Archive for the ‘Magne’ Category

Morten and Magne on BBC Disclosure

Røstvik, Hauge, Harket, Furuholmen

Morten and Magne, along with professor Harald N. Røstvik and environmental activist Frederic Hauge, appeared in an episode of the current affairs series Disclosure that aired on BBC Scotland on 2 November.

In the episode, entitled “Electric Cars – Ready for the Charge?”, reporter Kevin Keane travels to Oslo to interview the four of them about Norway’s electric car revolution. In the first half of 2022, 78% of all new cars sold in Norway were fully electric.

As many will know, Morten and Magne joined Røstvik and Hauge in importing the first electric car to Norway in 1989 and then went on to campaign for special incentives to be introduced, eventually leading to Norway becoming the global leader in electric vehicle adoption.

The segment from Oslo was filmed in late September and has been uploaded to YouTube here. There is also an article about it on BBC.com.

Magne turns 60

Happy Birthday to Magne Furuholmen, who turns 60 on November 1st!

Happy Birthday!

In a recent interview with 80s80s Radio in Germany, Magne said that he’s been working on a personal project to mark the occasion:

“On the actual day I’m just gonna have a dinner with my wife and kids, and I’m not gonna do a big celebration actually.

I kind of had an idea that I wanted to choose 60 interesting people that I’ve met over my life and just have conversations with them, and write it down or record it and then have it transcribed for coming generations. Not public, but for my children and their children.

But I thought I’d do a bit of summing up of what did these relationships mean and why did we stay in touch over the years. And these are people from many different areas of my life, some are from the music industry, some are from the art world, some are from finance, some are just random friendships that happened along the way.

So for me the idea of having a big celebration – nah, I’m kind of done with that. I did that when I was 50, and I think that was enough.”

Magne appears in Kalvøya documentary

Magne in the documentary

Magne is one of the people interviewed in a new documentary film about Norway’s legendary Kalvøya music festival.

The festival was held on the island of Kalvøya in Bærum near Oslo, nearly every summer from 1971-1997. It became Norway’s largest music festival and over the years featured headliners such as Frank Zappa, U2, Leonard Cohen, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Neil Young, Pearl Jam and David Bowie.

“Kalvøya was in the immediate area from where both Morten and I lived during parts of our adolescence, so the festival used to be the big event of the year and there was always something you wanted to see. You’d actually go there regardless if you liked the bands or not, as it had this magnetic effect on the whole region of eastern Norway”, Magne says in the documentary.

In June 1988 a-ha headlined the first day of the festival, as part of the Stay On These Roads tour. It was also their very first outdoor concert in Norway. The headliner the following day was Leonard Cohen.

“I think the concert at Kalvøya was an important moment for us, as it was one of the first major concerts we held in Norway”, Magne says.

“One of the highlights for us was meeting Leonard Cohen, who has been a great inspiration as a songwriter. Festivals are often a meeting ground for artists who wouldn’t otherwise meet each other.”

a-ha’s former FOH engineer Sven Persson (2000-2008) is also interviewed in the documentary, as he worked as a sound engineer at Kalvøya over many years.

The 105-minute documentary premiered on NRK TV on Monday and can be seen here (regional restrictions may apply). The segment about the a-ha concert is from 59:05 – 01:06:38.

New Magne F exhibition inspired by Porsche

Magne is known to be a big car enthusiast, especially sports cars. In 2016 he created Meta Sonic Boom Kit, an exclusive version of the BMW i8 decorated with his artwork.

Now he has made an exhibition of 23 large graphic prints inspired by classic Porsche racing cars, which are on display at Porsche Center Asker & Bærum near Oslo.

In addition to the exhibition, a Porsche 718 GT4 car has been decorated with one of Magne’s artworks. It can also be seen at the Porsche Center.

Read more about the project here:
Porsche x Magne Furuholmen

And see more pictures of the car on Facebook.

The exhibition is open from 29 November – 22 December.

