Karen Juhl creates cutting-edge song art. Live, she unites club culture with chamber music as fragmented beats blend with improvisations on a MIDI harp in an intense performance. Merope draws the audience deep into Lithuania’s folk music with a sonic universe that weaves threads between ancient songs and modern soundscapes. We’re thrilled to present both acts in a two-in-one concert at ALICE this spring.

Karen Juhl

The experimental Danish musician and composer Karen Juhl crafts ballads for the internet age. As the magazine Seismograf wrote in a review of her 2023 debut album, Mother Tongue, Karen Juhl “follows a folk or ballad tradition where the text dictates the flow of the music.” At the same time, she samples music found on YouTube and modulates her voice into a sound that may feel murky but remains emotionally precise: As Passive/Aggressive noted about the album, it’s one thing “to aspire to embrace one’s own fragility and transform it into strength. It’s quite another, as this album demonstrates, to fully embody that ideal.”

As an artist, Karen Juhl moves fluidly between art forms. This is exemplified in Mother Tongue, which is also a book publication. Through sound, text, and images, she connects childhood scenes and digital spaces, creating a fragmented yet meditative reflection on vulnerability in a hyper-globalized world. Live, she performs face-to-face with musician Johan Feierskov. Together, they create moments of both intensity and deep attentiveness: fragmented beats meld with MIDI harp improvisations in a complex and moving performance. The last time they performed was at The Yard Theatre in London. We can’t wait to experience it at ALICE!

Merope

“Mystery and folk flow into the ocean of modern times.” This is how the Polish magazine Nowamuzyka aptly described the wondrous soundscapes of the Lithuanian-Belgian duo Merope. Their music draws the audience deep into Lithuania’s folk traditions, where Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė’s voice and the kanklės (a traditional Lithuanian string instrument) weave threads between ancient songs and modern sonic textures. Together with Belgian multi-instrumentalist Bert Cools, they create a soundscape ranging from experimental guitar work to beautiful electronic layers. Their music is simultaneously sacred, mythological, and contemporary.

Merope has released four albums since 2012, the most recent being the stunning Salos (2021), recorded with the renowned Lithuanian Jauna Muzika Choir, Jean-Christophe Bonnafous, and Shahzad Ismaily. This November, they released their album Vėjula, which also features prominent collaborators, including Ismaily, Laraaji, and the legendary guitarist Bill Frisell. Traditional Baltic tones are transformed into something new, playful, and universal in an open sonic landscape that explores jazz, ambient, and minimalist composition. Music magazine The Wire called it “glowing, ethereal music; gossamer-fine, but swirling with emotional heft.” We have high expectations for this duo and cannot wait to welcome them to ALICE’s stage.