(Photo by Guilherme Pacheco) On April 21, Wim Mertens Music (WMM) and PIAS will release “Voice of the Living”, a new composition by Belgian composer Wim Mertens, commissioned as part of the centenary commemorations of the Great War (1914-1918). The premiere took place on October 28, 2014, at St. Martin’s Cathedral in Ypres, a city deeply affected by the conflict. Ypres is also the city where Side-Line’s office is now housed. At Mertens’ request, the performance was dedicated to Ypres’ residents.

In “Voice of the Living,” Mertens delves into the harrowing experiences of the ordinary soldier during the Great War. The work’s structure is influenced by the four traditional elements—earth, water, air, and fire—which represent various wartime situations. Mertens’ opus pays homage to the memories and experiences of all soldiers and victims of war. However, it is only in the musical performance that “Voice of the Living” becomes an ultimate tribute to all victims.

Ypres was the centre of intense fighting throughout the war and has since become a symbol of the devastation and loss caused by the conflict. By dedicating the performance to the residents of Ypres, Mertens acknowledges the city’s historical significance and honours the sacrifices made by its people.

The single “On the zephyrous peak” is available now.

About Wim Mertens

Wim Mertens is a Flemish Belgian composer, countertenor vocalist, pianist, guitarist, and musicologist.

In 1978, the composer began working as a producer at a major Belgian broadcasting corporation, now known as Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep. During this time, he produced concerts featuring renowned composers and musicians and hosted a radio program. He also collaborated with Gust De Meyer on the experimental album ” For Amusement Only”.

By the early 1980s, the composer became widely recognized, particularly for his pieces “Struggle for Pleasure” and “Maximizing the Audience”. The latter composition was created for a play that premiered in 1984 in Venice, Italy.

To date, the composer has released over 60 albums, primarily through Les Disques du Crépuscule from 1980 until 2004. In addition to his own work, he produced and consulted for the label on various releases, including those by contemporary composers such as Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars, and Glenn Branca. He also curated a series of releases for a Crépuscule imprint that featured classical and contemporary jazz works.

In August 2007, the composer signed a contract with a major record label, which subsequently re-released his entire catalog starting in January 2008. The label also released his new works, including a 9-track album in September 2007 that featured an all-female orchestra consisting of 17 musicians. This was not the first collaboration between the composer and the label, as they had previously released the soundtrack to the film “Molokai: The Story of Father Damien” in 1999.

In addition to his extensive work in music, the composer is the author of a book examining the American school of repetitive music and the work of LaMonte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

Wim Mertens on Tour

• 22.05.23Zaragoza, Teatro Principal (SP)
• 23.05.23Madrid, Teatro La Latina(SP)
• 24.01.24 Stadsschouwburg, Brugge (BE)
• 24.02.24 CCha, Hasselt (BE)
• 25.02.24 Don Bosco kerk, Torhout (BE)

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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Akustikkoppler  is the sonic symbiosis between two, legendary, German, Electronic, artists. Matthias Schuster (Das Institut, Bal Paré, Geisterfahrer, Im Namen Des Volkes ao) and Malte Steiner (Notstandskomitee, Das Kombinat ao) once met in Hamburg. Their common passion for electronic gear brought them to set up Akustikkoppler. They this year released the project’s fourth full length album “Alles Muβ Raus” which can be defined as styled, minimal, electronic music. The work has been released by Malte’s own label Block 4. I asked a few questions to both artists.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: You guys have been involved with numerous projects so what incited you working together and set up Akustikkoppler? 

Malte: We met when I was living in Hamburg, I think it was in the Hörbar, a place for experimental music which I founded with some others in the early 90s and that still exists. Our common love for synthesizers and experience of studio production alone can result in long conversations but also our shared preference of weird music and art. And then of course the whole history of Matthias and his role in German New-Wave / Post-Punk…

Matthias: Yes we met at Hamburg Hörbar and later on I have heard about Maltes projects and art installations and was amazed about the videos and music from Das Kombinat, Notstandskomitee etc etc

Q: What makes the chemistry and complementarity between the both of you? What did you learn from each other and how do you work together?

Matthias: At that time I was a pure hardware freak, I had so much vintage synthesizers like Moog, ARP, PPG, KORG, ROLAND etc so I was absolute excited about Maltes software instruments like PureData etc. He even programmed his own software synth, and the sound was amazing!

Malte: When I am in Hamburg we meet in Matthias’ Geisterfahrer Studio, switch on everything and start to improvise. There are no rules or conversations about what we want to achieve. It is just experimenting and then hitting the record button at the right moment, usually one of us yells ‘hit record, it can’t get better’. All is recorded mixed on stereo without any overdub, and I take the files with me into the achieve, and compile albums out of the best tracks and remaster them.

