The always interesting and thorough Avant-garde Metal site talks to Norwegian musician/artist/graphic designer Kim Sølve about his new venture, the label : http://www.avantgarde-metal.com/content/stories2.php?id=158
The first two releases on the new imprint will be from the artists Yurei and Delirium Bound with lots more planned for the future.
Okkultokrati have revealed the cover art and full tracklist for their forthcoming album "No light for mass", due out May 17: http://okkultokrati.blogspot.com/2010/03/no-light-for-mass-artwork-finished.html
The always-reliable will handle the CD version while details are still being worked out for the LP.
Norwegian act Gerilja, the winners of the 2007 Zoom Urørt unsigned band competition, are back with a new 6-song EP called "Pink slush twilight" produced by John Fryer, the same dude who worked on Nine Inch Nail's debut "Pretty hate machine". Vinyl and digital only, samples and ordering info at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/gerilja
Ane Brun's albums "Spending time with Morgan", "Duets" and "Live in Scandinavia" will be released digitally in North America on April 27 via Amazon and elsewhere on May 4. She's also lined up a couple solo dates to promote them:
05/08 - Largo, Los Angeles, CA
05/10 - Bowery Ballroom, NYC, NY
The Eardrums blog will be putting out a new comp in April called "Between two waves" featuring a collection of collaboration tracks, all exclusive to the release except for one. The tracklist has not been revealed yet, but the first sample is now online and it features Sweden's Cake On Cake mixing it up with Amercian Jacob Borshard. Read more and check it out: http://www.eardrumspop.com/2010/03/13/soon-friends-soon-and-a-little-preview/
Norwegian hardcore act Kvelertak will be supporting Converge on their upcoming European tour: http://www.convergecult.com/49/
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Laakso - Worst case scenario
02. TALK 1
03. Du Pacque - Walk straight
04. Pascal - Tutti frutti
05. Nirvana 2002 - The awakening of...
06. Lapko - I shot the sheriff
07. TALK 2
08. The Floor is Made of Lava - The bigger picture
09. No Balls - Guilt blocker
10. Obliteration - Styxerian path (into darkness)
11. Next Life - Anti matter
12. TALK 3
13. Ikons - Imperiet
14. The Skull Defekts - Habit
15. Familjen - När planeterna stannat
16. TALK 4
17. Meleeh - Sun and moon
18. Kite - I give you the morning
19. Ef - 401 Lwa
20. TALK 5
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.
I took a few months off to think about the future of my mailorder distro, but I'm back now and ready to do business again: http://www.itsatrap.com/store/
Expect many of the CD titles to be marked down in coming days as I'm still trying to clear out old stock, so if you see something you like, don't be scared by the price. Let's make a deal! Email mailorder@itsatrap.com for all inquiries.
This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart:
01. Raga Rockers - Shit Happens
02. Diverse artister - Melodi Grand Prix 2010
03. Donkeyboy - Caught in a Life
04. Navigators - The Straight And Narrow
05. Ingrid Olava - The Guest
06. Audrey Horne - Audrey Horne
07. WigWam - Non Stop Rock'N'Roll
08. Diverse artister - Dugnad For Haiti
09. Pelbo - Pelbo
10. The Pink Robots - The Pink Robots
11. John Olav Nilsen & Gjengen - For Sant Til Å Være Godt
12. Sivert Høyem - Moon Landing
13. Frøya - My American Dream
14. Bjørn Hellfuck - Innforjævlig
15. Burzum - Belus
16. Moddi - Floriography
17. Zeromancer - Death Of Romance
18. Casiokids - Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar
19. Joddski (Jørg1) - Krig & Kjærlighet
20. Bare Egil - I Fyr og Flamme
"In the large deserted woods on both sides of the Swedish-Norwegian border, Finnish people settled down in the 15th- and 16th century. These areas are now called "Finnskogen", the Finnish woods. The settlers came from difficult times in Finland, and burned down forest to cultivate rye in the ashes. In these vast forests it was hard to tell if you were in Sweden or Norway. Culture does not know borders either, and the music is a common Swedish- Norwegian tradition.
So reads the intro text on "Finnskogen brinner", the collaboration between Swedish fiddle artist Patrik Andersson and his Norwegian counterpart Vegar Vårdal. I am by no means attuned to the many regional differences in Scandinavian folk tradition, so I can't begin to explain how the music of Finnskogen, but these gentlemen play beautifully together. Some of the more minimal folk records I've been listening to as part of my "Listen to Norway" exploration (this is #5) can get grating, especially with the uncertain harmonies of the Hardanger Fiddle, but this one never falters. Two players and their instruments, maybe a little foot-tapping; that's all you need. "Dette var sagt at når Halteguten, Ola Porkkala, spilte denne valsen kunne ikke folk la vaere å gråte."
My apologies for not keeping up with weekly posts in this series, but my dayjob workload has been astounding. Rest assured, there will be lots more music (folk and otherwise) posted in weeks to come.
Patrik Andersson & Vegar Vårdal - Gråtaren
Norwegian act Hellbillies will release their new album on June 7. The first single "Leite etter lykka" will be released on March 15.
All About Jazz gives high marks to Elephant9's new album "Walk the Nile": http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=35810
Another mostly OT post, but again, totally worth checking out: Fenriz of Darkthrone has made another mix for Vice, this time featuring tracks from his vinyl collection for a mix he called "Metal Punk Bliss": http://www.viceland.com/music/2010/03/a-fist-in-the-face-of-god-fenriz-presents%E2%80%A6-trapped-under-vice-vol-iii/
Featured Scandinavian artists include Puke and Darkthrone ('natch!).
is streaming Serena-Maneesh's entire new album "S-M 2: Abyss in B minor" at their website: http://4ad.com/news/stream-entire-re/
, the reissue arm of , has announced that they'll be reissuing Gehenna's "Seen through the veils of darkness" (The second spell) as a 2LP and "Malice" (the third spell, my favorite record of theirs) on 3LP.