(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange) “Fasan” by Norwegian Giants is released on their own label Norwegian Giants, established in 2015. Tarjei Krogh is the main producer, having his wingmen Joakim DenGode and Markus Storm by his side. Their goal is to gather all kinds of vocalists and instrumentalists all over the globe to create new types of music and exciting combinations and variations, their motto being: We don´t follow trends, only our hearts!

Tarjei told us more about the project via chat and e-mail.

Side-Line: There’s a lot of collaborations on this album – care to take us through song by song, telling it’s story and who participated?

Tarjei Krogh: ‘Hello Aloha’ is a collaboration with a great Norwegian sound designer and artist, Continental Fruit. He is very into modular electronic equipment,  which is easy to hear in his other releases available on various platforms. He tweaked one of our older tracks into something new and made it more refreshing.

‘Good God’ is a collaboration with Kim Castle and Lisa Rockfield, two vocalists and producers we will collaborate with more in the future. They have such open minds and have been producing rap songs, rock and lots of various electronica.

‘Mhmhm‘. Ten years ago I met this amazing young jazz singer/songwriter Renate Rubini. She had a significant voice reminding me of Janis Joplin, but a softer version of that. It took some years to make her like my electronic tracks, but we ended up recording lots of songs and are actually nearly ready with an album. You can find two of our earlier tracks on Spotify and two videos on YouTube if you look up “Cupid Rubini”.

‘You‘ is a collaboration with the brilliant talented Norwegian singer/songwriter Hanne Haugsand, also known as Tundra Mode and Psykosister. She has also been involved with Kant Kino and Anstalt, has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest and been on several big tv-shows in Norway. And the weird thing is, I have only met her two times. One of the times was when Nitzer Ebb and Skinny Puppy played live in Rockefeller, Oslo. Even took a picture of her and Ogre!

‘Shelter‘. Manuela Hofer is a digital artist and has a voice that stands out from the crowd. I was originally remixing a track with her ten years ago, and asked her to send me some vocals and ended up pasting her in on an older track . I met Isak Rypdal in my early 20’s and he was supposed to join our band Anstalt at that time, but we ended up being friends instead. I’ve been remixing his band Electro Spectre back in the days, and I just had to cut out some of their vocals to combine them with Manuela. I have never met Manuela in person, so thank God for the internet!

‘Here we go again‘. Some years ago I shared an office with the best rap managers in Norway. One of these guys had a girlfriend named Lisa who was very into electronic music, and we started sharing music online. This could have been a great collaboration, but we totally lost contact, telephone numbers and email. Luckily I got 4 vocals and just had to release the first one. Never met her either.

‘Move on‘. I met Elvebakk at a barbeque on our peninsula Nesodden, right outside of Oslo. We ended up discussing music and I was surprised he loved stuff like Thom Yorke, The Cure and Joy Division. A very kind being with a rich taste in music. He sent me some of his own stuff and I loved the characteristics in his voice. Strangely we ended up with a dance track. I hope to get him to participate in some downtempo stuff in the future.

‘Perpetual‘ is a dive into what always will be a big part of me, Electronic Body Music and Synth Pop. I tried many different vocalists on this track, but ended up keeping it almost instrumental. I used a lot of analog and some modular equipment on this one. It is one of my own favourites. I guess less is more sometimes.

S-L: What’s the connection between this album and all the Norwegian Beats releases on Spotify?

TK: Norwegian Beats was a way to inspire vocalists to contribute to our future releases. We have made 20 collections so far, but will in the future focus mainly on releasing our “real” albums. ‘Fasan’ is our first real album and the beats are up for grabs for anyone to contribute, so we can include new artists on our future releases. Norwegian Giants is supposed to be a mix of a label and a band – a big collective where anything is possible. Like if you combined Röyksopp, Gorillaz or Massive Attack with Mute Records and Ninja Tune. Maybe a bit outdated references, but these are the best examples that comes to mind when concerning brilliant work.

S-L: More releases ahead or other plans?

TK: We are doing things backwards, so we are now gonna make three EPs with remixes, radio versions and videos for three of the songs on the album ‘Fasan’. We also have a new album almost ready to be released early in 2022 named ‘1969’. We will also continue to search and find new artists to collaborate with in Norway and in Europe as well. And set sails like the vikings before us.

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) Oslo Synth Band from Norway have been quiet for a time now, but today they released their EP ‘Stress’ on digital platforms, including three remixes and an instrumental version of the song.

We got hold of Tarjei Krogh to elaborate on this release and the process leading up to these tracks!

S-L: Long time since last OSB release – what have you been up too?

Tarjei Krogh: OSB has always been more focused on live gigs, than producing music. We love that type of energy that we get from the crowds and see that most of the fans tending our gigs are punkers and rockers. Our goal is to express a kind of kick-ass party vibe which our fans deliver the minute we start playing! That said, we have currently been occupied with other projects in the electronic genre, mostly due to the pandemic which inhibits gathering of crowds, but this track felt so good we had to get back into the game and release it even though we can’t play it live at any venue for the time being. People will with this release be able to play our music at home and still always have the same kind of kick-ass party available.

