If Soviet Chic inspired fashionista Lotta Volkova had designed a pop group, then she surely would have come up with ULTRAFLEX.
The Norwegian Icelandic duo of Kari Jahnsen and Katrín Helga Andrésdóttir, better known by their solo monikers of FARAO and SPECIAL-K respectively, released their fabulous debut single ‘Olympic Sweat’ with a video that acted as visual tour guide of their adopted home of Berlin.
Now ULTRAFLEX unleash the suggestively saucy ‘Work Out Tonight’ with an ambiguously alluring visual presentation directed by American artist Okay Kaya which sees our two heroines sensually bathing, sunbathing and eating choc ice in a local park before the girls indulge in a cheeky face-to-face windmill routine… a strangely comparable reference from the past is THE STYLE COUNCIL’s homo-erotic ‘Long Hot Summer’ video.
With a funky energetic synthbass and those trusty electro-disco rhythms with lashings of cowbell, ‘Work Out Tonight’ climaxes with a provocative dialogue between a man who wanders into the women’s dressing room and the person he encounters there.
Lyrically playful, some naughty exercise double entendres and breathy exclamations that “I’m gonna make you work it tonight, gonna make you work out tonight” only go on to raise temperatures off the scale. Of their creative chemistry, the pair have stated that this has been down to having “mutual artistic crushes on each other”.
ULTRAFLEX have described their debut album ‘Visions Of’ as “an ode to exercise, loaded with sex metaphors badly disguised as sports descriptions”; it is due out on 30th October 2020.
“1-2-3-BREATHE!”
‘Work Out Tonight’ is released by Street Pulse Records and available on the usual online platforms
ULTRAFLEX are a new Norwegian Icelandic duo based in Berlin who describe themselves as “The new teen sensation” with an interest in Soviet disco, athleisure and weirdo boogie.
However, Kari Jahnsen and Katrín Helga Andrésdóttir are perhaps better known by their solo monikers FARAO and SPECIAL-K respectively. Perhaps unusually for a band, the pair met when Andrésdóttir’s father dated Jahnsen’s mother.
Unexpectedly given their known songwriting prowess, the debut offering from ULTRAFLEX is ‘Olympic Sweat’, an uptempo synth instrumental imagined as music to be used on TV sports montages of Olympic coverage at the end of each games. For her muse, Jahnsen had the Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie in mind as he crossed the finish line to win gold at Lillehammer in 1994.
‘Olympic Sweat’ is uplifting disco lento with an organic heart, a pretty tune with an expansive sweeping resonance courtesy of its range of digital and vintage sound design. The exquisite atmospheres recall ‘Moonstruck’ by Finnish duo SIN COS TAN which in itself took its lead from PET SHOP BOYS.
The fabulously playful video filmed in Berlin is perhaps what a Valentina Tereshkova fitness video would have looked like had there been a merchandise tie-in for her historical mission on Vostok 6 as the first woman in space. From Treptow to Museeumsinsel to Treptow and back with Volkspark Friedrichshain and the Altes Museum along the way, it acts as a wonderful visual tour of the former divided city.
ULTRAFLEX’s debut album pencilled in for the Autumn of 2020 explores Cold War chic via the electronic disco soundtracks of pre-Glasnost Soviet aerobic videos. The Communist authorities did not want their citizens exercising to Western music, so commissioned domestic jazz musicians to play their own compositions on synthesizers instead.
However, the collaboration actually began as a live commission for Norway’s Insomnia Festival in 2019 to write material specifically to be premiered at the event. The combination of music, visuals and fitness choreography went down so well that Jahnsen and Andrésdóttir decided to release the material as an album.
Recording inside a remote haunted house in Iceland, the pair used a lot of software for practical reasons.
But the Soviet-built vintage analogues like the Formanta Polivoks duophonic and EMI Kvintet that Jahnsen had acquired for FARAO album ‘Pure-O’ made it into their makeshift studio, along with a Roland Juno 60, Yamaha CS15 and a Sequential DrumTraks MIDI compatable drum machine.
The duo have alluringly described their work as “an ode to exercise, loaded with sex metaphors badly disguised as sports descriptions” and confirmed that “Things are about to get real steamy….”
‘Olympic Sweat’ is released by Street Pulse Records and available on the usual online platforms
German songstress Greta Louise Schenk found wider fame in her adopted home of Copenhagen as a member of IDA RED, but always had an inherent desire to do something on her own.
The first GRETA release ‘Ardent Spring – Part I’ was an impressive collection of six airily melancholic songs that were simultaneously kitsch, cool, weird and filmic.
Working with the Berlin-based Norwegian producer Kari Jahnsen, better known to the wider music world as FARAO, the collaboration allowed Schenk’s angelic vocal tones to shimmer and shine within a gorgeously dreamy synthpop universe, as on the gently Motorik ‘Baby’ and the forlorn moods of ‘Spin’.
