Heide MortensonContents
Heidi Mortenson is a Danish electronic composer, singer and music producer. Heidi grew up listening to the metallic sounds of her dad repairing cars and her mother playing the organ. As a teenager, Heidi moved to Barcelona and started to experiment with sound and acoustics. Career[edit | edit source]2000s[edit | edit source]After playing her first concert, Mortenson was appointed Resident Artist 2003 at the annual experimental LEM Festival in Barcelona. Hereafter she went on a European tour with Finnish visual artist Mia Makela (SOLU), with whom she performed the Opening Act of Transmediale Festival 2004 in Berlin. That same year Heidi moved to Berlin, where she started working on her debut album ‘Wired Stuff’ and founded her own label Wired Records. Mortenson’s critically acclaimed 2005 debut album ‘Wired Stuff’, released on Mortenson’s own imprint Wired Records, revealed a visionary and bold producer. It offered up deeply queered DIY- pop – synthesized, direct tomboytronica cut with soul-y flourishes, and spell-binding androgyny The Danish music magazine Geiger selected her sophomore album ‘Don’t Lonely Me’, as one of the Best Albums of 2007. The song ‘Hurt Machine’ from ‘Don’t Lonely Me’ is featured on the popular American / Canadian TV series The L Word in season 6.07.[1] Mortenson gained attention from her concert at the Spot (music festival) 2008, receiving positive reviews by the press. The music magazine Gaffa credited her 5/6 stars,[2] Geiger wrote “overall probably the best concert of this year’s SPOT festival and musically absolutely the bravest”,[3] The Telegraph stated “The girl who totally blew my mind was Heidi Mortenson (…) She conjures up weirdly colourful, avant-garde dance tracks out of nothing (…) Fantastically entertaining and completely original, if Madonna really wants to start pushing popular music into new areas she should forget working with established American production talents like Timbaland and give this mad Dane a call.”[4] 2010s[edit | edit source]Mortenson’s style of music is versatile. The cassette tape release Circular Tape self-released in 2010, was made from using a microphone and 7 effect pedals. The sound source being Mortenson’s voice. The songs are recorded using instant composing style; meaning onto one track, without arrangement or preparation. Mortenson has also performed a great deal live as a solo act, building up songs by sampling her voice through efx pedals and singing. In 2010 Heidi took part in Laurie Anderson‘s remix contest and got an honourable mention and streaming of the remix on Anderson’s website.[5] Released in 2011 the double album ‘Run For Covers’ is featuring on one disc Mortenson’s cover songs of various artists including Cat Power, David Bowie, Devendra Banhart, Anne Linnet, and more. The other disc featuring various artists’ covering a self-chosen Mortenson song. This was a digital release that presented a new song every week. The release is featured on Mortenson’s bandcamp. In 2012 Mortenson composed the original soundtrack for the theater piece ‘Luft Havn’, which premiered in Denmark at the new cultural center Godsbanen. Later that year, Mortenson’s first songs with native lyrics released on RUMP Recordings. The EP titled ‘Mørk’ (meaning ‘Dark’) gained a lot of attention and positive reviews from the critics. For ‘Mørk EP’ Mortenson was nominated two Gaffa Music Awards. One for Best Danish Artist and one for Best Danish Release 2012. ‘Mørk EP’ (“Characterized by its mature essence and pensive vocals, Mørk is a powerful combination of ferociousness and utmost delicacy.”, AIAIAI) saw Mortenson, with a fearless dive into the darkness, reveal her ability to combine a new sound of pop-oriented music with blinding native language that led international listeners to their own interpretation by the sheer and unmistaken atmosphere of the music. Hereafter followed two instrumental singles in 2015 and two singles in 2017 with Danish lyrics. And in between the native languaged album Tid (meaning “Time”) released in 2016 on Mortenson’s own imprint Voodoo Echo. For this album Mortenson again was nominated two Music Awards by Gaffa. The record was made over the course of four years and is perhaps Mortenson’s most electronic sounding to date. In 2018-2020 Mortenson made three sound installations for the solo exhibitions “Stop Calling Me Names” and “LAILA UTI” by acclaimed painter Mette Winckelmann. In 2019, Mortenson announced the release of her fourth studio album, Spectrum. 2020 was the year that Mortenson created the non-binary moniker Phtalo that started out as a retrospective house project with a modern approach. Phtalo’s self-titled debut album released in autumn 2021 and inspired Phtalo to create the podcast “My House In Your Haus” which is live in Berlin at Reboot.fm and presented by The Lake Radio. Personal life[edit | edit source]In the start of her career, Heidi used only her second name Mortenson and (reversed) ‘nosnetrom’ to mask her gender. Mortenson speaks several languages: she is fluent in English, Spanish and Danish, and also speaks German. In a 2007 interview with Sadie Magazine, Mortenson revealed that she has Asperger syndrome, like her father. In the same interview, she described herself as queer.[6] Promotional material for her 2019 album Spectrum describes her as gay and gender non-conforming.[7] Discography[edit | edit source]Albums[edit | edit source]
EPs[edit | edit source]
Singles[edit | edit source]
Remixes[edit | edit source]
Soundtracks[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
External links[edit | edit source]
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