Fairlight – Demo Retox

Demo Retox

Myself and Fairlight , our Demoscene Group, won #1 place in the Music Competition and also #1 place in the Demo Competition at ACQUA Party 2024 in Vreden, Germany.

My music, UltraMaxx , and the demo were made on the Commodore C64 8-bit computer that is over 40 years old.

Fairlight - Demo Retox on YouTube

Internet Comments

“I like the Demo, but LOVE the soundtrack!” – Didi, CSDB
“Danko is killing it again! Happy days!” – AnnatarTheMaia, YouTube
“Danko did it again! great tune! <3" - Hamster, YouTube
“Incredibly great sound track” – WittichWolf, YouTube
“Awesome demo and the music by Danko is out of this world!” – Stingray, Pouet
“Boaahhh…this SIS This bassdrum, this basedrum kicks my ass THX to DANKO” – toddybody, YouTube
“This music is dope. What a great demo.” – rasterzeit, YouTube
“Sweet sid from danko !” – MCM, CSDB
“Very catchy tune by Danko too! Congratulations for another great release.” – Brush, CSDB
“Love every second of that – from those dramatic opening tones, to the final cymbal crash.” – AnthonyCassidy50, YouTube
“Guys you are sick ;) Another legendary masterpiece! Good moods, music, gfx and fonts!” – psydooh, YouTube
“Damn. What’s wrong with you guys? What do you eat for breakfast? I want exactly the same thing!” – CarstenMeyer, YouTube
“Wir gehen zur disko jeder nacht! awesome short prod, and kickass music by DANKO” – teo, Pouet
“What a lovely demo, this was a great ride! I really love Danko’s soundtrack aswell.” – Matt, CSDB
“Awesome! New creative take on old effects, great synchronisation with superb music, what do you need more?” – Jetboy, CSDB

We spent less than a week on the production, for what it’s worth. It was a blast!

Enjoy!

Demo Retox on YouTube
UltraMaxx Track as MP3
ACQUA Party Competition Results on Demozoo
Demo Retox on Pouet
ACQUA Party Releases on CSDB
Demo Retox on CSDB
UltraMaxx Track on CSDB
ACQUA Party on Abyss-Connection Website

Synthwave Pop

One Day is the fourth single from Retromantix , it is a collaboration together with Synthwave legend Turbo Knight and might be a bit Pop for Synthwave but we’re here to make progress and push boundaries.

Enjoy!

Retromantix & Turbo Knight – One Day on Spotify
Retromantix & Turbo Knight – One Day on Apple Music
Retromantix Instagram Page
Retromantix Facebook Page
Turbo Knight Instagram Page
Turbo Knight Facebook Page

Booyaka Booyaka!

“I expected more from Danko” – Unknown person unaware I spent only a few hours on the track

2nd Place in Tracked Music – Drum & Bass Mania Competition

Inna Evoke Style is the name of a track I made for the music competition at Evoke in Köln, more specifically for the Tracker Competition that this year had a Drum & Bass theme.

DnB is perhaps not my usual genre, nevertheless I decided a few days prior to the event that I would make a DnB track on Amiga and therefore spent a Wednesday evening and night for this.
I did not expect to make it past pre-selection to begin with, and yet I won second place only beaten by a track made by two excellent musicians (Bacter & Saga) on PC using 31 channels and 5000 KB of memory, whereas my contribution was made on Amiga using 4 channels and 499 KB of memory.

An Amiga MOD track made using the 30+ year old Pro Tracker 2 software

4th Place in MP3/OGG (Streaming Music) Competition

Essence of Life was my contribution for the Streaming Music Competition, again I did not expect to make it through pre-selection but I ended up four votes shy of another award and trophy. Teo won 2nd prize with his banger The Awakening , which I am credited on for mastering.

I made this track 31 years ago and merely remastered it to support the competitions with some entries, it is also a lot more fun to be in the audience during the competitions and prize award ceremonies when you got a stake in it. A curious tid bit is that I made this track using only an Ensoniq ASR-10 sampler with 16 MB of RAM and Cubase 1.8.3 (MIDI only, no audio) running on an old Mac SE/30 with 8 MB RAM. As old skool as it gets for dance music of the early 90s era!

Evoke 25 Year Anniversary Trophy

This year marks the 25 year anniversary of Evoke! And so, they decided to design and create what is perhaps the most amazing Demoscene trophy in history. I am forever grateful to own one of them.

There is a brick for each and every Evoke party event, all 25 of them.
Every brick contain pieces from the official Evoke T-Shirt of that year’s party event.
The bricks are rotating and movable, so that the trophy can be folded and flattened into a monolith.
The trophies were handmade over a two month period.

