Celebrating the Demoscene

The Meteoriks is perhaps the Demoscene equivalent of The Oscars. It is a prestigious award surrounded by a lot of pomp and circumstances. This year I was asked to take on the role as Head Juror for the Best Soundtrack category.

The award ceremony was merely the culmination of half a year worth of work; assigning jurors, administrating everything and evaluating thousands of applicable demo productions in order to arrive at a short list of potential nominees together. The final rounds were the most rewarding, collaborating and agreeing on not only the five nominees but even more so a clear winner .

We did not expect a soundtrack on the ZX Spectrum 128 to beat the competition from modern PC platforms, but here we are!

In order to make it a bit more festive and break the norm, I asked legendary musician Romeo Knight to join me on stage to deliver the speech and award. He was also a member of our jury team, which included TwoFlower, tenfour and Vincenzo.

YouTube Video of Speech

YouTube Video of Nominees

The Meteoriks Trophy

We got one of these last year for Best Old School Production with our Commodore 64 demo 1337 by Fairlight, there are also fancy diplomas handed out to everybody involved in a winning production.

The Meteoriks Website
The Meteoriks Awards 2026 Laureates
The Meteoriks Awards 2026 on Demozoo
Add Mortem – The Best Soundtrack Winner
Add Mortem on Demozoo
Romeo Knight & myself on stage presenting the Best Soundtrack award
Best Soundtrack Segment on YouTube

Synthwave Pop

Yes We Do is the fifth release from Retromantix , it is an EP featuring remixes by Turbo Knight, Van Derand, Edictum, Pfeffermouse, Raindancer and Mattias Brian.

Enjoy!

Retromantix – Yes We Do on Spotify
Retromantix – Yes We Do on Apple Music
Retromantix – Yes We Do on YouTube
Retromantix Instagram Page
Retromantix Facebook Page

Comic Bakery by Martin Galway

“A heavily underrated Comic Bakery remix – especially considering it was released during a time when all CB remixes sounded exactly the same.” – Makke, Remix64

Platypus Reclayed is a recently released remake of the cult classic side scrolling shooter game Platypus. What makes it unique is the use of claymation for all the graphic assets, they have been made by hand using clay and then photographed using stop-motion techniques. Furthermore, the in-game music tracks are remixes of Commodore 64 music by Martin Galway. These were relicensed by developers Tunatech for inclusion in the new version of the game.

I am credited for the Comic Bakery Remix which is featured in the game.

My track was produced using real vintage analog equipment such as the Roland TB-303 Bass Line synthesizer and Roland TR-909 drum machine, as well as using the Commodore 6581 SID sound chip.

Enjoy!

Link to Platypus Reclayed on Steam
Link to Platypus Reclayed on YouTube
Link to Platypus Reclayed Website

The Seven Sceners

Edison is the oldest Demoscene Event still going in Stockholm, and this year it took place on a boat in the middle of the city. I submitted three music entries for the competitions.

Two of them won #1 place.

I Think of You (Amiga)

I Think of You won #1 in the Tracker Music Competition. It is a chiptune collaboration I made together with Jogeir Liljedahl , and was produced in ProTracker on the Commodore Amiga . The song is 4 channels of 8 bit audio and the file size is 86 KB.

I Think of You

Same same, but different. This is a regular track made in a DAW (Logic Pro), with vocals and electric guitar. The two songs are based on each other and share elements, but not to the full extent.

I Think of You won #1 in the Edison 2025 Streaming Music Competition.

Prize-Giving Ceremony Video Clips

OK, so maybe the title should have said Quadruple Win at Edison 2025.

Fairlight also won first place in the Oldschool Demo Competition with a Commodore C64 demo, and Fairlight member and musician group colleague Fegolhuzz won first place in the Oldschool Music Competition. I did not contribute to those two productions, other than being a member of Fairlight, so let’s just say Fairlight dominated the competitions and I am pleased to have contributed to half of the awards.

Enjoy!

I Think of You – Amiga Tracker MOD Song on YouTube
I Think of You – Amiga Tracker MOD Song as MP3 File
I Think of You – Streaming Song as MP3 File
Edison 2025 at Demozoo
Edison Party Website

Kenilworth, England

“Join us for a great discussion and Q&A about music with some of our beloved legends, live from ZZAP64! Brought to you by ZZAP64 Live & SLAY Radio, live on air from Kenilworth, UK!”

Zzap! Live is an annual event in Kenilworth, serving up more retro- computing and gaming than you can shake a TAC-2 at. The event is organized by the classic Zzap! 64 Magazine and Fusion Retro Books .

Among many other panels, there was a Music Q&A Panel led by Andrew Fisher (Merman) featuring Jogeir Liljedahl , Peter Clarke , Mike Clarke , Jason Page , Mark Knight and myself.

We were talking about making music and audio on 8- and 16 bit computers, sharing some memories and anecdotal stories from the early years and onwards. To be invited and rub shoulders with all these legendary musicians from the Demoscene and Games Industry was truly an honor, I grew up admiring the music by all these people and suddenly I found myself not only meeting them but partaking in an hour long discussion about computer music and more.

