Skatebård

Bård Aasen Lødemel, performing as Skatebård, started out playing drums in heavy metal before discovering techno and rave culture in the 1990s and later focusing on retro-futuristic disco, house, and techno productions. Raised in the modest coastal town of Ørsta in western Norway, he settled in Bergen during 2000 and soon joined the city’s expanding club community. After passing a self-made demo to Mikal Telle, founder of Tellé Records, he joined the imprint’s sister label Tellektro in 2001. His debut Skatebård project arrived the following year as the brief vinyl-only album Skateboarding Was a Crime (In 1989), which gradually built recognition for him outside Norway. Around the same time he acquired cult status in Norwegian hip-hop by serving as supporting MC for Side Brok, an act that counted among the nation’s strongest-selling hip-hop ensembles throughout 2004.

He never abandoned his dance-music origins, continuing to issue 12-inch records on international labels including Keys of Life. While occupied with studio productions, remixes, DJ sets, and Side Brok responsibilities, Lødemel launched his own imprint, Digitalo Enterprises, securing distribution through the Cologne-based Kompakt network. Released in 2006, Midnight Magic carried a clear Italo disco character and drew favorable notices from both Norwegian and foreign music outlets. Later Digitalo projects Cosmos (2008) and the digital-only Vill Stil (2011) moved between raw, jacking house and refined Euro-disco. Issued in 2015, CDIII became the third Skatebård album to appear on compact disc and stood as his most varied and polished work, pulling from Moroder-style disco, Krautrock, and assorted post-disco idioms such as Italo-disco and early Chicago house.