The final track 'Garden of Exile' from the concert at Rebildcentret / Thingbæk Kalkminer one week ago. It is evident that the mine's climate takes a toll on both vocal cords and string instruments, but it was still an impressive place to do a concert.

'Garden of Exile' is one of the oldest songs in my repertoire, and is the only song I have played at all my concerts. The song usually functions as a closer. A principle that has only been deviated from once, when we had an extra encore.
'Garden of Exile', together with 'Cloudberries', was written in the second half of 1995, and the songs were originally presented to my high school band, who didn't like them. After that, they were mothballed until I dusted them off for the 'Anyway' album in 2009. Both songs had new lyrics written and new arrangements done, and even though the songs celebrate their 30th birthday this year, they still stand for me as some of my strongest songs.
'Garden of Exile' takes its title from a courtyard at the Jewish Museum in Berlin, while the lyrics are a fable about the beat novel 'The Sheltering Sky' by Paul Bowles.

Exciting musical light experience in the lime mines

There was an impression for both the eyes and ears when Ste van Holm & Friends gave a concert in Thingbæk Kalkminer.

By John Jensen, local journalist

Himmerland's most spectacular concert hall shone with laser light when there was a concert in Thingbæk Kalkminer with Ste van Holm & Friends on Friday evening.

Spherical sounds mixed with a medieval lyre, synthesizers, electric guitars, electric bass and computer programming in beautiful, and at times strange, soundscapes for the well-dressed audience, who were well prepared for the temperature in the lime mines.

The show lasted about an hour. By then the musicians' fingers had become so chilled and stiff that it was starting to be difficult to handle the instruments. But by that time the audience was also well-filled with impressions and a very special musical multimedia experience.

Great experience

Birgitte Due Holm and Ole Lidegaard from Aalborg did not know Ste van Holm & Friends beforehand, but they were very excited after the concert.

- We are always curious to experience things we have not tried before. It is something that refreshes your mind, says Ole Lidegaard.

The couple has previously been to a concert in the lime mines and are very happy with the surroundings.

- When something happens down here, we come out here, because we have been lucky enough to win an annual ticket to the Rebildcentret, says Birgitte Due Thompson.

Fabulous space

Orchestra leader Ste van Holm is excited about the surroundings in Thingbæk Lime Mines:

- This is a fabulous space. We have made it our "thing" to play in places that were not originally intended as venues. Here, the lime mines give our performance something very special, he says.

The band spent most of a day setting up and getting ready for the concert with a multitude of lights, lasers, video projectors, sound and instruments.

Much of the time, musicians and audience were completely enveloped in darkness and colors in the exciting light show.

Tightly controlled improvisation

Ste van Holm & Freinds have played together since 2015, but Ste van Holm has been releasing records since 2001. The bandleader writes the music and lyrics, but the musicians have a free hand.

- I come up with the basic idea, and then it is the individual musician who decides what they play. The lightman also has the opportunity to improvise during the concert, he says.

The improvisation happens within certain limits, because there is a lot of computer programming when music, video and light have to play together, but within the limits everyone has a free hand.

On May 2nd, we played a very special concert at the bottom of a disused limestone mine, which is now used as a museum for the sculptor Anders Bundgaard and is inhabited by hundreds of bats. From the entrance of the mine it was about 100 meters to the place where we constructed the stage, and already at the first steps you could feel the damp and cold. The mine passages are reminiscent of a rustic cathedral, and the many reliefs and statues on display give the place a very special atmosphere.

With me I had my faithful technical team consisting of Mikkel Møller Larsen, who programs and controls the lights and lasers, and Jens Søbæk who is responsible for the sound system and live sound.

The band consisted of singers Tanja Hollerup and Julie Sommer. On either side of them were Jesper H. Petersen on bass and Nicolai Olsen on Chapman Stick and hurdy gurdy. On a raised podium behind them sat David A. Jeppesen behind his drum kit. This is the first time since 2019 that we have drums on stage, so it was a nice reunion with David. I stood next to the drums with my guitars

We played for a little over an hour, the environment in the limestone mine making it increasingly difficult for us to perform. It was 8 degrees Celsius and 90% humidity, which made fingers stiff, caused the instruments to condense and made the singers' voices rough.

The majority of the set consisted of songs we've played before, but there was also room for things we'd never performed before and a brand new song. And I sang the chorus without a vocoder - I've never done that before.

I didn't notice it during the concert itself - I guess I just thought it was the smoke machine - but when we packed up it became clear that a fog had formed in the mine. Maybe because of our hot lamps, but the fog hung around the whole time we carried our equipment out and when the mine was locked up after we'd left.