Balearic Breakfast | Episode 216 | Silence among Stars... (Meeting Kenneth Bager / Hop Burns & Black tribute mix)
- by The Lioncub
- Mar 18
- 15 min read
Updated: Mar 24
Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy broadcast the 216th episode of Balearic Breakfast on her Mixcloud on March 18th 2025.
About this episode. – After playing an incredible set at the Southport Weekender 2025 event, Colleen packed her bags and flew to Japan for a 10 days tour in the city she adores so much.
She shared the following post on her socials upon her arrival: "It’s great to be back in Japan as this country holds a lot of personal history. Even though it is on the other side of the planet from my native USA (both geographically and culturally), Japan was the first place outside the USA where I hosted radio shows (way back in 1989) and Japan was also the first foreign country I travelled to as a DJ in the mid-90’s. I DJ-ed at Precious Hall on that occasion and have done so on every trip back.
The last time I was here was in 2019, both for a tour and a family holiday with my husband and daughter - I took the above sakura/Mount Fuji photo on that trip. Luckily we were able to visit while our daughter was still a teenager as it was a lifelong family dream and we made it just before the world changed in 2020.
Well, now I’m back on Japanese soil and even though it has only been a few hours, it feels wonderful to be back. I hope you can join me somewhere along the way and fingers crossed the sakura will arrive before I depart."
Despite a quite busy schedule, our dear Captain managed to say hello to us all while Adam was taking care of the stream on Mixcloud.
JAPAN SPRING 2025 TOUR
19 March: @club_mago Nagoya
21 March: @boars_obihiro Obihiro
22 March: Precious Hall
24 March: Precious Hall Listening Party*
27 March: @bar_inc_osaka Osaka
28 March: @woal_music_life Takasaki
29 March: @dj_bar_bridge_shinjuku Tokyo
*please note the tour flyer has the wrong date for the Precious Hall Listening Party which is on Monday, the 24th March.
PS: Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the friends who shared their precious pictures with me and allowed them to be published here! ありがとうございます
This episode was both a Joyous one (we had a great interview with Kenneth Bager presenting his brand new album), and a sad one as Jen Ferguson and Glenn Williams (owners of the Hop Burns and Black shop in East Dulwich, London – more about this here) dedicated their incredible mix to their late friend, Justin. As always, the Family united and we were all touched and sad. Losing great people is always unbearable... To Justin.
"It's hard to believe our gorgeous Justin left us last week. It doesn't seem real.
Justin & Natasha only came into our lives 5 years ago, but it feels like we've known them much longer. I've always thought of them as the king & queen of the prom (so smart, so stylish, so cool, so hot) & what brilliant company too, company Glenn & I got to enjoy all over the world, sharing amazing holidays in Ibiza, Palm Springs, Amsterdam, my Margate birthday weekender just last month...Some of the best times of our lives have been spent w these two, enough Top Palz moments to fill albums & albums. How lucky are we?
Justin- a gentle soul with a giant presence. The mightiest of totaras, you were instantly drawn to him. Wry, wildly intelligent, perceptive & understated, Justin could be a man of few words but knew exactly when to deploy his famously dry wit or unleash a devastating zinger. We bonded over his excellent taste in music (my phone is full of Shazams from whenever J was at the controls) & our shared history of terrible teenage poetry & Jim Morrison adulation. Along with Natasha, we were always first to sign up for Country Karaoke at the ‘honky tink’. Unlike Natasha (don't worry, she knows 😂), Justin had a wonderful singing voice- his rendition of Always On My Mind last Nov (directed, of course, to his adored wife) left not a dry eye in the house. He was always the first, & the best, on the dancefloor- & no one rocked a vest like Big J.
It's cruel & unusual to be talking about Justin in the past tense. It's beyond comprehension. The sadness comes in waves & is overwhelming. His departure leaves an unbearable void in our mini world & our hearts are breaking over & over again for Natasha, Saskia & Jasper. It's such a fucking waste to the world & I can't believe our dreams of a disco care home commune won't come true. As Natasha says, there'll forever be a Justin-sized hole in all our lives & dancefloors, but he'll always be there with us. Out of the corner of our eye we'll see him, in his Cowboy Hat cap, eyes closed, a faint smile on his face, quietly doing the Justin arms-aloft shimmy. Goddamnit, we love you so much, you beautiful man. You'll be always on our minds.
