Rugsted/Kreutzfeldt

Danish pop rock duo and producer team. The duo was active from 1977 to 1985 and again from 2006, and amongst the most popular Danish acts in the early 1980's. History Jens Rugsted and Stig Kreutzfeldt met in 1977 at Sweet Silence Studios where Kreutzfeldt worked as engineer and producer and they started recording their music at night when the studio was free. The first recording to be released was "Lad Mig Dele Dine Drømme" which was the only formerly unreleased track on the 1977 compilation 1626803. The first two studio albums 1262715 and 8706022 were released in 1979 and 1980 respectively, but the big breakthrough only came after a TV appearance in March 1981 and subsequent national tours with a 10-piece band in March and May/June, including a concert at Plænen, Tivoli with an audience of around 50,000. Over the summer 1981, their two albums occupied the first and second place of the Danish album charts during several weeks. The third studio album 1262898 was released in 1982, but when the subsequent tour was canceled by the duo, the criticism from the media was merciless. This was a turning point. Right after this downturn, CBS Denmark hired the American songwriter and producer Dan Hartman to 'translate' Rugsted/Kreutzfeldt's music to the international pop market. The English vocals for Hartman's versions of selected songs were recorded at Sweet Silence Studios, and Rugsted and the technician on the recordings, Thomas Brekling, went to Connecticut, US to put the last instrumental tracks on the final versions and do the premix with Hartman. Kreutzfeldt stayed at home because he didn't believe in Hartman's production and thought it sounded terrible. All in all, Hartmann's eccentric manner was not compatible with Rugsted's and Kreutzfeldt's, so the recordings ended up there and were released, almost secretly, in 1983 as 4115113. Rugsted/Kreutzfeldt made another studio album 2736230 with a subsequent tour in 1985 and although the duo was not formally dissolved, the collaboration was gradually phased out in 1985. However, Jens Rugsted and Stig Kreutzfeldt occasionally continued the songwriting collaboration and produced albums for other Danish artists such as Sanne Salomonsen (including the album 1262701), Lis Sørensen, Peaches & Bobo and Kim Larsen. A successful comeback concert with a large 10-piece band at Plænen, Tivoli in 2006 paved the way for a 2007-tour with a good forty concerts with the same large band. Subsequent concerts were mainly played as a trio, or with varying formats adapted to the venue. In 2011, they released the album 4566184, which consists of a CD with new songs and a CD and DVD with classic Rugsted/Kreutzfeldt songs from a concert in the DR Koncerthuset with the large band expanded with DR RadioUnderholdningsOrkestret . In 2016, Niels Christensen authored the book "Rugsted Kreutzfeldt - Kom tilfældigvis forbi" and Rugsted/Kreutzfeldt also released 9506333 with their own interpretations of old songs they wrote for other artists.