Matthias: I always was interested in making ‘realtime’ music I practiced in the past with Jürgen Weiss, my Geisterfahrer drummer so it was obvious to do that together and let surprise by ourselves and the machines who played us and we played them too.

Q: I noticed your new album “Alles Muβ Raus” features songs that were originally written between 2008 and 2012. That was right at the beginning of the project so why didn’t you release the songs earlier and how was it to work on ‘older’ stuff?

Matthias: Yes, there is no hurry. Malte moved to Denmark, so we only meet sometimes in a year to do one or more sessions and our music is timeless and follows no trends etc…

Malte: Since we both are busy with gazillion other projects, it can takes a while to compile and agree upon an album, years sometimes, and I think we’re living the “Theory Of Obscurity” by The Residents, we often forget the tracks and rediscover them. That and the fact that the vinyl required a year in the pressing plant lead to the perceived delays, but we are not in a hurry anyway. Everyone including the big guys are pressing records, in several editions at once, therefore the smaller labels are put on hold when a Major drops an order for 100.000 records. Anyway, “Alles Muß Raus” is our fourth album, plus there was a 7”.

Q: Tell us a bit more about “Alles Muβ Raus”? What is the work all about and what did you try to express & achieve sound-wise?

Matthias: There’s no concept, but it’s like a concept album I think… a concept album by random.

Malte: I still believe in the album as a concept and art piece and when I suggest a selection of tracks to Matthias, they have to form a journey, a development from start to end. I have access in our archives to material from many years, back to around 2004 when we started to work together so the meaning and overall vibe comes late in the process and not when we record the tracks. For instance the tape “Inspektor” which we released on the French label Serendip Lab I discovered that some tracks formed a Soundtrack to a crime movie in my mind, a very cheesy one, probably from 60s Germany.

Q: Akustikkoppler has this typical vintage sound DNA, which brings us back to the magic of analogue equipment. What’s your perception about the evolution of electronic equipment and the way of composing; from analogue to digital to the cheap software synths and -programs of today?

Matthias: When I started in the early 70s there was no Midi etc only CV/gate which I hated because of the different systems like 1V octave, or Hertz volt etc. Bands like Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, etc… ruled over Electronic music and of course Stockhausen, Pierre Henry, etc

After years of struggling with equipment it was so great to have the first digital machines like PPG Wave, DX7, Atari Computers… Today is best with the mix with software, computers (Apple now) and vintage analogue.

Malte: One reason might be that we both are vintage. It’s decades of music experience which comes together here, we each started long before Techno and even before Hip-Hop became something. I love the development of equipment, it’s amazing what is possible today, especially for a low price. Personally I don’t have any preference. I equally use analogue and digital synthesizers and all kind of computer software, partly stuff I develop on my own. I usually bring some device or software on my laptop to the sessions which Matthias don’t have -which is difficult- just to add another color.

It’s good to have again available all kinds of analogue, digital and modular synthesizers. One major development for me, apart from ‘Machine Learning’ which I use with projects like Notstandskomitee or Elektronengehirn since years, is the rise of resolution in the control-data and therefore improved expressivity.

Q: How do you see yourself as musicians/producers when it comes to self-criticism, perfectionism and eventually criteria and/or references you’re using? And what are the further plans?

Matthias: Of course we will stay in composing/recording process! But we are our own listeners, so the process of criteria is in our own hands, means we decide what will comes out and what not!

Malte: A speciality of Akustikkoppler is that we don’t allow ourselves to edit the tracks except a bit in the mastering process way later, which is complete decoupled from the composing process. Everything is recorded in one go played manually, only with the help of step sequencers and drum computers here and there. That saves us from the perfectionist loop which can destroy creativity, see for instance the latest remarks of Karl Bartos about the arrival of the computer at Kraftwerk’s studio. A story I heard often since the dawn of Midi composition, it is both a blessing and a curse. Something I struggle a bit with at Notstandskomitee, everything can be edited, rerecorded and processed endlessly, it’s difficult to decide to finish a track and let loose. With Akustikkoppler we don’t have that problem.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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(Photo by Geoffrey Meuli) The Liège based Belgian drone artist Phil Maggi (Ultraphallus, IVA BEDLAM, Cities A.D.) explores ‘imaginal’ ideas of French philosopher Henry Corbin on his new album “The Encrimsoned” which is dedicated to Hardy Fox (The Residents) and which began which began with the 2018 release “Animalwrath”. The album is out on September 20th via the Sub Rosa label.