Link to Interview and Audio Panel on YouTube
Link to Zzap! Live 2025 Event Webpage
Link to Fusion Retro Books Webpage
Link to Zzap! Live 2025 Event Tour video by Pixel Refresh on YouTube

“What happens when you realise that you are the terror they sought to vanquish?”

Ash

Ash is a short story by Sierra Rennart .

You can read Ash here , or you can listen to the Audio Book version on Spotify narrated by the author themselves.

I am credited as producer and also for post production and mastering of the Audio Book.

Enjoy!

Link to Ash at Tale Spinner Website
Link to Ash on Spotify

“Take a wild ride through the chaotic world of IT”

IT Horror Stories with Jack Smith

It Horror Stories with Jack Smith is a Podcast containing scary stories about horror moments in the IT Industry.

I am credited for the music content (theme, intros, outros, stingers, transitions and so on). For reasons, I chose the style of Belgian EBM mixed with Chip/8-bit aesthetics including authentic sounds from the Commodore C64 SID chip and there are lots of vintage computer equipment recorded as well.

Enjoy!

Link to IT Horror Stories With Jack Smith Podcast Webpage
Link to IT Horror Stories With Jack Smith Podcast on Spotify
Link to IT Horror Stories With Jack Smith Podcast on YouTube

Release the Raster Splits

“I am utterly shocked of this ****** amazing demo and I enjoyed every second of it (…) . The story line, the effects, the coding (wow!!), the music especially the end sweet tune, the execution, the graphics, the “glue” everything gels here: Perfection. I am not sure if its the greatest demo of all time , but I wouldn’t be suprised to know this is the greatest demo of all times.” – Dr.J @ CSDB

The Meteoriks are perhaps the most prestigious award to honor Demoscene productions. In several categories, they recognize the best of the best of the previous year. Our Commodore C64 demo 13:37 by Fairlight was twice nominated; Best Direction and Best Old School Production.

We won the Best Old School Production award.

I am credited for making the end title music.

The Demoscene is recognized as the first digital culture on the list of UNESCO intangible world cultural heritage in at least seven countries such as France, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland, Switzerland and The Netherlands.

Watch an interview with fellow Fairlight colleagues discussing how the 13:37 demo was being produced here .

Enjoy!

Link to Meteoriks Award Gala on YouTube
Link to Meteoriks Award 2025
Link to Winners and Nominees of Meteoriks Award 2025 on Demozoo
Link to Revision 2025 on Demozoo
Link to 13:37 Demo on Demozoo
Link to 13:37 C64 Demo on YouTube
Link to my C64 End Title SID Song at Deepsid
Link to 13:37 C64 Demo at CSDB

Chiptunes from 2002

6581 was originally released as a CD Album in 2002 published on Lynne Music by legendary Amiga musician Bjørn ‘Dr. Awesome’ Lynne . It is now available on all the streaming services, I decided to release it in it’s original master format for posterity.

The tracks were mixed on an analogue console and I used two Elektron SidStation sound modules, containing the original C64 6581 SID Sound Chip, as well as a real hardware Roland TR-909 drum machine and a genuine Roland TB-303 Bass Line synthesizer.

The second last track, Sliptrip Mammoth, was a live session where I tweaked two SidStations and constantly changed the knobs and pattern of the Roland TR-909 drum machine.

The last track, Oxygenerique, was recorded live in straight live takes one each with me playing first the Roland TR-606 drum machine and Elka Synthex, then one live pass with me playing bass on a Moog Minimoog Model D, after that another take on the Moog for soloing and finally to do Jean-Michel Jarre-style lazer sound effects with the Moog.

Remastered Tracks

Two of the tracks have been remastered and released on Remix64 .

The Return (Remastered) is a remix of a SID track I once made on the Commodore C64.
Deep Core (Remastered) is a remix of an Amiga MOD track I made for the game Deep Core on Amiga 500 and Amiga CD32 Console.

Enjoy!

6581 Album on Spotify
6581 Album on Apple Music
6581 Album on YouTube
The Return (Remastered) Track on Remix64
The Return Original SID on Deepsid
Deep Core (Remastered) Track on Remix64
Deep Core Original Amiga MOD on YouTube

Rsync 2025 Demoparty Event, Leuven

I won #1 place in the Rsync 2025 streaming music competition with Autobahn .
That is all.

Enjoy!

Autobahn on Spotify
Rsync Webpage
Rsync 2025 on Demozoo

DER NEUE KNÜLLERHIT!!!

It’s been soon two decades since the last Der Danko release, but hopefully this one might brighten your day.

Autobahn is the latest single by Der Danko, my German alter ego. All the synthesizer sounds are made using the Commodore C64 audio chip, SID 6582 R2 . And then there is me. Singing. In German.

The single cover art was made in 100% authentic Commodore PETSCII character based graphics format by the highly talented T0m3000 .

