Only three days into 2026 and already here’s a song that might qualify for one of the strangest of the year.
(Michael) REXEN is a Danish singer, composer and performer with roots in the UAE and bridging Western and Middle Eastern traditions, and with a distinctive voice.
He holds a Master’s degree in Composition from the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen so isn’t to be trifled with.
He’s so unusual that I am hard pressed to think of anyone to compare him to. His style is minimalist and, on this track at least, grittily spoken rather than sung.
He’s the antithesis of the American, Holly Herndon, and her spoken work ‘Lonely at the top’ which concerns the very much in vogue ASMR and the pleasurable tingling sensation it invokes.
In contrast REXEN’s latest single ‘Hoik Up’, in advance of an album, ‘The Chauffeur’, which will be released on 23rd January, is more like a hypnotherapy session to control irritable bowel syndrome.
There’s something ominous about his controlled delivery; indeed he sounds like a Bond villain directing operations to destroy the world.
Set apart from that, mercifully, are the sweet melodic tones of Mette Lindberg (the front woman of Asteroids Galaxy Tour and who releases her first solo single this month) who couldn’t provide a more powerful contrast if she tried.
Another image that popped irresistibly into my mind was that of a post-coital sequel to Gainsbourg and Birkin’s classic ‘Je t’aime…moi non plus, as if they were both lying there in an apartment in the 20th arrondissement, smoking a shared Gauloise and debating what to do for afters.
It could be depressing. At times it sounds like Leonard Cohen after he’s just been taken down to that place by the river by Suzanne.
But not to REXEN, for whom ‘Hoik Up’ is actually a call to rise, to take a step forward, to move onwards and upwards; to confront an inner struggle for transformation, courage, and fully to step into the moment. To carpe the Diem.
OK, I get the message. I’ll get onto the blower straight away to Donald and demand he hoiks up on Greenland and the Caribbean, if REXEN hasn’t been there already.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
Find him on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rexofyyyy
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mettelindbergofficiiial