OSB was established in 1993, were we started with picking up dull moralistic Norwegian songs and tried to make them harder sounding, industrial and more electronic. We have been making these cover songs and our own material side by side without any bigger vision. The track ´Stress´ is one our own creations, a kind of art by accident if you will.

S-L: Tell us more about ‘Stress’ – and the remixes!

TK: ´Stress´ is a crazy story. This is originally one of the most kick-ass basslines I have ever come up with and was recorded on a cassette / tape back in 1996. It was supposed to be used in either one or two other bands I´m involved in: Anstalt and Solar Temple / Order of the Solar Temple. But nothing really happened at that time. I found the tape a few years ago, sampled the whole track and tried to make something new out of it. On a road trip to Norway’s highest mountain, vocalist Jomar and I stopped his car and totally improvised the whole lyrics screaming them out loudly.

I must admit that a car is a brilliant place to record hard and punky vocals if you don´t mind the staring of all the people around your parked car. In our case we were two grown-ass men screaming our heads off, all the while surrounded by Norway’s, or even Scandinavia’s highest beautiful mountains where people surrounding our car usually come to find their bliss with the breathtaking silence and views of our remarkable nature, at that moment we couldn´t care less, we had art to make. We hope that that feeling of freedom that comes from letting all aggression out in an unorthodox matter like this can inspire others in our genre to try it, and just se what happens.

All remixes on this track are made by our own collective / family. For people who are into the electronic genre, Anstalt first appeared on the ´Sex, Drugs & Ebm´ compilation under three different projects: Hexagon, Agenda & Aggressiva, together with bands like Apoptygma Berzerk back in 1992. Also participating on lots of compilations and releasing their own album in 1995, ´Brilliance without fase´.

Stanley Cupid is a project focused on taking ebm and mixing it with house/techno music and bringing it to the clubs as Empirion did with their remix of Prodigys ´Firestarter´ back in the days. Or like Primal Scream did with their fantastic ´Miss Lucifer´. Stanley Cupid is most known for remixing of Apoptygma Berzerk and Substaat (also released on all digital platforms). Cupid will in the near future release a 4th album, this time focusing purely on electronic body music.

´Norwegian chill´ is a project trying to take ambient/chillout in the direction of more experimental/industrial soundscapes and has already released 4 albums on our label: Norwegian Giants. 

S-L: Other releases or plans now that restrictions are being lifted?

TK: OSB will in the near future focus on making a digital collection of the best tracks from 1994 to present time… and we will definitely play live again, now for a bigger audience than ever before screaming our lungs out and loving every minute of it!

Do also check out another project Tarjei has been involved in – Norwegian Beats by Norwegian Giants, 20 volumes released so far! Also read our story about the project from a year ago: Norwegian Giants beats up the summer with weekly album releases.

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)
At the start of July I was made aware of the ‘Norwegian Beats, Vol. 1’ album by Norwegian Giants, had a listen and thought this was excellent summer chill beats. Then came ‘Vol. 2’ the following week, and by the time I’m writing this four albums have been released!

Tarjei Krogh, the founder and music producer, are the one putting it all together, with Joakim Vestin and Markus Storm as his wingmen for The Giants, with input on musical ideas and concepts. Tarjei was earlier involved with industrial and electronic groups in the 1990s like Anstalt, Atropine, Solar Temple and Industrial Heads, some of I both have heard before and seen live. A chat and a few e-mails later I knew even more!

Side-Line: What are Norwegian Giants, and which people are involved?

Tarjei Krogh: Norwegian Giants started out as an idea for an art collective in 2008, but after the financial crisis the whole group split up. It was reborn as a record label / creative collective in 2017, releasing artists like Svett and Cupid Rubini. Finally, in 2020, after years of work with beats and soundscapes, we decided to release albums under the name of our collective; The Norwegian Giants, more like a chill out/instrumental crossover, including synth, EBM, trap, hiphop, ambient, future bass and more… and we opened up for vocalists and instrumentalists around the Globe to contribute to our beats. They can also be enjoyed as is.
The Norwegian Giants is a big family, always open for new members and contributors. Besides the musical aspect, we will explore other art forms as well.

S-L: Four rapid releases in July! Have you been productive over a short time, or had these tracks in store and waiting for an occasion? (summer!?)
TK: The Giants have been making beats under different names since 1998 in lots of different genres, we have access to our gigantic archive, and we still work with new music several days a week.

S-L: More releases in the future? Other plans? Playing live?
TK: Our aim is to release an album with beats every Friday with contributions from various vocalists, and release regular albums with vocals and more instrumentation in the future. We’ve already got two lined up with vocals, called ‘Fasan’ and ‘1969’ to be released later this year.

Live performances could be very interesting for The Giants, we also got a brilliant dj RK on our team which is already interpertating our beats into his own mixes, this makes for an interesting collaboration.

Unlike the name Norwegian Giants suggests, we would love to collaborate with people and other artists globally, and we encourage people to contact us for collaborations using the email norwegiangiants@gmail.com.

 
Listen to their albums @ Spotify and check their Facebook page for updates on coming releases.

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