Greta Louise Schenk kindly found some time to talk about seasonal changes, vintage Soviet synths and the understated magnetic allure of GRETA.
So why is spring the best season for you?
Spring for me is not necessarily the best or easiest season, but it definitely is the time of year that inspires me the most. I get very moved by nature blossoming and everything getting reborn in a way, which makes me think about life’s cycles. That often results in a strong need to create, redefine myself and “live” a little more again after a long and dark winter.
What inspired the move to Scandinavia to pursue your dream of a music career?
Because I grew up in northern Germany, Denmark has never been far away. Right before finishing high school, I visited a friend who was a part of the music scene in Denmark. It seemed so much more open and inspiring and made me decide to apply to a music school in DK and drop my plans of studying classical music in Germany. I got accepted, moved to DK and here I am.
Who were the artists you loved which influenced you the most?
I think it’s difficult to say who influenced me the most, because I listen to a lot of music and often first find artists that could have been my influences after someone named them as a reference to my music. I think I get inspired mostly by the people I work with and who are a close part of my process.
While making ‘Part I’, I listened a lot to: COCTEAU TWINS, KATE BUSH, ABBA, TAME IMPALA, BEACH HOUSE and the intro song to the movie ‘Never Ending Story’.
You are a member of the girl group IDA RED, but how did the idea for a solo work come about?
Since a very young age I have performed my songs solo on piano. So GRETA as a solo artist has been existing for a long time.
After I stopped playing with my first solo project WHO IS LOUIS, I felt like something new needed to happen. IDA RED was at its early stages at that time and it was very refreshing and inspiring to create everything together as a group. But I soon recognised that I also needed my own space as a solo artist.
I felt a need to go back to my roots and write songs on the piano again. With WHO IS LOUIS, my interest for synthesizers and arranging my songs started and I developed that with my new songs. I slowly created this solo alias, a new project with my own name, where I could go after all my artistic visions and express myself musically and visually. Of course going to Berlin and recording with FARAO has been an essential part of this.
What fascinated you about FARAO’s music to ask her to collaborate with you?
I was blown away by the whole sound. The super interesting rhythms, the detailed arrangements with so much to experience and yet as clear as glass, the catchy and moving melodies, the organic and electronic sound textures. I felt like FARAO would understand my music and would be able to add a little more structure and edge. She did more than that and working with hear really opened my ears and my mind.
How would you describe the differences in the process of making music between IDA RED and solo?
While IDA RED is a combination of three different backgrounds, three women and three voices where we create everything together and always compromise from start to end, GRETA is 100% me. This is my safe space and place where I can outlive all my ideas, it is also a lifelong searching and finding.
Although I love to work together with a lot of different people and also do that a lot later on in the process, I mostly like to work on my own when it comes to songwriting. This is a very vulnerable space where I want to be in control and be able to first create a foundation and then invite other people into my process.
What is the creative dynamic between you and FARAO, how much takes place together in the same room and how much remotely?
Our process is actually very compact and intense. Like one or two weeks in a row, several times a year. I think ‘Part I’ was recorded over 4 weeks in total. I bring my songs as demo recordings and then we sort out, record new stuff, replace and layer on top.
We rarely write extra stuff, our process is all about the sound and production, structure and dynamic. We are very focused when we work but also have a great time playing around with sounds, eating Berlin’s great Asian food and dancing to disco tunes in the breaks and weekends ?
The mix process is remote, so is everything that follows the recording, like music videos and stuff like that.
FARAO has a nice collection of vintage synths including some from the former Soviet Union, how did you find these to use, did you have a favourite one you kept going back to?
We used all of them all the time and I was in synth heaven. They add so much texture, warmth and edge to every production. I absolutely fell in love with them! My favourites are the Polivoks, Yamaha CS-15 and Korg Delta.
Both ‘Spin’ and the ‘Ardent Spring’ title song have this beautiful melancholic quality, is it more natural for you to produce something sad but dress it up with melody?
It definitely has been that way for a long time, maybe because I started writing therapeutic ballads on my piano when I was a child.
Right now, I am more fascinated by rhythm and bass lines and then create melodies on top of that. But I guess what really fascinates me is the combination of contrasts, creating layers, also with feelings and emotions, and giving my listener the opportunity to read into my music.
I would say that all my new songs are “happier” or definitely groovier but they always have a hint of melancholy in them.
So is ‘Bad Lovers’ autobiographical?
Yes…. ?
‘White’ is perhaps the most unusual song on the EP, with its rhythmic structure and chromatic overtones, it could almost be an art rock number?
True, I often wonder how this song came out of me. I actually wrote it on my Irish bouzouki, which may explain the chords. I was listening a lot to LANA DEL REY and it was quite a dark time in my life. This song is one of my favourites to play live. With that and ‘Baby’, it is so easy for me to go into that feeling again and I love to fully live it out on stage.
