Piston Damp is a Norwegian-Danish synthpop duo formed by Jonas Groth and Truls Sønsterud. Jonas Groth is the brother of Stephan Groth, the frontman of Apoptygma Berzerk, and has been heavily involved in the music scene for over two decades. Piston Damp started as a side project while Apoptygma Berzerk was on tour, but it remained largely dormant until 2020, when the duo decided to relaunch the project.

Their music blends elements of classic synthpop with strong melodies and emotionally charged lyrics. Their debut album, Making the World Great Again (2021), includes standout singles like “Runaway” and “Something In Me”. The duo is praised for its catchy hooks, reminiscent of bands like Mesh, and their modern take on electronic music.

Piston Damp has released several singles, including remixes by electronic artists such as Pegboard Nerds and Technomancer. Their music often incorporates media samples, giving it a unique tone that resonates with synthpop fans.

And now they are ready to present their second album “Mastermind Vol 1 – No Points For Trying” in 4 different versions via emmobiz Records.

• Piston Damp “Mastermind Vol 1 – No Points For Trying” LP Box (Red splatter vinyl – 77 copies)
• Piston Damp “Mastermind Vol 1 – No Points For Trying” LP Box (Black vinyl – 222 copies)
• Piston Damp “Mastermind Vol 1 – No Points For Trying” DCD Set ltd. (77 copies): special limited DCD Edition with T-Shirt incl. Bonus CD with Remixes first time on CD
• Piston Damp “Mastermind Vol 1 – No Points For Trying” CD

The bonus CD holds the following tracks:

1. Something In Me – Single Version
2. Loose Ends – Single Version
3. Don’t – Single Version
4. Runaway – Single Version
5. Something In Me – Technomancer Remix
6. Testimony – Sebastian Komor Remix
7. Noget I Mig

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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!

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Piston Damp and Ray Noir, two acts that hadn’t played in Oslo before, booked the final day of August for an evening of electro-metal/goth and synthpop tunes at the club Revolver. Then a surprise dropped the day before the show, announcing that Apop (Stephan Groth’s solo version of Apoptygma Berzerk) would kick off the evening with a set of analogue-modular music!

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange. Photos by Halvor Bodin, Tarjei Krogh and Jan Ronald Stange)

We had to get more info and reactions from all involved, so the week after was spent interviewing by Messenger and e-mail, starting with Apop.

Side-Line: Tell us how this gig came about, seemed a bit surprising for most since your participation was announced just the day before? 

Stephan Groth: Ray Noir and Piston Damp were going to be playing a show in Oslo on August 30, so I asked if I could play support since I have not played live in Oslo for a long time. It was already a sold out show, so I just tagged along. We all had great fun, and it felt good to show the Oslo crowd a side of APOPTYGMA BERZERK that they have not experienced before. 

 This is the 3rd time I have played live under the name “APOP”. It’s been just me alone on stage, improvising and tweaking modular synths and FX in the style of “Exit Popularity Contest”.

S-L: Is there any improvisation live, or all planned beforehand?

 STP: Oh yes, lots of improvisation. I have planned beforehand what songs to play, and for how long. 

Then I have preprogrammed 3 sequencers who are controlling the modular rig, so I arrange and mix the first half of the show live. 

The other half of the performance I play a few APOPTYGMA BERZERK songs with vocals. This last part is less improvised.

S-L: As mentioned you’ve done some of these sets before, will there be more in the future?

STP: I’m having a lot of fun doing this, and it seems people are enjoying it as well. It is also a great way to test out new material and new ideas. It is quite different from what I have done earlier in my career, and therefore also very refreshing and exciting for both the audience and myself. The first time I played this kind of concert was in Jönköping, supporting Swedish synth pop legends PAGE.
Will there be more of this in the future? I hope so 🙂

The prize for being most energetic went to the second act of the night, Ray Noir, who filled the club with beats as he used every inch of the stage – and some of the floor interacting with the audience too!

S-L: First time with a live show in Norway – what’s your impression?

Ray Noir: Heyy! Thank u so much for coming 🙏🏽 It was an awesome night. Playing a hometown show for the first time was nothing but amazing! Really cool to see so many beautiful faces there, and being supported by one of my all time favourite bands Apoptygma Berzerk was nothing but surreal. And doing this co-headline show with Piston Damp was a dream.

S-L: Anything else brewing with more releases or gigs?