For the last 15 years, Evoke takes place at the Abenteuer Halle Kalk in Köln.

Yours truly on the left, Teo in the middle and Romeo Knight to the right.

Enjoy!

Link to Inna Evoke Style on YouTube in ProTracker
Link to Inna Evoke Style MP3
Link to Inna Evoke Style Amiga MOD File
Link to Essence of Life MP3
Link to The Awakening by Teo on SoundCloud
Link to Evoke 2024 Website
Link to Evoke 2024 on Demozoo

I Just Can’t Sleep

Close My Eyes is the third single from Retromantix , this time with a beat that is not the ubiquitous four-on-the-floor.

Enjoy!

Retromantix – Close My Eyes on Spotify
Retromantix – Close My eyes at Apple Music
Retromantix – Close My eyes on YouTube
Retromantix Instagram Page
Retromantix YouTube Page
Retromantix Facebook Page

Release the Raster Splits

“Main Sid is amazing and an end track by Danko himself made my ears melt in a good way.” – MCM @ CSDB

Fairlight won the C64 Demo Competition at X 2024 with 13:37 .
This demo is currently rated as the second best C64 demo of all time at CSDB.

I am credited for making the end title music. I first joined Fairlight in 1989 and am still a proud and active member.

Enjoy!

Link to 13:37 C64 Demo on YouTube
Link to my C64 End Title SID Song at Deepsid
Link to X 2024 at Demozoo
Link to X Demoparty
Link to X 2024 at CSDB
Link to live video in the audioence during showing 13:37 at X 2024
Link to 13:37 C64 Demo at CSDB

Live Acid House

Back in 1997 I performed a live acid house concert at the nightclub Studion on S:t Eriksplan in Stockholm.

Using the Roland TR-808, TR-707, MC-202 and SH-101 we erased the pattern memories, hit record, play and built the set progressively in front of the audience of some 125 people.

The material was previously unreleased, I have remastered and published the whole 27 minutes and 22 second long set.

These photos were taken during sound check, I used to have much, much longer hair back then for some reason.

Enjoy!

Starchild Live At Studion 1997 on Spotify
Starchild Live At Studion 1997 on Apple Music
Starchild Live At Studion 1997 on YouTube

Electronic Body Music From Sweden

“Goes on repeat sometimes here, did you write the main riff? It sounds very “Danko”.” – Linus “King Fisher/Triad” Walleij

Run Level Zero have released a music video on YouTube for their latest single which I produced, mixed and mastered. Manifest is available on Spotify and most other Streaming Services.

Enjoy!

Manifest music video on YouTube
Manifest on Spotify
Manifest on Apple Music
Run Level Zero Facebook Page

Electronic Body Music From Sweden

“The thumping programming beneath its zippy fanfare shows that RLZ are still very much connected to their roots” – I DIE:YOU DIE

Run Level Zero is one of the most legendary and formative EBM bands coming out of Sweden. The band was founded in 1999. Their latest album, Swaerm , was released in 2019.

I produced, mixed and mastered their newest single, Manifest , available on Spotify and most other Streaming Services.

Enjoy!

Manifest on Spotify
Manifest on Apple Music
Manifest on YouTube
Manifest on Bandcamp
Run Level Zero Facebook Page
Article on Manifest at I DIE:YOU DIE Website

Romantic Retrowave

“Voulez-vous voyager avec moi?
Viens
Voyage avec moi
Où allons-nous?
Où voyageons-nous?”

Voyage 707 is the second single from Retromantix , my personal Synthwave project where I finally get to record some emotional melancholy.

Enjoy!

Voyage 707 on Spotify
Voyage 707 on Apple Music
Voyage 707 on YouTube
Retromantix Instagram Page
Retromantix YouTube Page
Retromantix Facebook Page

Opus Danko

“All in all my hat off to Danko for the composition and to Glyn for arrangement and performance, this might very well be the most beautiful remix I’ve heard.” – Shargo, remix64.com

Opus Danko is an album featuring remixes by Glyn R. Brown, Kenneth “Slaygon” Mutka and myself.

All tracks are remixes based on six Commodore C64 SID songs I composed on the 8-bit home computer when I was twelve to fifteen years old. I created one track, Opus III, mixed one track, Mr. Danko’s Opus and mastered the entire album.

The album also feature the original C64 SID tracks, remastered in stereo.

Glyn R. Brown’s remix is currently #1 on the C64 All-Time Charts at Remix64.com. Considering there are currently 4818 released C64 remixes on that list, spanning over the last 23 years, this is nothing short of remarkable.

