A Danish rapper is playing 100 concerts in 100 days. Bratislava was one of them

By the time Danish rapper Rune Mørch was approaching Bratislava, he had already played 43 concerts in 42 days. He wasn’t even halfway through his tour.

The 27-year-old rapper and producer, who performs under the name Al Jacobi, had set himself the challenge of playing 100 concerts in 100 consecutive days. Starting in Denmark, he was making his way across mainland Europe before a final stretch in England and Scotland.

He arranged the mainland European concerts himself, drove from venue to venue and slept wherever he could find a place. The experience had already taken its toll.

“I got pretty sick at one point during this tour because I was sleeping in a flat where there was no heating or hot water,” Mørch said in an interview before his Bratislava performance. He recalls a poisonous smell in the apartment, and then coughing for days afterwards – while still having to perform.

The constant movement brought other challenges. Although he has enjoyed the hours spent driving alone with his thoughts, Mørch has sometimes wished he could stay in one place for more than half a day. Even when a city caught his interest, another concert was usually waiting somewhere else.

On Tuesday, 13 October, his marathon brought him to Bratislava, where he performed at Cyklokuchyňa, a DIY bicycle and cultural space on the banks of the Danube.

From library CDs to wireless gloves

Growing up in Vrå, a small town in northern Denmark, Mørch was surrounded by the performing arts. His father was a professional guitarist, and his mother acted in children’s theatre. His introduction to hip-hop, however, was decidedly DIY: He would ride his bicycle to the local library to borrow CDs by Eminem and 50 Cent.

Those early influences, which also included Kanye West, helped shape his interest in rap. But Mørch’s musical tastes have since expanded beyond hip-hop. His own music draws on rock and electronic influences.

“I think hip-hop was just a really cool thing for what I wanted to do,” he said. 

Among the artists he enjoys listening to are John Mayer and the Beatles. He is particularly fond of Mayer’s album Continuum, partly because its music is so different from his own. When listening to hip-hop, Mørch often finds himself analysing the production and songwriting. With other genres, he said, he can simply enjoy the music. 

The Beatles hold a more personal significance. Their song Here Comes the Sun reminds him of his grandmother.

After earning a songwriting degree from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Mørch set out to solve a problem familiar to electronic musicians: how to make a live performance engaging without being stuck behind a laptop. 

“When you’re a rapper, it’s pretty straightforward. You have a mic and you spin some rhymes. But I’m also a producer,” he said. As someone who composes and arranges his own music, he wanted to bring that side of his work onto the stage without losing his connection with the audience.

His solution was MiMU gloves.

The wireless, motion-sensing controllers, developed through a project led by British musician Imogen Heap, allow him to trigger beats, manipulate sound effects and alter his vocals in real time by moving his hands through the air.

His interest in the technology began with hip-hop itself. After discovering Heap’s music through a sample used in the track I’m God, he explored her work and eventually came across a video demonstrating the gloves.

Learning to use the gloves came with some awkward moments. During his first show with them, Mørch discovered that he had not properly accounted for how their motion sensors would respond onstage. At times, he had to turn his shoulders away from the audience to activate certain effects.

“Immediately after that first performance, I was like, OK, I need to change some of this,” he recalled.

He has since adjusted the set-up, but says performing live still teaches him more than practising in a studio, where everything can be controlled.

Giving a voice to difficult subjects

For Mørch, music is also a way to address subjects that are often difficult to discuss. His lyrics explore mental health, social stigma and personal struggles, drawing on his own experiences and observations.

“I think the main message is just being able to speak about everything,” he said. “It’s like giving a voice to the things that don’t necessarily have a voice.”

He also considers how his songs might resonate with listeners, particularly those going through difficult periods in their lives. He said he finds it especially rewarding when someone tells him that a song helped them through a particular moment.

One song that has stayed with him is Rooftop, an older track that he continues to enjoy performing. He says listeners often find meanings in it that differ from those he originally had in mind.

Making his own opportunities 

Beyond the futuristic gloves and the physical demands of performing every day, Mørch’s tour carries a message for the music industry: Independent artists do not have to wait for permission to pursue ambitious projects.

He arranged the mainland European leg himself, relying on emails, phone calls and direct outreach to independent venues. For the British dates, he worked with local artists he had collaborated with before.

To help other musicians navigate similar challenges, Mørch is writing a free guidebook titled 100 Gigs in 100 Days, drawing on his experiences organising and performing the tour.

“I think a lot of people overall wait for an opportunity rather than create them for themselves,” he said.

He believes musicians should be as creative in managing their careers as they are in making music, rather than waiting for someone else to tell them what to do.

The tour is also a chance to meet other musicians, discover local music scenes and make connections along the way. Mørch describes it as a cultural exchange and hopes to collaborate with some of the people he has met once the tour is over.

“I strongly believe in collegiality over competition,” he said.

Al Jacobi. (source: Jürgen Nobel)

Why Bratislava? 

While planning his route through Central Europe before the final stretch in Britain, Mørch came across Cyklokuchyňa, a community space in Bratislava that appealed to him for its independent, open-minded atmosphere.

Bratislava was not entirely unfamiliar territory. Mørch had performed a small, spontaneous gig at a bar in the city two years earlier, during a visit from Vienna. This time, however, the Slovak capital was a planned stop on his 100-day tour.

For Mørch, the city’s proximity to Vienna and other Central European destinations made it a natural addition to his itinerary. 

Still, the tour would not be possible without venues willing to give him a chance. Mørch says he was encouraged by how readily organisers responded to the idea, including those at Cyklokuchyňa.

Before the performance, Mørch said he was curious to discover what a Slovak audience would be like and how the country’s concert culture might differ from those he had encountered elsewhere in Europe.

Once the 100-day marathon is over, he plans to return to the studio, drawing on the experiences and connections he has gathered along the way. He hopes to tour farther afield in the future, possibly in Asia, though he doubts he will repeat the challenge of 100 concerts in 100 days.

“There are good things and there are bad things,” Mørch said. “Luckily, the good things outweigh the bad by a long shot.” 

“And the bad things, they become funny memories.”