“The Shellcreeper is the first enemy to appear in Mario Bros. They walk out of the Warp Pipes at the top of the screen and walk towards the pipes at the bottom of the screen.” – MarioWiki
Psycophant is alive and well. This EP release features four remixes of the track Shellcreeper by artists such as Brandon Walsh, Fegolhuzz and ALPAidUS.
“Greetings to all Amiga music legends: David Whittaker, Firefox, Radix, 4mat, Chris Huelsbeck, Jogeir Liljedahl, Dr Awesome, Jesper Kyd, SLL, Uncle Tom, Tip, Mantronix. Mega greetings to Karsten Obarski.” – We Are Amiga
Four gold + Two silver + One bronze = Total domination.
Together we are stronger. This year we decided to team up on a multitude of collaboration projects for the Edison 2016 event held 1st to 3rd of July in Stockholm, Sweden.
Yours Truly On Stage
Besides the traditional prize trophies it seems the Edison staff got the concept because they created a one-time unique award and prize trophy called Domination just for me. I am humbled!
1st Place in Oldschool Music Competition
We Are Complicated, an Amiga module collaboration made by ALPAidUS/iNSANE and Danko/Fairlight (me)
All formats competed against each other in the Oldschool Competition (i.e. Amiga modules, C64 SID, PC FastTracker etc, Gameboy and other chip tune platforms).
2nd Place in Oldschool Music Competition
We Are 64, a Commodore C64 track collaboration made by Fegolhuzz/Panda Design and Danko/Fairlight (me)
We used a version of Jens-Christian Huus’ New Player (20.G4) and Editor (3.04), running on an original Commodore C64 computer equipped with the 8580 SID sound chip.
Fairlight won 1st Place in Oldschool Demo Competition with the Commodore C64 demo In Memory Of . Fairlight also won 1st Place in Newschool Demo Competition with the PC demo We Are PC . I am credited for the music in the demo.
I came last in the Combined ASCII & ANSI & Oldschool Graphics Competition with this one:
“By far the best demo I’ve seen to date. Great music!” – The Phantom
Fairlight and Offence released a Commodore C64 demo at the annual hacker event Revision in Germany. It competed against all old platforms and we won 1st prize in the Old Skool Demo category.
Usually I am credited for the music in our demos, however this time my name is not in the credits. Maybe for legal reasons, but I can’t really talk about that. If I did music I was perhaps not the only one making music for the demo without getting credited. Most people have figured out who could have done all that music in the first place, anyway. It sounds like something I could have done, they say. Especially the first couple of minutes, they say. I won’t comment on that, I say.
If it was me who made that track, I might in theory have composed it using vintage software, Jens-Christian Huus’ NP Editor and Newplayer 20.G4 on a Commodore C64C with the 8580 SID audio chip.
In addition Smash/Fairlight held a seminar called How Fairlight/CNCD Infiltrated The World Of Live Visuals. Yes, our Fairlight PC department are the ones making all those nice visual effects for Eurovision, The Grammys, Cirque du Soleil and world tours for bands like Coldplay, U2 and Ed Sheeran among others. Fairlight – We are everywhere!
I’ve said it before and will say it again. We are still alive and kicking on the C64 demo scene.
“Med sin satsning att etablera företaget i en av Upplands-Bros fina kulturmiljöer tillför CAP-Breweries något extra till den omdaning som hela området vid Säbyholm nu genomgår..” – Upplands-Bro Kommun
CAP Brewery was awarded Best New Established Company Award 2016 in the Upplands-Bro county. My esteemed former colleague and head brewer extraordinaire Mattias Hammenlind attended the gala and prize ceremony to receive the award. I left CAP Brewery in March 2016. However, since I used to be Managing Director and Head Brewer at CAP Brewery the last two years I’d like to think I perhaps did something right with my leadership that led to getting the award. Congratulations to Mattias, Jenny, Alli, Magnus and CAP for your hard work paying off!
