Celebrate Spring with DJ Richard Judge’s Spring Love’INN Live Set at Nordkette

We finally made it! Since the last Richard Judge performance at Nordkette in the Autumn of 2021, we’ve planned a return to celebrate the start of spring with another epic DJ set. Unfortunately COVID had other plans, but finally we were able to make it happen!

In March 2023 Richard once more played a spectacular live set at one of Innsbruck’s most iconic locations: the Seegrube station at 1905 metres altitude on the Nordkette mountains. This is the first hour of that set.

After filming with Richard in 2021, my team and I filmed the creation of The Art of Performance. A landmark exhibition, curated by famed wardrobe designer Michael Schmidt and dreamt up by award-winning set designer Derek McLane.

During the week of production, Alexandra Mühlbacher (Senior Communications Manager at Swarovski) came up with the idea of recording live acoustic acts in this room, celebrating generations of iconic costumes and crystals. We immediately thought of Richard.

Richard was of course well up for it. Along with Lucas Micka, we walked through the ever inspiring Chambers of Wonder, took some shots and then began setting up the audio and filming gear.

I wanted this to be very raw, so we only used two lights and one microphone. My initial idea was to mic up the vocal and guitar separately, but Richard said “let’s just try one”.

The room was surprisingly ambient. The natural reverb was fantastic, even though there was a lot of reflective glass. 

I was blown away by Richard’s performance. I’ve worked with him for a number of years and we’re also good friends, but I’ve never experienced the beauty of his acoustic set in this intimate setting without an audience before. A pleasure to record and produce.

Being surrounded by legendary costumes such as Elton John, Bjork, Cher, Michael Jackson and Marylyn Monroe to name a few, I really felt a sense of magic in the room.

The next day, we ran around the city capturing shots at the ‘postcard’ locations.

Richard then prepared for the big party the next day.

The extra year of waiting for this set was worth it; time for all systems go!

Just 20 minutes from the city, we were high up on the Nordkette mountains at Seegrube. There were already a lot of people on the mountain, including skiers and boarders in the Skyline Park, plus others relaxing in the sun on the deck chairs, or just exploring or learning to ski.

Innsbruck’s legendary DJ Pferd took to the decks with his seven year old son Gabriel as the pre-act. Like father, like son, they built up the vibe perfectly.

Just before Richard stepped on stage, Lucas Micka, Arthur Pauli and I started recording on all cameras. Max Boschi was in control of the aerial shots; he was in position and started rolling. More and more people were arriving, and we were ready for action!

Richard played mostly his own productions, including some bootlegs that many other DJs are eager to get their hands on – they won’t show up on Shazam (not yet anyway). Blending classic vocal samples with his own tunes and adding live vocals over the top was fantastic.

Below is the first hour of his set ...

After the recording ended, Richard played his brand new track that is being released this year. He then took the music to another level for another hour, the crowd were loving it!

Before the last set of gondolas took the party people back down to the city, I jumped on the decks and mixed a few tunes.

There were over 2500 people at Seegrube enjoying the beautiful weather and epic views. Skiing, snowboarding, winter hiking, dancing, relaxing, para-gliding, partying – this is Innsbruck at its best!

I’m looking forward to the next event, see you on the mountain soon.

All photos © Ashley Wiggins unless otherwise stated.

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