According to the traditional practice there will once again be a songwriter stage at SPOT 2010 – a sort of mini festival within the festival, which since 1999 has been an oasis in intimate surroundings in the midst of the big festival. Here the songwriting is what matters and there are certain dogmas that the acts must adhere to in order to be allowed onto this stage: for instance there is a top-limit of three persons on stage and drum kits are banned.

Among this year’s acts there are Agnes Obel and Norwegian Moddi. Obel is going to release an EP in May – a forerunner of her debut album due this Indian summer. Agnes Obel plays indie folk revolving around her piano. Before her gig at SPOT, she is going to warm up with a number of concerts in Germany. In February Moddi released his debut album “Floriography”, which went straight to number five on the Norwegian album chart. Moddi’s songs are in Norwegian and English and create floating landscapes of sound.

Furthermore, the Songwriter stage will proudly present the love songs of Moto Boy (Sweden), alternative country from Esther Maria & The Songhorse, alternative folk from Kaspar (Finland), atmospheric pop from Julie Maria, lo-fi indie folk from Johann Kristinsson (Iceland), chamber pop from Marie-Louise Munck, alternative folk pop from The Tiny (Sweden), pop in Swedish from Melissa Horn (Sweden), pop/rock/ electronica from Sebastian Lind, and a collaborative songwriting project bringing together Maria Timm and Marie Frank.

In the same intimate surroundings the association Sound & Literature will present four acts, three of whom can now be revealed. First there is Frodegruppen 40 headed by Jens Blendstrup – quite a scoop actually seeing how rarely they play gigs. They mix jazz, rock and electronica with humor and madness. Then there is a new collaboration between Tone and Mette Moestrup. Finally the audience will be treated with interpretations of love duets performed by Song For Wendy, which is Icelandic Disa’s and Mads Mouritz’ latest project.