“Ölkrogkedjan Monks café firar 10 år och man kan väl lugnt säga att de inte vilar på lagrarna, det kommer hända rejält med grejer under 2016 … Bryggaren Tomas Danko har engagerats som huvudbryggare på Monks eget bryggeri på Wallingatan och kommer hålla i bryggningar och bryggkurser under året. “ – Joel Linderoth, Expressen
The last two years or so I’ve had had the fantastic opportunity to build a brand new and great brewery from the ground up together with some mighty fine people at CAP Brewery. I will always be grateful to have been part of that, it was an amazing time to learn just about everything that goes on inside and outside of a proper brewery. I will always be a CAP fan at heart and consider those colleagues dear friends of mine.
New times calls for a new position, however. Now that I have recently become father to a son, the demanding role as Managing Director for a company is a bit much to balance against parenthood.
I have accepted the positions as Brewmaster and Head of Development at Monk’s Café & Brewery situated in Stockholm just a few minutes stroll from the Central Station. I will be brewing beer at the local brewpub but also develop several affiliated breweries around and outside of Stockholm as well as having the pleasure of brewing at those as well. There are other beer related ventures in addition within the company that I will spearhead in development.
Over the years I have had the pleasure to guest brew my own beer about seven times at Monk’s Café so we have a history together. Last year we did a collaboration brew between Monk’s Café & CAP Brewery at Monk’s Café for their seven year anniversary, for instance.
Another reason is that my new job will allow me to simultaneously develop other projects for the future. To be continued…
2015 Monk’s Café & CAP Brewery Collaboration Brew with new colleague and Brewmaster Charles Cassino
How the Commodore Inspired a Generation of Swedish Gamers
“Tomas Danko is one of the most famous musicians within the demo scene.” – Jimmy Wilhelmsson
Ah you think Commodore C64 is your ally? You merely adopted the Commodore C64. I was born in it, molded by it.
Most people who know me also know that I grew up making music, demos and code on the legendary Commodore C64 home computer. As a matter of fact I am still highly active on the C64 scene making music for Fairlight demos and competing at hacker parties and events.
This book, Generation 64, is in my opinion the most significant work in the matter, i.e. covering the history of what started as a nerd hobby several decades ago and from where today’s huge industry of video games and multi media art first originated. It all started with the C64. For me, and for an entire successful generation.
I am deeply humbled to have been given four pages in this incredibly well written and great looking book. My chapter in the book basically covers my entire childhood and onwards. The rest of the book covers everything and everybody else.
“Hantverksbryggerierna konkurrerar inte med varandra utan med de stora drakarna.” – Tomas Danko
I have been featured many times in Maltesen, however this time I am being interviewed instead of having written an article. In this six page article we discuss what the future might look like regarding the booming craft beer industry that is currently taking place in Sweden.
Many esteemed brewers are being asked the same question in the article, I am honored to have been considered worthy to be among them in this dialogue. The article can be found starting on page ten. The magazine is in Swedish and distributed in hard copy and prescription only although members of Svenska Ölfrämjandet can download the magazine in PDF-format. However, you can buy Maltesen over at Humlegården .
Questionable mugshot of yours truly as No. 2 in the lineup
“Here we meet Tomas who gives us a behind the scene account of his Brewery.” – Noel Sheehy, Best of Booze Bar Magazine
In November last year I was approached by Noel for an interview. A few months later and the magazine is printed in hard copy as well as available online. I describe an ordinary brew day at CAP Brewery and why we make the beers that we do.
“We didn’t have time to do a demo but we still wanted to greet our friends.” – Pantaloon/Fairlight
For the third year I competed with music at the Edison hacker event in Stockholm and for the third time I won some awards. At first I did not intend to submit music to the competition but once at the event I thought why not. Gotta keep the scene alive.
2nd Place in Streaming Music Competition
I came second with a track called The Trulledutt . It’s some kind of a minimalist instrumental commercial dance thing that I put together during the christmas holidays last winter.
