Biography
The man with his iconic glasses -music visionary Kenneth Bager is a pioneer, music lover, label owner, and record hunter and collector. Through his legendary Club Coma and subsequent stints with Danish National Radio, where he has been on air for 4 decades promoting dance music. The last three years he has had a weekly radio show on Ibiza Sonica every Monday.
Kenneth Bager started out as a dj i 1979, he has played a numerous of styles, House, Hip Hop, Jazz Funk, Electro, Reggae, Mombathon, Rock, Disco, Chill Out, Balearic - any music with a strong identity. His collection is over 70.000 vinyls and cds.
Kenneth has been in the top 100 of the world best dj's in Dj magazine. He has played in some of the world s most famous clubs and Festivals: Bestival, Roskilde and Skanderborg Festival, The Big Chill, Mayday, Stella Polaris - Copenhagen, The Omen and Dorian Gray in Frankfurt, Amnesia, Cafe Del Mar, KU, Sa Trinxa, Space, Mambo, Blue Marlin, Sunset Ashram, Khumares and Pacha in Ibiza, Spectrum in London, Roxy in Amsterdam, 1985 djing with Marco Trani in Hysteria in Rome, Quatar, Oslo, Manchester, Munich, Helsinki, Stockholm, Cannes, Dubai and playing a numerous of raves in the UK in the early 90 ties as the Act Dr Baker - famous for their track "Kaos". The intro from "Kaos" has been sampled by The Shamen, FSOL, David Morales and Kenny Dope. In 1992 he did the remix of The Overlords - Sundown - a remix that took 2 months to make and became a european techno classic.
Kenneth is also a regular at high profile private parties and has been spinning for Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Talk Talk, New Order and Heaven 17. Over the years he has been following the moods and ever evolving sides of dance culture.
In 1982 he became resident at Daddy's Scandinavia's biggest club based in Copenhagen - a club where he played
New Romantics, Punk, Rap, Ska, Funk and Disco. The club had 1200 through the door every weekend, and it was a dress up club full of clones looking like their Idols from Siouxsie, The Clash, Visage, Human League, Japan etc.
He has been visiting clubs like Camden Palace ( hosted by Steve Strange and Rusty Egan), The Wag Club, Shoom, Gullivers, Mud Club, David Mancusos The Loft, Shake and Finger Pop, Future, The Trip, Dingwalls, The Box, High on Hope, Caister Soul Weekender, That's How It Is at Bar Rhumba etc.
In 1988, he launched the famous Coma Club. Coma meaning Copenhagen Offers More Action, it is a club where the music is diverse and the guest are only allowed to enter if they are dressed up in a funky and inspirational way. The tickets are sold in advance, and to this day the club is still running strong and the energy is amazing - Boy George said in 2012 visiting the club as a guest dj : " You are a very lucky man - clubs like this rarely exists anymore".
Kenneth has been director of several labels with great success in Scandinavia, Coma Records where he released, international dance hits from: The Klf, The Shamen, Moby, FPI Project and Dance to Trance. Later the label was called Flex and the line of international dance hits continued: Ramirez, Storm, Hypetraxx, Celvin Rotane, Heller N Farley , Dub Tractor, Josh Wink, IIO, Night crawlers, Baby D, Jx, B.B.E. In total Flex sold over 4 million units and had tracks on over 40 million units of compilations.
Names like: Gotan Project, Sven Vath, Bob Jones, The Klf, Norman Jay, Torsten Fenslau, Colin Faver, Jay Strongman, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Tim Simenon, Coldcut, Todd Terry, Jungle Brothers, Boy George, The Orb, Tuccillo and Metro Area have all played at some of the numerous events and gigs that Kenneth has been involved in.
Next stop was the 2 cd compilation called Music For Dreams that lead to the label of the same name, it started out as a lounge /chill label but has evolved into a label without any boundaries: Bliss, Fagget Fairys, Laidback, Dj Disse, Banzai Republic, Lulu Rouge, N*Grandjean, Jazzbox, Luke, Giana Factory, Specktors and Aura has all generated sales of over 2 million units.
