(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / Indie Recordings press release. Photos by Bjørn Opsahl, Frank Hiis and Jan Ronald Stange) Out on May 3rd was the seventh Seigmen album “Resonans”, highly anticipated after the nine years wait since “Enola” in 2015. The release was celebrated by an evening of fun at the Apollon Platebar (record shop & pub/bar in one – excellent place!) in Tønsberg, full house and all of the tickets gone already at the opening that day.

The event started off with a signing session. As there’s three different vinyl versions in addition to CD and cassette versions – and many bought all versions! – they went through a bunch of marker pens in a busy hour. Then the whole album was played, followed by a move upstairs for the ticket holders. Arvid Skancke-Knutsen held both a challenging quiz and an entertaining and informational Q&A session. He was definitely the right person for the job, knowing and supporting Seigmen throughout their whole career, and also the first journalist to review the debut CD in a major publication.

The Seigmen album

“Resonans” is Seigmen’s latest album, echoing the essence of a longstanding friendship. A strong bond among five guys who found each other through music, learned to play instruments, and expressed themselves together. They solidified their friendship through muddy and sour tones from the rehearsal room on the old submarine quay, down into a basement in the city center, out to a barn outside the city, up on the heights near the old library, down into the mountain beneath the same hill, and back to a rehearsal container at the old shipyard. Always tied to their hometown, Tønsberg in Norway.

“Resonans” is the reverberation of endless evening rehearsals, weekends with “lefse” and freshly ground coffee in thermoses, and syncopations. Smiles, conversations, and gossip. The hard, precise, and long-term work. Love and art. Resonans is guts and integrity, demonstrating the uncompromising nature that Seigmen has always represented.

Singles and songs

The singles “Berlin,” “Kollaps,” and “Elskhat” have already been out there. Listen to “Melanchthon”, approaching two minutes, and the endless solo that ends with no more frets on the guitar neck. Listen to “Blasfem”, raw nerve for almost eleven minutes. Listen to the space created in “Eksplodere i det stille”, the transition to a single chorus after five and a half minutes. There are many layers here. The depth is buried in the details. The ones you hear when you play the song for the third or sixth time.

Resonans is the result you get when five focused individuals return to the studio where they recorded “Total” in 1994. Carrying the same curiosity, the same hunger and the eternal urge to create. Incidentally, this year marks exactly 30 years since the release of “Total”. Recently, the book about the album was published in the series “Norske albumklassikere”, skillfully written by Even Smith Wergeland. The reference is track number two on “Total”, “Ohm”, which might be the song that best defines the band. Ohm means resistance.

“Resonans” is also the echo of the time it took to complete this album. The resistance along the way, in the form of a pandemic and, most notably, serious and prolonged illness. Of course, one should also acknowledge the frugality and thoroughness these years have allowed. Time to work in silence. No concerts for four years have provided ample time in the “space.” Even more lefse. Even more cups of freshly brewed coffee.

“Resonans” is vibrations. Listen to the last phrases of “Når alle skjermer går i svart” (When all screens go black). The desperation in the voice of vocalist Alex is palpable, you can hear the resistance. Seigmen has always believed that it is they are at their best when there’s resistance. Listen to the first line of the lyrics in “Berlin.” All hope is lost, but never say die — it doesn’t get much clearer than that.

‘Tønsberg’ – the city anthem

Resonans ends with the surprise song “Tønsberg”, nothing less than a magnificent, honest, and personal tribute to the city the band hails from. In the first part of “Tønsberg,” guitarist and opera singer Marius finally unfolds his vocal prowess within the framework of Seigmen, something he has only done once before on a record. Strings tastefully arranged by the “film musician”, Ginge. Then the rest of the band kicks in halfway, and Alex takes the baton to the finish line. Marius is actually retiring as a soloist in the Norwegian national Opera this spring, where they retire early.

“Up the mountain, up in the tower. Never a stranger in the streets we walk.” “Tønsberg” might be a bit of an oddity on Resonans, but the song comes straight from the heart.

Mini-interview with Kim Ljung

The day after Kim Ljung had this to say about the event:
– We were real happy with how Friday turned out. It was a near and personal event. Also it’s always nice to see eacother away form rehearsal and studio, have a few drinks together, then meet nice eager people who’s always polite and just seems interested and throughout extremely inspired by what we do. 
Also a sheer pleasure seeing the glow in our fans faces, coming up with the vinyl, CD or a cassette they just bought, signing them and knowing they go home that evening in utter delight. 

