A-ha member presents 'The Apparatjik Light Space Modulator'

Apart from A-ha, Magne 'Mags' Furuholmen has also been involved with the music, art and film project known as Apparatjik since 2008. The project has since released an album and two singles, and performed three concerts in 2010. Now they are preparing for their first large-scale project, to take place in Germany in March including an installation and performances at the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin. (Tickets for the performances have gone on sale today, 1 February. Note that tickets will be limited to approximately 200 per show, and can be purchased from www.apparatjik.com . If you plan to go, contact us at info@side-line.com ). This project by Apparatjik is to be understood as homage to the legendary Meta-Musik-Festival that took place during the seventies at the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin.

Apparatjik are the musicians Guy Berryman (Coldplay, London), Jonas Bjerre (Mew, Copenhagen), Magne Furuholmen (A-ha, Oslo) and Martin Terefe (London).

The Apparatjik Light Space Modulator is presented as a twofold project: during two weeks the installation can be accessed in the glass hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie and three unique concerts will be performed at the same location (at 9 pm on March 12, March 26, and March 27, 2011). Those performances are inspired by the visual experiments of László Moholy-Nagy. Moholy-Nagy taught at the German Bauhaus, as did Mies van der Rohe who was the architect of the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin. At the center of both the Apparatjik installation and concerts are moving images that project from a large scale cube into the open glass structure of the building into the city space — a reference to the kinetic Licht-Raum-Modulator created in 1930 by Bauhaus artist Moholy-Nagy.

Apparatjikʼs project will conclude on March 27 with a special interactive composition performed in collaboration with the Deutsches Kammerorchester. This concert is dedicated to Mies van der Rohe on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of his birth.

The Apparatjik Light Space Modulator will be accompanied by a publication in collaboration with NODE Berlin Oslo to be published in late 2011 including a comprehensive documentation of this project.

Furuholmen has been the keyboardist with A-ha since their formation in 1982, though he also plays guitar. He has co-written many of the band's hits with Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, including "Stay On These Roads", "Manhattan Skyline", and the band's first and biggest hit "Take On Me". When A-ha went on hiatus in 1994, Furuholmen began working on other music projects. The band reconvened in 2000, though announced they would split in 2010.

Furuholmen's projects outside of A-ha include Timbersound, formed in 1994 with Kjetil Bjerkestrand, and later, Swedish singer, Freddie Wadling. Their work has been used on film soundtracks such as "Ti Kniver I Hjertet" (1994), "Hotel Oslo" (1997) which also featured vocals by Anneli Drecker, "1732 Høtten" (1998) where the album "Hermetic" is featured.

Furuholmen also recorded "Past Perfect Future Tense" in 2004, with appearances from Guy Berryman and Will Champion of Coldplay, and from Andy Dunlop of the Scottish band Travis. As a result, in 2008 Furuholmen collaborated with Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman and Mew vocalist Jonas Bjerre under the band name of Apparatjik for the theme to the BBC2 series, "Amazon".

Posted by B. Van Isacker