The young musicians of the north

GFD Collective is a collection of rappers, singers, songwriters, and music producers from Greenland, Faroe Islands and Denmark. The women behind the group are the singer and music producer, Vibeke Falden, and co-project manager, Sanne Wiwe, who also has a background in theater, cultural project management, music booking and tour management. Together, they assembled a group back in 2019, and recorded 10 songs. From then, they started to plan the groups music production camp, album project, and workshop- and concert-tour, all in one!

A bumpy ride

It hasn’t been easy to arrange events in Greenland during the past couple of months. This is also true for GFD Collective.

– Corona really put a stick in the wheel of our project. NAPA granted us DDK 100.000 in 2020, so we could go on a tour in Greenland, and later to the Faroe Islands in 2021, and then to Denmark at a later point. We ended up travelling to Sisimiut, and Ilulissat, while our planned trip to Nuuk got cancelled because of the enhanced restrictions. But we reached our goals! We did take quite a few roundabout detours along the way, but we arrived, says the project manager, Sanne Grothe Wiwe.

A mixture of fun and learning

The group was reunited in Greenland on the 10^th of November 2021 and left again on the 20^th of November 2021. During that time, several arrangements were made, such as a two-day workshop in Sisimiut, a three-day workshop in Ilulissat, and concerts in the two cities. During the workshops, there was an approximate of 25 kids that participated.

The concerts were arranged by Arctic Sounds – Music Festival, who also contributed with funds for the project. You can check out what happened on the different days through GFD Collectives Facebook profile here.

The workshops were held for the young between the ages 15 and 20, and there, they had the opportunity to write, and record their own melodies and lyrics. The participants had a couple of instructors, in the course of the workshops, who showed them the process of music production from the initial writing to the recording.

You can listen to the finished products from the workshops in Sisimiut here, and from Ilulissat here. You can also listen to GFD Collectives own productions here.

– We held the workshops, so that the local young-folks in the cities could try using the work-methods that we use ourselves, and maybe acquire a taste for it, and continue working with music in the future. Afterwards it’s just about keeping a grip on the young, that we’ve been in contact with. We do this through the social medias, where we keep people updated on what’s going on in GFD Collective, says Sanne.

GFD Collective made sure to record their days and activities in Greenland, with the help from their photographer, Malene Porup. Malene collected the different bits and pieces from their time in Greenland into a documentary. The documentary contains interviews with both the members of GFD Collective, and the participants of the workshops. You can check out the documentary here. (Coming soon)

Apart from that, you can follow GFD Collectives activities through Facebook and Instagram.