New music
Following years as a successful DJ and label owner – and then producer in March last year with ‘Night Journeys’ on Kulør – Courtesy, known to her friends as Najaaraq Vertbirk, has been a kaleidoscopic force within dance music in both her native Copenhagen and across Europe; channelling the colourful, fast-paced trance of Denmark and bringing it to the masses through critically acclaimed compilations (see KULØR001 and KULØR006) and high velocity sets in sweaty 300-capacity club and festivals alike.
Born in Greenland and raised in Denmark, Courtesy first rose to prominence as part of the collective Apeiron Crew and would go on to create techno label Ectotherm with fellow member Mama Snake. Kulør would arrive in October 2018, thrusting local producers like Schacke and Repro into the spotlight.
Now – following produced soundtracks for Chanel, Vitelli, STAMM and Solitude Studio – Courtesy is readying the release of her debut album; a personal album (of sorts) that explores the complex brilliance of timeless pop music and wraps it a trance shaped bow.
The album’s title, ‘fra eufori’ – Danish for “from euphoria” – hints at what to expect from Courtesy’s newest musical investigation. For this record, she distilled classics of trance-infused dance and pop music productions from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, Madonna’s ‘What It Feels Like For A Girl’, two songs by Enya, Olive’s ‘You’re Not Alone’, to their core by re-recording them on her compact collection of hardware synthesizers and featuring vocals from friends and collaborators in Erika de Casier, Sophie Joe and Merely.
We caught up with Courtesy to chat about the new record and the longevity of great pop music.
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The press release describes the album as hyper-contemporary, ambient pop productions. We have had flashes of this style before on ‘Violence Of The Moodboard’ and ‘Night Journeys’, how did you approach making the album as opposed to making the EPs – did it differ at all?
With ‘Violence Of The Moodboard’ and ‘Night Journeys’, during that period I was listening to a lot of dance music, but the more loopy kind, and a lot of Steve Reich. A lot of that music was written through playing around with phasing and melodies – a very classic thing to do with techno. You write a melody and let it slide out of the loop so it changes the song as it progresses, because the loop is a little off beat. A lot of ambient and techno is written this way.
‘Night Journeys’ was very much about my mental health during the pandemic and ‘Violence Of The Moodboard’ was about a lot of the fashion stuff I’m doing now. The selection on this record is personal, but it isn’t a personal record. It’s music I’m interested in as a DJ is personal, so it becomes a bit of both, but there isn’t a personal narrative to it.
With this project I wanted to explore composition, which is why everything is a cover. The first couple EPs were written in a Steve Reich phasing way, whereas now with this pop-album; it was a way for me to study how these songs are composed. I’m very interested in how complex some of the songwriting can be. The songs that I picked have complex compositions that you don’t get tired of, and a lot of pop music is not like that.
For instance, the Olive cover, that’s a really difficult song. The timing is all off. Without even noticing as a listener they worked the time signature of the song in different places, so you couldn’t put a 4×4 beat on it. Getting everything to sit right was a complicated process, I learned so much from it.
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Did you go into this with the idea of trying to make people move without a kickdrum? A little like Barker has been doing with his polyrhythmic productions.
I started making ambient music as I was in the process of learning how to produce music. It started with some records that were more focused on sound design and an easier approach to composition, whereas now I’m very interested in actual songwriting and learning to record vocals properly. My approach to making music isn’t ‘this is the best record I’m ever going to make’, it’s more an important step for me in learning every process of music production.
The best way for me to learn is to finish something all the way through and not just sit for years. This is my last ambient record, I’ve wrapped it up. The feedback I get for this record isn’t too important, I’m already in the next phase of production.
I know the visual aspect is of particular importance to you – can you tell me a little about the inspo for the artwork by Salim Green?
It’s a painting I commissioned in the past. Salim is a really interesting artist. He’s done a couple of solo shows with his paintings and this was from one of them. He has a wonderful spirit and is unbelievably organised for a creative.
We developed this friendship through the internet and things we had in common. He’s going to come to Berlin next year and do a residency in my studio where I do exhibitions.
You have re-recorded Madonna’s ‘What It Feels Like For A Girl’ and Enya & Olive’s ‘You’re Not Alone’ – what is it about those songs that made you put your own spin on them?
It’s the longevity of them, they still seem fresh for younger people that are hearing them for the first time. Madonna – I love that song – the vocal from it is actually a sample from a movie. Coming out of a scene and having a lot of queer friends, and a lot of us that don’t fit into the normal boundaries of gender, that song speaks to a lot of us.
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Tell me a little about the collaborations – how did these come about and what was the creative process like in working with artists such as Lyra Pramuk, Erika de Casier and Sophie Joe?
It was very inspiring. I’ve known Erika for many years. She’s a super busy artist so there were times I wasn’t sure if it was going to make the album, but we both pulled through up until the absolute last minute. I love the process in choosing the right collaborator for the vocal element of a track. With singers, when your instrument is literally your body, they work on a totally different timeline than I could as a producer. If they’re sick for instance, they can’t record vocals. You need to think about when you’re going out and when you’re drinking alcohol, depending on how rock and roll your vocal is. It demands much more diligent planning and flexibility in terms of your expectations and timelines.
The album is coming out on your own label Kulør and is named after the Danish word for euphoria. The local scene there is obviously something you care about quite deeply; I can remember when the first compilation came out you were quoted in saying that sonically there was something wild happening in Copenhagen and that comp hoped to capture that. Now, five years on, what does the Copenhagen scene sound and look like?
That compilation was very much a snapshot of a scene that I was a part of. There was this group of artists who were all influencing each other but had very different identities as musicians. That felt very important. The second compilation focused on this web of musicians that were less tied together genre-wise, but were still important sounds for Denmark.
I don’t have the same connection to it now with all the travelling. What we do with the label now is very different. Copenhagen is still where I’m from, everyone’s doing very well. From all these scenes I was involved in, people have paved their own different narratives.
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Words: Andrew Moore
Main Photo: Amelie Amie Kahn-Ackermann
Internal Photography: Kofi Johnson
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