BTW, Magne is not the only member of the Furuholmen family inspired by Porsche. His son Filip Clements recently released the song “Porsche 911”, which is one of the tracks off his new solo EP I Can See The Future.

Norse mythology inspires Magne’s latest project

At work in his art studio in Asker

Magne recently opened two solo exhibitions in the Ålesund area on June 13th; Extra Super Plus at Khåk Kunsthall in Ålesund and Völuspá in the visitors center at Alnes Fyr.

Völuspá is believed to be the world’s longest graphic print, with a length of 25 meters. It’s inspired by the famous 10th century poem of the same name from the Poetic Edda, and in particular the first English translation of it from the 1800s. Here is a picture of Magne in front of Völuspá.

“I’ve visited Alnes before, and have dreamt of hanging such an image on this particular wall since I first came here. You may call it Corona-madness, the idea of creating such a large continuous graphic print from one roll of paper. It took five printmakers five days to make it, followed by a month of drying. I am very pleased to see it up on the wall now. An entire roll of this paper is 90 meters long, so perhaps that will be the ambition for my next project”, Magne told newspaper Sunnmørsposten (paywall) with a laugh.

Details from Völuspá

“These are two seperate exhibitions, but there is a dialogue between them. The exhibition at Khåk has been carefully planned, and includes a selection of works that I’ve been working on for the last one and a half years, and during the entire corona period. It’s a large exhibition and the most important for me this summer. The exhibition at Alnes is inspired by me binge-watching Vikings and a fascination for the tales in old norse literature, combined with the fact that this area carries a lot of history from that era”, Magne says.

Extra Super Plus includes a selection of oil paintings, woodcut monotypes, ceramic works and a smaller, 4-meter version of Völuspá. It will remain open until August 15th. An online exhibition catalogue is available here. The main version of Völuspá at Alnes Fyr can be seen until August 8th.

The day before, June 11th, another Furuholmen exhibition opened as part of the Petter Dass literature festival in Alstahaug. A video of the opening, with Magne joining via videolink (at 18:50), has been posted on Vimeo.

There is also a new video about Magne’s printmaking process, posted by Queen Sonja Print Award, which can be seen on Facebook.

And another summer exhibition of his art will be held at Galleri Sagesund in Tvedestrand from 18 July – 8 August.

Magne to take part in literature festivals

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In connection with the Norwegian Festival of Literature, Magne will hold a retrospective solo exhibition called “Monologue” at Galleri Zink in Lillehammer from 25 May – 13 June.

As this year’s festival artist Magne has chosen a selection of sculptures, paintings and graphic prints that have been influenced by literature.

Ahead of the opening, Magne will join musician Morten Qvenild for an artist talk with Marte Spurkland at Verdensteateret in Lillehammer, on 25 May from 16:00 to 16:50.

“Magne Furuholmen and Morten Qvenild have previously worked together on music projects, now they meet again to talk about how they relate to literature and its influence on their artistic work”, the festival website says.

Tickets for the event are available from litteraturfestival.no, along with digital festival passes which will presumably give access to a live video stream.


Then, from 11 – 13 June, Magne will be this year’s festival artist during the biennial Petter Dass literature festival in Alstahaug. This was supposed to happen last year, but was postponed due to Covid.

The exhibition is held at the main building of the Petter Dass Museum and the opening will be streamed online at petterdass.no on 11 June from 18:30.


Recently Magne has also been busy creating custom artwork for the restaurant Schlägergården, located at Lilleaker in Oslo, which is set to reopen with renowned chef Björn Svensson as the new owner once the Covid-restrictions are lifted.

“I’ve really studied the history of this place, and my artwork will contain stories and symbols that are connected to it. It’s a great place and with Björn as the chef I think it will attract people from a wide area”, Magne told local newspaper Akersposten last week.

New songs from Magne

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Magne continues to post new solo recordings on Instagram. Half an album’s worth of songs so far, with the latest being “Between the Halo and the Horn” which was uploaded on 2 May.

