comic strips and advertising imagery coloured with his signature dots. Visitors will be lucky enough to appreciate paintings like Drowing Girl or Whaam! as well as works on Rowlux and steel and some previously unseen collages and masterpieces of paper.

21_21 Design Design Ah! 9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo till: 02 June 2013 www.design-ah.net

What can be said about Japanese design.

We all know it is fantastic and more than inspired, minimalistic, genius, out of this world. In a uniquely built art space directed by three Japanese masters of design you get the chance of enjoying some young design wonders‘ latest works. With all the data overload this show wants to determine the adequacy of the things around us. Overseen by some experts in all sorts of design fields and with lots of hands-on experiences, workshops, and audio visual extras this should be really fun.

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This Hamburger Bahnhof‘s „secret universe“ exhibition is about an artist not as well known as he would deserve to be. Born in Kentucky in 1962, George Widener developed an early interest in numbers, numerology, history, calculations, artificial intelligence. So his work is actually complex number pictures. With images based on secret algorithms, dates are no longer patterns but become a system for perceiving the world. An unusually talented man predicting the melting of consciousness into software? This is definitely not something to miss.

Nationalgalerie Hamburger Bahnhof Secret Universe IV. George Widener till: 16 June 2013 Invalidenstr. 50, 10557 Berlin www.hamburgerbahnhof.de Photo: Sunday´s Crash, undatiert paper, 91,3 x 132,1 cm Collection abcd, Paris © George Widener

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Plain or fancy? Restraint and Exuberance in the Decorative Arts Till: 18 August 2013 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10028-0198 www.metmuseum.org

Choosing New York events has never been easy, since this city is always buzzing with the most amazing exhibitions. Basically, we would kill to go to at least 10 of them. However, this one here is a really interesting and thought provoking one you shouldn‘t miss. The exhibition contrasts austere works of art with much more ornate ones, encouraging viewers to examine their own esthetics and responses and to view them in the context they were created considering time, trends, and styles. Drawn from the Museum‘s vast collection of European sculptures and decorative arts, this exhibitions includes items from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century.

397

DER GETEILTE HIMMEL DIVIDED HEAVEN

Neue Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Kulturforum Potsdamer Straße 50 10785 Berlin www.smb.museum

Marc Chagall, Moi et le village (Detail), 1911, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Chagall ®/© 2013, Pro Litteris, Zürich

The Collection.

1945 – 1968.

Neue Nationalgalerie

130124_NNG_Der geteilte Himmel_240x168,5.indd 1

24.01.13 15:38

!

Auch montags geöffnet

CRAY

398 You like it, you get it. Just pick the item you would like to have, write a nice-crazy-funny letter (ho yes we‘re a bit old-school, we love snail post!) with your name, your address, and the thing you want.

Zay

JUST ONE ARTICLE PER PERSON.

And we will pick the winner. Good Luck.

Your Kaltblut Team. Write to : Kaltblut Magazine, Grünbergerstrasse 3, 10243, Berlin,Germany.

Marybell Katastrophy

2x CDs:„Amygdala“ www.marybell.dk

Smnovella

1x Acqua di Rose 1x Crema al Polline www.smnovella.com

Frida Hyvönen

2x CDs:„To the Soul“ www.fridahyvonen.com

Davidoff

3x Perfume Davidoff „The Game“

kswiss

3 x K-Swiss Brogue-Sneaker (42-46)

www.davidoff.com

Nitendo 3DS

www.kswiss.com

1x Game: Mario Kart 7 www.nintendo.com

399 Nordic by Nature

2x Print T-Shirts www.nbnberlin.de

The Impossible Project

1x Refurbished 80S Style Polaroid 600 Camera Kit

www.the-impossible-project.com

Roskilde-festval.dk

2x Tickets to Roskilde Festival 2013 www.roskilde-festival.dk

Buff wear

3x BUFF Scarf www.buffwear.com

Tony&GUY

Calvin Klein

3x Perfume: CK One

www.calvinkleinfragrances.de

1x Tony&GUY Men´s Collection 1x Styling Glue + 1x 2in1 Anti-Dandruff Shampoo & Conditioner, 1x Deep Clean Shampoo, 1x Styling Pompade, 1x Styling Putty, 1x Styling Fibre, www.toniandguy.de

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KALTBLUT Magazine Grünbergerstrasse 3 10243 Berlin Germany www.kaltblut-magazine.com www.facebook.com/kaltblut.magazine www.twitter.com/KALTBLUTMAG www.kaltblut-magazine.tumblr.com KALTBLUT Magazine is published by KALTBLUT Media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) CEO: Nicolas Simoneau, Grünbergerstr. 3, 10243 Berlin, Germany

Info

Press

Adverstising

Events

info@kaltblut-magazine.com

press@kaltblut-magazine.com

advertising@kaltblut-magazine.com

events@kaltblut-magazine.com

Steuernummer: 37/216/21621 Amtsgericht Berlin – Charlottenburg HRB 144993

www.wetransfer.com

Our second print issue : The North.

