Archive for May, 2011

Magne comments on “Hall of Fame” nomination

The list of nominees for the Rockheim museum’s “Hall of Fame” has already sparked a heated debate among so-called “music experts” in Norway. Still, at least everyone seem to agree that a-ha deserve their place on the list.

In a interview with the newspaper Dagbladet, Magne says that he appreciates the nomination:

“This is really great. a-ha is kind of existing in a “Hall of Fame” mode at the moment – after all we have nowhere else to be – so it’s a nice thing to be nominated.”

Dagbladet has also set up their own, highly unofficial, vote among their readers. a-ha is currently in second place, behind Jokke og Valentinerne.

“That’s cool, because I was certain that everyone were sick and tired of a-ha after everything that happened last year. So I would like to extend a big thank you to Dagbladet’s readers for their patience”, Magne says.

He doesn’t hide the fact that it’s good to be recognized:

“It’s important for us to feel represented in Norwegian music history, so in that sense it feels good.”

 
In other news, Morten apparently visited Moscow this weekend. He was there to speak/perform at a private event. Additional details were not available.

a-ha nominated for Norwegian “Hall of Fame”

 

Rockheim – the Norwegian museum of popular music in Trondheim – is planning to induct five bands and artists into a new “Hall of Fame” of Norwegian music later this year.

The first 15 nominees were revealed at a press conference at the National Library in Oslo today, and among them is a-ha. Other nominees include Alf Prøysen, Bjørn Eidsvåg, Åge Aleksandersen, Lars Lillo-Stenberg and Anne Grethe Preus. The whole list can be seen here.

In the jury that decided on the 15 nominees were the musicians Marit Larsen, Øystein Greni and Janove Ottesen, among others. To be considered, the band or artist needed to have their debut album released more than 25 years ago.

Another jury consisting of 100 people (60 musicians and 40 people from the music business and media) are now going to have a vote to determine the final five to be included in the “Hall of Fame”.

The induction ceremony will be held at Rockheim on August 21st this year.

Magne in Germany

Magne with students at the workshop in Halle, May 24th
(Picture from page-online.de)

Magne and fellow Apparatjik member Jonas Bjerre are in Germany this week, to hold a workshop for art students at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in the city of Halle.

The workshop started on Monday, May 23rd, and will continue throughout the rest of this week.

The idea is apparently to create new objects by using auto parts from a Smart car – continuing Apparatjik’s ongoing collaboration with the German car manufacturer.

Daily updates from the workshop project can be found here.

 
There was also recently an Apparatjik workshop in Moscow, following their concert there on May 13th. Here is some info from the Strelka Institute website:

After the performance at Strelka, Apparatjik will lead a closed workshop with Russian artists and musicians. Together they will work on a new interactive installation, which will connect Apparatjik’s creative work with local Russian context. The results of this collaboration will be shown at the Yota Space Festival in St. Petersburg this fall.

(Thanks to Carmen and Maria)

Apparatjik in Moscow

The cube in Moscow
(Picture by Marina Lystseva)

Apparatjik played their first concert in Russia this Friday, May 13th, at the newly established Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow.

There were initially only 200 invitations available for two people each, by registering on the Strelka website, but this week anyone who added their name to the event on Apparatjik’s Facebook page were automatically added to the guestlist (which ended up being 188 people). So there must have been at least 600 people in the audience (a Russian fan claims there were as many as 1500-2000 people).

A selection of pictures from the Moscow performance can be seen here.

And here are some YouTube clips:
Deadbeat    Datascroller    Snow Crystals    Supersonic Sound    Look Kids    Quiz Show

Simen and Peder from Moods of Norway accompanied the other apparatjiks on the trip to Moscow, and a couple of pictures have been posted on their Facebook page, including one with Magne and Karl Oluf Wennerberg in front of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Update: Check out this cool video clip from the Moscow concert on Vimeo.

Ending On A High Note chart update

Ending On A High Note entered the UK album chart at #43 this week, with 2,966 copies sold. It was actually in the top 15 in the first midweek chart update, so there was a significant drop in sales later in the week. Still quite good though, considering there doesn’t seem to have been much promo for it in the UK so far.

In Germany EOAHN is at #9 this week, and has now spent an amazing four weeks in the top 10 on the album chart. And after dropping down to #7 last week, it climbs to #4 in Norway.

“zbig1” on the WOTM forum has put together the following list of all European countries where the live album has charted so far (Updated 15 May):

1. Norway – Best place #3, All places: 6-3-7-4-6 and 5 weeks in Top-10
2. Germany – Best place #3, All places: 3-7-8-9-14 and 5 weeks in Top-10
3. Poland – Best place #21, All places: 21-35-42-27-39 and 5 weeks in Top-50
4. Russia – Best place #24, All places: 24 and 1 week in Top-25
5. UK – Best place #43, All places: 43 and 1 week in Top-100
6. Switzerland – Best place #56, All places: 56-59-98 and 3 weeks in Top-100
7. Austria – Best place #61, All places: 61-72 and 2 weeks in Top-75
8. Belgium Wallonia – Best place #70, All places: 70 and 1 week in Top-100
9. Netherland – Best place #72, All places: 72-86 and 2 weeks in Top-100
10. Belgium Flanders – Best place #87, All places: 70 and 1 week in Top-100
11. Spain – Best place #92, All places: 92 and 1 week in Top-100
12. France – Best place #163, All places: 163 and 1 week in Top-200

And here’s how the DVD has performed in the music DVD charts around Europe
(Updated 15 May):

1. Norway – Best place #1, All places: 1-1-1 and 3 weeks in Top-10
2. Germany – Best place #1, All places: 1-1-1-1 and 4 weeks in Top-10
3. Austria – Best place #1, All places: 1-10-5 and 3 weeks in Top-10
4. Sweden – Best place #1, All places: 3-6-1-8-6 and 5 weeks in Top-20
5. Hungary – Best place #6, All places: 6-20 and 2 weeks in Top-20
6. Switzerland – Best place #6, All places: 6 and 1 week in Top-10
7. Ireland – Best place #7, All places: 7 and 1 week in Top-10
8. Netherland – Best place #11, All places: 20-11 and 2 weeks in Top-30

(Thanks to zbig1 and tryffel for the chart info)

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