Kenneth has organzied a Music For Dreams Festival - a combination of Live acts like Jose Gonzales and djs like Carl Craig, Radio Slave and Valentin Huedo, a chill out area at the Roskilde Festival with the biggest line up of international chill out names ever to attend Denmark incl. Phil Mison, Dj Ravin ( Buddha Bar), Chris Coco, Rob Da Bank, he has even done a weekly dance programme on TV.
He has done two solo albums under the moniker: The Kenneth Bager Experience - a weird and wonderful happy place where balearic electronica soundtracks, scenes of decadence, beautiful women - frolic in lacy underwear, white rabbits are regarded as equals. Featured guests on the two albums include: Violin wizard Jean Luc Ponty, Julee Cruise ( Twin Peaks), Aloe Blacc and Thomas Troelsen ( Private/ Junior Senior). His tracks has been used in many commercials, campaigns and, movies ( amongst: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo).
Kenneth's latest venture is doing regular nights at the famous danish Museum Louisiana, and recently he started a new danish festival, Apple Flower Festival, on an island called Lille Ø ( meaning small island) - a food and music festival together with Claus Meyer, founder of the new nordic cuisine and one of the owners of the world famous restaurant Noma. This is a short list of some of the names that has been guesting the festival: The National, Hubbabubbaklubb, Gigi Masin, Aura, Troels Hammer, Noonie Bao, Emil Germ, JJME, Indians and Hannah Schneider - and here is a small list of guest dj's: Lexx, Phil Mison, Tako og Abel - Red Light Records, Basso, Mika Snickars and Olefunken.
In 2013 Kenneth Bager was resident Dj in Cafe Mambo in Ibiza, where 13 Music For Dreams Sunday Events were being held, live music were being combined with guest dj's and some guests included: legendary danish duo Laid Back ( white horse, sunshine reggae), Hess is More, Hannah Schneider, Jacob Gurevitsch, Troels Hammer, Kolsch, Phil from Golf Channel, Andy Wilson ( Ibiza Sonica), Rainer Truby, Tuccinelli, Dj Pippi, Rusty Egan, Djek, Michael Reinbooth, Charles Webster, Phil Mison, Valentin Huedo and Dj Disse. Another event was being held at the beach bar Sirocco where Jon Sa Trinxa, Valentin Huedo, Willie Graff, Tuccillo, Lucci Capri, Alfredo, Dj Pippi og Luka ( his son) were guest dj's, live music were delivered by Hess is More and Laid Back. Kenneth also managed to play in the Funky Room in Pacha and does 3 warm up slots at "Ushuia" for the english dj legend (known from BBC 1) - Pete Tong. At the end of the Ibiza season 2013 the english dance magazine Mix Mag features Kenneth Bager twice in the top 10 of tracks, for breaking tracks such as Ten Walls - "Gotham" og Ninetoes - "Finder".
In 2014 Kenneth Bager continue to arrange Music For Dreams events in Copenhagen at the"Paper Island" and Ibiza. Some of the guests includes: Emil Germ ( Live), Kill J ( live) and dj*s: Leo Mas, Master Fatman, Peter Visti, Dj Disse, Djek, Mads Dalholt, Marco Lawson, Moonboots ( Aficinado Recordings) Karsten Loud and Soulshaker. In August a new venture is being launched at Prince Henriks Palace called "Sølyst" in Klampenborg - the event is called "The Culture Saloon". Kenneth is playing as a dj in Brazil and Peru in October. In November another new project is being started with chef Claus Meyer - it is called " "Traditionen Utro" ( Tradition Misconduct) a christmas party combing weird and wonderful ideas with live music and amazing food. The third solo album from Kenneth Bager named "Follow The Beat" is being released and his well-established radio presence on Ibiza Sonica continues to push Electronic Dance Music with his weekly show.
