About

Copenhagen trio, Town Portal, have spent more than a decade carving out a niche within the realm of instrumental rock music. Fusing angular polymeters with jazzy playfulness and melodic sensibilities of 90's noise rock and post-hardcore, their songs unfold as continuous struggles between dissonance and harmony, chaos and groove. 

In February 2024, Town Portal ended a five year hiatus with a European tour in support of melodic hardcore legends Thrice (US). On this tour Town Portal showcased material from what would become their fourth album Grindwork, released on November 7th 2025 via the band’s own newly formed label Dream Bureau.

On Grindwork Town Portal team up with engineer Mark Roberts (Delta Sleep, Black Peaks, etc.) to craft an album that departs from the bleak, stringent sound of its predecessor Of Violence (2019), while retaining the grit and heft introduced to the band’s sound on this album. Instead, Grindwork dives into a playful exploration of the raw materials of composition without self-imposed restraints, reflecting a renewed sense of creative joy within the trio.

This sense of joy that permeates Grindwork sharply contrasts with a world increasingly starved of it. A world in which any creative endeavour could be perceived as trivial or even selfish in the face of the planetary and political crises of our time. At the same time, it’s a reaction to exactly that deprivation — a refusal to surrender to the pull of creative cynicism or apathy. On Grindwork, Town Portal circles back to the fragile idea that creating something still matters.

The music channels these themes through a densely woven compositional language that is at once disorienting and magnetic, shaped by the friction of opposing forces — the push and pull of rhythmic complexity and melodic clarity, repetition and surprise, sinister grit and disarming levity. 

Grindwork also sees Town Portal exploring new collaborations. Two of the album’s ten tracks feature strings composed and performed by Nicole Hogstrand (Halvcirkel, CRUSH String Collective, Damkapellet) and Lisa Marie Vogel (Toechter). Their contributions range from the minimalist textures on Grinding the Margins to the orchestral arrangements on lead single Crushed Under Something Gentle, adding new colors to the Town Portal universe.

Over the years, Town Portal have released music through labels such as Subsuburban (DK), Small Pond (UK), and Art As Catharsis (AUS). When Small Pond ceased label operations in 2023, the band founded their own imprint, Dream Bureau, to reissue their back catalog and self-release Grindwork. The creation of Dream Bureau fulfills a long-time fantasy of having the band’s DIY ethos reflect in the entire lifecycle of creating and releasing music.

As a live band, Town Portal have toured extensively across Europe, with standout performances at festivals such as ArcTanGent (2016, 2017), A Colossal Weekend (2016, 2019), Duna Jam (2018), and Portals (2024). In 2024, they supported Thrice (US) on their European tour, adding to a list of notable support slots that also includes legends like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Polvo, and Kowloon Walled City.

The latter led to a collaboration in which Town Portal and Kowloon Walled City recorded live cover versions of songs by Solange and Kaki King. Other collaborative projects include backing Johannes Gammelby of The Malpractice — alongside guitarist Manoj Ramdas — on the release tour for the 2018 album Slur (Crunchy Frog).

That same year, the band contributed to the soundtrack for Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment’s video game Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, working with composer Ola Strandh.

Town Portal’s discography spans their debut EP Vacuum Horror (2011) and albums Chronopoly (2012), The Occident (2015), Of Violence (2019) and Grindwork (2025). Initially formed as a quartet in 2009, Town Portal was reduced to a trio after the release of their debut EP and has consistently performed and recorded as a three piece since then. Town Portal are Christian Henrik Ankerstjerne (guitar), Malik Breuer Bistrup (drums), and Morten Ogstrup Nielsen (bass).