I want Opus Danko by Glyn R. Brown to be played at my after funeral party. That, and Bandle Bobble.

Enjoy!

Opus Danko on Spotify
Opus Danko on Apple Music
Opus Danko on YouTube
Original C64 SID Songs at Deepsid
C64 All-Time Charts at Remix64

Transmission 64, the Commodore C64 online Party

“Where did you start, and how did you get to where you are now?” – Slaygon

Transmission64 is a yearly online-only Commodore C64 Demo Event, this year I was asked to be interviewed .

The result is about one hour of me answering questions from Slaygon and Ziona, sent in by SLAYradio listeners. The topics are C64- and Music related for obvious reasons, although there is also talk about what I do for a living, video game design and comparing sausages from Germany and Sweden among other things.

Link to Interview on YouTube
Link to Stream on Twitch
Link to Transmission64 on Demozoo
Link to Transmission64 Webpage
Link to SLAYradio Webpage

Assassin’s Creed In First Person

“Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR might be the best game in virtual reality available on the market” – Gamergen
“Stunning visuals and voice work” – Nicholas Sutrich, Android Central

“Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR is the best Ubisoft game in years” – Digital Trends

Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR is now available on Meta Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest Pro VR Headsets. It is a true AAA VR title, canon to one of the largest game franchises in the world.

I am credited as Lead Voice Designer on the game, and it is nice to finally be able to talk about what I am doing for a living.

Nexus VR on Meta Quest App Store
Nexus VR Official Launch Trailer on YouTube
Nexus VR Webpage at Ubisoft
Nexus VR on IMDB
Nexus VR on MobyGames
Nexus VR Review at Android Central
Nexus VR Review in Wired Magazine
Nexus VR Gameplay Play Through on YouTube

Romantic Retrowave

“We only have five minutes
Until we need to make this decision
The fate of the world is in our hands” – INDIGO

Black & Gold is the first single from Retromantix and is a collaboration with the very talented Synthwave artist INDIGO .

Enjoy!

Black & Gold on Spotify
Black & Gold on Apple Music
Black & Gold on YouTube
Retromantix Instagram Page
Retromantix YouTube Page
Retromantix Facebook Page

The Sound of SceneSat, Vol. 7

“The first time you played me this track (Voyage 707) I was in love with it. This is IMHO the best track you have made in sound and feel. That reverb on that snare just hits the nail on the head. Also the homage to Ocean loader on the C64 part. Lovely!” – Jimmy “Firefox” Fredriksson

The Legendary SceneSat Radio have released their sixth compilation album in their iconic series, The Sound of SceneSat, vol. 7 . SoS 7 contain a whopping 91 tracks with six and a half hours of eclectic variety.

The album is out now on Spotify , YouTube and Bandcamp .

I have made three tracks on the compilation:
Voyage 707
World Apart
Götterfunken

In addition to this, I also mastered one track for Jogeir Liljedahl and two tracks for Teo, (Track #1 + Track #2 )

Enjoy!

Link to SoS 7 on Spotify
Link to SoS 7 on YouTube
Link to SoS 7 on Bandcamp
Link to SoS 7 on SceneSat Radio
Link to SoS 7 Release Event Recording on SceneSat Radio
Link to SceneSat Radio

Remixing Amiga Music

Lichthaus Remix is shorter and brighter compared to the full length 1:1 Remix version, since there was a five minute limit for the competition.

Lotus (Lichthaus Remix) won 1st place in the Streaming Music Competition at Nordlicht 2023 in Bremen, 8-10 September.

It is a cover/remix I recently made of an Amiga module I created back in 1994 that nobody knows about since it did not appear in any demo at the time.

Lotus.mod was most likely the last Amiga track I made back in 1994, before I took a long break that ended in 2016 where I got back to making Amiga music.

The original track was supposed to be released on the Amiga Music Disc Dankollection , which ended up on a shelf and forgotten, until it was rediscovered and released at Fjälldata in 2023. Due to this, most people probably never heard Lotus before until now.

Lotus (1:1 Remix) is my attempt at resurrecting the original accurately without adding anything that wasn’t there in the first place. Even though some instruments sound remarkably similar to the original Amiga song, 95% of the sounds are brand new and created by me.

Both tracks are currently on #1 and #2 place in the Amiga Remix Charts Top 10 at Remix64

Enjoy!

Link to Lotus (Lichthaus Remix) on Remix 64
Link to Lotus (1:1 Remix) on Remix 64
Link to original Amiga Module Lotus on YouTube
Link to original Amiga Module Lotus MOD-file on The Mod Archive
Link to Nordlicht Demo Event Webpage
Link to Nordlicht Competition Results on Demozoo

Legendary Amiga Music. Made in the past by Legends. Brought into the present by Legends.