I also had to ask about ‘Arkadia ego’, the track starting with “Husk at du skal dø en gang” (“Remember that you must die once”) – was it written before Depeche Mode’s “Memento Mori” were announced? 
– When DM released “Memento Mori” I was a little stressed, since we had the “Arkadia ego” song written long before. However it was all put on hold for several years due to Covid and internal health issues in the band. We started writing material right after we released “Enola” in 2015. Then there is also a part on “Blasfem”, the 11 minute track, that has a guitar line which dates back to the 90’s. 
“Elskhat” was the first track written, however the riff for “Berlin” was there ages before. Just something we never though was of real importance until our manager Øystein heard it and said you have to work on that one. Single potential!

Though “Arkadia ego” was a song that emerged in 2019, the first lyric actually had the line Memento Mori in it, but it sounded a little lame on a demo version, and was taken out. 
So the fear when DM press release came mentioning their title, I was just afraid “Arkadia ego” was in there.

A side note to that: I personally saw their album as a huge dissapointment. I feel with all their history and assets in old synthesizers and their legacy, they should come with better sounding stuff. When Fletch sady passed, I hoped they would bring Alan back in. That would surely made huge differerance to their quality of sound.

The idea of “Arkadia ego” was just me trying to find out a way of using the word Arcadia in a song. Always liked that word. Then I discovered that line. 
Every Seigmen song starts out with a title. That gives me a total picture of how a song should plan out. 

Cheers to Side-Line from Seigmen!

Design background story

If you acquire Resonans in physical format, you will find it tastefully wrapped in peach pink by designer Sigurd N. Kristiansen. Master photographer Bjørn Opsahl is, as always, by Seigmen’s side. A band photo in the same color palette was taken in Kim’s living room. Pink boots under the sofa, a small nod to the band’s very first song. It reveals a band with more humor and spirit than many may think, that sets its own standard and is ready for whatever comes next.

Credits

• Recorded at Velvet Recording by Christer Krogh
• Mixed by Mike Hartung in Propeller Music Devision: “Elskhat”, “Arkadia Ego”, “Når alle skjermer går i svart”, “Eksplodere i det stille”, “Melanchthon”, and “Tønsberg”
• Mixed by Adam Noble: “Kollaps” and “Voltaire!”
• Mixed by Alex Møklebust in Room 13: “Berlin” and “Blasfem”
• Words and melody lines: Kim Ljung
• Music: Seigmen
• Produced by Alex Møklebust and Kim Ljung
• Mastered by George Tanderø
• Artwork by Sigurd N. Kristiansen
• Photo by Bjørn Opsahl

Listen to the album at these streaming services: https://orcd.co/saveresonans, or buy physical versions right here: https://shop.indierecordings.no/collections/seigmen

Side-Line also covered seigmen’s ‘Dyret 23 bud’.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / press release Indie Recordings. Photos by Bjørn Opsahl) November 15th the legendary Norwegian rock band Seigmen released their new single ‘Berlin’, and at the same time they announced that a new album, ‘Resonans’, is due for release April 2024.

The last time Seigmen released new music was 7 years ago, and “Berlin” is the first track from the band’s upcoming album, which was created during the times of the pandemic and lockdown. Those who follow Seigmen know that it has been some challenging years for the band, but it has also been an incredibly creative period.

We’ll get to hear the result when the album ‘Resonans’ is released on April 12, 2024, but already on November 15th, the first teaser, in the form of the single ‘Berlin’, was released through Indie Recordings.

“When we last left the stage on December 21, 2019, we knew nothing about the long and challenging times ahead of us. That this show would be our last for four years. It feels good to put this behind us and at the same time be able to tell that those times were also creative and productive years. More than anything, we want to thank our loyal fans who have followed us through thick and thin, who have patiently waited for us to return. It gives us both strength and inspiration.

New music from Seigmen is not an everyday occurrence; our last release, ‘Enola’, came out eight years ago, and this was the first studio album since 1997. Hence, it is a joy to announce that we are now putting the finishing touches on a new album called ‘Resonans’, that will release April 12th 2024 (Indie Recordings).

The impatient can look forward to the first single, which is already being released on November 15th.
We are also looking forward to get back on stage again and can already announce that we will be playing at Tons of Rock 2024.

Finally, we are also ready to do the show at Støperiet in Tønsberg, which has been postponed several times. This will be the first and only show of the year, and the date is December 16th.”

This show sold out within 12 hours, so a second show are being set up the following day, Sunday December 17th. Get your tickets here! 🙂

Listen to ‘Berlin‘ here:

ABOUT SEIGMEN:

It was an unfinished band that took to the stage when Seigmen (formerly known as Klisne Seigmenn) played their very first show during Christmas of 1989. However, even then, they had something unique that set them apart from the others, and their sound was undeniably different from all those they shared stage with. Even the conservative paper Tønsbergs Blad reported the next day that “Klisne Seigmenn outperformed the others.”

Fast forward to 1994, the year they released the EP “Hjernen er alene” and their third studio album ‘Total’.