I always write too much and there's never enough room on Instagram posts... but one of my favourite recent memories of Justin was at the @fillybrook, at one of the @idjut_boys parties Justin enjoyed so much. He and Natasha were on their way off home, then Conrad dropped Silly Love Songs, and Justin bounced back on to the dancefloor saying, "Just one more!" Rob turned to him and said, "You don't even like McCartney!" and Justin went in for a big, long hug. Because it didn't matter if Justin liked McCartney or not - what was important to him was that Rob loved McCartney, so he wanted to share some joy with a friend. That was Justin all over x"
Listen back to the 216th episode of Balearic Breakfast:
THE PLAYLIST
Kenneth Bager MIx
(1986) Ambiance II Fusion – Colours in Spaces
(2004) Hiroshi Yoshimura – Hayama Sound Logo
(1987) Minimal Kidds – Moon Gone
(2009) Scott Matthews – Is This Love
(NOL) Kenneth Bager & Findlay Brown feat Anna Domino – Don’t Look Back (Random House Factor Sunset Mix)
(NOL) Niron Higor – São Só Palavras feat Bruno Berle & Alici (Kenneth Bager Extended Edit)
(1988) Via Nova – Dreams For You
(NOL) Dj Pippi & Willie Graff – Harmonized (LTJ Experience Remix)
(NOL) The Swan and The Lake – Penari Sepatu
Jen Ferguson and Glenn Williams' Mix
(2021) Pete Blaker – Kylie N Jason (Beach Filter)
(2015) Idjut Boys – Dub Shine
(Link) Haircut 100 – Evil Smokestacking Baby (Edit by Mr K)
(2024) U-Bend – 50Peter20
(2017) Beach Boys – The Trader (Psychemagik Edit)
(2015) Bryan Ferry – Midnight Train (Idjut Boys House Remix)
(1988) Kriss – Hey Mister Mister
(1985) Moses – We Just
(2025) Luca dell'Orso – Dear Rosie (feat Jolisa)
(2022) Crosby Stills, Nash & Young – Carry On (Flying Mojito Bros Refrito)
(2024) Marshall Watson & Cole Odin – Voyager (Extended Guitar Mix)
(2003) Lemon Jelly – Rolled
KENNETH BAGER'S INTERVIEW WITH COLLEEN
[Colleen]
Hey Kenneth, how are you?
[Kenneth]
Thank you for having me on the show. I'm a big fan and it's always a pleasure to be on the show. Thank you.
[Colleen]
Thank you. We did a great extensive interview with you. Gosh, it was years ago now.
[Kenneth]
Yeah, it was like a non-stop talking for one hour or something like this.
[Colleen]
So if anyone wants to know more about Kenneth, go to my past shows. I'll let you know which show it was, but it was a few years ago. But thank you for coming back.
[Kenneth]
Yeah, thank you for having me.
[Colleen]
Oh, pleasure. And I really love this new album. And could you tell me a little bit about how you got to know Finlay Brown? Because I know you did a single with him a few years ago.
[Kenneth]
Yeah, I think when he did his first album many years ago, I think even 10, 15 years ago.
[Colleen]
Yeah, Separated by the Sea.
[Kenneth]
Yeah, it was incredible. He got fantastic reviews in The Guardian and in a lot of the English press and so on. And there was an amazing remix by Beyond the Wizard's League.
[Colleen]
Yeah, I got that on White Label. It was such a good one.
[Kenneth]
Fantastic remix. And I think from that moment, I actually fell in love with his voice. And I found out that he was a more adventurous singer-songwriter than most. And it really tickled something inside me. And I thought, you know, I do many different albums when I'm in charge for the production. So I thought this one should be a little bit different to my previous ones, because I wanted to make an album that sounded not so much like a collab album, which a lot of lyric producers and DJs do. But I thought it should have a red line. And I thought the red line can be some of my production ideas, mixed with his unique voice all the way through.
[Colleen]
Fantastic. Now, he's since moved, because he's originally from York. Then he went to Brooklyn, if I'm correct. And now he lives in Copenhagen.
[Kenneth]
He lives actually on an island, which is, I think, one and a half hours drive from here, which is super chilled. And, you know, everything is green there. And he's surrounded by water, the whole island. And we did some recordings there in his home studio. And basically, the whole album came about that I asked him. We did one song, and I was very, very happy with the result.
And I said to him, you know, I have this idea. Why don't we do a full album? And he was really into it. And basically, I sent him the music. And then he recorded the vocals on top. And then we took the demo and put it into a pan or, you know, into a pot and totally destroyed maybe sometimes the demo and made a new arrangement and added a new musicianship to it. So he didn't know all the time what the end result would be. But neither did I. So it's been a fun ride.
[Colleen]
Well, that's the great thing about collaboration, isn't it? I mean, you just never know where you're going to go. And it's my favorite way to work, especially in the studio, because you can just take ideas so much further when you're with people that you trust, obviously.
