Cover of Magasinet, May 11th

Magne is on the cover of Dagbladet’s Saturday magazine today. He is also on the front page of the newspaper itself.

In a 6-page interview done in London, he talks about the Norwegian Wood exhibition and the music he’ll be making for the upcoming Beatles movie at Abbey Road Studios.

“I’ll be using the old recording equipment used by The Beatles, and try to rent the old tape reels and microphones. I want to make it as authentic as possible.”

He also says that his heart condition is now much better, following a heart surgery last year.

“I have lived with the diagnosis atrial fibrillation, and there’s no denying that it’s been difficult at times. But after my surgery at Haukeland University Hospital last year I’m in fantastic shape. I have to thank the Norwegian health care system for giving me a new life at the age of 50. The problem is of course, if you ask my wife, that now I can work more than I’ve ever done. I have no limits.”

The journalist asks if he still has to take special considerations in his everyday life.

“No, not anymore. I’m healthy! For the first time in ten years I’m not taking any medication, that’s how it’s been for one year now. It feels really good.”

Magne has previously talked about his heart condition is several interviews, including The Daily Mail in 2009.

Picture from N Magazine

Magne is profiled in a 5-page article in the May 2013 issue of airline Norwegian’s in-flight magazine N.

The article focuses on Apparatjik and the Apparatjik Suite, his gallery Stolper + Friends, and the other projects he’s involved with in the new Tjuvholmen art district in Oslo, including mentoring young art students.

The whole interview, which was done by UK writer Lucille Howe at The Thief on March 25th, can be found online here (in English).

Copenhagen, May 3rd

Magne, Martin and Jonas did their first Apparatjik concert of the year on Friday, May 3rd, with a 14-song set at the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) in Copenhagen.

A reviewer at Danish music website Gaffa praises the “extremely well planned audiovisual bombardment of the senses” and gives the concert 5 out of 6 stars. Although he feels the music lacks an emotional quality, he says the show “worked incredibly well throughout its compact 49 minutes”.

Guy Berryman attended Magne’s exhibition opening in London on Thursday, but did not join the others for the concert in Copenhagen. The busy Coldplay-bassist last performed with Apparatjik in March 2011, and has been replaced with a stand-in at every performance since then.

Lowell had taken the trip over from Canada, though, and came on stage to do her two songs “Shake Him Off” and “The Birds”.

YouTube videos (by Carlos and others):
Intro / Josie   Do It Myself   Supersonic Sound   Tell The Babes (w/ Magne on vocals)
Shake Him Off   The Birds   Deadbeat

Meanwhile in Oslo, a new sculpture by Apparatjik has apparently been installed outdoors at Tjuvholmen.

Magne in front of his version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The black P and B is an homage to Sir Peter Blake.

Magne’s new Beatles-inspired exhibition Norwegian Wood opened with a private view at the Paul Stolper gallery in London last night. NRK had an interview with Magne yesterday, as he prepared for the opening, which can be viewed here.

Helter Skelter by Magne F, 2013

Norwegian Wood came about because Magne wanted to return to his woodcut-techniques of the mid-90s. During the preparations, he was asked to make the music for the upcoming Beatles-movie, which in turn inspired the theme of this exhibition.

“The Beatles was our pathway to adventure, they were our big heroes. We were like those boys in Lars Saabye Christensen’s book, we grew up with The Beatles. We had big dreams and made it big, largely because of them”, Magne told NRK.

For the artistic process, Magne was able to borrow antique woodcut tools from Sir Peter Blake, who designed the album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“His tools were quite small and delicate, while I have a somewhat rougher style. So for some of these woodcuts I had to use a chainsaw as well.”

Some photos of Magne creating the woodcut prints at Atelje Larsen in Helsingborg, Sweden can be seen at paulstolper.com.

Blake was scheduled to attend the private opening yesterday, where Magne would return the tools.

“Paul McCartney couldn’t make it to the opening, unfortunately, but he sent an e-mail with his best wishes”, Magne says.

