It is past midnight, very early morning of December 31. Fireworks are going off in the distance, people preparing for the coming of 2026 while others are fast asleep, perhaps to dream. As is my tradition I'm typing up a few words in the night, trying to sum up in a few phrases what was 2025.
My concerts during 2025 mostly focused on presenting material from my Digital Deviant album live, after all, let's face it, I've been trying to get the cds out to people. So far, so good, only less than 150 copies left and still counting, as the saying goes. The album has received favourable press and the music videos for songs off the album, three so far, have done quite well - especially given they've been shot on very moderate budgets, living off favours and goodwill. I'd hoped to also have Digital Deviant out on vinyl by now but these things take time, it seems, so let's see in the course of a couple of months. I also hope, during 2026, to complete a music video or two more from the album, if all goes relatively well.
Despite the Digital Deviant focus I also completed two new pieces of music for my HCA Suite which we performed at the HCA Festivals in August, marking the 150th anniversay of the death of Hans Christian Andersen. The two new pieces, a Prelude and a Postlude, framed the Suite, presenting the story of the dying authour being paid one final visit by his literary creations before passing on, leaving them behind as so many ghosts, doomed to eternal repetition through the stories we have all since come to know so well.
Once again I really must say a warm and heartfelt thank you to all the people who attended concerts of ours during 2025, just as I must thank Alex Anarki and Kaos Korrosion for being up there on stage with me, making it all possible. I really am grateful.
2025 was also a fine year for Klub Golem which still seems to attract a good crowd each and every time, old-timers as well as new, young guests. And I very much hope you will follow us into the future as well, into 2026 which will mark our twenty years anniversary, can you believe it and all that? It is strange to think we're still here and doing well after all these years, though, to be honest, I actually try not to think too much about it, focusing instead on the next event, always the next.
And so, like rockets, let's soar through the sky, into the future ahead, the living and the dead - another year in eternity.
Last Saturday, April 26, was Klub Golem night, we were to present Turkish-Swedish Aux Animaux, DJs lined up, people ready to help with bar, wardrobe, photos, so on. Unfortunately Gözde Duzer, who is the Aux Animaux project, had fallen sick and lost her voice on the very day which she wrote us in the morning. With no voice there was really no way to do the concert so, needless to say, we didn't have the best of mornings. However, my co-musicians, Alex Anarki and Kaos Korrosion, are also part of Klub Golem, so all of us being there anyway we had a quick look at each other and decided to step in last minute and do a concert ourselves so that we'd still be able to present an evening with a live show as well as DJs. We knew Rune Sørensen, DJ Sue She, who is of course also part of Klub Golem, would be able to make it to the venue early as well, just as we knew people from the venue, Ronny Rode and Kim Jaskov along with trusty driver Jonas Hvidt would be there together with our sound engineer throughout all the years, Claus Christiansen. Having done our live sound for countless concerts we knew he'd be able to handle the last minute change as well. Other DJs were Nik coming down from Northern Sweden and Olivia Obskur who also used to perform in my live band for a couple of years so we thought what's better than three musicians who didn't have a chance to rehearse - why, four, of course. Obskur was ready to step in and do her vocals on Grantræet unprepared which we thought was fitting on a day like this.
Naturally we put together a set list based on our latest couple of concerts and went through songs during sound check but faced another challenge as we were setting up the room for Klub Golem. Part of our standard Klub Golem set-up includes what we call an Eighties Corner featuring a fully functional Commodore 64 which guests can use for playing games. And they do. Unfortunately, our monitor had also fallen sick, it turned out, and going at it with a screwdriver didn't do the trick. We ended up borrowing another monitor last minute from Sidwave of the aptly named The Suppy Team, one of the local eighties cracker/hacker groups on the 64.
The evening turned out good in the end; a good number of people showed up, making for a busy dance floor most of the evening, as well as many a round of Commodore 64 gaming and we had a supportive concert audience which of course made it easier for us to pull off an un-rehearsed show like this. The thing is we normally rehearse a good deal - and we will continue to do so, even if this, our un-rehearsed concert, turned out fine. So a big thank you to everybody who helped turn a dire situation around and make things work, not the least my co-musicians - I'm proud of you.
We are now working on the last details so we can present Aux Animaux for next Klub Golem.
Copyright: Ras Bolding 2025