Danish Music Award winning folk artist Ida Wenøe has earned a reputation as an outstanding live performer with her cut-through crystalline voice and delicate guitar style.
Since the release of her debut album “Time of Ghosts” in 2015 she has played hundreds of shows all over Europe and North America, and enjoyed significant national radio support in her homeland, along with BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 4 (UK) and KEXP (Seattle) and WXNA (Nashville) in the USA .
Ida Wenøe is known for her introspective storytelling, often using nature as her tapestry. With a voice that’s both ethereal and earthy, the Copenhagen-based singer-songwriter draws inspiration from the folk traditions of the 1960s and ‘70s, with her own contemporary take. Her music is characterised by subtle yet intricate guitar work, soaring vocal harmonies, and a lyrical depth that’s both personal and universal.
Originating from a small village in the countryside of Jutland, Denmark, Ida started writing songs as a pre-teen, finding comfort in the intimacy between her voice and the guitar, and using her curiosity for telling stories as her catalyst. She taught herself how to play the guitar and has never had a lesson in her life, making her guitar style quite unique. “I took piano lessons from a very young age, and I think this was my quiet rebellion against being schooled in the “right” way of how to play music.” Ida says.
Now with 3 acclaimed studio albums behind her, Wenøe has developed her own take on chamber folk, by blending traditional Danish folk music influenced by the legendary songbook “Højskolesangbogen” and composers like Sebastian and Carl Nielsen with inspiration from international artists like Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Bill Callahan, Bedouine, Leonard Cohen, Vashti Bunyan and Beth Gibbons.
In more recent years Ida has embraced her love of collaborations, namely with artists; Samantha Whates from Scotland, Gareth Bonello from Wales and Matt the Electrician from USA, both writing and performing together, enjoying a strong musical and personal kinship in the blending of their musical styles, all rooted in folk music.
Following 2019’s well-received “The Things We Don’t Know Yet”, Ida’s latest album “Undersea” came out in 2023 to great international reviews, airplay on BBC Radio with a lot of smaller radio stations supporting it too. It was followed up by concerts in Sweden and Denmark with a UK tour scheduled for autumn 2024.
Written and recorded in two weary old summer houses on the west coast of Jutland, the new songs see Ida return to the hushed, simple intimacy of her acclaimed debut LP “Time of Ghosts”, with nature and the range of human emotion lyrically center stage.
About “Undersea” KLOF Magazine says;
“An album to be experienced in tranquillity, a musical Reiki for the soul that offers a view of life that, like the ocean, can be often filled with mystery and darkness, but “when the light hits its surface, it can be the most golden thing existing”. Immerse yourself”
“Bewitching acid folk with a deeply personal edge” - Clash Magazine
“Ida Wenøe is equal parts mysterious, brooding & beguiling” - R2 Magazine
“Her voice - weary but cute, with the power to cut through - is perfect” – The Guardian