I hadn’t heard of Viborg before connecting with Mads Bering. As he explains, there’s some friendly beef between where he grew up and his adopted hometown of Copenhagen.
You see, Viborg sits in the Jutland region of mainland Denmark, while Copenhagen calls the island of Zealand home. For a bit of perspective, the cities are roughly a three-and-a-half-hour drive from one another.
“I love telling my partner, who’s from Zealand, that life would be much better and far less complicated if we lived in Jutland.”
Jokes aside, the music maker known as Digital Twin loves living in the Danish capital. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit twice myself, and it really is a melting pot of art, music, food, wine and just about everything else that makes a city tick. It’s those very qualities that keep Mads there. The only downside? Family and Viborg Fodsports Forening, his beloved football club, are no longer within arm’s reach.
If you follow Phelt closely, you’ll know I adore the Danish dance scene, particularly the Safe Distribution crew out of Århus. And this is how I ran into Digital Twin and his album Hyperlink. My landing pad being the punchy bubble bath “Carob”.
Mads puts it perfectly: this particular project (of which he has many) is an outlet for “having fun, making people move and allowing for introspection even while being blasted on huge club systems.”
Since kicking it off, he has felt liberated and refreshed in his songwriting. This is what he calls “functional music” – tunes in that 120-140 BPM pocket that are meant to be mixed on big systems. Across the board, these eight recordings were born to wiggle around to.
Collectively, Hyperlink feels like speed skating through space. Zooming between constellations, gliding past meteor debris and the occasional unexplained lifeform. What I find most appealing is the jacked-up attitude it exudes, unrelenting yet super playful.
Take “PersistenZ”. Drenched bass licks collide with ray guns and what sounds like an astronaut prepping a ship for interstellar travel. It’s chaotic from the jump, yet quickly finds its sweet spot, its groove. While two tracks later comes “Life Cycle”, a likeness to aliens having a heated conversation with charged drum sections. It’s bright, effervescent and encourages smiles – the whole album does, and that’s what’s so fun.
“The tracks are atmospheric, light, and at times have an almost aquatic feel…Also, the tempo on the record is quite fast-paced, but I think the tracks retain a sense of openness rather than feeling dense or claustrophobic.”
Hyperlink came to fruition thanks to a blend of hardware and digital plugins. Mads isn’t married to any particular way of working, or specific pieces of gear, for that matter. Most of these songs emerged from fiddling with samples and approaching different instruments with “naivety, curiosity and openness”. For him, that’s where the thrill of creating lies: picking up new approaches and seeing where they lead. More often than not, it’s in those moments of exploration that his most genuine ideas bear fruit.
“I think there is sometimes a strong focus in electronic music production on having the “right gear” or certain tools being more “authentic” or “correct” than others.”
Hyperlink has been a long time in the making, with its first brushstrokes landing on the canvas back in 2019. Fittingly, it was the opener, “Carob,” that first fully formed.
“Many of the tracks sat on my hard drive for years with no specific purpose. It wasn’t until around 2023 that I started compiling ideas with the thought of gathering them into an album format. I’ve never worked on a release over such a long period of time before.”
Seven years. A long stretch by anyone’s measure.
If we jump into a time capsule for a moment, Mads explains it all traces back to one thing: record collecting. Digging. Even during his teenage years, the feeling of surprise and pang of inspiration he’d get from dropping the needle on a record he’d never heard before spurred him to push his own ideas and combine influences in new ways.
“Perhaps the cover or labels on a record suggest a certain aesthetic expression that makes me imagine what the music might sound like before listening. But then, it may contain completely different qualities than I had imagined, and suddenly I’m introduced to new sounds or subgenres I totally didn’t expect.”
Mads makes a point of bigging up the now-defunct 313 Vinyl Collective record store in Copenhagen. A place, he says, that was “deeply formative in the process of making this album.” Sadly, the shop closed last year, but it still means the world to him. It’s where his musical taste broadened dramatically, and ideas sparked like faulty sockets.
While we’re on the topic of places that house records, it’s time we introduced Real-Time Solutions (RTS) – Mads’ very own imprint, which has been quietly ticking along for a decade.
“At the time, I had some music that I wanted to share, but I hadn’t found a proper home for it that suited how I wanted to release it… So it felt natural to look into forming my own label where I could run things the way I wanted.”
The name is deliberately ambiguous. Real-Time Solutions could just about provide any service. “It could belong to an electrician, a print shop or a catering service.” For Mads, RTS isn’t a traditional record label. It’s a creative umbrella that can house visual art, performances, live events and whatever else swells his heart.
Cutely, Mads even included the RTS logo on the final page of his PhD thesis, presenting it as though it were an official RTS release. It’s proof that this venture has less to do with the medium and far more to do with expressing creativity under a unified banner. Better yet, it leaves RTS with room to evolve in just about any direction, with zero pigeonholes.
No surprises, it’s the aforementioned Safe Distribution who push RTS music out to the world. Mads first met Chris (C.K) over 15 years ago after moving to Århus to study. Through Chris, he gradually got to know the group of people who today make up the Safe collective. In 2026, their bond remains rock solid, and he can’t speak more highly of the culture they’ve created.
“There’s a genuine support and positivity between everyone. The focus is very much on making good music and sharing ideas, rather than following trends or feeling the need to stick to a certain sound simply because it’s considered “cool.”
Mads speaks the truth. There’s a tangible sense of what he’s describing that runs through everything Safe puts out. Whenever someone from their extended family drops a new release, lands a booking or contributes artwork to another artist’s project, the rest are quick to celebrate it across social media. Every post feels authentic and full of love. You can tell everyone is over the moon for whoever’s moment it is to shine.
“It’s simply a lovely group of people…that human connection goes beyond being a “business” relationship or only being about the music; that is crucial to me.”
Not only are they kind to one another, but they’re kind to the planet, too. The team are constantly implementing more sustainable ways to distribute sounds that speak to them that aren’t driven by profit maximisation. If you weren’t already rooting for this warm-hearted group of Danes, you probably are now.
If you’re eager to support Safe and get acquainted with their catalogue, Safe Anniversary 1 is as good a place to start as any. Celebrating 10 years in the game, the V.A. compilation pairs four cuts from One Touch, Manmade Deejay (Mandee), Track & Trace and Mads’ JONGPADAWAN project. Each track carries that fresh, fizzy vibe that seeps through everything they release. Think cracking a can of ice-cold yuzu lemonade and watching the foam spill over the lip.
Fittingly, as my time with the producer winds down, I ask if there are any lesser-known artists he’d care to spotlight. Mads’ answer embodies everything beautiful about their community.
“There are honestly far too many producers I could mention here, and I would inevitably leave someone out. Instead, I want to highlight the amazing crop of Danish underground electronic releases distributed by Safe.”
It’s never about the individual, but the sum of all parts.
Hyperlink and the Digital Twin project are now crystal clear. They’re playful without feeling silly, introspective without disappearing into themselves and technical without ever becoming geeky. Much like the people surrounding it, the album feels guided by inquisitiveness rather than ego. That same spirit courses through RTS, Safe Distribution and the special kinship they’ve spent years nurturing together.