Maggi enlisted an ensemble of collaborators for the final recordings including Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart) (voice, organ, noise), Maja Jantar (voice), and Tom Malmendier (drums, objects) – who all played on the first volume “Animalwrath” – as well as new recruits Xaviere Fertin (bass clarinet, clarinet) and Sebastien Schmit (Drums, gongs, steel tongue drum, percussion).

Watch “The Encrimsoned” teaser below.

About Phil Maggi

Phil Maggi (1980) is the founding vocalist of the heavy-rock band Ultraphallus, the creator of electronic avant-pop combo IVA BEDLAM and has developed an extensive body of work as a solo musician with releases on labels including Idiosyncratics and Sub Rosa Records. He also participates as an improviser in the Qumrân Grounds project and is involved in numerous other collaborations.

With his various projects, he has shared the stage and/or collaborated with Keith Rowe, Philippe Petit, Oxbow, KK Null, Tuxedomoon, Thor Harris, Hey Colossus, Nadja, Moe, Hati, Batur Somnez, Jerusalem In My Heart, Sote, Phill Niblock among others. He has also closely collaborated with Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart), Brooklyn hip-hop legend SENSATIONAL, Eugene Robinson (Oxbow), Thisquietarmy, Yannick Franck (aka RAUM), Maja Jantar, Oren Bloedow (Elysian Fields), ssaliva and many more.

About the Sub Rosa label

Sub Rosa is a record label based in Brussels specializing in avant-garde music, electronic music, world music and noise music. Directed by Guy-Marc Hinant and Frédéric Walheer, Sub Rosa has released over 250 titles of experimental, drone music, noise music, Musique concrète, ritual music and film music.

Sub Rosa was established at the end of the ‘80s, and expanded its catalogue in the mid-‘90s through the release of electronic music. The soundtrack album by Laibach for the Neue Slowenische Kunst production “Baptism” was one of the labels’ early releases. 

The label has also released archival material related to prominent twentieth-century avant-garde figures such as Marcel Duchamp, William S. Burroughs, James Joyce, and Kurt Schwitters. Sub Rosa also releases material from a number of important electronic music composers, such as (Luc Ferrari, Henri Pousseur, Tod Dockstader, Nam June Paik, Francisco López); and traditional music from around the world in anthologies of Inuit sound, the Master Musicians of Joujouka, Tibetan music and Bhutanese music, recorded by John Levy).

An interesting label, for the more ecclectic minds.

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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The Norwegian post-punk act Permafrost follows up its recent release “Come Back To Surprise” with the Pyxis remix of the track which is out on Friday the 18th on their own Fear of Music label. Pyxis is the remix moniker of producer/mixer Paul Corkett.

You can check out a trailer for the new single below.

Permafrost is a post-punk band, originally from Molde in Norway, which was formed in 1982 by school friends Frode Heggdal Larsen & Kåre Steinsbu. Robert Heggdal & Trond Tornes joined in 2001 and Daryl Bamonte in 2016. They take their name from a song by Magazine and other influences are Joy Division, The Cure, Talking Heads, Pere Ubu, Yello, Fad Gadget, The Residents, Wire and Wolfgang Press.

To date they have released the “Godtment” EP (on a limited edition of 50 numbered cassettes) in 1983, the “Permafrost EP” on vinyl in 2019 and digitally in 2021, and three singles in 2021 being “Femme Fatale”, “Closed Eyes” and “Restore Us”.

About Paul Corkett

Paul Corkett got his start as an engineer in the mid-1980s, engineering singles and albums for bands as varied as ABC, The Chameleons, Twelfth Night and The Heart Throbs. He landed his first big engineering gig in 1992, recording the single “China” for Tori Amos’s debut album “Little Earthquakes”.

In 1994 he produced his first full album, the second album by Adorable. His engineering work on The Cure’s tenth album “Wild Mood Swings” led to him producing the band’s next album, “Bloodflowers”, released in 2000. After engineering Placebo’s second album “Without You I’m Nothing”, in 1999 Corkett was invited to produce the band’s third album “Black Market Music”.

The early 2000s saw him producing albums for small alternative British bands The Cooper Temple Clause, Biffy Clyro and Queenadreena. In 2012 he teamed up with Love Amongst Ruin frontman Steve Hewitt to engineer albums for French band Lys and Italian band Spiral 69.

Corkett often works at Moles Studio in Bath, having recorded albums by Billy No Mates, Queenadreena, Dionysos, Fiction Plane and Love Amongst Ruin there.

