Denmark’s Smag På Dig Selv arrived at Edinburgh’s Hidden Door Festival after a storming start to 2025 with shows including at Eurosonic in Groningen, SXSW in Austin Texas and Bearded Theory in Derbyshire. The Hidden Door festival in Edinburgh must have felt like home from home for the trio of Oliver Lauridsen (tenor saxophone), Thorbjørn Øllgaard (baritone and bass saxophone, vocals) and Albert Holberg (drums) who are from Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen, a disused military base which was inhabited by squatters and hippies in the 1970’s and remains an established community to this day. In Edinburgh the disused Paper Factory is a 15.5 acre industrial space which has been transformed for the Hidden Door festival for 5 days (11 – 15 June).
The set on the Jack Daniels stage began with throat singing by Thorbjørn, and the crowd did seem slightly bemused! However with the arrival of Albert and then Olivier onstage the party was underway. This instrumental music is perhaps best described as euphoric stomping techno, and the audience didn’t know where to look at the saxophonists hardly stood still!
The saxophonists were in the crowd, up on the speakers, at the back of the stage beside the drummer, it was extraordinary. They looked like they were having the best time, with big smiles throughout the set. As each song finished the cheering and whooping only got louder and louder. It was wonderful to learn that their sound engineer for the show was Neil Young!
Smag På Dig Selv released their debut EP Dunkelkraft in 2020 which was recorded in Freetown Christiania. Their self titled debut album followed in 2024 and there is already murmurings of a second album, with a possible release in 2026.
The trio are also supporters of Palestine and use their platform to express their outrage of the current genocide in Gaza.
The crowd in Edinburgh danced and smiled and bounced throughout the whole 45 minutes set which whizzed by in no time.
There was only one request at the end – please come back to Edinburgh very very soon.
For more information on Smag På Dig Selv please check their facebook and instagram.
Photos Credit: Julia Mason