RN: I’ve finished some new tracks, hopefully there will be one more release before the end of the year, there’s also some London shows planned before the year is over.

Piston Damp, the duo Jonas Groth and Truls Sønsterud, were the final act, making people dance and really enjoy their set. Top notch vocals and synth, and their surprising cover of The Cure’s “The Walk” was the show’s icing on the cake. Release that track ASAP!

S-L: First time in Oslo, how was the gig for you?

Piston Damp: Our first gig in Oslo was really cool. Super small – and sold out – venue, but awesome nonetheless. When we announced it from the stage, someone yelled out: “About time!!!”, which was hilarious although quite flattering.

Jonas has known Ray Noir since he was a very young guy behind the counter at Body Map in Arcaden, Oslo. Great guy, and so much fun to be with.

And for the third time, we’ve been able to bring along Stephan with his plip-plop-instrumentals, which we adore. Having him there adds a dimension to the evening.

S-L:  More releases or gigs planned?

PD: We most definitely have releases coming in the near future. We’re working on the follow up album to Making The World Great Again, which is exciting since we are no longer inventing Piston Damp. We are now developing Piston Damp. It’s really amazing to discover how alike we are. We really don’t seem like we would be able to get along style-wise, but we really do. Every single time.

We have about twenty songs in the can now. Now we’re trying to figure out how to sort them. Which goes where?

We are old-timers who love a good album with strong songs, singles with unforgettable b-sides and extended remixes, and live versions of songs, which give the songs more feet to stand on.

Watch out for our upcoming album. It’s going to be a great volume. Hint hint…

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 / Piston Damp press release) Out today is the brand new single from Piston Damp, a synthpop duo from Norway consisting of Jonas Groth (known as keyboarder in Apoptygma Berzerk and as being Stephan Groth’s little brother) and his friend since childhood, Truls Sønsterud.

Since their debut album, ‘Making The World Great Again’ in 2021, they have released a string of singles, with ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘All The Edges I Can Fall’, leading up to ‘I’m Losing You (A New Tale)’ released November 17th 2023.

The single contains three tracks; a single version and an Extended Remix of the song, and ‘The Day Of Departure (Black Sky Version)’ as a bonus track.

It is still catchy synthpop, this time more up-beat and chorus driven, and with a sound and a beat that is sure to be a winner in their booked and upcoming live gigs in Sweden and Germany, of which there are many!

Live dates Piston Damp

• November 17, 2023: Helsingborg, Sweden
• March 16, 2024: E-Only Festival, Germany
• April 27, 2024: Jönköping, Sweden
• May 4, 2024: Sarpsborg, Norway
• July 19, 2024: Chemnitz, Germany

Listen to the tracks 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… 😉

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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange)

December 16th 2022 sees the return of Piston Damp with not just one single, but TWO singles!!!

This is what happens when creativity takes hold and goes into overdrive. Truls Sønsterud and Jonas Groth have been on fire since the great reception of their debut album, ‘Making The World Great Again’, and the three consecutive singles, ‘Something In Me’, ‘Loose Ends’ and ‘Runaway’, as well as the ‘Making The World Great Again E.P.’ that was the final chapter in the MTWGA story.

After playing gigs and festivals in Norway, Sweden and Germany in 2022, we will also see them return to both Sweden and Germany for gigs and festivals in 2023, including a gig in Helsingborg, Sweden together with Octolab and Train To Spain on March 4th., as well as a performance at the E-Only Festival in Leipzig, Germany on the 17th. February. More live dates TBC!

Their two new singles, ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘All the edges I can fall’ are as diverse and catchy as you would expect from these guys, and they are both exploring the darker and deeper vaults of electronic music, as well as the higher mountain tops of catchy sing-a-long synthpop.
An intricate and well thought through production, carefully mixed by Magne Johansen and skillfully mastered by Ole-Espen Kristiansen, makes the songs eligible for both the dancefloor and for your party playlist.

Without a doubt, these singles will become fan favorites, and the guys are really looking forward to performing them live on the coming gigs.
Both singles are written by Jonas Groth and are topped with his skillful vocals and vocal production, and the instrumentation, drum programming and f/x from Truls Sønsterud are all worked through in a way that makes you understand that not a single sound is there by chance. Additional vocals on «Sacrifice» from Truls Kristian Nygaard, known from Norwegian electro-pop sensation SWEEP.

