A-ha and The Raveonettes are the two lone Scandinavians acts contributing to the upcoming "Make some noise" John Lennon tribute compilation being put out by Amnesty International to benefit Darfur. Read more: http://www.a-ha.com/cparticle7836-417.html

Last night's playlist for my show on Sirius Blog Radio:

01. Isolation Years - Yellow cross on blue
02. TALK 1
03. Johndoe - Nattskift
04. Montys Loco - Wasteland
05. Once We Were - Cut corners
06. TALK 2
07. [ingenting] - Mycket vasen for ingenting
08. Margaret Berger - Robot song
09. Namur - Marching
10. Lampshade - New legs
11. TALK 3
12. Maia Hirasawa - Gothenburg
13. Mixtapes & Cellmates - Quiet
14. Fattaru - 100:-
15. Juvelen - Hanna
16. TALK 4
17. Säkert! - Allt som är ditt
18. Sonores - 16th of June
19. Detektivbyrån - E18
20. TALK 5
21. At the Gates - The swarm
22. Barra Head - Kill the lights
23. TALK 6
24. The Tough Alliance - Leg 7
25. Torpedo - My evil twin
26. Alog - Catch that totem!
27. TALK 7
28. Valley Days - 10k angels
29. A-ha - Celice
30. Victims - Who the fuck are we?
31. TALK 8
32. The Vicious - Alienated
33. Viola - Unreal life
34. Zweizz - Nowadays the only boring everything is so frustrating
35. Viktor Sjöberg - Winter guitars
36. TALK 9
37. Closer - The talker
38. Aerial - My god, it's full of stars!
39. The Kissaway Trail - La la song
40. Laakso - Italy vs Helsinki
41. The Psyke Project - Panic
42. TALK 10
43. C.Aarmé - We are the world

Next week: expect lots more killer jams including totally a brand new track from Closer and maybe even a spotlight set on post-rock/ambient music. Good times!

Savoy, the sideproject of A-ha frontman Paul Waaktaar-Savoy together with his wife Lauren, will be releasing a 2xCD collection entitled "Savoy Songbook Vol. 1" to serve as introduction for the band abroad and as a best-of set back home in Norway. The tracklist includes many old favorites as well as new versions of old tracks and three completely new ones. Read more: http://www.a-ha.com/cparticle7818-417.html

Interview: Don Juan Dracula

Magne Furuholmen of A-ha has a new website for his art projects: http://www.magnef.org/

MP3: The Kissaway Trail - It's close up faraway

My god, "Smother + Evil = Hurt" is such an achingly beautiful song. It's the kind of song that grabs you right away, the very first time you hear it. And that longing, desperate vocal! It's a heartbreaker. But that's not the Kissaway Trail song I'm going to post for you today. By all means, go seek it out elsewhere, but I want to showcase the band's softer, more delicate side. They do the epic bombast thing very well, however it's songs like "It's close up faraway" that prove they have more to offer. That frail falsetto is gorgeous and the wordless refrain a perfect counterpoint. There are many obvious parallels to the Arcade Fire beyond them sharing the same cover artist and making good use of mandolin and banjo, the artist I'm reminded most of on this song is A-ha. It's that ineffable Nordic melancholy quality, I guess. The rest of the record leans more heavily towards the louder side of things, but the fact that they can pull off a piece like this shows them to be a force worth reckoning with. I would not be at all surprised if these guys blew up after SXSW.

The Kissaway Trail - It's close up faraway

Listen to the new Furia single "Goodbye sweet sorrow", a duet with Paul Waaktaar Savoy of A-ha: http://odeo.com/audio/2940393/view

A-ha will do a number of Russian and Ukraine dates this fall: http://www.a-ha.com/index.php?cat=2851

Video mix: A-ha, A Camp, Fidget, Vapnet, The Psyke Project, Timbuktu, more...

New international tourdates for Norwegian singer/songwriter Ane Brun:

07/03 - La Maroquinerie, Paris (FRA) w/Teitur
07/06 - Vestfoldspillene, Åsgårdsstrand (NOR) w/DMF String Quartet
07/18 - Rex Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA w/Xavier Rudd
07/19 - Theatre of the Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA w/Xavier Rudd
07/20 - Bowery Ballroom, New York w/Xavier Rudd
07/22 - Dream Away Lodge, Becket, MA
07/25 - St. Andrews Hall, Detroit, MI w/Xavier Rudd
07/26 - House of Blues, Cleveland, OH w/Xavier Rudd
07/27 - Southgate House, Newport, KY w/Xavier Rudd
07/28 - Park West, Chicago, IL w/Xavier Rudd
07/29 - Cabooze On West Bank, Minneapolis, MN w/Xavier Rudd
07/31 - Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO w/Xavier Rudd
08/03 - Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA w/Xavier Rudd
08/04 - Fillmore, San Francisco, CA w/Xavier Rudd
08/10 - The Triple Door, Seattle, WA
08/14 - Joe's Pub, NYC
08/25 - Lerkendal, Trondheim (NOR) w/A-ha
08/26 - Color Line Stadion, Ålesund (NOR) w/A-ha
09/08 - Logen, Bergen (NOR) w/DMF String Quartet, Nina Kinert
09/10 - Stavangeren, Stavanger (NOR) w/DMF String Quartet, Nina Kinert
09/11 - Gamle Logen, Oslo (NOR) w/DMF String Quartet, Nina Kinert
09/14 - Björnsonhuset, Molde (NOR) w/DMF String Quartet, Nina Kinert
09/15 - Studentersamfundet, Trondheim (NOR) w/DMF String Quartet, Nina Kinert
09/17 - Kulturhuset Banken, Lillehammer (NOR) w/DMF String Quartet, Nina Kinert
09/20 - Södra Teatern, Stockholm (SWE) w/DMF String Quartet, Nina Kinert
09/21 - Trägårn, Göteborg (SWE) w/DMF String Quartet, Nina Kinert

Updated tourdates for A-ha:

07/15 - Guilfest, Stoke Park, Guildford (UK)
07/16 - Summer Pops, Kings Dock, Liverpool (UK)
07/19 - Dock Rock, Royal Victoria Dock, London (UK)
08/25 - Lerkendal stadium, Trondheim (NOR)
08/26 - Color Line stadium, Ålesund (NOR)
10/27 - Sport Palace, Kiev (UKR)
10/29 - Sport Palace, Rostov-on-Don (RUS)
10/31 - MTL Arena, Samara (RUS)
11/02 - Ice Palace, Kazan (RUS)
11/04 - Sport Palace, Ekaterinburg (RUS)
11/07 - Sport Palace, Nizhny Novgorod (RUS)
11/08 - Sport Hall, Yaroslavl (RUS)
11/10 - Ice Palace, St Petersburg (RUS)
11/11 - Olimpiisky Palace, Moscow (RUS)

A-ha has confirmed a bunch of dates for the UK and Russia later this year: http://www.a-ha.com/index.php?cat=2851

Check out some pics from the video shoot of the new A-ha single "Cosy prisons": http://www.a-ha.com/cparticle6968-417.html

A-ha will release a new version of the song "Cosy prisons" as their next UK single on April 10. It will be released in both CD and 7" picture disc format and a video will be filmed in March.

Check out the video for "Analogue" from A-ha: http://forum.a-ha.com/thenewsite/disco.php/video-analogue.html