As a musician and songwriter, Angu is in cultural terms a child of modern globalisation – an artistic hybrid. Born in 1976 in Qaqortoq, Greenland, he lives and works as a singer and musician in Copenhagen, writing his lyrics and singing in English. Growing up in Greenland on the periphery of traditional Greenlandic culture – but never far from a guitar and record player – meant that Angu´s magnificent natural surroundings were accompanied by politically aware 1970s music and a wide range of pop and rock rhythms. Already in his early teens, Angu was fortunate enough to have his own keyboard and guitar – and he was soon writing songs, preferring English lyrics from the very start. After some initial “angry” years with long hair and heavy rock and grunge pounding in his ears, Angu turned his attention towards the classical singer-songwriter tradition. Here was a means of expression well suited to working with deep-felt inner conflicts – formulating them linguistically and musically, and thus creating a healthier distance to them.
For Angu, the songs work as small mental soundtracks – emotionally charged short narratives that aim to dramatise in music the critical junctures in life, moments of great emotional fascination, and heavy breaking points – situations that he writes his way both into and out of again. The songs comprise a musical language that can both capture memories and objectify them, keeping them at a distance, where they are easier to deal with and think about – yet in a form that never allows powerful emotions to become too sugar-sweet, but instead hidden away in nuances that need to be decoded by the listener. A collection of songs that are permeated with melancholic longing and an undercurrent of unfulfilled dreams.
In 1996, Angu moved to Greenland´s capital, Nuuk, where he was soon caught up in the city´s very close-knit music scene. He began to write more intensely, sometimes co-writing while trying in vain to finish his education in computer science. Angu gradually began working as a studio musician, while continuing to write his own material and write for a number of other artists as well. Angu was prompted by producer Mik S. Christensen to write a few songs for the Greenlandic singer Tupaarnaq Mathiassen. When Mathiassen´s voice gave out one day in 2003, however, Angu had to fill in for her. The producer was so pleased with the results that he and Angu secretly began recording a demo. Ejvind Elsner, the head of Atlantic Music in Nuuk, heard the demo eventually and was so impressed that he offered Angu a contract on the spot with Atlantic – the biggest and most influential record company in Greenland. Angu and Christensen completed the pre-production work and then travelled to Copenhagen, where guitarist Mads Kamstrup helped them assemble a band to finish recording the album at Sweet Silence Studios with Troels Alsted as producer. The critically acclaimed debut album sold 5.000 copies in Greenland alone - a country where the population counts 56.000 - and it achieved massive airplay and attention throughout Scandinavia through a partnership with Copenhagen Records.
The following years Angu travelled to pursue his dreams - based in Copenhagen, singing and writing his way through life, but never further away than a ticket home to his country. He has just finished recording his second album Burning Blue Skies, working with his band and producer Mik S. Christensen, following up on their successful collaboration. The album was released in Greenland December 17, 2007 through Atlantic Music, which is currently looking for license deals worldwide.