Tomas Barfod

Barfod was first exposed to the indefinable lure of the electronic music scene not by clubbing (that came later), or by specific acts, but by a long-forgotten film featuring a section set in a club. “I think it was after I watched a bad movie about raves in the 1980s that I became fascinated by it all,” he laughs. “I thought it looked very exciting and scary at the same time, and I’ve been intrigued by the whole scene ever since then really. After that I started listening to it and then I started buying my own equipment to make it.” Early musical influences ranged from the likes of Goldie, Massive Attack and Portishead, to Goa trance and techno, before drifting into house and disco. These influences subsequently manifested themselves in the acid disco-inspired club-bangers released as Tomboy via Gomma records and the ambient techno he unleashed via Kompakt. Back in the summer of 2012, Danish polymath Tomas Barfod released his debut solo album, the sophisticated mesh of electronics that is Salton Sea. Lauded by the likes of Pitchfork, Dazed & Confused and Gorilla vs Bear, its success took Barfod slightly by surprise. Inspired by a move to LA and mainly written and recorded on the road, often in hotel rooms on his laptop, it was an album that was imbued with a sense of spontaneity and experimentation. Its success has paved the way for the forthcoming follow-up, Love Me, an album that continues this spirit of adventurousness but takes it to a whole new level. His skills as a dj has taken him around the world, where he has played legendary venues like Fabric (London), Panorama Bar (Berlin), Bar 25 (Berlin), Goa (Rome), Social Club (Paris), Echoplex (LA). Latest addition is his live show featuring a 3-piece live band including Nina K.