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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Out via Grand Chess on December 3rd is the limited boxset “Duck Stab! Alive” by The Residents which comes as a 2×10”+DVD boxset.

The Residents originally released “Duck Stab!” as a seven inch, 33 1/3 rpm EP in 1978. For the group, the relatively lighthearted EP represented a break from the much more experimental “Eskimo” recordings, which consumed the majority of a four-year period from 1975-79. For Ralph Records it was a much-needed revenue source at a time when the band was not producing much.

The “Duck Stab!” EP was a hit, selling 50,000 copies in a few months time (numbers labels can only dream of today). The demand was so high, that Ralph Records insisted the band record a second EP, “Buster & Glen”, which they paired with “Duck Stab!” to make an LP, which was also quite successful.

Several years later, ‘Night Flight’, a program featuring alternative programming on the USA cable channel, aired The Residents’ video, including the “Hello Skinny” music video based on a song from the “Duck Stab!/ Buster & Glen” album. Fast forwarding to 2016 when Night Flight resurrected itself as a streaming video service, Night Flight Plus. Night Flight invited The Residents to create a program in celebration of the service’s 40th Anniversary on June 5, 2021. Since the band was already rehearsing “Duck Stab!” as part of their upcoming 50th Anniversary Tour, the forty-year-old EP/LP seemed like a perfect choice for Night Flight.

With a professional camera crew, led by director John Sanborn and director of photography Frazer Bradshaw, The Residents performed the reworked “Duck Stab! Alive!” music over three days from May 19-21, 2021 at the 25th Street Studio in Oakland, CA. You can hear the results on the discs of this limited boxed set.

The Residents have also planned a European tour for next year.

About The Residents

The Residents are an American art collective best known for their avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, “Meet the Residents” (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects, and ten DVDs. They founded Ralph Records, a record label focusing on avant-garde music, in 1972.

Throughout the group’s existence, the individual members have ostensibly attempted to work anonymously, preferring to have attention focused on their art. In public, they appear silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tails—a costume now recognized as their signature iconography.

In 2017, Hardy Fox, long known to be associated with the Residents, identified himself as the band’s co-founder and primary composer; he died in 2018.

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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After their recent release “Closed Eyes”, post-punk act Permafrost now follows up with the “Closed Eyes – Open Mouth Remix”.

Permafrost is a post-punk band, originally from Molde in Norway, which was formed in 1982 by school friends Frode Heggdal Larsen & Kåre Steinsbu. Robert Heggdal and Trond Tornes joined in 2001 and Daryl Bamonte in 2016. They take their name from a song by Magazine and other influences are Joy Division, The Cure, Talking Heads, Pere Ubu, Yello, Fad Gadget, The Residents, Wire and Wolfgang Press.

To date they have released the “Godtment” EP (on a limited edition of 50 numbered cassettes) in 1983, the “Permafrost” EP (on vinyl only) in 2019 and the “Femme Fatale” single in the spring of 2021. The band have scheduled more releases on their own Fear of Music label, beginning with “Closed Eyes”, which was released on 7th June 2021.

Below is the brand new (excellent) remix.

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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Noone else but XTC’s Andy Partridge has been working with the 80s pop infused act Darling Boy (aka Alexander Gold) for the new single “Breaking Into Forever” as far as production goes.

Not all that surprising as we have seen Partridge’s credits popping up allover the place in the past few years namely in records by (and we limit to those which will interest the scene public more or less): Tricky, Blur, Thomas Dolby, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Icehouse, Primus, Sarah McLachlan, Bad Company, The Stranglers, The Mission, The Residents, and many many more.

Not sure if you will like the bubblegum pop produced here though.

On a side-note, Darling Boy refers to “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)”, a song written and performed by John Lennon. It was released on the 1980 album “Double Fantasy”, the last album by Lennon and Ono released before his death. Paul McCartney has stated this is one of his favourite songs composed by Lennon, and when he appeared on Desert Island Discs in 1982 included it as his favorite in his selection, as did Yoko Ono as the only John Lennon song in 2007. It was used as the B-side of “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” to promote the compilation album “The John Lennon Collection” in November 1982.

Music history, it never stops to amaze us doesn’t it.

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

(Photo by Sofie Amalie Klougart) Out since today is the new single “Closed Eyes” by the Norwegian post-punk act Permafrost. The new single is again produced by Permafrost and mixed by Paul Corkett (The Cure, Placebo, Nick Cave) and is released on the band’s own Fear of Music label, through TBC Records/Secretly Noord distribution.