Come Together by Magne F, 2013

Magne will be busy working on the Beatles film music in the coming fall and winter, but he’s already got some ideas ready.

“It’s a bit scary to compose something that will be heard alongside the iconic Beatles music. You need to find the right balance of being both respectful and disrespectful. The film music has to stand on its own feet, but also sound authentic of that time period.”

 
Magne has also made a few other public appearances recently. On April 18th he appeared at The Thief in Oslo, as UK newcomer Gabrielle Aplin did an intimate showcase gig.

“The concert was really good. She writes and sings beautifully. People should keep an eye on her, and be proud that they had a chance to see her this early”, he told seher.no.

On April 29th Magne attended the European opener of Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball Tour 2013, at Telenor Arena in Oslo. “I’m the world’s biggest Bruce Springsteen-fan”, he said (sarcastically?) as he walked in the VIP-entrance.

Day to day, Eliot also works closely with A-Ha songwriter and guitarist Paul Waaktaar Savoy on all of his current projects, which include several new artists on major labels.

Exactly who these new artists are, remains to be seen…

Memorial Beach (1993)

2013 marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Memorial Beach, regarded by many fans to be a-ha’s perhaps best album.

Recorded with producer David Z at Paisley Park near Minneapolis, the album was a continuation of the organic sound on East Of The Sun, but more guitar-based and largely recorded live.

I recently re-read an interview with Paul from Norwegian music paper Puls in June 1993, which I thought I’d share with my readers by translating it. I don’t think it has been posted online before. In the interview, Paul talks about the recording sessions at Paisley Park, the challenging mixing process in New York and his songwriting in general.

“Memorial Beach is full of high-tech, but the recording itself went by very quickly. Never more than two takes, David Z wouldn’t allow more than that. So we had to rehearse a lot in advance, and I think this had a very positive impact on the final result. ‘Let’s knock his socks off!’, Paul says in the Puls interview.

Read the whole translated interview here: The new a-ha is born

Magne standing in front of a fountain at Briskeby in Oslo, an important location in the original novel
(Picture from VG)

Magne has agreed to compose the original score as well as supervise the recordings of other music for the upcoming Norwegian movie Beatles, production company Storm Rosenberg announced in a press release today.

“My own musical journey really started with listening to The Beatles while growing up, and it is such a thrill to be allowed to work with this iconic material and to be a part of presenting this great story on film”, Magne says.

The movie is based on author Lars Saabye Christensen best-selling novel Beatles from 1984, a coming-of-age story about four boys growing up in Oslo in the 1960s and 70s.

The project has already garnered international attention, by securing the rights to use original music by The Beatles in the movie. To help achieve this, Magne wrote a letter to Paul McCartney saying how The Beatles had influenced a-ha.

“If we hadn’t grown up with and modeled ourselves after The Beatles, we would never have had the courage to set our goals so high and try our luck abroad. That’s what I wrote in the letter”, Magne tells VG.

Beatles book cover

“If you listen to a-ha’s songs, the melody lines are always the basic element. We got that from The Beatles. It’s not music that emerged from jam sessions. There are always intricate harmonies underneath in Beatles songs. That’s something I’ll have to use now.”

Magne is soon going to Abbey Road studios in London to work on the score, where he’ll be using The Beatles’ original microphones and recording equipment.

“I’ll try to be true to the 60s era and the sound. I grew up with The Beatles as my big heroes, so this is a welcome trip back to my own childhood. I have thought a lot about the fact that original Beatles recordings are also included in the movie. That’s incredibly challenging on one level, but also a dream come true for a big fan like myself”, Magne tells VG.

The movie will be directed by Espen Sandberg og Joachim Rønning, who have previously directed Max Manus and Kon Tiki – which was nominated for an Academy Award earlier this year. Beatles is currently scheduled to start shooting in June and premiere in February 2014.

Magne, together with Kjetil Bjerkestrand, has previously composed the score for Marius Holst’s Ti Kniver i Hjertet (1994) and Øyenstikker (2001), Karin Julsrud’s 1732 Høtten (1998) and the mini-series Hotel Oslo (1997). He also scored the documentary series På jakt etter paradiset (2008), together with Nils Petter Molvær.

