The Team

Henning Karwowski

Henning is one of the original founders of Monument, a visionary techno(logy)-head who started this project six years ago. Today he is running Monument and the management team of eight people. He is also the director of the Monument festival and our events in Oslo.

As a leader, Henning works on the overall strategy and vision of Monument and has been a key player to build the team from 2->44 people. One of the main focuses for the team today is being able to change fast, test new ideas, and stay motivated and happy while doing so.

Marit Launes

Marit is originally from the islands in the North of Norway, with deep roots in the South. Based in Oslo.

Full of fire and energy she seeks to find the perfect merge between the audio and visual experiences. As head of art she collaborates with artist to manifest Monuments vision into what can be seen, touched and felt.

Umer Ahmed

Umer joined Monument in 2017 to redesign our visual identity, which today plays a crucial role on our communication platforms, both digital and analogue. Today he is maintaining and guiding our vast visual landscape with his creative approach.

He is also a DJ under the alias “Feber”, appreciator of melodic tunes and face melting BPM.

In his daily life, he works as a professional graphic designer at Neue Design Studio.

Victor Jousselme

Deeply passionate about nature and music, Victor joined the team in late 2017 to co-organize the first international Monument rave in Sweden.

With his knowledge of creating moods and atmosphere by selecting the right artist at the right time, he took the role of festival booker and artist host at the Monument festival.

He has also been contributing with sets and podcasts, articles and premieres.

Today, Victor is working on the next chapters for the Monument label

Hallvard Müller

Hallvard is from Oslo, Norway. His interest for techno originally comes out of the original scene of industrial and avant garde music, and to him it has always been about the energy and the sensation of the music.From entering Monument as a writer, he soon took on other roles. He was Head of Operations at the Monument Festivals in 2019 and 2021, and is now the project manager for the upcoming 2022 festival where he will also be Head of Security. But Hallvard’s main role in Monument is about leadership, strategy and business development.

He is also a musician, both as a solo act under the name of UE/Ü (which also serves a revenge against Facebook for taking the «ü» away from him when he signed up years ago) and as part of the improvisational, hard-hitting techno duo Bazalt.In his daily work, Hallvard works as a consultant, specializing in privacy and personal protection. He is a strong supporter of everybody’s right not to have their freedom infringed or limited. Hallvard also is a married family man, with two grown-up children. Unfortunately, all things techno seems lost on them

Katerina Maragou

Hailing from Athens in Greece, Katerina is breathing electronic music from morning to night. During most of her free time, she abstractly flies with her headphones, or concretely takes flights to attend venues all over the world. Having been involved in the nightlife during the past 17 years, she has built a solid network among the artists and techno lovers.

She joined Monument’s Social Media team in 2019, started curating Monument Live Stream in 2020 and is Head of Podcast since 2021. Besides Monument, she’s a hard worker in the financial administration and co-manages the Hypnotic Techno Circle, a community from the underground scene.

Arikas Pačešiūnas

Arikas become a part of Monument in 2019 when he joined our team as a social media contributor. His visual works on social media have been recognizable and that leads him to different collaborations which gave him a chance to expand his network and create a new visual look for our premieres promo on Instagram stories. Arikas lives on a northern coastal Island named Hinnøya (Norway).

Located north of the Arctic Circle, the area is under the dark blue polar night in winter and the midnight sun for the rest of the time. Music plays a vital role in the life of Arikas aka Pijãr. It pushes forward both, his personal goals and various projects in Norway or Lithuania. After 3 years working with social media, he`s taking over the position of Head of Premieres at Monument Project.

Joakim Johannessen

Joakim has been a supporter and friend of the Monument family for a long period and helps out wherever it’s needed. Usually, that means ensuring guests at events are having a good experience and value based commercial thinking/sparring with his amigo Henning.

In his everyday life, Joakim helps out as an advisor and business developer in different startups within technology and sustainability, likes voluntary work and is one of the Co-founders of Altü Family. A nonprofit platform for other nonprofits. 

Appreciates life, food, long hugs and a good dance.

Paula Koski

Paula Koski is Monument’s resident artist and known of her sets that combine mental and fast-paced, groovy techno. As a passionate music-digger, she worked several years as Monument’s Head of Premiere, and is now focusing on Monument’s events.

Currently Paula is also taking her first steps in music production, exploring further her take on modern techno and traveling for gigs in Europe and beyond.

Emilie Hansen

Emilie became part of the Monument Family in 2019 when she volunteered at the 1st edition of the Monument Festival. With her extreme passion for music events, and her good eye for planning, Emilie is now Head of Events and Head of Operations for Monument Festival. It is her wish that Monument can be a space were people from across the world can feel at home. Both on and off the dancefloor.

Emilie loves to travel the world, networking and create deep loving bonds whenever she is not working on a new event.

Ian Cunningham

Ian “Widow” is a man of many talents who focuses on our social media engagements within Twitter. He is also one of our staff writers who spends his time studying pieces of art/music, as well as the hands who created them.