Viel Spaß!

Link to Der Danko – Autobahn on Spotify
Link to Der Danko – Autobahn on Apple Music
Link to Der Danko – Autobahn on YouTube
Der Danko Artist Page on Spotify

The #1 C64 Demoscene Magazine

“Intro tune cover is too good <3” – Stinsen, CSDB

Vandalism News is the oldest, biggest and best C64 Demoscene disk magazine on the planet; Yes, you can read about recent activities in the Demoscene on an old 8-bit computer. This edition is a whopping eight 5.25” floppy disk sides (!).

I am credited for making the intro music , which I made on the Commodore C64 using GoatTracker 2 SID music editor.

Enjoy!

Link to Vandalism News #75 on CSDB
Link to Vandalism News #75 on YouTube
Link to Vandalism News Webpage

2015 – 2024 Compilation

Demoparty Bangers is a compilation album containing most (not all since some tracks were already published on Spotify elsewhere) of the music I have submitted to music competitions at various Demoparties for the last ten years or so.

Music Track		Event		Year			Award
01.UltraMaxx		Deadline		2024			#1
02.Hey Teo, Check This Out		Rsync		2024			#2
03.Inna Evoke Style (Amiga)		Evoke		2024			#2
04.Boyfriend [feat. Dyrgrip]		Edison		2015			#3
05.Bungbeat		Unknown		2015
06.Peacock		Birdie		2015			#1
07.Zeitgeist		Edison		2015			#3
08.Götterfunken		Evoke		2023			#6
09.Saman Kar Tanesii		Deadline		2024			#6
10.Har Allt Nån Mening		Edison		2017			#2
11.1992 (Amiga) [feat. Jogeir Liljedahl]		Edison		2022			#1
12.Spielplatz		Edison		2022			#1
13.Lotus		Nordlicht		2023			#1
14.The Trulledutt		Edison		2015			#2
15.Essence of Life		Evoke		2024			#4
16.Welcome, Detective!		Nordlicht		2024			#5
17.Test		Edison		2022			#3

Enjoy!

Demoparty Bangers on Spotify
Demoparty Bangers on YouTube

Entertaining and Educational Musical Videos

In my endless quest for people to enjoy themselves and being entertained, I have published some videos on YouTube.

Starchild

The music video for Starchild was broadcasted on TV in 1996 but the only version that made it onto teh Internets was half a potato at best. Until now. I have digitised and restored the original material so that there is finally a decent quality version of the musiv video for this Happy Hardcore Rave Anthem .

DAF – Der Mussolini

Since I happen to live and work in Düsseldorf, city of DAF and Kraftwerk, it is obligatory for me to make a remix of their music. As such, I have chosen Der Mussolini which is my all time favorite DAF track. My remix is a modern take of this Electronic Body Music classic, the synthesizer bass sounds are 100% analog and the vocals are from the original version. This educational video demonstrates how to make a modern EBM version of Der Mussolini by DAF in a DAW.

Dystopia – Test

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.

Enjoy!

Starchild Music Video on YouTube
DAF – Der Mussolini EBM Remix on YouTube
Dystopia – Test Video on YouTube

Deadline 2024 Demoparty Event

This year I submitted three music entries for the competitions at Deadline in Berlin.

Two of them won #1 place.

UltraMaxx

UltraMaxx is a remix of a Commodore C64 SID track I made earlier this year for our Fairlight demo Retox at the ACQUA Party. Retox won #1 place in the demo competition and the track won #1 place in the music competition.

This time, I won #1 place in the Deadline 2024 streaming music competition.

Grooveline

This is a Commodore C64 SID track that I decided to make the night before the music competition at Deadline 2024, I probably spent some 5-6 hours in total on it and for some reason that was enough.

Grooveline won #1 in the Deadline 2024 oldschool music competition.

Saman Kar Tanesi

This track is an Amiga MODule that I made for a music production demo on Amiga, listed below. It only made it to #6 place in the tracking music competition.

Tactical Transmissions

The Amiga Music Disc Demo did however win #1 place in the wild competition at Deadline 2024. I am credited with one of the tracks, which is Saman Kar Tanesi.

OK, so maybe the title should have said Triple Win at Deadline 2024 Party.
I can’t take that much credit for Tactical Transmissions, that goes to all the other musicians who contributed and especially to H0ffman who coded the highly advanced software to drive the music and visuals.

Enjoy!

UltraMaxx Track on Spotify
UltraMaxx Track on YouTube
Original C64 UltraMaxx version as MP3
Grooveline C64 SID on YouTube
Grooveline C64 SID on CSDB
Saman Kar Tanesi Amiga MOD & Tactical Transmissions Amiga Music Demo on YouTube
Saman Kar Tanesi Amiga MOD on Demozoo
Tactical Transmissions Amiga Music Demo on Demozoo
Deadline Website
Deadline 2024 Competition Results on Demozoo
Deadline 2024 Party Stream on YouTube

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