“It’s nearly 2 hours worth of ear candy, a rollercoaster of a ride through a mixture of Amiga nostalgia and marvellous modern music, featuring everything from epic orchestral through gritty electronic to heavy metal, all mastered to perfection by Tomas Danko. I cannot say enough good things about this album! Don’t deny yourself the pleasure of listening to it and fire it up right now on your favourite streaming service!” – LaLa, Review on Remix64.com

Encore500 is finally available on your favourite Streaming Service.

Listen to Encore500 on Spotify
Listen to Encore500 on Apple Music

After the success of Encore64 where we collaborated with C64 music legends on an album containing modern remakes of old C64 songs, the next step was totally obvious.

Encore500

21 original remakes of legendary Amiga Module Songs.
Half of the tracks featuring music from the Demoscene , the other half Game Music.
108 minutes of music spanning over a wide range of genres.

I produced and mastered the project over a period of one year, mixed three tracks and made one of the remixes.

The following list reads like a who’s who among Amiga- and Video Game Musician Legends, and is also the people featured on Encore500:

“In order of appearance”

Mordi
Turbo Knight
Danko
Jogeir Liljedahl
Glyn R. Brown
Romeo Knight
Peter Clarke
Mattias Brian
Mygg
Firefox
Martin “Mantronix” Wall
Rapture
Barry Leitch
Tomsk
Teo
Vincenzo

You can find links down below to several online interviews the Encore500 crew made earlier this year.

Enjoy!

Encore500 on Spotify
Encore500 on Apple Music
Encore500 Facebook Page
Encore500 Album Review by LaLa on Remix 64
Encore 500 Release Event on SceneSat Radio
Encore500 Pre Listening Interview with SlayRadio on YouTube
Interview with Amiga Bill on Twitch
Encore600 Original Amiga MODs at Hippoplayer

Musikbyrån – Dataspelsmusik

“Tomas Danko is the name of a guy who has always been incredibly passionate about computer game music. In the 80s he sat and played over this music on small cassettes and put in the walkman, took it to school and listened. When he came home in the afternoons, he would sit in front of the family grand piano and take out the tunes there as well.” – Petra Wangler, Musikbyrån

Over 20 years ago I was asked to be interviewed on Musikbyrån , a highly popular and influential TV Show on Swedish National Television. The topic was Computer Game Music, specifically with focus on Commodore C64 SID music.

You can hear me speak (in Swedish) about the Commodore C64 SID sound chip, playing some improvisations on the Elektron SidStation while I’m sitting in the control room of my studio at Kungsholmen, Stockholm. It was still under construction at the time, hence the odd placement of speakers and other things.

In addition to myself, Tomas “Sol” Sunhede and Simon Olhsson from the band Silverbullit were also featured.

Tomas Sunhede used to host a show on Swedish National Radio where he was playing Chip Music; Syntax Error . He was a true pioneer, driving the Chip Music Scene long before it turned into mainstream. During recent years, Tomas has also been instrumental in documenting Swedish Video Game Industry history having authored significant book titles in the field.

Link to Interview on YouTube
Link to Musikbyrån on IMDB

Du Tar Mig Med

“One of the most beatiful songs I have ever heard.” – Carl Petter Fiskaaen

“I played Du Tar Mig Med on my dad’s funeral and it still gives me the chills.” – Andreas Wallström

Turning the Page

My instrumental piano album is now available on Spotify and everywhere else. All songs performed live, no midi, in one take. Mistakes and all. Some recordings are very old, others not as old but not new.

Ultimately, this album is more Me than most people would ever get to experience otherwise.

Unrehearsed Tragedy

This is the second half of my instrumental piano album .

These are the heavier, darker and more emotionally difficult songs I performed live on piano.
This is me, dealing with my best friend and his suicide.
This is me, dealing with anxiety.

I felt this is not how I wanted to leave people feeling after listening to my “happy” and melancholic album, Turning the Page. So I split it up into two.

This EP is called Unrehearsed Tragedy because I never composed, arranged or rehearsed tracks 2, 3 and 4.

I sat down.

Had an idea of chords and melody.
Hit record.
Then I played.
One take.
Unrehearsed.

…and then I sat staring out the window for twenty minutes, utterly purged and void of emotions. Hence the album cover motif for both of the albums.

Enjoy.

Turning the Page on Spotify
Unrehearsed Tragedy on Spotify
Turning the Page on Apple Music
Unrehearsed Tragedy on Apple Music

Let’s Party Like It’s 1992!

