DJÆRV 

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Musician, composer, educator and facilitator

Music brings us in touch with our feelings and closer together as human beings. It is, for me, the most meaningful activity, I can occupy myself with – and what I have been pursuing for more than 40 years.

In addition to composing and playing music, I am concerned with how to use music in a wider perspective in a more mindful way. And how creativity and creation processes spring from the present moment and best are facilitated.

I have published 12 albums with my  compositions, two of which were DMA jazz-nominated in 2013 0g 2014. Music has taken me to more than 20 countries, and I have composed for ensembles, TV series, documentaries, and commercials, and since 2011 I have been the musical director for the legendary Danish singer-songwriter and film director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen.

As a longtime teacher at the Danish music conservatories and with two academic degrees under my belt I have extensive knowledge and interest in learning, pedagogy, didactics and communication.

Additionally, I have in the last few years begun to write academic articles on creativity and learning for international journals, making presentations that mirror musically creative skills into broader contexts, and, not the least, have started writing a book of interviews with highly accomplished artists in various fields about the space of creativity.

Biography
”You can feel it in your stomach when Helhorse relinquishes the reins and rides across the steppes. With a mixture of rock’n’roll, metal, sludge and punk, the Danes have set a high standard for creating a darkened rock party as if it were the last station before the zombie apocalypse.” Roskilde Festival 2014 


With the 2013 release of the album ‘Oh Death’ Helhorse descend into a cultural chaos of Nordic poetry, American death requiems with an uplifting gaze at death.
The Title ‘Oh Death’ is taken from a so called “dirge” – a burial hymn, specially used in Afro-American spirituals of the 18th century, said to have its origin in the southern parts of the Appalachian Mountains.
The songs revolve around very personal themes like, the death of a love relationship, the liberation from expectations of others and yourself, escape through massive amounts of alcohol and more philosophical contemplations on how we as a race are drawn towards our own self destruction.
This is in many ways a journey through a specter of emotions – from fuck you rock & roll attitude to more introspective songs.

”Oh Death” kicked off the rise of Helhorse. Besides gaining massive amounts of great reviews in magazines like Metal Hammer DE & UK, Twilight, All Schools and Rockfreaks, the band has also been gaining an ever growing following live. The climax so far was a fantastic festival summer, were the band played, Øresunds Festival, Copenhell and Roskilde Festival. 

And it is live were Helhorse shine. The band has several times been named as one of Denmark’s best live acts and after playing close to 200 shows the last 3 years, Helhorse has become a fierce machine that takes no prisoners live. Ever hungry the band is gearing up to take Helhorse to a whole new level in the coming years, with the release of their third album (expected in 2015) and sharpening their collective knives to perfect the creature that is Helhorse.

Afenginn, aka composer Kim Rafael Nyberg, is one of the leading voices of Scandinavian neo-folk, known for his ambitious orchestrated works. Some would say what defines this artist are his seemingly mercurial creative impulses, as each of the 6 full-length albums have been clear departures from the last. However on closer inspection one finds Nyberg has been steadily and meticulously developing a musical language that is based on the same fundamental investigation - how to combine nearly familiar motifs with asymmetric rhythmic and harmonic developments so as to guide the listener into a dusky borderland rife with epistemological shape shifting. Common in his compositions is the use of minimalistic patterning (akin to the techniques of Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt), which fluctuate between creating a tidal propulsion and a sense of austere fragility. This is consistently contrasted against epic post-rock swells that are both sensual and disbanding. For the greater part of Nyberg’s career his albums, and the concerts that have accompanied these releases, have been through-composed. For the same reasons that Radiohead is sometimes labeled as prog, Afenginn can also be put into this camp for the way the emotional arc is designed to build across a whole performance. Themes and grooves expand across songs and the instruments are orchestrated to continuously shift roles, all which effectively pulls the audience into the band’s otherworld. Though it’s clear Nyberg’s artistic temperament is decisively independent and uncompromising, what sets his music apart from many fellow iconoclasts is a tendency for his writing to be imbued with warmth and compassion. One leaves an Afenginn concert feeling that they have feasted at the table of a most gracious host, filled by courses rich with untamable longings. 

Latest Release:
The latest Afenginn work, Opus is a chamber pop symphony in four movements, each with its own distinct color and mood, from dreamy to explosive. With an ensemble of violin, mandolin, clarinet, trombone, marimba, cello, and drums, all subtly contorted by electronic effects, Nyberg ties together his far-flung influences of nordic folk, contemporary classical, and post-rock music with ingenuity and grace, creating a fiercely imaginative piece. Primarily instrumental, each movement of Opus pivots around a near-apocalyptic text sung by Ólavur Jákupsson and written by Nyberg’s childhood friend Timo Haapaniemi in an invented language playfully based on Latin.

Recent awards:
2017: Carl Prisen 2017: "Composer of the Year - Roots"
2016: Danish Music Awards - Folk: "Composer of the Year"
2016: Danish Music Awards - Folk: "Album of the Year"
2016: Danish Music Awards - World: "Composer of the Year"
2016: Danish Music Awards - World: "Best Live Act

»Jeg vil gerne give folk et tydeligt billede af, hvad der foregår inde i mit hoved, når jeg spiller mine sange,« fortæller sangskriver Stephan C. Krabsen, der er manden bag Bjergtaget. For det er netop DNA’et i Bjergtaget: Sange, der kan holde til at blive klædt af og leveret helt ind til benet.

Ærligt og personligt berører Stephans danske tekster forskellige aspekter det at være menneske. Numrene er samlet set en hyldest til menneskeheden og beskriver - sammen med albumtitlen - dobbeltheden ved os: Det under, at vi som mennesker kan udrette og skabe alt det, vi omgiver os med, men at vi samtidigt potentielt kan skabe vores egen undergang. På trods af det dystre i dobbeltheden ønsker Bjergtaget at give en følelse af samhørighed, fællesskab, håb og glæde ved at fortælle om og hylde dem, vi er.

Bjergtaget har – i modsætning til bandets selvbetitlede debutalbum, der blev indspillet live over en weekend – denne gang arbejdet med at skabe et større, mere produceret og lækkert udtryk med flere lag. Stephan har i tæt samarbejde med Palle Schultz produceret albummet og skabt et univers, der både er kendetegnende for Bjergtaget med udgangspunkt i det gode nummer, men som samtidig indvarsler et nyt kapitel. Der ligger lag-på-lag af korstemmer, synth-lyde og en guitar-væg, som skaber en unik kombination af elektroniske og akustiske elementer. 

Mathilde Falch medvirker og løfter med sin tindrende smukke vokalklang nummeret ”Lysets Varme” ind i en ny dimension. 

Albummet udkom d. 21. oktober 2021, og det har allerede fået anerkendende ord med på vejen af folk fra branchen, heriblandt Mathilde Falch – der udtaler: »Jeg faldt for Bjergtagets musikalske mod, der er højt til loftet, og Stephan er ikke bange for det storslåede, og det elsker jeg. Han kan noget særligt med det danske sprog og Bjergtaget er noget af det bedste, jeg nogensinde har hørt fra Danmark!«

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