It is such a relief to realize that this project, our project, KALTBLUT is going to be able to live on. The most difficult thing about throwing yourself heart and soul into a project is not so much creating something as it is keeping it going, and being able and willing to put more energy into it in order to bring it to the next level.

The excitement is still palpable even after we’ve gotten all the submissions, and every day it is sheer pleasure to read more and more positive feedback about the Magazine.

KALTBLUT was created to give a chance to all the creative people out there. A chance to see their work published by providing a platform where they can showcase their art and express themselves freely.

We take great satisfaction in opening our mailbox every day to that we have hundreds of emails from people from all over the world sending us their work: it is working, it was a good thing to do, and we are proud to be this connection between the artists and our readers.

Releasing these 404 pages is our way of saying thank you. Thank you for believing in us, and thank you for being a part of it too because let’s be honest, without you all, KALTBLUT wouldn’t be here.

This issue is chock-full of creativity and beauty coming your way straight from the North. It is such a privilege for us to be able to introduce you to wonderful artists like Jacky Hijsteck, Morten Anderson, Marzena Skubatz and many others, like Suzana Holtgrave, who have been supporting us from the very beginning.

Dealing with a project like this is not an easy thing. Of course we’re bound to make a couple of mistakes along the way, but we are learning every day, and we are enjoying every second of it.

We are not perfect, but we try to do things a little bit better every time, and when we get emails saying that KALTBLUT MAGAZINE is a great thing, it truly is one of the best presents that we could possibly receive.

We believe in what we do and we hope that you do too.

Nicolas

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www.acnestudios.com ADIDAS SVLR