3rd Place in Streaming Music Competition
Many years ago I wrote this track and K-Line produced this particular mix. Our collaboration track called Boyfriend came third. The narrative is about a girl playing an old-school 8-bit video game and her boyfriend is the protagonist in the game. Vocals by former Tempus member Josefin Landare von Schantz
Demo Competition Awards
Fairlight also came 2nd place in the Oldskool Demo Competition with a Commodore C64 demo as well as 3rd place in the PC Demo Competition with the demo Zeitgeist.
“Danko is back, last issue I wanted a tune for this mag from him, well, he delivered!” – Jazzcat/Vandalism
Once upon a time, before people could surf into webpages on the Internet to read up on things, news regarding the Commodore C64 hacker scene spread through disc magazines on floppy discs. Vandalism was one of the best discmags back then, and now it has been revived with a ridiculously fantastic new engine and interface. I was asked to provide some of the music for this whopping four disc side production, and was credited for one of the music tracks. The track is a sequel to another track called Ignorance, with which I won the old school music competition at Edison a few years ago.
The magazine was released at the Flashback 2015 event and also came fourth place in the WiLD Demo Competition there.
As always, I composed the track using old software from Jens-Christian Huus.
“Great FLT feeling with a nice sound track.” – Peter de Vries
For the fourth year in a row, Fairlight won the demo competition at the annual hacker event Birdie in Uppsala, Sweden. I was credited for the music in the demo.
The theme this year was the Seven Deadly Sins, with the demo competition focusing on pride. Hence the peacock.
“In physics, redshift happens when light or other electromagnetic radiation from an object is increased in wavelength, or shifted to the red end of the spectrum. In general, whether or not the radiation is within the visible spectrum, “redder” means an increase in wavelength – equivalent to a lower frequency and a lower photon energy, in accordance with, respectively, the wave and quantum theories of light.” – Wikipedia
Now that I no longer work full time with audio, the motivation and inspiration to create music is slowly coming back into my life. It also helps not working 70 hour weeks, as opposed to what you do in the video game industry. I spent six days composing and the result is this electronic progressive psytrance dance music album. Each track took four hours of work in total.
Psycophant – Redshift
Each consecutive track is transposed one tone higher in key as well as incrementally faster in BPM (tempo) compared to the previous one. At the end of the album, it’s gone full circle (i.e. one octave) and is back to where it started. The bonus track is a mix where all album tracks are synchronized in both key and BPM, mixing in and out at random while all playing simultaneously. That might read like crazy but it seems to work.
“Datorn som skapade det Svenska IT-undret.” – Expressen
The book Generation 64 [Swedish] is an amazing testimony over the people who pioneered multi media and IT when they grew up using the Commodore C64 home computer. To celebrate the release of the book we naturally created a C64 Demo Tralier. I am credited for the music, which I composed on the trusty old C64.
The C64 Demo Trailer also came 1st place at the Gerp 2014 Demo Competition.
“If we could imagine the love of one who loves men purely for their own sake, and not because of any need or desire of his own, purely desires their good, and yet loves them wholly, not for what at this moment they are, but for what he knows he can make of them because he made them, then we should have in our minds some true image of the love of the Father and Creator of mankind.” – Oliver Chase Quick on the meaning of Agape
After I had sold my music store in 2005 I was being commissioned to write, arrange, record and produce an electronic commercial dance music album for a project. I was given six weeks to produce the album and teamed up with former music colleague Jens Larsson (we did Starchild together) and vocalist Lena Borg.
The original CD was released in 2007 and now it was time to release it online as with my other previous albums. The CD plant pressed 32 000 units of the album.
“CAP, vars bryggare Tomas Danko och Mattias Hammenlind bjudit oss på fantastiska öl tidigare i andra bryggeriers skepnad, gör öl som verkligen är värda att testa – inte bara för att de är nya utan för att de är bra.” – Joel Linderoth, Expressen
After having lived and brewed beer in Belgium it was time to come home to Stockholm, Sweden. It was obvious that I had to keep brewing beer for a living, it just has to be done.