[Kenneth]
Yeah, and this is also one thing. And you can also work with other artists that, you know, will find it very problematic and very protective about how they want everything to be, which is another side, too. But I thought from also from his remixes and from, you know, having I went down in my car to visit him. And, you know, after some conversations, I knew that, you know, this would work out really well, because he's also adventurous. He listens to a lot of dance music, African music and so on. So he's not like only listening to to folk. He's a singer, songwriter music.
[Colleen]
Well, that that was apparent to me, you know, when I got that Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve remix, because I was playing that and then I got the album. I was like, oh, wow, this is a completely different album.
But that's what I really like. I think the album that you've done together, Silence With Singing, has a lot of beautiful textures on it. I mean, there's moments that are more spaced out. There's moments that are more for the dance floor. One of the songs I wanted to ask you about was Red Flowers. It's a beautiful song, but it's quite funky. Can you tell me how that one came about?
[Kenneth]
It came about that, actually, it's quite a long story short, that when I was seven years old, my family didn't have a lot of money, but my father bought his first cassette recorder in 1969. And in the cassette recorder he bought, I was seven years old, there was a tape by Herb Albert in the cassette recorder. And I've been a big fan since of Herb Albert. I always wanted to do a collab with him, but it's possibly sometimes, it's maybe not easy.
[Colleen]
He's a little bit busy.
[Kenneth]
Yeah, and I think he's always funky. And, you know, I've really been following him my whole life with all the incredible stuff that he's done.
[Colleen]
And also the fact that he's a label owner, just like you.
[Kenneth]
Yeah, so there's a lot of... Even though you can't compare it. So when we did it, I've been wanting to do a trumpet-based or driven track for a long time. And we actually took a session with this, possibly the best Danish trumpet player we have, called Kasper Trondberg, which is very, very famous in the Danish jazz circuit. And he just played to some chords we had. And then after he left the studio, we played around with what he did. And we put a puzzle together, so we actually created the hook line in the track.
So if you heard the demo, it sounded totally different. And then I sent it to Finlay, and he came back with something that I would describe. And I think it's one of the only tracks on the album where he sings, of course, his own, totally own voice, but he made it more like a David Burton, Brian Ferry kind of vibe to it, which I really liked. And I thought, you know, it's that kind of like early New York vibe to it. And that's also the more dancey tracks. I started as a DJ in 79, and I've always been a mega fan of what was happening in the New York clubs. And of course, the incredible remixes that Larry Levan did. And I've also been a massive fan of Compass Point Studios.
So that's definitely something that I think you can hear in some of the production on the album, that it has that resemblance to... It's not that it's a reverb or anything, but it's definitely that kind of like Sly and Robbie, you know, disco type of thing, you know, like they also did on the Gwen Guthrie album.
[Colleen]
Gwen Guthrie album, yeah, exactly. That song Love From Outer Space on the album is probably my favorite. And you're right, now that I think about it, it does kind of fit in. You know, I mean, the Compass Point All-Star sound wasn't always the same, but it just had certain elements like Wally's Batarus keyboards and Sly and Robbie rhythm section. So yeah, now that you said it, I can hear a huge influence on me as well.
You also work with Anna Domino on one of the songs, Don't Look Back. Can you tell me how you hooked up with her?
[Kenneth]
I actually contacted her, I think more than 10 years ago. And she wrote back that, because I've been a big fan of what she did in the 80s on this Belgian independent label and was always buying, you know, when there was a new Anna Domino album. And so I wrote to her and she said, oh, it's not a good time now. But then I thought, you know, we're doing this. Why not, you know, write her again? Maybe it's, you know, it's a big chance. But she came back now. I've suddenly got time and I'll do it. And she did it very quickly. And so it was a great honor to have her on the album and also to make it like a duet with her and Finlay.
And she's also very glad and happy for the result. And also the other thing I wanted to say regarding the sound of New York from the early 80s, which is there is certainly on the album, is it's actually, I think, my first album ever that has had quite a lot of airplay in New York.
[Colleen]
Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah. So it's actually, it's kind of like it clicks together because it was the first time, I think, Francois Kevorkian, Danny Krivitt, Justin Strauss, they were playing here. I know Justin Strauss has been a big supporter for a long time, but I think they actually got it, you know, that there was some connection to, you know, looking back to make something that looks forward.
[Colleen]
Right. Absolutely. Well, let's get back to your mix. Can you tell us a little bit about the mix you've put together for us?
[Kenneth]
The mix that I've done is a combination of some unreleased remixes of tracks from the album. And it's also featuring some edits that I've done to make it more special. And of course, some pretty obscure tracks that people can dig on the Internet to search out and find.
