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 have been a key player to grow 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 staying motivated and happy while doing so.

Conor O’Gara

Conor O’Gara is the chief editor of Monument.

His responsibility is to lead the writer team to create the highest quality content related to techno. Through reviews, interviews, exposés, and collaborations with artists in the global techno scene they work to showcase the most exciting and interesting aspects of contemporary techno.

Conor also produces and DJ techno in his native Dublin, as well as running his own monthly event.

Apolline Guédon

Head of Social Media, Apolline is an active and creative project manager, developing new marketing strategies to broadcast our vision to a wider audience.

With the whole Social Media Team, the goal is to better share the amazing content created by Monument every week, showcasing an healthy techno culture with deep sounds and with the love of nature, as well as continuously evolving hand in hand with our public and all the different actors of the scene. 

Passionate about Hypnotic Techno, Ambient and visual arts, Apolline is also at the head of her own organisation: Art Bei Ton. Organising events in Berlin and Europe, their objective is to mix electronic music with visual arts (VJing, art exhibition, interactive audiovisual installations, performances, workshops, panels, …), as well as to promote diverse and gender-balanced line-ups.

Sam Rubinstein

Our head of podcast as of the summer of 2018, someone with a deep passion for ambient, techno and various other forms of music. Sam made his debut as a DJ at MNMT Festival, and what followed were gigs in Tokyo, Fukoaka and Brussels. As per his daily life, he works as a conference manager for a company that organizes events on sustainability and Impact Investing all over the world.

Born in Amsterdam, but currently based in Antwerp and with roots in the United States, Sam aims to curate a high quality and diverse podcast series that fits within the identity that Monument has established. 

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.

Marit works with and studies children with special needs and the structures of the education system. She is leading various art projects, creating spaces and inspiration, and have been doing so for the past 5 years. Always challenging the “state thought” on what music is while dancing with the next generation.

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.

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.

Hallvard has a key role in the Monument festival team, where he is head of operations. He is the man that gets everything done; from planning to execution. Hallvard also writes the occasional review for our magazine.

He is also a musician, both as a solo act under the name of UE and as part of the 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.

Paula Koski

Paula Koski is a passionate music-digger, and therefore a natural fit for her role as Monument’s Head of Premiere. Each week Paula listens to a lot of new music from numerous labels, hand-picking the most interesting tracks and presenting them on Monument’s sound channels before anyone else. Paula also contributes to Monument Magazine mainly with her in-depth artist features.

Paula is Monument’s resident artist and lately travels around Europe playing her favorite techno and ambient tracks for like-minded music enthusiasts. She especially likes to perform in the nature, where she finds the best connection between music and crowd.

On her free time Paula keeps digging music, spends time with her friends, enjoys plant-based food, tries to read more books and listens to her favorite band Tame Impala.

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 creating the Monument label, soon to be launched.

Henriette Wulff

The strategic getting shit done-person. An enthusiastic, dedicated and structured project manager. Head of communication and volunteers for the Monument festival.

Easily recognized and loved on the dancefloor.

Oslo/Copenhagen based.

Joakim Johannessen

Joakim has been a supporter of Monument for a long period, but started seriously to contribute in the autumn of 2017.

Joakim is our business developer that have many projects in Monument. He was responsible for sales, bar and food at our festival, but also contributes to our events in Oslo.

He appreciates life, food, smiling people and a good dance! Joakim has a background from sales, marketing, business development and works daily as a business developer at Unloc.app

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. 

John Mclaren

John is a veteran of the rave scene, starting out as a DJ and promoter in the late 80’s, running several successful nights as well as DJing all over the UK.

He studied music technology, environmental art, sound art and sound production to Masters level. He currently releases Techno and Electronica under various aliases including Kill Them with Noise, Urgula and Onesk.

He teaches electronic music production as a freelancer and is a graduate of Subsine Electronic Music Academy in Glasgow, where he lives with his partner, two young children and a dangerous cat.

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.

Arikas Pačešiūnas

Arikas Pačešiūnas takes care of our premiere videos on social media. He is an electronic music enthusiast, DJ, an active member of Lithuanian electronic music community.

At the moment, Arikas lives in northern Norway, where he and other co-minded people support the movement of the electronic scene. Together with music loving people, he is developing projects such as Tamsioji Pusė, Monument, and the DJ collective „Behind the river“.

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.

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

Leroy Moeller

From Melbourne, Australia. Leroy assists in introducing, organizing and planning the future podcasts of Monument. He is working towards providing intimate experiences with a focus on sound and visual experimentation to push the mind.

He is also a full-time tradesman and co-creator of emerging brand Dilate.

Lara Palmer

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

Recently, she moved to the outskirts of Berlin, closer to the woods and lakes surrounding the metropolis. In her day job she works with visitor information, event planning and organization at a center for political and cultural events.

Hanna Heinonen

Hanna joined our SoMe team in 2019, as a content creator and photographer. Her focus is on the Instagram team, where she uses the time to understand the platform and what kind of content we should publish.

Originally from Finland, but now based in Berlin.

Hanne Agathe Magnussen Wathne

Agathe contributes with decoration for events and writing on the magazine.

