Archive for January, 2012

Song previews from Morten’s new album

 

In the clip above you can hear the six song previews from Morten’s new album, reportedly called Out Of My Hands, that were played for fans in Rio yesterday.

The most observant among you may notice that two of the songs are cover versions – which doesn’t seem particularly imaginative…

The third one is originally a Kent song called “Kärleken Väntar” and was a massive hit for the Swedish band in Scandinavia in 2002.

The fifth song, “Scared Of Heights”, was originally written and performed by Norwegian singer Espen Lind, and was a big hit in Norway in 2008.

Here are links to more YouTube clips from the fan meeting in Rio:

Clip 1  Clip 2  Clip 3  Clip 4

South American tour announced

At the FNAC bookstore, January 29th. 
(Picture from globo.com)

At the press conference/fan meeting in Rio last night, it was announced that Morten will return to Brazil in September to do three solo concerts:

22 September: Citibank Hall, Rio de Janeiro
23 September: Chevrolet Hall, Belo Horizonte
26 September: Credicard Hall, Sao Paulo

He will also be touring in Chile and Argentina.

Fans attending the event were able to hear six song previews from Morten’s upcoming solo album, which are said to resemble the material on Foot Of The Mountain.

More pictures have been posted at globo.com and r7.com.

Morten visits samba school in Rio

With actress and dancer Viviane Araújo. 
(Picture from cabecadecuia.com)

Morten is currently in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he visited the Salgueiro samba school yesterday.

He seems to be in the country together with gossip reporter Dorthe Skappel and a team from TV2 in Norway.

Some sources claim that he’s working on a documentary “about the end of a-ha”, but I don’t know how accurate that is.

Pictures from his visit at the samba school can be found at sidneyrezende.com, Caras Online, globo.com and ig.com.br.

Today Morten will meet a number of fans at the FNAC Bookstore, to answer questions and do a meet & greet.

The Voice premieres in Norway

The Norwegian version of talent contest The Voice premiered on TV2 last night, with Magne as one of the four mentors.

The whole thing opened with the mentors performing Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”, and there’s a video clip of the performance on TV2.no.

Magne ended up with one talent for his team in the first episode; Martin Halla, who sang Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know”.

The premiere was well-received by both the viewers and the press, with ‘5 out of 6’ ratings from VG and Dagbladet and a lot of positive feedback in social media.

Update: The whole 1 hour 10 minute show now seems to be available for free on TV2.no here.

 

In an interview with Dagbladet on Thursday, Magne said that he doesn’t regret taking part in the show:

“Many people around me have felt that I didn’t need to take the chance of doing this [show]. But if I hadn’t, someone else – potentially less suited – would have done it instead.”

“I have more experience than most people when it comes to this business and operating on an international level. Why shouldn’t I be able to share of that experience?”

“I hope I’ll encounter someone that I’ll want to nurture musically, and in a longer perspective than just this TV project.”

“If we’re able to create an international success, that would be the absolute coolest thing that could happen in my life at the moment”, Magne says.

 

In connection with The Voice, Magne has also set up an official Twitter account (@mfuruholmen), which he will use mainly in connection with the show and the talents he’ll choose. During the show, messages written in advance will appear on the TV-screen and on Twitter simultanously.

In his first message, he wrote (translated):

“help, now I’ve also joined twitter! i’m mainly intending to use it to promote my talents. all the weird stuff is elsewhere.”

So expect most of his messages to be in Norwegian, for the time being.

 

There will be 18 episodes of The Voice in total; blind auditions (7 episodes), battle rounds (6 episodes) and live shows (5 episodes). The final show takes place on May 25th.

Apparatjik release 24-bit studio-quality download

Square Peg recording session in Norway. 
(Picture from bowers-wilkins.com)

This week, Apparatjik are offering a 24-bit studio-quality version of their second album Square Peg in a Round Hole as a free download on their Facebook page (as “Draft 7”).

This is a high-quality FLAC version (472 MB) of the original 12-track album, which first appeared in lower MP3 quality as part of the “Apparatjik World” iPad app back in November and later as “Draft 1” in the ongoing fan collaboration project on Facebook.

Apparatjik are releasing this version of the album in collaboration with British loudspeaker company Bowers and Wilkins and their online community Society Of Sound.

“we go to quite an extent to make our music sound the way we want it to and it’s great to be able to offer a 24 bit version of the first draft of the album through society of sound. this exclusive release ‘square peg in a round hole – draft 7’ is mastered at abbey road studios by geoff pesche straight from our studio masters so what we listened to in studio is what you will hear”, the band says in a new blog post on the Society Of Sound website.

The whole blog post, where the band talk about the recording process and the fan collaboration project can be found here.

Morten to visit Brazil / Private performance

Morten performing with a-ha in Rio, 2009. 
This time he's going on his own.

Some info from a-ha.com:

“Morten will be in Rio de Janeiro on January 29 to celebrate the completion of his new solo album and reconnect with the South American fans! There will be a Q&A where Morten will answer questions from the fans, followed by a meet & greet opportunity.”

The event will be held at the FNAC Bookstore in Rio. Please visit a-ha.com for ticket details.

 

Side2.no recently had an interview with Norwegian singer/songwriter Tom Hugo Hermansen, who released his debut album Sundry Tales earlier this month.

In addition to his solo project, Hermansen is also a member of the covers band Radiojam. The interview mentions that Radiojam was once hired as a backing band for Morten at a private event.

“He came to Kristiansand to rehearse with us, and he wanted an authentic feel to it. So we rehearsed in an old, worn-down rehearsal room at Samsen Kulturhus. Playing with Morten was great, and I’d be happy to do it again”, Hermansen says.

“And he liked my EP and said it was annoyingly good. Annoying because there are always new artists trying to challenge his own music. But I have quite a while to go until I’m on Harket’s level.”

The interview doesn’t specify exactly when this performance took place, but the EP Hermansen mentions was released in 2009.

Morten invites fans to choose a-ha song

Back in October, it was announced that the concerts on Morten’s upcoming solo tour would include “some selections from the a-ha catalogue”. This info was met by widespread scepticism and negative reactions in the fan community.

In a somewhat surprising move, Morten (or someone in his management) has now come up with an idea to have a vote among the fans to choose one of those a-ha songs. But it must be an album track that hasn’t been performed live since 2000.

Head on over to Morten’s new, official site at mortenharket.com to see a list of the 31 songs you can choose from and details on how to vote. The voting ends on January 27th.

Video clip: first preview of The Voice

Magne says:
“My goal is to find an artist with international potential, a super talent. But if that doesn’t work out, I’ll settle for just winning the contest”.

This promo clip appeared on the official The Voice Facebook page.

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