Hailing from the New York City area, Ian has lived a very unique life. His state of mind can only be described as a marvelous detail driven by authenticity. Being a professional audio engineer both FOH & in-studio, an event coordinator in the pharmaceutical industry, a music producer specializing in cinematic styles of sound design, and an inspiring composer for the film industry – The intensity in his work ethic is known to be his greatest feat.

Henriette Wulff

Henriette has been part of the monument family since 2016, and was key part in starting Monument festival. Easily recognized and loved on the dance floor.

Robert Sæther

Web developer by day, techno-lover by night. Robert lives in Oslo and became a part of the Monument-team in late 2018.

Since then he has helped develop the Monument-websites further. In 2019 he also developed the Festival webpage. His main focus is to develop future-proof and sustainable systems that are user-friendly and intuitive.

On his spare time, he likes to travel, going hiking in the woods, making new friends and discovering new music.

Lara Palmer

As one of our writers, Lara Palmer is mainly focusing on the interview format. She is an ambient and techno loving social anthropologist, who grew up partly in Berlin and partly at the polar circle in Norway.

In her day job she works in science communication, driven by the wish to make the fascinating world of science more accessible and relevant for diverse groups of society. When DJing, her sound oscillates somewhere between dreamy atmospheres, dark, hypnotic grooves, and straightforward techno. She has brought her selections to clubs in Germany and Norway, and just before the pandemic hit she debuted at Tresor in Berlin.

Dennis Spinn

Dennis is the head of infrastructure at Monument. He has been an important part of the Monument team helping set up everything to build our online magazine.

Today he takes care of security, back-up, servers and everything else regarding back-end systems. He is a progressive programmer, with his own company in computer science.  

Dennis also has a deep passion for techno music, organizing events and playing as a DJ in his current town Zagreb.

Jim Andersen

Jim joined Monument in early 2020 to help getting Monument Records started. As a the label’s co-manager together with Victor Jousselme he does all things label related, from making sure the tracks are mastered and all the way to the finished vinyl. He has a deep passion for all things music, and his roots run deep into the electronic genre, where he produces and djs under the Monodogue moniker.

John Fernie

Fernie is a Glasgow based producer creating sounds since the early 2000s.
He joined monument in June of 2020 initially to focus on live streaming but most recently is also now coordinating the podcasts across Monuments social platforms

Joao Pereira

Joao Pereira, also known under his artist name DRIV, joined Monument in 2018 as visual artist and stage designer, to bring his experience and passion accumulated over more then 20 years to our live events.

He has been passionate about Techno music since the 90s, when he was working in the club scene of Lisbon, from where he originates. His daily job is in Motion Graphic Design and Video Editing within the Norwegian music industry. He loves to play his drum machines, sail and mountain bike through the amazing Norwegian nature!

Vadim Dørum

This Russian-born lover of techno has over the last couple of years devoted his time to Monument for the sake of bringing techno to Oslo and spreading it to all other parts of the world. Currently spending most of his time in the Forgotten Valley where Monument has its festival. He supports the Monument management in HR related topics when he’s not busy liaising with artist playing at Monument parties in Oslo.

Lora Mateeva

Lora got into the underground music scene as it nurtures a strong sense of community built around individual nonconformity and multi-cultural expressions rooted in music.

She has an affinity to share this through writing, although her background is in Marketing and PR.Lora approaches electronic music with curious ears, leaving prejudice to the experts.

Through seeking the creator’s influences she is able to immerse herself in their personal sound journeys and expand her human knowledge.Berlin based since 2014, currently starting a new endeavour as a Booking Agent.

O-Ma – Tak

O-Ma is a live artist and track maker from Japan, with no conventional musical background. Obsessed with nature and hardware he is constantly exploring new sounds with his gear.

Covering a wide range of genres from techno, ambient to experimental, jungle and idm, with a heavy emphasis on sonics and sound quality. He performs regularly in Japan and overseas, taking his modular rack with him whenever he goes. He loves finding inspiration through collaboration with other artists whether musical, visual or literature.

O-Ma is an IT consultant by day and artist/raver at night, he has found a good balance between music and this Babylon system we are all bound by.

Formerly a jungle/DnB DJ in Manchester then Tokyo. With roots deeply embedded in the UK having spent most of his life there, he moved to Japan 13 years ago and has been involved in the Tokyo electronic music scene since then.

Maxime Etchebarne

Front-end web developer freelance, he joined the team to help finding creative solutions surrounding Monument’s online presence such as setting up the online store.

Born in France, based in Belgrade, he is an adept of architecture and abandonned places.

Maxime’s universe is gravitating around uncanny downtempo music and spreads this odd vibe for those willing to experience it in his sets.

Vy Tran

Writer and member of Monument since 2019 who is regularly contributing high-quality content in the form of articles, interviews, and reviews.

