Before a-ha there was Bridges – 2nd album ‘Våkenatt’ finally released to larger public 40 years after being recorded
Bridges were a Norwegian rock band formed in Oslo, Norway in 1978. It is notable for being the predecessor to synth pop band a-ha. The band released their debut album “Fakkeltog” in 1980, but their second album “Våkenatt” which was recorded within the following year, will only get released in full later next month (November 20th) and this after almost 40 years. Good to know, the album holds the early version of the later well known a-ha tracks “Scoundrel Days” and “Soft Rains Of April” as you can hear below.
Bridges included future a-ha members, Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, alongside Viggo Bondi (Bass) and Erik Hagelien (Drums), who was later replaced by Oystein Jevanord on drums. The band was formed during their schooldays in Oslo, Norway and they played gigs across 1978 and 1979. One audience member was the future a-ha lead singer, Morten Harket.
The second Bridges album didn’t get released earlier because band members Waaktaar and Furuholmen planned to continue their musical careers in London after 1981, but Bondi and Jevanord declined, and so bridges split up and Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy would go on to form the synth-pop act a-ha.
As you will notice, the Norwegian psych-rock sound of Bridges is very different to that of a-ha’s electro pop.
“It’s not only an essential part of Norwegian music history, as the missing link between Bridges and a-ha; as I listened to the record, I discovered that it’s a masterpiece which still feels fresh and relevant today,” said rock historian Terje Nilsen at Rockheim in 2018.
“Våkenatt” is available to pre-order now and the first single from the album “Asleep” can be downloaded and streamed below.
Note that “Våkenett” had been pressed up in a small run of vinyl copies in 2018, by Norway’s national museum for pop music, Rockheim Museum, in Trondheim, Norway. 900 copies of the album were produced on green vinyl 180gram vinyl presented in a box.
Side-Line also covered a-ha’s ‘White Xmas Lies’.
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Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
