Bellman in the UK

Norwegian artist Bellman will be making his UK live debut next week:

04/27 - Silver Bullet Par, Finsbury Park, London
04/28 - The Regal Rooms, Hammersmith, London

The 405 talks to Bellman

The 405 has a new audio interview up with Norwegian artist Bellman: http://thefourohfive.com/articles/4862

Sirius playlist week #15

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:

01. Lowood - It's a mess (feat. Kristofer Åström)
02. TALK 1
03. Murmansk - Sweet trio
04. Øresund Space Collective - My heel has a beard
05. Nutid - Pianoflikkan
06. TALK 2
07. Montt Mardié - Bang, bang (Echo in Warsaw)
08. Rupesh Cartel - Oh no oh no!
09. Bellman - Sleep forever
10. Pixie Carnation - Little sister
11. TALK 3
12. Fever Ray - Concrete walls
13. Jesper Norda - We have the guts
14. Bad Hands - Bad hands (feat. Nina Kinert)
15. TALK 4
16. Turboweekend - Up with the smoke - Down with the ash

Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.

Interview: Bellman

This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart

This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart:

01. Silje Nergaard - A Thousand True Stories
02. Frøya - Jenta fra landet
03. deLillos - Huskeglemme
04. Kari Bremnes - Ly
05. Kristin Asbjørnsen - The Night Shines Like the Day
06. Åge Sten Nilsen - Glamunition
07. Tommy Tokyo feat Starving for My Gravy - Smear Your Smiles Back On
08. Elisabeth Andreassen - Spellemann
09. Marit Larsen - The Chase
10. Skambankt - Hardt regn
11. Vamp - St. Mandag
12. Black Debbath - Black Debbaths beste. 10 år
13. El Caco - Heat
14. Vestlandsfanden - Tipping & Trygd
15. Bugge Wesseltoft - Playing
16. Bellman - Mainly Mute
17. Karpe Diem - Fire vegger
18. Ida Jenshus - Color of the Sun
19. I Was A King - I was a king
20. Ane Brun - Changing Of The Seasons

This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart

This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart:

01. deLillos - Huskeglemme
02. Kari Bremnes - Ly
03. Frøya - Jenta fra landet
04. Kristin Asbjørnsen - The Night Shines Like the Day
05. Silje Nergaard - A Thousand True Stories
06. El Caco - Heat
07. Tommy Tokyo feat Starving for My Gravy - Smear Your Smiles Back On
08. Skambankt - Hardt regn
09. Sie Gubba - Hemafrå
10. Marit Larsen - The Chase
11. Vamp - St. Mandag
12. Ida Jenshus - Color of the Sun
13. Fjorden Baby! - Fjorden Baby!
14. Bugge Wesseltoft - Playing
15. Bellman - Mainly Mute
16. Karpe Diem - Fire vegger
17. Erlend Bratland - True Colors
18. I Was A King - I was a king
19. Bjørn Eidsvåg - Pust
20. Espen Lind - Army of one

This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart

This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart:

01. Kari Bremnes - Ly
02. Kristin Asbjørnsen - The Night Shines Like the Day
03. Bellman - Mainly Mute
04. Frøya - Jenta fra landet
05. Sie Gubba - Hemafrå
06. Tommy Tokyo feat Starving for My Gravy - Smear Your Smiles Back On
07. I Was A King - I was a king
08. Marit Larsen - The Chase
09. Vamp - St. Mandag
10. Karpe Diem - Fire vegger
11. Ida Jenshus - Color of the Sun
12. Torstein Sødal - Torstein Sødal
13. Odd Nordstoga - Pilegrim
14. Jarle Bernhoft - Ceramik City Chronicles
15. Ane Brun - Changing Of The Seasons
16. Erlend Bratland - True Colors
17. Rita Eriksen - Hjerteslag
18. Vidar Johnsen & Peter Nordberg - Mål & Mening
19. Helene Bøksle - Morild
20. Diverse artister - Melodi Grand Prix Junior Nordic

MIC Norway profiles Bellman

MIC Norway profiles the up-and-coming postrock/chamber-pop artist Bellman: http://www.mic.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2009012210373730842755

Norwegian artist Bellman will finally release his long-delayed debut full-length album "Mainly mute" on January 19, 2009. Listen to the first single "Space ship move slow" at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bellmanmusic

Lars Winnerbäck
Daugava
Universal

I believe it all started with Carl Michael Bellman in the 18th century. Bellman wrote songs that now are an important part of the Swedish musical heritage and have been the blueprint for many Swedish musicians to follow. For many years now there has been a school of solo male troubadours in Sweden singing mostly about love and how hard life can be. They're usually not as witty or original as Bellman, but there seems to be a fondness for these types in Sweden, since there constantly seems to be one of these guys on top of the charts. In the last 10-20 years the style of choice has been to sound like (a very accessible) Tom Waits, with some Balkan and folk music influences thrown in for good measure. If you ever find yourself around a campfire in Sweden on a hot summer night, it's very likely that some loafer-wearing smug chap will materialise out of nowhere with an acoustic guitar singing songs by aforementioned songsmiths. Lars Winnerbäck is currently the king of this genre, and this (his eighth) album is ruling the Swedish album chart once again after it was released in September 2007 (probably due to him doing rather well at various music awards). It's generic stuff, and often quite boring, except perhaps on the biggest hit of the album "Om du lämnade mig nu" which has a certain sentimental appeal to it.
- Simon Tagestam