Lars Ro

Lars David Rosenblum Sorgenfrei (born Lars David Rosenblum on 15 July 1974), better known by the stage name Lars Ro, is a Danish-American musician, poet, peace and environmental activist, philosopher, artist, record label owner and critic, astrologer, and itinerant traveller.

Born in downtown Philadelphia to Danish immigrant Eva Brinkmar (his great, great uncle was Jacob Christian Hansen Ellehammer, who in 1906 was arguably the first European to fly a plane) and American Jew G. David Rosenblum, Ro grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs. From a young age, he was enamored by visual arts. After his parents divorced, he split his time between being alone with his mother, and being one of a family of five at his father's house. He began seriously playing music as a teenager, volunteered with the homeless in Philadelphia, and became involved in peace activism with the onset of the Gulf War.

After graduating high school, he moved to Montréal, Québec, Canada where he received a B.A. in Political Science at McGill University LAMPshADe;, his first post-high school band, met with limited success, although it planted the seeds of sfu-ma-to and the solo career of acclaimed singer-songwriter Catherine Feeny.

In 1993, he founded Purr Mama Resistor (initially Purderous Magina Records), a record label and poetry imprint with no fixed address.

In 1996, he moved across the Atlantic to Danmark and formed the band sfu-ma-to. Two years later, he married long-term girlfriend Esther Sorgenfrei (thereupon changing his last name to Rosenblum Sorgenfrei), and the couple moved to Berkeley, California where Ro pursued an M.A. in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at The California Institute of Integral Studies. Here he had the chance to study with clinical LSD research pioneer Stanislav Grof, renowned cultural historian Richard Tarnas, pioneering eco-feminist Charlene Spretnak, and consciousness researcher (and former Timothy Leary protege) Ralph Metzner.

After returning to Danmark and , Ro and Bo Richardt initiated FredsVagten, an ongoing, seven-days-a-week peace demonstration against the 'War on Terror' located at Christiansborg, right next to the Danish parliament (or Folketing) in København, Danmark on 19 October 2001. It is (to date) the longest running permanent peace protest in Danish history.

In 2003, he travelled from Danmark to Syria by land in an attempt to assist Iraqi refugees.

Ro has since been primarily nomadic, relocating to France and travelling (to date) to more than 50 countries.

Discography

*v/a - L'Affection Affection (Purderous Magina Records, 1993)
*Lars Ro & Justin Bedard - Experiments with Life and a Tape Deck (Purderous Magina Records, 1993)
*v/a - Au foyer At home (Purderous Magina Records, 1996)
*Lars Ro - Distant Music (Purderous Magina Records, 1996)
*v/a - L'automobile The car (Purderous Magina Records, 1999)

Bibliography

*QWERTYUIOP (Purderous Magina Books, 1997)
*# (slimside, Purderous Magina Books, 1998)
*stoned (the mongrels, the daisies) (slimside, Purderous Magina Books, 1999)
*my loneliness fits me like a shroud (Purderous Magina Books, 2002)
*do you sleep? (redeemerm) / drowsy eyelids (rmotherfucker) (slimside, Purderous Magina Books, 2003)
*Iraqi Refugee Voyage (Purderous Magina Books, 2003)
*one, by land! two, by sea! three, by air! (Purr Mama Resistor, 2007)

Further reading

*X-Puck (the sub-terranean zine) issue #1 (1993)
*Ruru

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu