(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange, photos by Tarjei Krogh, Tom Helge Kleberg, Jarle Nyttingnes) How do you celebrate a driving force of the Norwegian electronic music scene when he’s about to turn 50? Ask a band if they can perform at his birthday party, that band involving another band, ending up in a full night of concerts by El/NeUe and Beranek and the collaboration release of a new track, video and a 10″ limited edition vinyl in various colours.

Øystein Moe was the lucky man celebrating his 50th anniversary Saturday November 2nd at Mir Lufthavn in Oslo, surrounded by friends and live concerts by El/NeUe and Beranek, who also debuted ‘Niedrige Erwartungen’ by showing the track’s music video.

Espen Beranek Holm, the multi-talented musician, comedian, stage-, radio- and TV-personality, remixer etc., elaborated about the evening and collaboration in our scheduled mail interview the day after.

Side-Line: What was the occasion for this event – how did you get involved?

Beranek: I received a mail from Askild in May where he told me about the 50 years birthday party for Øystein Moe and asked if I could contribute by doing a concert. I know Askild and Håkon (the members of El/NeUe) from years back, but we’ve only worked together in comedy and satire for TV and radio production – never in music. I immediately wanted to be part of this event, both because of my knowledge and friendship with Askild and Håkon, but I also wanted to pay tribute to Øystein Moe who released the double CD ‘Maskindans – Norsk synth 1980-1988’ back in 2009. He was the first to license and release a song digitally from my debut album ‘Sound Of Danger’.
In other words: He’s a great guy!

S-L: How did your collaboration ’Niedrige Erwartungen’ come about? Triggered by this evening, or already in the works before?

Beranek: A part of this celebration also included the making of a limited edition vinyl EP containing some previously unreleased material from both EL/NeUe and me. In the discussion for the vinyl’s content the idea was born that we should collaborate on a track. A Thursday night in August I brought my Akai Force to Askilds house where Askild, Håkon and I sketched out the beginnings and framework for the composition. We very soon hit a common nerve for the thing, and after some 3-4 hours we had the main basics for the song. I spent the following Friday refining, re-structuring and adding to the composition. I also upgraded a lot of the sounds from the digital (Force) domain to the deeper analog domain using hardware synths (Moogs, Korgs, etc). I then sent the tracks to Askild and Håkon, and they added more musical motives and sounds; clarinets, voices and that marvellous and majestic «noisy» solosynth in the end. I got these tracks in return and added a vocal track dub to Askilds voice. Askild and Håkon finalized the mix. The lyrics was a suggestion by Askild.

S-L: Gotten any feedback on ‘Niedrige Erwartungen’ so far?

Beranek: It was very well received as the video was shown on screen to the audience last night!

S-L: Tell more about the video – how did the visuals come about?

Beranek: After I received the mix from Askild and Håkon I listened to it a couple of times – quiet loud actually. During these listenings I started to «see» how these notes and beats could trigger light beams, and I thought that space would form a perfect stage for this. I used a combination of 3D software and video editing software to generate the animations and synchronize it all to the music. Askild and Håkon was very pleased with both the video and the theme for the pictures, and the picture used on both the limited edition vinyl and on streaming platforms is taken from the video. (see the video at the end of article)

S-L: Planned any more collaboration together – songs or performances?

Beranek: We have an open mind about that – it wouldn’t surprise me at all if more music was produced by Beranek and EL/NeUe!

S-L: Your own and others reactions and feedback to the performances?

Beranek: I think it was a great night. EL/NeUe’s set was very well performed and very well received by the audience. Well deserved!
We – Johannes (Winther Farstad – keys and vocals) and I – was very pleased with the venue, Leon on sound and the crowd, and we felt that it all went down really well on our part.

Photograper Tarjei Krogh also attended the concerts, as always taking great photos!

The VERY special 10″ vinyl

We also wanted to know more about these records, and got hold of Tom Helge Kleberg from Kalall TM, a duplicord manufacturing company under the Etch Wear umbrella.

THK: On this production we made them for the two labels PIIV Grill and Hommage Records as a supplier, and we also collaborated on the sleeve production.

This is in short a duplicated record, hence we made the name duplicord. We make a lathe-cut or lacquer reference disc master first, then we make a mould negative used for casting two component resin records. It’s really an old technique with new compounds, like old one sided gramophones. The silicone really copies everything – even the warm sound!

These are to be considered more like artefact records or artist merchandise than an audiophile release. The final result varies from Good+ to NM, but most common VG/VG+. The research to make them better continues with every edition…

So far we have casted about 15 copies, all in various colours. It’s easy to mix different pigments for each duplicord, so most often no one is exactly the same, giving a wide range of colours and sometimes playing around with two or more colours. For special editions we have also put various objects in the mix on the label area, giving totally one of a kind unique duplicords unlike any vinyl you have seen.

All runs have sold out since we started doing these, so they’re really a token for a fan – these sell out first on merchtables!