“Winning [with] a 4ch amiga mod [in a music] compo in 2022 is kinda ridiculous, but also kinda fun right? ;)” – Jogeir Liljedahl

Last time I entered the Music Competitions at the Edison event in Stockholm the year was 2016. It’s been a while, so probably right about time to submit some tracks this year now that Edison returned to be an offline party on July 22-24.

I won two awards, both first place.

1st Place in Tracked Music Competition

1992

An Amiga MOD collaboration that I made together with Outstanding Amiga Musician Legend Jogeir Liljedahl. Yes, THAT Jogeir Liljedahl, and yes, the track is 100% compatible with old Pro Tracker 2 from some 30 years ago.

The idea was to make an Amiga Demo track as if it was 1992, only with the accumulated knowledge regarding audio engineering and, perhaps, composition to this day.

1st Place in Streaming Music Competition

Spielplatz

The guitar in the break may be fake (on purpose, since I aimed for that 90’s EDM Kurzweil thing). The sounds of children enjoying their playground is real, however.

I took inspiration from the only thing a family with small children could really do over the weekends for the past two years during the pandemic; visiting playgrounds (Spielplatz in German, since we live in Düsseldorf). That sound became a standard ambient backdrop, so I attempted to translate that mood into music.

In addition to the winning trophies, I also submitted a Techno Music Video and a C64 SID

(Because what would people say if I didn’t?!)

4th Place in Oldschool Music Competition

Sleepless Nights

A short Commodore C64 SID by me.
It is a cover, the original is one of the earlier Retrowave classics and was made by FM Attack .

3rd Place in Animation & Video Competition

Test

It looks retro because it isn’t.
This track and music video was made by myself and Jens Larsson as a test (hence the name) before we made what came to be the successful project Starchild . The material has been sitting on a shelf for decades only to be digitized, reconstructed, mastered and encoded recently.

Trophies

Two of these trophies are mine, the third was awarded for 1st place in Newschool Graphics to Tenglina , who so happens to be my wife.

Enjoy!

Link to 1992 Amiga MOD MP3 Version
Link to 1992 on YouTube
Link to 1992 Amiga MOD File
Link to Spielplatz WAV
Link to Test Music Video
Link to Sleepless Nights C64 SID Track on YouTube
Link to Sleepless Nights C64 SID Track on CSDB
Link to all Edison 2022 Competition Entries at Demozoo
Link to Edison 2022 Competition Results List
Link to Edison 2022 website

Legendary C64 SID Music. Made in the past by Legends. Brought into the present by Legends.

“By now there’s no doubt about the immense talents of Glyn R Brown, Peter Clarke, Romeo Knight, Tomas Danko, Vincenzo, or Tomsk. And after a 20 year absence from the scene the producers of Encore64 managed to get Fred Gray himself to sit down and be the creative force on a couple of collaborative tracks. It took all these well-known sceners and SID musicians nearly a year to produce this album, but I think the time spent on it was well worth it, as they gave us an unforgettable album that will stand the test of time.” – LaLa, Review on Remix64.com

Encore64 is finally available on your favourite Streaming Service.

Listen to Encore64 on Spotify
Listen to Encore64 on Apple Music

We Are Encore64

Thirteen original remakes of legendary C64 SID Songs. Some reinterpreted by the original composer, others remixed by the most highly appreciated remix sceners today.

Sourced from the ubiquitous, main-roads of vintage C64 gaming to the path less explored, we also introduce fresh interpretations of coveted demo songs. While others are stuck in the distant past and a single genre, Encore64 picks from the recent past and it’s entire previously unexplored goldmine of SID treasures. Keep the Demo Scene Alive!

Encore64 pays tribute to C64 SID songs originally created by Fred Gray, Peter Clarke, Georg Feil, Jeroen Tel, Danko, Dane, Steve Rowlands, Zardax and Julie Dunn.

All new remixes created by Peter Clarke, Glyn R Brown, Romeo Knight, Danko, Vincenzo and Tomsk. Also, reintroducing Fred Gray for the first time in over two decades, featured on two collaboration remixes.

Encore64 is an eclectic mixture of musical genres. Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, Retrowave, Symphonic and Orchestral, Electronic, 2 Step, Piano House, Folk, Country and more. It is a full length album featuring modern remixes of old Commodore C64 SID music.

Enjoy!

Encore64 on Spotify
Encore64 on Apple Music
Encore64 Facebook Page
Encore64 Album Review by LaLa on Remix 64
Encore64 Original C64 SIDs on DeepSID