As a yoga instructor and body therapist she studies how sound journeys affects people on an energetic and therapeutic level. She works with ancient instruments like Tibetan singing bowls as a method for healing purpose.

Agathe works in Humana as a personal care assistant. She believes that everyone deserves a good life, to feel good and to love music.

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.

Austeja Tamaliunaite

A writer for Monument since Autumn 2018, Austeja has a taste for dissonant yet hypnotic sounds. Equally interested in techno heavyweights as well as more ambient soundscapes. For Austeja techno is an embodied meditation, because experiencing music for her is inseparable from moving to the rhythm.

Austeja has a multidisciplinary educational background, namely in Philosophy, Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. Her academic interests lie in music psychology, and she is especially fascinated by involuntary synchronisation to the rhythm. She is currently working in The Interdisciplinary Center for the Studies in Rhythm, Time and Motion (RITMO).

Lasse Kleven

Lasse has been a part of the Monument team since the beginning. Working in construction, one of his main missions for Monument is coming up with creative and cool ideas; and then figuring out how to build them.

Lasse lives in Oslo and helps out on most of the events at Blå and the more secret ones.

Everyone likes Lasse, as he is always spreading lots of love and doing an amazing job with promotion.

Siw Laukvik Tønnesland

Siw is currently studying project management arts and creative industries at Westerdals School of Arts, Communication and Technology. To build up competence within the field, she uses some of her study time to work on the Monument festival. Her mission is to professionalize all documents, applications, and forms. At the same time Siw is a part of the team that organizes the Oslo events, doing promotion and fieldwork.

Siw enjoys being close to the sea but also out in the mountains. Physical activities and social gatherings with people are some of her main priorities in life.

Stefania Trinchero

Italian-born, London-based writer, Stefania has a strong passion for all things techno and ambient. Collaborating with several international music publications, she found in Monument a techno family “away from home”.

Particularly interested in club culture and its power to transform and create communities with a strong sense of belonging, she sees dancing as a therapy for the body, the mind and the soul. 

Stefania is also a yoga student/teacher wannabe, nature lover and passionate about architecture and art. 

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.

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.

Halvard Solvoll

From the very beginning, Halvard has been contributing to our events with his steady and amazing building skills. For our first festival in 2019, he combined his knowledge of music and construction to build the stage. It was inspired by Norwegian nature and had a special purpose to fit into the surroundings and deliver a truly special look to our festival.

Halvard is born and raised in Oslo, were he has been contributing to and has organized music events from an early age. Halvard works as a carpenter with his own company. He has a deep passion for traveling and boats.

Ebba Henningsson

With an unparalleled passion for techno – in particular the old, off the walls ravey kind – Ebba is an occasional writer for Monument. Her love for the old school, cool, early days techno extends to the political roots of the genre, and her writing focuses on the intersection of music and politics.

Drawing similarities between the contestations the scene faces today and before, she is based in the epicenter of modern techno, Berlin, with its political past. When she is not listening to, reading and writing about techno, you can find her eating sweets, drinking beer by a canal, or riding around the city on her bike.

Emilie Hansen

Emilie is currently based in Edinburgh, Scotland, studying International Festival and Event Management. She volunteered at the first MNMT festival in 2019, were she became a part of the family. In 2020 she will have an important role in making and executing the MNMT festival.

Emilie travels around the world whenever she is not working on a new event or festival. Networking and creating deep, loving bonds with people around the globe.

Lee Shields

Berlin-based but Irish bred writer, Lee has an affiliation with most electronic sounds. Forging his early techno inclinations in Dublin’s club scene, where creativity supersedes the restrictive opening times and venues, he has always found togetherness in the genre.

A journalism graduate and long-time music lover, he has found a home in Monument where he can combine his two passions. Particularly enjoying reviews, the sheer freedom of writing about electronic music is expressive, stimulating, and eloquently illusive.

He is also partial to dogs, cooking and plays Ireland’s national sport Gaelic football in Berlin.

Jerome Winters

Jerome co-founded Monument together with Henning six years ago. The creation of Monument was a natural development of their friendship and interest in music – especially techno music.

Jerome is known for challenging the conventional. He has played a crucial role in establishing the podcast, music selection, and event planning in the early days. He has also been involved in the development of Monument’s web platform.

Besides working as a financial adviser, Jerome is an avid music collector and hifi-head. He enjoys listening to many different genres in music – anything between jazz to post punk. Albeit, his sweet spot is tuned towards techno when he occasionally plays DJ-sets.

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.

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 serving beverages at the bar.

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.

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.

Justine Perry

Justine joined Monument in 2020 as part of the Social Media Team, and is in charge of the Tracklisting Project, which is about presenting the 10 most favourite tracks of inspiring artists from across the world. She is also an active member of the Berlin Techno scene, and lives out her passion for electronic music both as a DJ, producer and her involvement in the Art Bei Ton collective, which hosts events featuring more female artists.

Virginia Bianchi

Virginia is a Milan-based music lover and creative soul, who joined the Monument Family in 2020 as part of the Social Media Team. She has a deep love for writing, and is always searching for new sounds.