Note that Daryl Bamonte is also involved in this project. We all know Daryl as the artist manager, known for working for Depeche Mode and the Cure. And of course also als the musical replacement for Andrew Fletcher in 1994 for the second leg of the US Devotional Tour, as well as six shows in South America.

About Permafrost

Permafrost is a post-punk band, originally from Molde in Norway, which was formed in 1982 by school friends Frode Heggdal Larsen & Kåre Steinsbu. Robert Heggdal & Trond Tornes joined in 2001 and Daryl Bamonte in 2016. They take their name from a song by Magazine and have been influenced by Joy Division, The Cure, Talking Heads, Pere Ubu, Yello, Fad Gadget, The Residents, Wire and Wolfgang Press.

To date they have released the “Godtment” EP (on a limited edition of 50 numbered cassettes) in 1983, the “Permafrost” EP (on vinyl only) in 2019 and the “Femme Fatale” single in the spring of 2021. The band are scheduling more releases on their own Fear of Music label, beginning with “Closed Eyes”, available on 7th June 2021.

Below is also a video for the new single.

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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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange) The crowd funding project ‘Norske albumklassikere på CD’ (‘Norwegian Album Classics on CD’) is a series of CDs whose purpose is reissuing music that either never has been released on CD or is hardly available on CD anymore. The project is enjoying a success beyond all expectations these days. The concept is this: always having 20 albums in the crowd funding pool, and when an album goal is reached it can be purchased at the main website norskealbumklassikere.no. The public Facebook group for the project, which recently passed 11.000 members, have a constant flow of suggestions and discussions among the members.

There’s also a similar project for LPs in the works, and 20 albums are at the present being decided and published daily until the launch May 9^th.

We got more background info from one of the main two founders, Christer Falck, who early on in last year’s mid-March corona lock-down quickly became restless and started the concert streams series ‘Koronerulling‘ the very next week. 83 artists/bands was able to stream their concerts the following year, ended up getting 4.5 mill NOK in well-deserved and much needed donations.

Side-Line: How and when did the idea for ‘Norwegian Album Classics’ surface?

Christer Falck: I was doing some promotional phone calls to the local press when I was releasing the 20 CD-box set by Jahn Teigen, and one of the most enthusiastic journalists in Norway, Erik Munsterhjelm at Tønsberg Blad, asked me if I could release a box set by one of his childhood heroes, The Kids, as well. Since they had only released two albums, I thought the idea of a box set was a bit too ambitious, but then the idea came to me. Releasing all the good records that had only been available on LP and MC – on CD. Not just one record, but a lot of them. I called my 5-6 most nerdy friends, and asked them to make a list of the 50 albums they miss in their CD-collections. My partner John Richard loved the idea, and the funny thing is that the lists that I received were almost identical. I thought “when 6 people, so different from each other manages to make almost equal lists, it has to be a market out there”.
This, combined with my fetish for crowdfunding, made me do a website with my crowdfunding-partners bidra.no, where 20 records should be on display. Each record should get 30 days to be financed, if 150 people pre-order it, I will produce the record. If we don’t reach goal, they will all get their money back.

One month after the idea came, we started. Now we have made 90 albums in 100 days.

S-L: How successful do you consider this to have been so far?

CF: It depends how you measure success. As a cultural experiment, I’d say it’s a huge success. A lot of records that aren’t available on streaming services are now available, remastered and with much better sound quality than ever. A lot of CD-enthusiasts can join our little group on Facebook and suggest their favourite records, and I think we have managed to create a cool platform, where everyone respects each other’s musical taste. If they don’t, we throw them out, so they don’t have a choice ?
Financially, I think I could have found a lot of different jobs that would pay much better off, but at least I have something to do, these Covid-19-times. The alternative was to not arrange festivals, that’s my real job.

S-L: What has surprised you the most so far? Any weird album suggestions, the involvement of members, the process itself, other things?

CF: I know some much more about Norwegian music now than three months ago. I have a short list with 1700 titles on Norwegian albums. From easy listening to hardcore and punk records I’d never heard of before. And everything in the middle. But what I like with the concept, is that since we just need to find 150 buyers, nothing is too weird and strange. A Christian choir-album from the South of Norway or a heavy metal album from Finnmark – 150 people will probably find their way. The job is to expand the target group, so that the next album in the same will have the same opportunity to be financed. And the good part with our group, some of the members are doing the job for us. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I’ve had a lot questions in our forum, and then some of the members have explained and solved all the problems for us. It would be impossible to do all the things that we do now AND do a great customers service too. So far we haven’t got any too weird suggestions, but a guy started a homophobic thread where he “Loved our series, but hated the “pride”-logo on our CD’s”. This was the most read and commented post so far, and 100% of our members made this person probably never post something like that again. I love the self-justice that the group is creating. Usually, when 11-12.000 people are gathered together, at least 1-2 % is fucking up for many of the others. But here, fucking up is very uncool. That’s probably what I’m most happy with.