Ti Kniver i Hjertet was also based on a novel by Lars Saabye Christensen, called Gutten som ville være en av gutta.

In 1991, Saabye Christensen collaborated with a-ha on the NRK TV special Østenfor Sol, Vestenfor Måne, where the band played live at an NRK studio, while the author read his own poems between the songs.

This new series ‘Norwegian Wood’ uses music as its main reference point, but this time it is the iconic pop music of the Beatles, music which Furuholmen grew up listening to, and which directly inspired him to leave his native country to become an internationally renowned musician at a young age. Borrowing titles of songs and lyrics, the artist creates new works by transforming and changing these well-known word combinations into a new visual language. ‘I use letters and words as the architecture of my works – both for composition and conceptually, as a kind of emotional architecture.’ (Magne F, March 2013). These vibrant, new works mark a return to music as the main source of inspiration, and also to the monumental woodcuts that launched the artist’s career in 1995.

Read the whole press release and see a selection of the works on paulstolper.com. The exhibition will be open from 3 May to 1 June. A private view, presumably with Magne present, is held on 2 May.

Album cover

The Voice-winner Martin Halla’s debut album Winter Days is released in Norway today.

The album, which has been produced by Magne Furuholmen and Martin Terefe, is available now on Spotify, Wimp, iTunes and on CD.

In addition to providing backing vocals and playing various instruments on the album (including piano, synth, guitar and wurlitzer), Magne has also co-written five of the songs.

Here is the full tracklist, with songwriting credits:

1. Illuminate The Sky (Martin Halla/Lowell Boland/Magne Furuholmen/Martin Terefe)
2. Ignited (Espen Gulbrandsen/Magne Furuholmen/Martin Terefe)
3. The River (KT Tunstall/Martin Terefe)
4. If He’s The One (Glen Scott/Martin Terefe/Magne Furuholmen)
5. All The Red Lights (Magne Furuholmen/Martin Terefe)
6. Winter Days (Martin Halla)
7. Falling Slowly (feat. Tini Flaat) (Glen Hansard/Markéta Irglová)
8. Everybody’s Angel (Martin Halla/Magne Furuholmen)
9. When I See You (Paul Herman/Martin Halla)
10. In The City (Martin Halla/Marte Maaland Eberson)
11. Time’s Up (Nick Whitecross/Martin Halla)
12. My Little Wonder (feat. Karoline Wallace) (Martin Halla)

The album was recorded at Martin Terefe’s Kensaltown Studios in London and Magne’s Passionfruit Recording Studios in Oslo, while the string arrangements were added in Nashville.

“The album was supposed to be released in November last year, but we chose not to rush things. We found out that we needed a few more songs”, Halla tells newspaper Romerikes Blad.

“It’s been an exciting process; I had never written songs together with others before, so that took some getting used to. But gradually a new landscape opened up.”

Links:
“Illuminate The Sky” (Live on TV2)          “Illuminate The Sky” (Lyric video)
Martin Halla on Facebook          Martin Halla on Twitter

Stian and Magne at the opening
(Photo by Rachel)

Stian Andersen’s exhibition of a-ha photos opened at the Strand Gallery in London last night. In addition to Stian himself, Magne also made an appearance. Music was provided by harpist Erin Hill, who had come over from New York.

A gallery of photos from the opening can be seen at Strand Gallery’s Facebook page, and the UK edition of Huffington Post has an interview with Magne about Stian’s photos.

“They’ve revealed a feeling of unity that you don’t really think about in terms of the band, and that was a positive feeling that came out of it… I wrote in the preface to the book that I think it’s captured something we all felt was like being there, it had that authenticity, feeling of recognition. It takes a lot for us to agree on anything, and we all really liked the outcome of his work”, Magne says.

The exhibition at the Strand Gallery is open until March 17th.

And if you haven’t already, check out a mini-documentary about the photo book project on Vimeo and a new interview with Stian on a-ha.com.