Which are your own favourite songs on the EP?
I can’t choose. Some of those songs have been with me for a long time. Developing, changing and moving along with me. Maybe ‘Bad Lovers’, this one is my instant Berlin-feeling in a song for me.
Will there be an ‘Ardent Spring – Part II’?
Yes definitely! And I am already slowly and secretly working on something that right now is called ‘Part III’…
What is next for you?
A lot, I have some very special concerts coming up for the rest of autumn and December. One of them is an audio-visual concert with visuals especially created / designed to my music. In November I will go to Berlin to write new music and then I am slowly getting ready for a crazy exciting 2020…
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to GRETA
Special thanks to Nicki Bladt at Celebration Records
This is the story of the classically trained German chanteuse who moved to Scandinavia and found success in a Danish girl group.
And when she made the move into creating something solo, she became inspired and sought the help of a Norwegian who lived in Berlin. Copenhagen resident Greta Louise Schenk found wider fame in her adopted home as a member of IDA RED.
But with her FARAO produced debut EP ‘Ardent Spring – Part I’, she has entered the dreamy synthpop universe also occupied by her Norsk collaborator where her angelic vocal tones can shimmer and shine.
Inspired by seasonal changes, Schenk said: “Spring to me is often where I take my time to think and where my head is filled with chaos and new ideas bloom. Especially the spring in Berlin and Copenhagen has inspired me – the very contrast between nature (which is constantly changing) and hard concrete (which pretty much remains as it is).”
Opening with the gorgeously wispy air of ’Spin’, the magnetic allure of Chinese singer FIFI RONG also looms. Meanwhile the filmic ‘Ardent Spring’ title song captures the delightful oddness and crystalline soundscapes of IONNALEE, although with a looser rhythmic backbone and in a more understated manner.
‘Bad Lovers’ plays with aspects of synthwave with electronic percussion and guitar making their presence felt, but the eerie choir sounds and layered voices keep proceedings distinctly Nordic, something not totally unsurprising with FARAO at the helm.
However ‘White’ pierces in a more sinister manner and counterpoints the dreamier trio of tunes that comprise the first half. With its chromatic overtones, hypnotic arpeggio and lightly swung rhythmic backbone, played by a loud rock band, this could be MUSE.
Driven by a subtle Motorik beat, the uptempo swirl of ‘Baby’ is fabulously cosmic pop that recalls ANI GLASS, another independently minded synth songstress with a girl group past. Closing with ‘Wilderness’, it beautifully captures the emotions of regret and turmoil while maintaining hopes and dreams, with Schenk expressing darkness and light in equal measures.
Kitsch, cool, weird and ethereal, this is an impressive debut body of work by GRETA; if this is what ‘Ardent Spring – Part I’ has to offer, then there is much to look forward to with ‘Ardent Spring – Part II’.
Greta Louise Schenk is a Copenhagen domiciled German who first found wider attention in the atmospheric trio WHO IS LOUIS and the girl group IDA RED who she is still currently a member of.
The classically trained composer and songwriter is soon to unleash her debut solo EP, co-produced by the Berlin based Norwegian FARAO who released the critically acclaimed ‘Pure-O’ album in 2018.
Making effective use of a Roland Juno 60, Yamaha CS15, Korg Delta and Omnichord, perhaps unsurprisingly, the gorgeous new single called ’Spin’ does have the wispy air of her co-producer’s own work while the magnetic allure of YELLO collaborator Fifi Rong also looms.
“I had been following FARAO and had listened to her music for a few years thinking that she would understand my music and probably be able to add a little edge” remembered Schenk, “We worked together for the first time in her studio in Berlin September 2017. We are both really into shimmering harps, vintage synthesizers and 80s disco. We are always very inspired and productive when we work together”.
The animated video for ‘Spin’ created by Marie Boye Thomsen and William Reynish cerebrally offers a portrayal of the existential crisis within the human condition. GRETA’s songs aim to echo her thoughts on life and inner contradictions with light and darkness in equal measures. Kitsch, cool, weird and dreamy, it could all get very interesting…
An earlier synthbass driven single ‘Bad Lovers’ took things more uptempo, while the filmic ‘Ardent Spring’ pointed towards the crystalline soundscapes of IONNALEE, although with a looser rhythmic backbone.
This music is indeed far cry from the Scandipop R ‘n’ B of ‘Talk’, ‘Wildflower’ and ‘Oh Girl’ which saw IDA RED gain traction on national radio in Denmark.
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, an uptempo synth instrumental imagined as music to be used on TV sports montages of Olympic coverage at the end of each games. For her muse, Jahnsen had the Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie in mind as he crossed the finish line to win gold at Lillehammer in 1994.
was an impressive collection of six airily melancholic songs that were simultaneously kitsch, cool, weird and filmic.
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