S-L: As I write this there’s just weeks or days until the 100^th album is financed. How do you see the future of this project – is there an end, or does it have the potential to continue indefinitely?

CF: Well, I have 1700 records on my list. And there are still a lot of records being added every day. I’m not going to stop, but this concept will die by itself. It’s impossible to keep up the speed that we’ve have had so far. Both for us, but also for the buyers. Just too expensive. So hopefully, we will end up producing 2.3 records a week. Then my wife and kids will be happy too, ‘cause this takes all of my time. But it’s all a huge labour of love, so I hope it will last many more months.

SL: How is the interest outside of Norway for this project – are there many foreigners among the customers?

CF: We see that some of the genres are more popular outside Norway than others. Jazz, prog and Norwegian west coast music, has a huge standing abroad. One of the most selling records so far is Moose Loose – a jazz/fusion/prog band who hardly sold records at their peak. My goal is to sell more of their records in 2021 than they did in the 70’s.

Another major contributor on this project is Arvid Skancke-Knutsen; music journalist, author, musician and quiz master, who have contributed with lot’s of input and suggestions, but also liner notes on the CD releases. I thought it would be interesting to get an historical view on projects like these, and who better than to get from than a Historical Consultant at Rockheim, Norway’s National Museum of Popular Music?

S-L: In all your years in the music industry and press, have you ever seen a project accomplishing so much in such a short time?

Arvid Skancke-Knutsen: No, this is pretty amazing, and I am very proud to be a part of it. We have now realized 90 albums in just 100 days – with very few signs of the project slowing down. What we have achieved is certainly a Norwegian and Scandinavian record. There might have been other projects similar to this, somewhere in the world, but I cannot think of any offhand. A commercial music series like Absolute Music ended up with a total of 64 record releases, but that took them 23 years. We have done this in mere three months – at a point in history where CD sales are plummeting. 

The success of our series is basically down to just a few factors, I think. Firstly, the genuine enthusiasm of Christer Falck and John Richard Stenberg, the two founders of the project. Their enthusiasm spilled over to Norwegian record companies and artists. And especially to our 11, 000 members on Facebook, who have been very supportive all the way. The rest is about hard work, and making sure that the quality is as good as it gets.

S-L: How will this and similar projects “born” in the year(s) of corona influence music industry in the future?

ASK: Good question! I think that online concerts might have a future, even beyond the pandemic. It’s all about good logistics and excellent production values. If those elements are present, fans of bands and music genres will be willing to pay for it.

The corona situation has been a terrible worldwide event, but we still might be able to take away some creative solutions from it. I wrote a book, dealing with the pandemic in Norway, and its impact on the Norwegian music scene. And what struck me more than anything else was the amount of creativity going on.

S-L: What your best moments/highlight of this project?

ASK: The sheer amount of records that we have brought into existence in a very short time, while maintaining high production values. And the fact that the series is not just limited to one musical style, or merely the most popular artists. It’s really a history ride through Norwegian music, covering all sort of styles, fashions and creativity over a span of sixty years. Another personal highlight is the fact that I pick a cult classic every month or so, showcasing some of the strangest music ever recorded in Scandinavia.

Check out Arvid’s book ‘Da musikken stilnet’ – loads of pictures from corona restricted concerts (by Per Ole Hagen), and essays from musicians and others in the music business influenced by the lock-downs.

We also reached out to one of the projects most eager members and an oracle of Norwegian synth/electronic music/post punk ++: Per Aksel Lundgreen (Apoptygma Berzerk, Cronos Titan, Angst Pop, Chinese Detectives, Technomancer, Rossetti’s Compass and Shatoo) for tips about what foreigners should look for in this crowd funding project.

S-L: As one of the most active members of the Facebook group for this project, you have both suggested a lot of candidates for the crowd funding, and also shared and posted about your favorites in various groups all over. Which albums do you think Side-Line readers should consider getting their hands on?