Vy`s main focus is the german techno scene where he is constantly searching for new sounds and interesting developments. Like everyone in Monument he is also a techno enthusiast and a passionate vinyl collector.

Besides his work for Monument, he is studying organizational communication and working in a student magazine

Laura Bestle

Laura is an explorative and always motivated mind constantly moving to the next project while making sure Monument’s core values and the love for deep sounds in connection with nature are visible and communicated throughout all of our channels. As a project manager, she takes on the development of Monument as an innovative techno platform connecting electronic music lovers with producers, DJs and visual artists. 

Besides being a resident artist at Monument, Laura is constantly on the go from country to country, consulting, teaching, organizing events, dj-ing as Laura Mrls and also secretly producing dark techno and ambient sound spheres under her second alias, Psychatrian. 

Ermal Bizhuta

With his experience in software systems and a good eye for design and alluring visuals, his main responsibility is to advise, structure and help out all of the different teams of Monument’s digital presence and label with any of their technical services.

Growing up between Albania and Italy, Ermal has developed a refined taste for electronic music that varies from hazy dub tracks to classic 303 analogue gear tunes, which he selects and mixes in his spare time. Ermal acts as Monument’s pivot when it comes to Stockholm, where he is also based. He has a master’s degree in software engineering, and is now engaged in a green tech startup working on making sustainable batteries.

Sten Listra

Born in Estonia but currently based in the west of Ireland, Sten has had an abiding love of dance music since discovering the Belleville Three in his teenage years. As a voracious listener, from that technoid core he has branched out with little regard for genre boundaries, finding something to enjoy in practically all forms of music.

Sten joined Monument’s writing team in 2020 as a creative opportunity to combine his love of music with his passion for media criticism. When he is not listening to or thinking about music, he can be found cooking or reading.

Jeff Spector

Originally from the Los Angeles area, Jeff discovered techno while living in Belgium and seeking out locally curated events. Through his experiences, Jeff developed a passion for supporting artists through his writing and curating. He founded a growing community of deep and hypnotic techno enthusiasts to Reddit known as r/hypnotech.

Jeff joined MNMT at the end of 2020 to write in support of Podcasts . With future ambitions to help in greater capacities, he hopes to import and generate various genres of techno to his local scene in the US. Jeff also DJs under the moniker “Jevvf” and assists with writing in Hypnotic Techno Circle.

Joe Mayberry

Joe helps the Monument team with website optimisation, analytics and email. He is an electronic music obsessive based in Melbourne, Australia. Driven by technology and its potential as a force for good, Joe also works as a digital specialist for an international aid charity. He is never not listening to or thinking about music.

Ana Blinstrubaite

Ana is a crazy, passionate (half-Russian, born in Lithuania, raised in Birmingham and currently living in Edinburgh) child of planet earth. Ana lives and breathes the facet of every project that she is involved in and Monument is no exclusion.

Ana joined the Monument Festival team as a Volunteers & Marketing Assistant in 2021 and is currently the Head of Communications for the festival. Ana is happy to accept any tips on surviving the last year of university before receiving her joint-honours in festival and event management with marketing.

Marthe Nordby Lileng

Marthe is a passionate music lover, social animal and curios human – giving out here energy where needed. She is connected to the family through unique friendships, contributing with design thinking skills and love for moving to electronic sound.

Marthe is based in Oslo where she works as a landscape architect and has a strong wish to use here skills on planning unique cultural experiences.

Jørgen Grønneberg

Jørgen has been supporting and dancing at Monument events for a long time. At the festival in 2019 he found his place in the family: smiling, dancing and helping where needed.

Jørgen works as a teacher in Oslo, aspiring to use music as a tool in his daily work with students. He plays squash, spins records and is always dancing.

Nobu Eriksen

Nobu`s passion for electronic music comes out of countless childhood hours spent in epic video game universes.  After living in tune with Tokyo’s subcultural techno cityscapes for seven years and witnessing Funktion-One stacks flirting with trees in the Japanese mountains he has a special place in his heart for techno and nature.

Evy Popova

Evy is originally from the sunny coast of the Black Sea and now is residing in rainy Bergen, Norway. She assists Paula, our Head of Premiere, in structuring new exciting releases from labels all over the world.

Having substantial business experience from shipping and port logistics, Evy is currently dedicating herself to obtaining a new profession in the IT sphere.

She is not a stranger to music either. Trained as a classical piano player, she started her own project a couple of years back under the DJ name Evy Gee, where she delves into different genres including minimal and hypnotic techno.

Martin Tveten

Martin is a long-time friend of sweaty dancefloors and sonic experiences in moist forests. He is eager to spread and maintain the unique atmosphere found at Monument’s festival — a blend of hypnotic and intense, while caring and intimate.

After several year’s of volunteer management in Oslo’s student organisations, he is now head of volunteers for Monument Festival 2022. Apart from techno, he likes science and numbers, and works as a researcher in statistics and machine learning.