www.calvinklein.com CAMILA KLEIN

ELENA ROMANOVA

www.slvr.com

AGENT PROVOCATEUR

www.agentprovocateur.com AGATHA

www.agatha.com.br ALL SAINTS

www.allsaints.com AMERICAN APPAREL

www.americanapparel.net AMERICAN RETRO

www.americanretro.fr AN!MAL

www.anmal.de ANDREA POMPILIO

www.andreapompilio.it ANNA DELLO RUSSO

www.annadellorusso.com ANNA LATY

www.annalaty.tumblr.com ANNA GREGORY

www.annagregorydesign.co.uk ANTIX

www.amoantix.com ARTMASTER

ASOS www.asos.de AUGUSTIN TEBOUL

www.augustin-teboul.com AYNUR PEKATS

B

CALVIN KLEIN

EKATERINA GERASIMOVA

HEUBEL

CHANTAL THOMASS

ELLY CHENG

HILDUR YOEMAN

CHEAP MONDAY

ERFURT

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HERMES

CHLOE

ETIENNE JEANSON

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HUGO BOSS

CHOLET

EYGLO

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CHINES LAUNDRY

EVA BRA BARKARDÓTTIR

CLAUDINE IVARI

www.epanoui-fashion.at

www.chantalthomass.fr

www.cholet.com.br www.chineselaundry.com www.claudineivari.com

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EVA POLESCHINSKI

www.cleob.com CONVERSE

www.converse.com CREATURES OF THE WIND

www.creaturesofthewind.com

D

FENN WRIGHT

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DANDY OF THE GROTESQUE

FRÄULEIN KINK

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www.frauleinkink.com

DANIELA BARROS

FIONA BENNETT

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G

BJØRG

DAVID TOMASZEWSKI

www.gavilane.com

www.bjorgjewellery.com

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Björg Skarphéðinsdóttir

DESIRE

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DOMINICK KNECHT

www.georginasjorneyintofashion.blogspot.de

www.burberry.com

IRIS VAN HERPEN

www.irisvanherpen.com ISABELL DE HILLERIN

J

JAMES HOCK

www.jameshock.co.uk JAYNE PIERSON

www.jaynepierson.co.uk JEAN PAUL GAULTIER

DANIELE MABE

www.jeanpaulgaultier.com JOSEP FONT

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GAVILANE

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GEMMA FANNING

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GEORGINA MULHOLLAND

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GLAW

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DOS SANTOS

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DSTM

www.guess.com

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BURBERRY

IN ODD WE TRUST

FALKE

DARLING

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I

www.isabelldehillerin.com

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FADE TO W

FRANKIE MORELLO

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www.hermes.com

F

www.damaris.co.uk

www.danielemabe.com.br

www.hilduryeoman.com

INDYANNA

DAMARIS

www.danieladebarros.blogspot.de

www.heubel-collection.de

www.iowtca.tumblr.com

CLEO B

BILLIONARE BOYS CLUB

BUTTERFLY SOULFIRE

www.hm.com

ELISABETTA FRANCHI

www.juisi.blogspot.com

www.barbaraboner.co.uk

www.blush-berlin.com

H&M

CASA JUISI

www.danielleromeril.com

BLUSH

www.hasselblad.co.uk

ELEVEN

DANIELLE ROMERIL

www.blaenk.net.com

HASSELBLAD

www.camilaklein.com.br

BARBARA BONER

BLAENK

H

GUESS

GUIDO MARIA KRETSCHMER

www.guidomariakretschmer.de

JIMMY CHOO JITROIS

JULIA ANDBEN

JW ANDERSON

www.j-w-anderson.co.uk

K

KAVIAR GAUCHE

www.kaviargauche.com KILIAN KERNER

www.kiliankerner.de KONSTANTINOS MELIS BY LASKOS

www.konstantinosmelis.com

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www.laperla.com

www.patbo.com.br

www.cargocollective.com/tanjalevy

www.zara.com

LA PERLA

LASCIVIOUS

www.lascivious.co.uk LAURITZ

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www.levi.com LIA SOUZA

www.liasouza.com.br LINA SALEEM

www.linasaleem.com

M

MALAIKA RAISS

PAT BO

www.maisonmartinmargiela.com MAJE

www.maje.com MARC STONE

www.marc-stone.ch MARIA BLACK

www.maria-black.com MICHAEL JAMES

TIGRESSE

ZILLMAN

PETER HAHN

TRACY REESE

ZISKA

PETER PILOTTO

TRES BONJOUR

ZOFIE ANGELIC

PP FROM LONGWY

TRIUMPH

ZUMTOBEL

RITA IN PALMA

TOPSHOP

PROSE

TOPMAN

1

www.perlensau.com www.peterhahn.de www.peterpilotto.com www.ppfromlongwy.com www.ritainpalma.com www.prose-studio.com www.princessetamtam.com POSH

R

RAF SIMONS

www.rafsimons.com REALITY STUDIO

www.realitystudio.de RENO

MICHAEL SONTAG MINIOT

www.retaw-tokyo.com

www.miniot.com

REX

MOGA E MAGO

RICHARD NICOLL

MONKI

ROECKL

www.mogaemago.com www.monki.com MUUBAA

www.muubaa.com

RETAW

www.richardnicoll.com www.roeckl.com RYBALKO

N

S

www.naked-steel.de

www.saad.ind.br

NAKED STEEL

SAAD

NATIVE UNION

SABRINA DEHOFF

NICO SUTOR

SASA OBRADOVIC

www.nativeunion.com www.nicosutor.tumblr.com NICHOLAS K

www.nicholask.com NICOLE MILLER

www.nicolemiller.com

O

OAKWOOD

www.oakwood.fr

www.tigresse.com.br www.tracyreese.com www.tresbonjour.de www.de.triumph.com www.topshop.com www.topman.com

PRINCESSE TAM TAM

www.reno.de

www.michaelsontagcom.

ZARA

PERLENSÄUE

www.malaikaraiss.com MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA

TANYA LEVY

U

UNRATH & STRANO

www.unrath-strano.com

V

VALENTINO

www.valentino.com VLADIMIR KARALEVV

www.vladimirkaraleev.com

W

WAREDROBE

www.wardrobeclothing.com WEEKDAY

www.weekday.com WOLFORD

www.wolford.com WON HUNDRED

www.wonhundred.com

Y

SAVA NALD

www.y-3.com

www.sammler-berlin.com www.savanald.de SHIREEKA DELVIN SHOKAY

www.shokay.de SISLEY

www.sisley.com STEPHANIE GHOUSSAIN STEPHEN GARVEY SWAROVSKI

www.swarovski.com

www.ziskas www.zofieangelic.com www.zumtobel.com

3.1 PHILLIP LIM

SAMMLER BERLIN

www.sabrinadehoff.com

www.alisazillmann.tumblr.com

Y3

YANA CHERVINSKA

www.31philliplim.com

JE T Z T E N! BE WE RB

404

Deine Idee für Berlin be Berlin sucht neue Berlin-Souvenirs. Bewirb Dich bis zum 29.4. mit Deinem Design und zeig der Öffentlichkeit, wie ungewöhnliche Hauptstadt-Souvenirs aussehen können. Eine renommierte Jury prämiert die besten und marktfähigsten Ideen mit bis zu 5.000 Euro. Die nominierten Entwürfe bekommen außerdem eine Ausstellung und stehen mit etwas Glück schon bald als Berlin4U-Kollektion in den Läden der Stadt. Alle Infos auf www.sei.berlin.de/du

Schirmherr: Med Medienpartner: d i enpartner:

Jury:

Gremium:

GmbH