Bio
SoundOkapi is a Danish sound artist with a diverse range of interests, but an easily recognizable sound.
SoundOkapi plays minimal music, ambient, micro house, noise, and occasionally ventures into other genres, often blending them in unpredictable ways.
Synths are central to his setup, enhanced by guitar pedals and loopers. Recently, he has developed an interest in incorporating his own vocals into his musical domain, as well as the instrument of his youth, the bass clarinet.
One of his largest commissions to date was composing all the music for the 2025 dance performance UNMASKED by the Danish company Kompagni47.
SoundOkapi has collaborated with vocal artists Hanne Raffnsøe and Helle Thun, as well as drummer Nicholas Wolf Haamann and the Berlin-based electronic trio Pausa a Pausa. While he frequently performs in Danish churches, he has also appeared at festivals in Denmark and at smaller venues in Berlin.
SoundOkapi, real name Flemming Chr. Hansen (born 1968), originally trained as a classical organist and choir leader. He continues to work as an organist alongside his electronic practice.
He began composing at the age of 10, focusing on chamber music, organ works, and choral pieces, meticulously notated and detailed. He briefly studied composition at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen before choosing to concentrate on his career as an organist. Despite this shift, he continued composing and has received numerous commissions, grants, and performances internationally.
During the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020, SoundOkapi transitioned his long-standing interest in meditative music from classical acoustic instruments to electronics, reconnecting with his youth spent in the academy’s electronic music studio. Since then, he has worked primarily with live electronic setups, exploring improvisation and structure in real time.
His current focus is fully improvised music: minimal textures and ambient soundscapes with occasional rhythmic movement, and moments of more physical, noise-oriented expression.
Among SoundOkapi’s sources of inspiration are:
Charles Tournemire (L'orgue mystique)
Olivier Messiaen (Turangalila, Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps)
Per Nørgård (I Ching, the symphonies)
Philip Glass (Koyaanisqatsi, Mishima)
Steve Reich (Drumming)
Jan Jelinek (Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, Tierbeobachtungen)
Laurie Anderson (Big Science, especially O Superman)
Aphex Twin (Drukqx, Selected Ambient Works II)
…as well as Hainbach, Oval, Jon Hopkins, J.S. Bach, Kate Bush, Ole Buck, and many others, alongside folk music from various traditions.