The singles also comes with an extended remix made by the band themselves, further leaning into the old 80’s tradition of the 12″ Extended Mixes that we all loved and adored.‍

Both singles released digitally on December 16th 2022 through Sub Culture Records on all platforms and streaming services, including Bandcamp.

Listen here!

Other sources:

“Sacrifice” – Spotify
“Sacrifice” – Deezer
“Sacrifice” – Apple Music

“All The Edges I Can Fall” – Spotify
“All The Edges I Can Fall” – Deezer
“All The Edges I Can Fall” – Apple Music

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) The Danish/Norwegian duo Piston Damp, consisting of Jonas Groth and Truls Sønsterud, released their debut album ‘Making The World Great Again’ today, June 10th. The band was formed in 2000, but remained a hobby project for 20 years until Jonas wrote the song ‘Something in me‘ in 2020, Read more about that and their other singles, ‘Loose Ends‘ and ‘Runaway‘, in our previous articles on Piston Damp.

Now it’s finally album release, and we got some words from the band in between their launch party and the actual release.

Side-Line:  How has the reception of the album been so far?
Jonas Groth: It’s actually been quite overwhelming. We’ve worked hard on this album, and we are definitely happy, but I’m not sure that we expected this reaction. Everything from reviews to interviews, and from social media comments to posts all over the web – everything has been extremely positive.
Truls Sønsterud: We definitely have to catch our breath from time to time and try to cope with everything that is happening everywhere right now. We are really focused on working hard on the promo, but we also manage to enjoy the fact that people actually really like what we have done so far.

 S-L:  The title is obviously a pun of the MAGA slogan we’ve all seen the last 5-6 years – a hope for things getting back to normal again, or something else?
JG: It’s a pun, yes, but the expression is more than 80 years old, and has been used in various settings since WWII. For me, the title (which came before the song) is about trying to calm down a world that has totally lost its groove and rhythm after the Internet came about. With most of the lyrics on the album I’m trying to encourage people to take a stand against the brutal reality of the distance that the so-called “social” media has created. It’s a fact that there has never been more loneliness and social anxiety than there is now, and in my opinion the internet is the main reason for it.

S-L: Happy with the launch party June 5^th? I saw most of it, seemed like a good vibe going on there! 🙂
JG: We had a blast. We still don’t have a record company or a management behind us, so this is all us and our best friends and closest family having fun together. Truls and I have been friends for 25 years and never really had an argument, so this is just great fun.
TS: Yeah, we really enjoyed that. Like Jonas says, we know each other very well, so we make each other good, and we pull the same end of the rope. That helps a lot when we’re planning and going through with these kinds of things in a good way.

S-L: The vinyl release already postponed – someone mentioned December at the launch party?
JG: The vinyl release comes late because there’s a 5–6-month delivery on vinyl now. And we’re doing a double LP which also doesn’t make the process go any faster. If we could have had them at the same time, we would. We expect them to arrive for Christmas.

S-L: Got any live gigs or other plans for the album as the corona restrictions are gradually being lifted?
JG: We haven’t decided on anything yet. We’re still waiting for the world to wake up from its slumber, and hopefully we will be ready for whatever happens. We’d love to play live, and maybe support someone on a tour. We’re open for everything.
TS: We hope to play at least a couple of gigs this fall, but if not we will be all set for whatever comes in 2022. We are working on some new remixes that I guess you will be hearing in a not too distant future, and we have started the working on our live setup. 

Buy or listen to the album at your favorite streaming service (https://orcd.co/aamyvko)!

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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Piston Damp, the project of Jonas Groth (Apoptygma Berzerk) and Truls Sønsterud (Tröll) is ready to release a debut album after their 3 singles “Something In Me”, “Loose Ends” and “Runaway” which were released the last 8 months. Their debut album “Making The World Great Again” will be out via Sub Culture Records on June 10th.

The album has been produced by the Danish/Norwegian duo themselves and mixed with their good friend Magne Johansen. It was mastered for digital platforms by Ole-Espen Kristiansen, and for CD and vinyl by Morten Lund. Stephan Groth (Apoptygma Berzerk) contributes on vocoder on one of the songs.

Piston Damp was formed in 2000, but remained a hobby project for 20 years until Jonas wrote the song “Something In Me” in 2020. This became their first single and was remixed by acts like The Anix, Pegboards and Technomancer.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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!

side-line.com