Courtesy, né Najaaraq Vestbirk, is an artist, DJ, and composer from Copenhagen who mixes trance with neo-spirituals. Originally made to relieve fits of insomniac anxiety during the first pandemic lockdown in 2020, her debut four-song EP, Night Journeys, named for a series of paintings Lee Krasner made after the death of her husband, Jackson Pollock, is an airy flight through trance and music for meditation. Today, Spike is premiering the music video for IBON’s remix of “Night Journeys IIII,” featuring a Courtesy performance with artist Esben Weile Kjær at Den Frie, Copenhagen. The following exchange took place as she prepared for a very anti-lockdown activity: an 11 June set at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound.
SPIKE: Where do you make music?
Courtesy: In my studio, which is currently (but temporarily) on the top of the two-floor sublet we live in in Berlin.
SPIKE: How would you describe Night Journeys to the uninitiated?
Courtesy: I’m trying to create spaces for people to enter temporarily, where I am narrating the energies towards something pleasant and positive – which is why I’m currently working a lot with trance music. This materialized into a collaborative performance with the artist Esben Weile Kjær, which we showed at the Copenhagen art institution Den Frie [Udstilling] and eventually turned into this video. But I also develop these pieces in concerts venues and in nightclubs where I perform as a DJ.
SPIKE: How did the collaboration come about?
Courtesy: I’ve known Esben since he was a teenager in Denmark, and I have always been very charmed by him, his ideas and productivity (and chaos, which I share with him, particularly when we were younger) and the last couple of years I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to work together, which came with this record.
SPIKE: What’s the Copenhagen sound?
Courtesy: I think whatever it was, it probably changed a lot, or at least got a lot more complex in my mind, since the idea of “a Copenhagen sound” became a thing.
SPIKE: What’s your favorite Instagram account?
Courtesy: @shadejuliette
SPIKE: What does the future have in store?
Courtesy: At the moment, I’m getting ready to move into a proper studio, to start preparing projects in person with the people I work with. Developing my live set with guitarist Luka Aaron, recording a new record under this name, preparing upcoming exhibitions and performances, finally having time collaborate on some merch with Filip Samuel Berg, who I adore. Finding a very stable dog-sitter for our two hounds (is it you?)
Photo: Betty Kragh
Photo: Betty Kragh
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The EP Night Journeys is an imprint of Kulør. A remix EP featuring DJ Ibon, Jessy Lanza, Schacke, and KMRU is due out on 26 August.