Archive for February, 2009

a-ha sign new promotional contract

The German broadcasting group ProSiebenSat.1 has signed a new contract with a-ha and their record company Universal to co-operate on concerts and TV-appearances in European countries where ProSiebenSat.1 is represented. This is in connection with the upcoming a-ha album, which is expected to be released in June.

German TV stations owned by ProSiebenSat.1 include SAT.1, Kabel 1, N24, and 9Live.
In Norway, ProSiebenSat.1 owns the TV and radio stations TVNorge, FEM, The Voice, Radio Norge, Radio 1 and The Voice Radio.

They also own TV and radio stations in Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Hungary.

This is the first European-wide music deal of this type between ProSiebenSat.1 and Universal. Last year they formed a new label called “We love Music”.

An article in German can be found here.

Big changes in a-ha’s live concept

Left to right: Sven Lindvall, Per Lindvall and Christer Karlsson.

Left to right: Sven Lindvall, Per Lindvall and Christer Karlsson.

The Swedish musicians Per Lindvall (drums), Sven Lindvall (bass) and Christer Karlsson (keyboard) have been a-ha’s regular backing band since 2000.

But in different e-mails to Brazilian fans, the Lindvall brothers reveal that they won’t be playing with a-ha in 2009.

Per writes:
No, the Swedes are not backing A-HA anymore. A-HA are trying a new concept. Less live playing and more programmed stuff. So – unfortunatly we are not coming to Brasil. Maybe with another band sometimes!

His brother Sven also writes:
I’m sorry, Per, me and Christer are not playing with A-ha this year. They’re heading for a different sound and production. We’re all good friends and the swedish backing band wishes them all the best and lots of success. Maybe we will play together later, but not this year.

It is not known whether a-ha will bring in some new musicians, or rely mostly on pre-programmed rhythms instead of bass and drums – as the Lindvall brothers seem to indicate.

Apparatjik recording new album

From the Apparatjik website

From the Apparatjik website

Apparatjik – Magne’s side project comprised of himself, Guy Berryman (Coldplay), Jonas Bjerre (Mew) and Martin Terefe (Kensaltown producer) – recorded the song “Ferreting” for the Songs for Survival charity album in connection with Bruce Parry’s Amazon BBC TV-series last year.

Now they are currently working on a full Apparatjik album. The clothing designers in Moods Of Norway recently visited the members at a cabin somewhere in Norway, where they were busy recording the new album. A few pictures from the visit can be seen on the Moods Of Norway blog:

Magne from Aha is showing us the studio (16 Jan. 09)
Moods is hitting the studio (16 Jan. 09)
Emailing: DSC00373 (16 Jan. 09)

No release date or any further details about the new album have been announced so far. And it remains to be seen if the Apparatjik album will be released before or after the new a-ha album.

But the official Apparatjik website was updated this week, with a bunch of heavily pixelated images, a sound clip and some random quotes. There are also official Apparatjik pages on Facebook and Twitter.

BTW, the Moods Of Norway blog also includes a few older items of interest:

Martin, Magne and Jonas with Elton John:
Magne from Aha looking sharp (17 Dec. 08)

The Moods guys hanging out with Magne and Morten in New York last fall:
Morten and Sim at Indochine (6 Oct. 08)
Aha in Soho (6 Oct. 08)

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