So, who am I?

My name is Kim – baptised Kim Rafael Nyberg. I was born in 1976 in Finland and grew up there as a part of the swedish speaking minority (ca 6% of the population), speaking swedish at home and in school and learned Finnish with all the16 cases in school. As a boy and youngster I was very much into sports and spent most of my freetime playing table tennis in the long winters and running and jumping and throwing on the track and field place in the summers, with occasional detours to handball and chess. Hitting adolescence my interest and focus turned heavily into music, letting my hair grow long, started smoking whatever could be smoked and brewing kilju* for me and my peers. Growing out of that, I moved to Denmark and started studying Musicology in Copenhagen in 1998.

Fast forward to 2022. I’m still in Denmark and haven’t cut my hair in a quarter of a century. The fermenting has switched from kilju to kefir and kimchi, and my preferred  brew is now tea. I’m still using most of my time on music. I’ve released around 10 albums as a composer and 3 as a co-writer. My band Afenginn, founded in 2002, is getting grown up andwe’ve travelled a lot with our music and played in many parts of the world and received numerous awards for our work. These last couple of years I’ve started two new bands: Klingra and Vielsted,  both with new music being released. I’ve also composed for symphony orchestras, ballets, films, theatre, choirs and can somehow make a living doing all this. My work has been recognised with 8 Danish Music Awards (in other countries called Grammies), 2 Faroese Music Awards, 1 Carl Award and a few other recognitions.

I live in rural Denmark and grow as much of my own food as possible, with focus on building healthy soil and working without machines. I don’t really believe in the story that nature should be transformed into money and calling this “progress” or “growth”.

I’m a father to three lovely daughters.

* Kilju (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈkilju]) is the Finnish word for fermented water. It is made of sugar, yeast, and water. Kilju is considered to be a low-quality beverage that is consumed mainly for the sake of its alcohol content. It is commonly associated with the punk subculture.

On my music

I’ve been writing music as long as I can remember and still find it almost magical and hugely rewarding to dive into that space. Music is by definition close to impossible to describe, however many words I’ll try to put on it. But some of them could be something like:

My music is mostly instrumental and is often difficult to define genre-wise, but it often appears somewhere between so called classical and popular music. Usually with some electronics/electronical manipulations. Sometimes with influences from nordic and eastern European folk music, sometimes odd meter craziness, sometimes drony ambience, often with some mathematical/structrural patterns, but always aiming for more heart than head.

I like melodies and themes. And I like how patterns, themes and other musical elements can be combined and related to each other. I often end up composing long and large forms, with reoccuring themes. I’m not shy for big pathos, nor minimalism. I’m used to working with scores, as well as some production in my own little studio. When not working on my own projects, I compose with equal excitement for films, theatre, dance, games, bigger and smaller ensembles, choirs, etc.