Check out the track at several streaming platforms, and see the video right here!

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… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange)
Etch Wear, the small Oslo-based independent record label (among other things), are making very custom pressing of their music. When I saw that Solar Temple, an old favorite of mine, were releasing an 8” (!!!) single in an extremely limited edition of just 23 copies I had to find out more.
First out is the maker of these gems, Tom Helge Kleberg from Etch Ware.

Side-Line: How/why did you start making these special records?
Tom Helge: Etch Wear have always been about DIY, so it was a dream for many years to operate our own record industry, so that’s why Etch Wear have been experimenting with this “new” format since the end of 2016. But it is not a new format at all, it is the oldest format: going back to the roots of casting gramophones, only we try to combine the best of this old tradition with the best of today’s possibilities. The original idea came from the mask/special effects creator of ‘Død snø’, Steinar Kaarstein. We were working together on a project and he had a special mould that would copy details to such an extreme so I just immediately thought about trying to duplicate a record. And he was intrigued by the idea, so we worked out the starting process together. And now, three years and hours on hours of experimenting later the new Solar Temple single “(untitled) #44” is a good example of the best possibilities with this re-born art. But it was a steep hill to roll the discs: there is a mountain of ill-casted records in our trails with sound quality that makes some of the early Throbbing Gristle recordings sound hi-fi…

S-L: How do you make them? Why the extreme limited editions?
TH: Every release is limited due to the process of material decomposition. As a starter you need either a lacquer reference cut or a lathe-cut vinyl to make a mould. Not going into detail on the actual process as it is too many important details on how to conduct these. But shortly explained: when you have a high quality mould, you cast two component plastic resins in the mould, and these resins start to dematerialize the mould over time. Then you get everything from 10 to 30 copies with “good” sound. The mould however does not harm the original master, so it is possible to make moulds forever from the one original. However as Etch Wear is a small company that deliver experimental music we only do one or two moulds from each master we make, and therefore the editions limit themselves.

S-L: Any more releases planned?
TH: There are always several editions in the pipeline! Right now alongside Solar Temple we have released “duplicords” (our own name for this format) by legendary Norwegian synth-electro band The Oscillators for their single ‘Classic Quality‘, Russian industrial band Travm, and Europ Europ. Last year we released a limited 10″ with another legendary industrial band from Norway: Munch.

We also just recently finished a Solar Temple 7″, a limited run lathe-cut edition with ‘Machine heart’ on side A and ‘Why does it burn so fast” on side B. In 11 copies!
Ismael made the “yob” signature and the inner cover artwork, the rest of the cover design is made by me, and I sign all my works with O ~ E ~ P (not Tom Helge Kleberg).

I also met up with the man behind behind Solar Temple, Ismael Henriksen Åkredalen, for lunch and chatting about his projects.

S-L: Long time since your last releases – what have you been up to?
Ismael: Yeah, it’s been a while. I sort of got caught up in my own bubble for a while. It started with me wanting to put together a dark wave album, being true to my origin as a huge Joy Division fan, and in 2010 I was given the opportunity to play at Elektrostat (formerly Oslo Synth Festival) where I for the first time performed as Eternal Reward. The songs was compiled of old sketches that I made with a bass guitar, guitar, a drum machine and synthesizer.

I began recording and tracks started to pile up. I could never really finish one song as my restless mind constantly gave me new ideas and sleepless nights. Me being obsessed with putting only one dark wave album out there I fell into a creative black hole – it become a nightmare.
As time passed I finally saw an album slowly coming together. An EP containing songs from that endeavour is being released this year as Eternal Reward’s first ever release.

S-L: #44 – a bit mysterious title?
Ismael: Like an old habit I name my songs after date. ‘Nr 1’ would then be ‘Solar Temple 2010 January 5 No1’. Which brings me back to the first single released now, ‘No44’ – it was the 44th song recorded in 2010 as Solar Temple.

S-L: Tom Helge mentioned your work on the cover art?
IH: As before I’m doing most of my own artwork in collaboration with O ~ E ~ P. The artworks are a mix of old paintings and label designs, sharpened up and enhanced.

S-L: Future plans/releases?
Ismael: After putting Solar Temple on ice a few years back I started a brand new project which is releasing its first EP this year. It’s an EBM crossover project in cooperation with a friend who’s a master of the old arts. I consider him a synth badass by trade!

He is definitely on the spectrum when it comes to programming synthesizers and creating sounds like no one else I’ve ever met. We also share the same vision when it comes the aesthetics and visuals of live shows. This new project draws inspiration from genres that I love such as synth, wave, EBM, industrial and noise. There are also other projects currently brewing for the future.

S-L: Who is this badass? 
Ismael: That will remain a secret for the time being, as all members of the band will be masked!

More details about the 8” at Discogs, and also some Solar Temple tracks at SoundCloud.

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… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange