Motionless journey to Copenhagen, Nordic nirvana

By Lionel Paillès

Posted today at 4:30 p.m.

Succumb to the synthpop

Above all, do not trust the raging name of this Copenhagen duo, First Hate, which signs melancholic melodies in Scandinavian fashion, combining New Wave influences from the 1980s (in the spirit of Depeche Mode) with a taste for repetitive musical loops by Brian Eno. The two accomplices, Joakim Nørgaard and Anton Falck Gansted (the deep voice of the group), also cite, pell-mell, Philip Glass, Chris Isaak, Serge Gainsbourg, France Gall or the PNL rappers among their avowed references. The improbable cocktail, in any case, is explosive, since Girls in the Club, the first title of First Hate, released in 2014.

A Prayer for the Unemployed, by First Hate, listening on Spotify, Deezer and bandcamp.

Illuminate the atmosphere

The Turn On table lamp.

The recipe for happiness for a Dane: entertaining friends in front of a cozy fireplace, while being seated in a comfortable armchair. To cultivate harmony in this Nordic nirvana, there is nothing like buying a piece by Hay, a Danish furniture publisher who is a past master in the art of reinterpreting vintage pieces in a perfectly contemporary spirit, in just a few clicks. Symbol of this design that vibrates the cord of optimism: the Turn On table lamp. This little totem pole designed by designer Joel Hoff diffuses a light so soft on the desk that it brings down the blood pressure of the convict of telecommuting.

Turn ON lamp, € 139. hay.dk

Getting drunk on a bittersweet farce

Thomas Vinterberg's “Drunk” poster.

In Drunk, Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg films an intoxicating fury for living in the heart of Copenhagen. Four forty-something professors in the midst of an existential crisis choose to follow the precept of Norwegian psychologist Finn Skårderud to the letter: each born with an alcohol deficit in the blood, drinking regularly would promote healing of souls. Sheltering behind the rigor of a scientific experiment, the friends take up the challenge with joy, hoping that their lives will be improved. Epilogue of this bittersweet farce: a formidable dancing flight by actor Mads Mikkelsen on the quays of the port city, to the sound of What a Life, by Scarlet Pleasure.

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Drunk, by Thomas Vinterberg, at the cinema when theaters reopen.

Listen to the history of national design

The Ant chair by Arne Jacobsen.

For those who wish to perfect their design culture, the Copenhagen Design Museum website offers a podcast in English in three episodes: ” The beginnings, the pioneers ” ; ” The golden age of Danish design ” (the years 1950-1960), and finally ” The design of the XXIe century “. This last part underlines the influence of the environmental question on recent creations, which perpetuate the avant-garde spirit of a nation of cabinet makers. The opportunity to discover who are Hans Wegner, Børge Mogensen, Kaare Klint or Grete Jalk, the contemporaries of Arne Jacobsen – the most famous Danish designer, to whom we owe among others the Egg chair or the Ant chair -, and to understand how organic and functionalist modernism continues to be embodied in an armada of new talent.

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