Per Aksel Lundgreen: Yes, I’m a CD-man myself, having collected CD’s since I got my first CD-player from my aunt at my birthday in 1986, so when Christer Falck mentioned starting this project, I immediately contacted him and said that I would do my best to help out with promotion and pushing this project. Since this project also was started in the middle of the corona pandemic, it meant that I, and everybody else, had a lot of extra time on their hands, and so the ‘Norske Albumklassikere På CD’ has become a very welcome “distraction” and something that’s brought a lot of joy in a time that has been difficult for a lot of people, especially in the music business.

Anyhow, here’s some suggestions from my side, all depending on what your musical preferences are, but there’s some really great post-punk/new-wave/experimental/electronic/alternative stuff that has made it through here and that is already financed. (links in the titles)

Munch – ‘Excessive Mobility’: An amazing Norwegian classic that really deserved a CD release. They’re kinda the “Norwegian Einstürzende Neubauten” if you will, and if you like stuff like Shock Therapy, Polyphonic Size and Ledernacken, this album is definitively something for you. Most albums in this series are printed in 500 copies, but Munch insisted on only doing 300 copies, so this will be a collectors item very quickly too! 🙂

Garden Of Delight – ‘Big Wheels In Emotion’: Norway’s first real goth album, self-released in 1987 on vinyl only. They also did two great 7″ singles back in 1984 that never made it to the album, but the album itself is well worth checking out. Goth with female vocals and a touch of tuba, you’ve never heard that before, but you’ll love it!

Babij Jar – ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘The Night Before’: Two of Norway’s best hidden gems in the new-wave/post-punk genre. Went completely under the radar for people outside Norway, but had they had decent promotion and distribution back then, they could’ve made it really big.

Helge Gaarder – ‘Eine Keine Angst Musik’: Something as rare as a Norwegian art-rock/experimental/electronic album. Impossible to describe, must be experienced. The original LP will set you back at least EUR 120 and you find none of the music on YouTube or digital distribution. Very happy that this finally gets a CD release and the credit it deserves. Too bad Helge Gaarder died 17 years ago, so he never got to see this album being included in this classics series. 

Plann – ‘Elektra Elektra’: One of very few minimal-wave albums from Norway, and a great one too! Quirky songs, haunting vocals, amazing synth sounds. Several songs can be found on YouTube if you want to check it out. Listen to “Cadillac”, “Sug”, “Ato Signal” and “Cherokee” which also was the single from the album. The original LP will set you back some EUR 140, so unless you’re a rich vinyl freak, I suggest you get the CD to enjoy this rarity.

Boastein – ‘Urgata Hurgata’: A Norwegian new-wave/kraut-rock inspired album, with repetitive drumming, charming synth sounds and a very nice all over feel to it. Check out the songs “Helium”, “Seismisk Kollaps”, and “Khomeini’s Visjon” on YouTube. 

Ole I’Dole – ‘Blond Og Billig’: This album has become kind of an underground hit outside of Norway in the minimal-wave community because of the track “Space, Action, Sex & Blod”, which is pure synth heaven. The rest of the album is a bit more pop oriented, but the tracks “Framtidsskrekk” and “S.O.S.” are also really great tracks. Recommended listening indeed! 

Creation – ‘The Real Thing’: two of the guys from Drama, making very soft synthpop in the style of Shatoo and a-ha, but with a couple of really nice tracks on there, and especially the track “Don’t Do It”. If you’re into Norwegian/Scandinavian (synth)pop this will hit home with you for sure. 

Blind Date – ‘Don’t Talk’: Probably the closest you get to a Norwegian version of Psychedelic Furs, and this is a beautiful new-wave album with some really strong material on it! Check out the title track, “Don’t Talk” on YouTube, and if that is to your taste, then don’t hesitate to invest in this album!

There’s more goodies here of course, but the 10 albums above are my priority suggestions right now.
Also, currently there’s some other really great stuff still being crowdfunded:

Famlende Forsøk – ‘En Overraskende Måte Hvorpå Man Kan Kaste En Person Over Ende’: Norway’s equivalent to Throbbing Gristle, and their quirky synths, great programming and musical skills, mixed with dada elements and dadaistic lyrics/vocals, makes this super interesting. The full album can be enjoyed on streaming services, but really deserves a CD release. One of Norways most original and groundbreaking bands through all times!

PVC – ‘Emile Berliner’: A superb post-punk band that released two albums in the early 80’s. Bitten Forsudd later went on to join/fund Garden Of Delight mentioned above, and Eivind Rølles went on to form one of Norways most known pop duos, The Monroes. If you’re into Joy Division and The Residents, then this is music for you! 

