As twilight settles over Odense in 2025, marking a century and a half since Hans Christian Andersen’s final breath, Ras Bolding resurrects the ghostly dreams of Denmark’s legendary storyteller. At HCA Festivals, the city’s week-long tribute brimming with theatre, music, and radiant street spectacles, Bolding’s evocative HCA Suite manifests twice on August 23, freely inviting festival-goers into a vivid confrontation with Andersen’s spectral imagination.
The performance unfurls from Andersen’s deathbed, his characters summoned from pages to guide the author on an ethereal farewell tour. Andersen’s world is a harsh one, but each of his beloved (and often grim) tales teaches us about the fragility of humanity: Gerda and Kay navigate frozen enchantments, Andersen’s shadow overwhelms its master, and a fir tree learns the harsh truth of ambition. Mothers plead with Death, mermaids yearn silently beneath turbulent waves, and fragile match girls envision warmth against winter’s bite.
With the HCA Suite, Hans Christian Andersen is reimagined through synth pulses, gothic grandeur, punk edges, and folk echoes, resonates through oriental flourishes and 8-bit nostalgia. paying homage to classical motifs Andersen himself cherished.
Bolding, voice and fingers dancing across synthesizers and a nostalgic Commodore 64, shares the stage with Alex Anarki’s electronic elegance and Kaos Korrosion’s additional vocal depth. Penelope Ramon and Jannik Juhl’s striking visual orchestrations flood the stage in laser beams, moody illuminations, and intricate costumes, enhancing Andersen’s visions with illustrative power.
Following the suite’s final notes, DJs Sue She and Olivia Obskur extend the night’s musical enchantments, spinning records deep into the Odense evening. Andersen’s timeless creations thus reverberate anew, celebrated with a contemporary heartbeat that echoes quietly yet insistently through the pulse of the present.
There will be two free performances:
Saturday August 23
- 05:00 PM – 06:00 PM
- 08:00 PM – 09:00 PM
(Doors open around an hour prior)
More information can be found here.
Ras Bolding, hailing from Odense, Denmark, effortlessly traverses genres such as synth, wave, goth, and postpunk, uniquely enriching his sound by blending playful 8-bit computer game aesthetics with nuances of folk and classical composition. His concerts showcase dazzling laser and light displays, with Bolding center stage, skillfully operating both analog and digital synthesizers and notably wielding a vintage Commodore 64 as a keytar. Accompanying him are musicians Alex Anarki, bringing depth on synthesizer, and Kaos Korrosion, contributing additional synth textures and vocals. Beyond performance, Bolding founded Klub Golem, Odense’s hub for alternative music and culture, and contributes to Denmark’s leading music magazine, Gaffa.
Every year in August, the HCA Festivals presents more than 500 cultural experiences over 10 days in the center of Odense, where guests of all ages can enjoy theatre performances, street performances, contemporary circus, concerts, art exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and much, much more. The festival was created with the desire to generate pride in the city, attract visitors and retain them for the enjoyment of Odense, Funen and individual festival guests. The festival is founded on a strong community of volunteers, cultural actors, artists, supporters, sponsors and Odense Municipality.