I am now Managing Director and Head Brewer at CAP Brewery situated in Bro right outside of Stockholm city. We brew 30 HL batches with an annual production volume of 3000 HL. You only get one chance in life to build a brand new craft brewery from the ground up. That is, unless you have the money yourself to start your own brewery. Which I don’t.
“Initial very boring but it’s growing and growing by time. the simplicity makes it good and yes it’s quite old school!” – Celtic Design/Genesis Project
For the second year I competed with music at the Edison hacker event in Stockholm and for the second time I won. This time I even won two awards.
1st Place in Oldschool Music Competition
All formats competed against each other in the Old School Competition (i.e. Amiga modules, C64 SID, PC FastTracker etc, Gameboy and other chip tune platforms).
The track is called Oldschool Bassline and it won the oldschool music competition held 27th of June at Edison 2014 in Stockholm.
I used a version of Jens-Christian Huus’ New Player (20.G4) and Editor (3.04), running on an original Commodore C64 computer equipped with the 8580 SID sound chip.
“Cloudy pale orange, creamy gead. Rich aroma of elderflower, citrus and marmelade. Mid dry with soft mouthfeel and solid body. Tropical fruits, the slightest hint of marzipan and grass. Lovely malt depth and rich, seemless flavours, where hops and yeast induced flavours come together perfectly. Mid bitter finish. A real winner!” – omhper @ RateBeer
Years ago I brewed a couple of times at Monk’s Café Brewpub in Stockholm together with Head Brewer Charles Cassino. After I came back from Belgium, having worked there brewing beer at De Struise Brouwers, I was asked to do a couple of collaboration brews once again. We made two beers together.
Monks Cassino vs Danko DIPA, a Belgian Double IPA at 8.2% abv. Monks Cassino vs Danko Belgo IPA, a Belgian IPA at 7% abv.
They were sold under various names, hence the multiple links per below.
“This is the best C64 music I’ve heard. A serious ear-worm too.. Had to come back for a second view after the tune followed me around all day. Gotta search around for more from Danko.” – Kevin Loughin
Fairlight and Offence released a Commodore C64 demo at the annual hacker event Revision in Germany. It competed against all old platforms and we came third. I was credited for all the music in the demo.
As usual I composed the track using vintage software, Jens-Christian Huus’ NP Editor and Newplayer 20.G4 on a Commodore C64C with the 8580 SID audio chip.
We are still alive and kicking on the C64 demo scene.
Struise Danko Power IPA – Another beer brewed by yours truly
“Hazy amber orange with a creamy off-white head. Smells of pine resin, herbal hops with a touch of rye and black bread, nicely hoppy. Tastes of raw pine, creamy malts, faintly herbal, bay laurel, touch caramel,… Solid body considering the ABV. Nice beer.” – 77ships @ RateBeer
“Probably the cleanest session pale ale you ever gonna get from Struise.” – Untappd
During my stay in Belgium working at De Struise Brouwers I was given the amazing opportunity to brew my very own beer and collaborate together with Head Brew Master Urbain Cotteau. I figured since they tend to brew very strong and bold beers why not let’s try and see how the brew house handles a low alcohol thirst quencher.
The beer is called Struise Danko Power IPA and is a 3.5% abv Session IPA.
Disclaimer: I did not get to name it, nor did I get to decide on the bottle label art. I don’t mind the outcome though.
“So let’s command our legions to walk across the river, and the omens of the Gods will make our enemies quiver.” – Julius Caesar (paraphrased)
I started out producing this electronic industrial dance music album seven years ago. The entire album revolves around Julius Caesar and his Legion XIII (aka The Gemini Legion) who did the forbidden thing when crossing the Rubicon to overtake Rome.
Somewhere along the line it never got finished all thanks to working every awaken hour making audio for video games. The album was made by Kenneth “Slaygon” Mutka and myself, we are both featured on vocals as well. The decision was made to release it “as-is”, hence the title.
We used a version of Jens-Christian Huus’ New Player (20.G4) and Editor (3.04), running on an original Commodore C64 computer equipped with the 8580 