“(…) i have decided to share with you some new songs (…) songs which may or may not find their way into the fray later. presently though, these are demos, unfinished, even with the odd emergency rhyme thrown in here and there – much like early drawings in a sketch-book, but written, produced, and performed by yours truly”, Magne wrote when he posted the first one.

Here is an overview of all the songs so far:

21/12/20: I’m In
26/12/20: God is in the Details
21/01/21: Time is on Your Side
24/02/21: Bluest of Blue
04/04/21: You Have What it Takes
02/05/21: Between the Halo and the Horn

Updates from Magne and Paul

A moment from the 2017 documentary a-ha Unplugged – På innsiden

Magne posted another new demo recording on Instagram last Thursday, which appears to be called “Time is on Your Side”.

This is the third new song he’s posted during the last month, following “I’m In” and “God is in the Details”.

Meanwhile, Paul has been sharing some newly drawn sketches on his Instagram, which can be seen here, here, here and here.
Paul has also been known to make paintings on canvas, some of which were part of his solo exhibition “Rammer” at Lillehammer in 1998. A selection of his paintings can be seen in this picture, posted by Augie some years ago.

As for new music, Savoy-drummer Frode Unneland was interviewed on the radio earlier this month, saying that Paul is working on lots of new songs at the moment. And according to last year’s Down To The Tracks-book, Paul already has a solo double album just waiting to be released.

White Xmas Lies concert to be streamed

Magne at the piano in Oslo last year

Magne’s White Xmas Lies solo concert at Kulturkirken Jakob in Oslo last year will be streamed on Facebook on Boxing Day, 26 December at 5pm CET. He will also be chatting live with fans during the concert. Read all the details about the event on a-ha.com.

During the 11-song set on 4 December 2019 he was joined by the following musicians on stage; Karl Oluf Wennerberg, Even Ormestad, Morten Qvenild, Tini Flaat Mykland, Madeleine Ossum, Emilie Heldal Lidsheim, Ingvild Nesdal Sandnes and Dan Sunhordvik.

Although Magne was planning four additional White Xmas Lies concerts this year; London, Berlin and two dates in Oslo, they had to be put on hold because of the pandemic.

A preview of the concert video can be seen on Magne’s YouTube channel.

Update: Magne will also be posting some of his new demo recordings for us to hear on Instagram this Christmas. Listen to the first song “I’m In” here (21/12) and the second song “God is in the Details” here (26/12).

Magne writes short stories for Juleroser

Magazine cover

Magne makes his debut as a fiction writer in the 2020 issue of Norwegian Christmas magazine Juleroser, with a collection of short stories inspired by his own song “So Cold It’s Hard To Think” from last year’s White Xmas Lies album.

The stories are written in Norwegian and spread across eight pages, interspersed with accompanying song lyrics in English and illustrated by two woodcuts from the Stigma series. Written in Magne’s trademark all-lowercase font, the stories revolve around relationships, work experiences, John Lennon, living through the pandemic and other things.

The magazine also includes the lyrics for “A Wintry Silence”, reinterpreted and translated into Norwegian (nynorsk) by Brit Bildøen.

Magne was asked to contribute by Juleroser editor and singer Herborg Kråkevik:

“I heard a song that made a real impression on me, and then I read an interview with Magne where he talked about it. He didn’t quite call it an anti-Christmas song, but that it was about reclaiming Christmas from what it’s become. And Juleroser is intended to be an alternative to superficial things”, Herborg tells VG.

Magne and Herborg recently visited Lysebu Hotel in Oslo to promote the magazine and shoot some video clips.

Update (28/11): A video clip of the two of them performing “Vinterstilla” has now been posted on Facebook.

This is not the first time the two of them collaborate. Back in 1998, Magne and Kjetil Bjerkestrand composed the melody for the song “Ein Strek – Nokon Fargar”, which was performed by Herborg Kråkevik. It can be heard on YouTube.

Juleroser is published by Det Norske Samlaget and is available in stores across Norway now.

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