Northern Disco Lights, The Rise and Rise of Norwegian Dance Music

2017 • 74 minutes

About this movie

Northern Disco Lights tells the untold story of a group of teenagers in the arctic city of Tromsø, who set off a chain of events that would go on to transform their country. To escape the boredom of growing up in a remote outpost, they created their own music scene, setting up radio stations, parties, building synthesizers and making tunes. Word spread as like-minded souls recognised the call to arms and inspired a generation of kids who would go on to change dance music and Norway forever. Taking over 30 months to produce, the team travelled Europe to interview 67 contributors including Bryan Ferry, Bjørn Torske, Prins Thomas, DJ Strangefruit, Nemone (BBC 6 Music), Mental Overdrive, Idjut Boys, Lindstrøm, Annie, Bill Brewster and many more. Over two hundred stills and videos were unearthed including exclusive unseen archives, jaw dropping drone footage and eye-popping animations and graphics. The result is a 20-year story that moves beyond the boundaries of music documentary through struggle, tragedy, inspiration, discovery and pure hedonism. The film has caught the zeitgeist of a globalised world united by music.

Ratings and reviews

This documentary is the best thing ever. I rented it last night and have watched it twice since. Probably going for round three tonight. Diving in to this beautiful, critic free and organic music scene in this mesmerising fashion it's damn brilliant. It's fun. It's sad. Connecting the lowkey, humble & almost fragile norweigan vibe with the ecstatic dance'a'delic scene it's the bomb. And when you have to stop the film several times to listen to the soundtrack song in it's entirety the film is like 2.30 at least but in the best way possible, neverending baby. Watch it please!

A beautifully made documentary with a real heart, if you only watch one documentary this year make it this one