Chrissy – ‘Chrissy’: Her single “Mark My Words” sold over 500.000 copies in Scandinavia and Germany combined, and is one of the best selling singles in Norway in all times, way up there with a-ha and Röyksopp. The music is a fantastic new-wave/power-pop combo with snappy synth lines on there too! Find the track ‘Mark My Words’ on YouTube to get an idea. This is the album that I’m currently most excited about getting fully funded! 

S-L:  I guess you have a long wish list of albums not yet funded or suggested – wanna share? 😉

PAL: Yes, absolutely, and one of the first posts I made in the Facebook group, was an invitation to have everybody post their Top 5 Want List of albums they wanted on CD, and so far, I’ve gotten one of these 5 realized, and that was Munch – “Excessive Mobility”.

The rest of my Top 5 looks like this:
– Holy Toy – ‘Pakt Of Fact’ (Their best album in my opinion!)
– E-Man – ‘E-Man’ (Pre-Biosphere project from Geir Jenssen – great minimal-wave)
– Susanne Sundfør – ‘A Night At Salle Pleyel’ (Beautiful electronica!)
– Ultra Sheriff – ‘Galactic Frame’ (Norway’s first ever synthwave album, only released digitally!)

Other Norwegian albums that I feel definitively belong in this series and that I know is on the list is:
– Thorbjørn Grønning – ‘Galskapens Teater’ (Amazing minimal-wave self-released album)
– Göbbels A-Go-Go – ‘Våre Problemer Er Rent Musikalske’ (Superb electronic/new-wave)
– Ultra Sheriff – ‘Deception, Oil And Laser Beams’ (Another amazing synthwave album from them!)
– Det Elektriske Kjøkken – ‘Elefantene Er Kommet’ (Superb electronic/new-wave album)
– Bearburger – ‘The Bearburger’ (Great electronic/experimental album!)
– A Place To Pray – ‘Disciplina Arcana’ (Amazing goth/electronic album!)
– PLX 15 – ‘Kort Prosess’ and ‘PLX 15’ (Two great experimental electronic albums!)
– Axis – ‘Axis’ (Superb Norwegian new-wave mini album!)

… and finally, maybe one of the most important ones, because of the extremely high quality of the album, and this should absolutely be more known outside of Norway:
– Lily & The Gigolos – ‘Secrets’: An album that sounds like a Norwegian Siouxsie & The Banshees, with super strong song material, great production and great artwork. Check out the track “Listen To The Radio”, “Russia” or “I’m Just A Child” on YouTube, and you’ll know what I mean.

The project in itself has now released 88 albums in 99 days through crowdfunding, and is the most successful and longest spanning series in Norwegian record industry history, which in itself is a great feat! ALL countries should have a project like this! Just think about Sweden, a country which haven’t even released the albums like NASA – ‘Power Of The Century’, or most albums by Secret Service and Freestyle on CD at all! I really hope that this Norwegian project will inspire others to do the same in their countries, because there’s so much music history out there, and if we want to keep it for later generations, it has to be done NOW, or it will never be done. The younger generation consumes music digitally, so it is up to us to get these master tapes digitized and onto a physical medium like a CD, so that they also can be used as masters for digital distribution later on. That’s not the first priority, but what label wouldn’t jump at the chance of getting paid for a physical license and also get a remaster they can use for digital distribution/streaming? This also means that a lot of these artists WON’T be forgotten, and that their music will live on to be discovered by others.

Also, a lot of people in the Facebook group for ‘Norske Albumklassikere På CD’ constantly discover new “old” acts/releases, and this is half the fun of being part of this. I mean, I started working in a record shop in the summer of 1985, and I’ve worked in the music business in one way or the other since then, as a DJ, on radio stations, playing in bands, fixing record fairs, selling stuff via mail-order, working at record companies, writing for music magazines etc etc. so I try to contribute the best I can, but even I discover new and exciting things through this project.

Nobody knows everything, and that’s one of the great charms of music, that you can discover a band from the 80’s you’ve never heard of that you totally love!

Search and order already financed albums here: https://norskealbumklassikere.no/
See and order albums being crowfunded now: https://www.bidra.no/norskealbumklassikere

Join the Facebook group for CDs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norskealbumklassikere and/or LPs: https://www.facebook.com/groups/norskealbumklassikerelp

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

The American art collective The Residents will be playing live in Belgium on November 8 at the Depot in Leuven.

We have 5 tickets to give away, the only thing you need to do is hit ‘yes I want a ticket’ and we’ll add you to the lottery to win one of 5 tickets. Make sure to enter before November 2nd when we’ll draw the winners!

The Residents are best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, “Meet the Residents” (1974), the group has released over 60 albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects, and ten DVDs.

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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