[Colleen]
Okay, well, let's get back to the music. Kenneth Beyer on Balearic Breakfast.
II
[Colleen]
And we're back here in the studio with Kenneth Beyer, listening to his exclusive mix for Balearic Breakfast, which we are loving. Tack. Tack. Thank you so much, Kenneth. You know, Music for Dreams is one of our favorite labels on Balearic Breakfast. And there's so many great projects that you have put together, you know, with artists like DJ Teepee, Lily Graff. We also have Phil Meissen, of course. Your own stuff. Can you tell us what... Oh, Island Man, another great one. Can you tell us what's coming up on Music for Dreams in 2025? What we can look out for?
[Kenneth]
There's a lot of... Obviously, there's always a lot of stuff we're releasing. But I'm very happy that we actually... There was a person that was, you know, an amazing producer from Denmark called Grasgård. We released an album, I think, in the beginning of the history of Music for Dreams. But he's made an incredible album that we released later this year.
And he's kind of like... He's definitely different to what sells, but it has that kind of like... You can't really categorize what it is, but it's funky and it's, you know, some Afro stuff in it. But it's very nice. And then we have an album by Bill Mison, a.k.a. Ambala, which is his second album. It will also be out on a double vinyl. I'm really looking forward to release that. That is a very good album.
And we've had the dailies... I would say the dailies are equivalent to Johnny Peterson, a guy called Jonas Vistie, who is hosting a show on national radio every Saturday. He's releasing a debut album, which has been doing really, really well. And it's kind of like an Afro-balearic kind of Guadalupe sound he's doing. It's really, really receiving. And he's already... He will be playing two of his debut concerts, and they already have to do a second date because it got sold out very quickly.
So that's really nice. And then we also have an album, which I'm really looking forward to release by this artist, The Swan on the Lake, which is kind of like a... I would say he's sitting somewhere between Vangelis and some New Age. But he's done... He's coming with an album. He started to sing in Italian, and he's never sung before. So I was like super surprised. What's going on? And, you know, I was not expecting this. And then at the end of last year, he came back to me saying that he thought there was something that I should hear. And then he played the song where he was singing in Indonesian.
So I think that's going to be one of our really big albums this year because if I have to say something, it feels to me like it's definitely a world music album. But it sounds to me like it's something like, you know, if you can imagine that if you took Deep Forest Enigma and made it in 25.
[Colleen]
Wow that sounds cool!
[Kenneth]
So this is what it is. But with a kind of Mediterranean sound. But it's really, really unique and very special. And I don't think there's anything out there that sounds like it.
[Colleen]
I really can't wait to hear that. That sounds really interesting.
[Kenneth]
We have an album coming out, the second album by Santino Serpas. So that's... And he's made a track that's very lofty, which was, you know, I thought he was sitting having a jam in the studio, a track called Underwater Disco. And we were just commissioning you to do a remix. So I'm looking forward to what that's going to be.
[Colleen]
So am I!
[Kenneth]
I haven't gone in the studio yet. So fingers crossed, I'll do something that you like. And I also obviously have a Santino Serpas song on the upcoming Balearic Breakfast number four compilation.
[Colleen]
Okay, wow.
[Kenneth]
Yeah.
[Colleen]
So there's a lot of Santino Serpas kind of connections here. Cosmic connections. Yeah. I love their sound though. You know, it has a kind of a Cruang Bini kind of sound as well. And it's psychedelic and it's surfy. It's just a lot of things that I really like. So thank you. Thank you for asking. And what are you doing this summer, Kenneth? Are you heading over to Ibiza? Are you doing any gigs that people need to know about?
[Kenneth]
I've decided here during my holiday in February that I'm definitely going to go DJ a lot more in Ibiza this summer. Because I've been, you know, I did some, it wasn't intentional, but at the end of last year I was visiting, as I always do, Ibiza. And then I played two or three gigs a week and I really enjoyed it. So I'm going to go back and I think I'm going to go back and forward a little bit to DJ there. And looking forward to it.
[Colleen]
Good. Well, I'll be there, I think, I think I'm there May and then June and then July again. So hopefully we'll cross paths.
[Kenneth]
Hopefully we'll hook up and see each other.
[Colleen]
Yeah. That would be nice. We'll see you. Well, thank you again for this beautiful mix you've given us and for taking the time to have a little chat with me about the album Silence Was Singing, your new album with Finlay Brown, which is out now on Music for Dreams. And good luck with the album. I hope it does really well. I think it's fantastic.
[Kenneth]
Oh, thank you very much. And thank you for having me on program, on your beautiful program.
[Colleen]
Thank you. It's always a pleasure.
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