First success Seigmen

From there on, Seigmen and their heavy and grandiose, yet catchy melancholy, defined the 1990s.
‘Total was later recognized as one of Norway’s 100 best albums of all time, and their fourth album ‘Metropolis’ dominated the charts back  in 1995 won a Spellemann award for Best Rock Album.
In 1997, ‘Radiowaves’ went straight to number one.

Then it all came to an end, as out of nothing, the announcement came that the band was disbanding because guitarist Sverre was leaving. One for all and all for one. A few months before the previous millennium came to an end, Seigmen played their farewell show for a packed Rockefeller in Oslo, Norway.

Resurrection of Seigmen

But it wasn’t meant to end there; it’s almost unnatural to just let go of a good thing and old friendships forever. In 2005, the band reunited on stage for the first time in Dødens Dal in Trondheim, and in 2008, they were the first Norwegian band to be invited to play at the new opera house in Bjørvika.

However, the biggest event of the new millennium came in 2015 when Seigmen surprisingly released ‘Enola’, a full 18 years after ‘Radiowaves’. (Read more about ‘Enola’ and other events here!)

On April 12, 2024, almost exactly 30 years after their breakthrough with ‘Total’, a special event is set to occur when Seigmen releases ‘Resonans’, their first album in nine years. The choice of Velvet Recording as their studio is not a coincidence; it’s the same place ‘Total’ was recorded back in 1994.

For more information, interview requests, or media inquiries, please contact: Robbe@indierecordings.no

For more on seigmen, see Seigmen releases 3 new EPs, sold out in just a few hours on Side-Line.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange / Karisma Records press release. Photos by Bjørn Opsahl and Tom Lund)

Ljungblut, the 3rd band of Kim Ljung (Zeromancer, Seigmen) are releasing their 6th album November 2., and a single from the album, “Hasselblad”, was released two weeks ago. An accompanying music video is now ready, and actually making its debut here today!

Kim about the video:
The video of Hasselblad is shot and directed and Hans Christian Moen and Freddy Samson Fagerheim.
Both friends of the band.
Their first collaboration was “Kast blomstene på” from the previous Ljungblut album, “Ikke alle netter er like sorte”.
Again they were given total artistic freedom. The concept being the moon, loneliness, camera and distance.

About the song itself Kim elaborates:
It was just one of those days. An early morning. I read about the twelve Hasselblad cameras left on the moon, somewhere. Made some fresh coffee and locked myself into the studio without any particular ideas in my head.
In a few hours it was all there. Lyrics and everything.

A real special feeling when it happens. The guys loved the demo. Some weeks later we rehearsed it as a band, keeping it real true to the original idea. Of course, Ted adding a great drum-pattern. It was only just over a 2 minute arrangement though. Right after I wrote it, I was visting Erik Ljunggren in his studio. Blown away by the collection of modular and vintage synthesizers, I asked him if he wanted to contribute for the end-part. The Arp 2600 and the Oberheim Matrix doing most of the magic. All analogue. It was perfect.

The drums, the bass, the guitar (with the Morley flanger pedal), the Omni and the Roland strings were all recorded live. I believe it was the third take.
Sincerely happy with this one.

We also asked Kim about the upcoming concerts, which many fans have been longing for since 2012.

S-L: In a hectic year with several Seigmen and Zeromancer shows, recording and releasing a new album with Ljungblut, still more Seigmen shows ahead – what made you and the band also find time for the shows in November?

Kim: Yes, it’s more than enough. I have been promising myself I wouldn’t mix the work between the three bands. However it’s not so easy. I thought it would eventually quiet down. Not a chance.
Band members don’t always have a great patience. Not managers. Not booking agent. Not record companies.
There are demands everywhere. Or not demands maybe. Hopes. Wishes.
Always for more.

The Ljungblut had to happen now. And no chance in hell we wouldn’t support the album by not playing any shows this time.
In 2016, when we released “Ikke alle netter er like sorte” and not doing any shows, it felt a bit hollow, especially since the album was recorded live and we were in the best shape ever as a band.
These days we are getting ready again for something really special. Those two shows at Total in 2011 was amazing for us.

S-L: And why these venues – how was the venues decided?

Kim: The 3 exclusive shows coming up will be one for the books. Ljungblut will never play a random venue. These were carefully selected for this purpose. Papirhuset is a intimate black box amphitheatre. I was just in there having an extra look the other day. Nice vintage red leather chairs, removed from the old movie theatre of Rjukan in 1939. Historic. And a supreme venue as a spectator. About time someone uses this as concert place.
The Oslo show is quite the opposite. A giant church from 1880 that closed down 105 years later. Then reopened up in 2000 as a magnificent cultural scene.
I can’t even imagine what it will be like playing a Ljungblut concert in that place.
Much like a revelation, I assume:-)

Check out the single and video for “Hasselblad” below:

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

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