Posts Tagged ‘foot of the mountain’

a-ha at the Radio Regenbogen Awards

Receiving the award

Receiving the award

a-ha attended the annual Radio Regenbogen Awards in Rust, Germany last night, to be presented with the “Comeback of the Year”-award. They were joined at their table by Magne’s oldest son Thomas Vincent. Two other Norwegian acts, Madcon and Nico & Vinz, also received awards and performed.

Magne: “Thank you for this award. Everytime we do a comeback we get an award, that’s why we keep going away. [The audience laughs and claps]. I don’t know if you’re clapping because we go away or we come back. But thank you for this. And it’s really nice to see Norwegian colleagues in the room, here in Germany. Thank you for being generous towards the music from Madcon and Nico & Vinz. So a big thank you to Radio Regenbogen und vielen dank für den Norwegischen abend.”

Performing "Cast In Steel"

Performing “Cast In Steel”

They also performed two songs; “Foot Of The Mountain” and “Cast In Steel” (Steve Osborne version). They were joined by the backing band and Anneli on stage, even though it was only playback.

A video clip of a-ha receiving the award and performing can be seen on YouTube.

Pictures: Picture 1    Picture 2    Picture 3

The Cast In Steel Tour continues in Mannheim today and Frankfurt tomorrow.

Number 1 in Germany

Foot Of The Mountain has entered the German album chart at number 1 in its first week. This is the third a-ha album to hit the number 1 spot in Germany – the other two being Minor Earth | Major Sky (2000) and Lifelines (2002).

The single is also still going strong in Germany. This week it moves up from #9 to #6, which means that it’s managed four weeks in the top 10.

In other news, a video clip of TSASOTV live at the Arqiva Awards on 5 June is now up on mediabounty.com.

And the Danish music site musiknyt.dk has a review of the album. The reviewer feels that FOTM has some great songs, and is their best album since the 80s.

VG show / iTunes Festival / Pro7 special

a-ha on stage in Oslo

a-ha performed four songs live at the outdoor VG chart show in Oslo last night. They were struggling with the sound, especially on “Foot Of The Mountain”, but that’s what can happen when you have to share the stage with so many other acts.

If you didn’t watch the live webcast, the songs are now up on YouTube:
1. The Sun Always Shines On TV
2. Riding The Crest
3. Foot Of The Mountain
4. Take On Me

VG Nett has a video interview with Paul and Morten from the soundcheck on Thursday.

 

Universal UK has announced that a-ha will be performing live at the London iTunes Festival on 24 July. The event takes place at the Roundhouse in Camden, and they will be supported by German band Reamonn.
Details on how to win tickets for this event can be found on ituneslive.co.uk.

 

“This is where I rammed Morten’s head through a window”
– Magne recalls a fond memory from the early days.

Pro7 in Germany aired a TV-special about the new album on Thursday night. It’s recommended viewing, with interesting interviews and Magne giving us a tour of historical a-ha landmarks in London.

The TV-special is now available in two parts on YouTube:
  Part 1     Part 2

 

The first country where the Foot Of The Mountain album charts is Sweden, where it enters at number 47, according to Farojournalen.
Here is another Swedish album review; 3 out of 5 from Expressen.

 

And finally, the official site revealed its much-needed facelift yesterday. See how it looks now on a-ha.com.

MASSIV Magazine / FOTM goes platinum / Links

Magazine covers

a-ha are on the cover of the free Norwegian magazine MASSIV, which is out tomorrow. Three different covers will be available, featuring Morten, Magne and Paul. Inside the magazine there are in-depth interviews with each band member.

This hasn’t been done in Norway before. The response so far indicates that the magazine could end up as a collectors item among the a-ha fanbase“, editor Magnus Rønningen tells Kampanje.

MASSIV is available at selected shops and hotels across Norway. A total of 40.000 magazines have been printed.

 

The new album has gone platinum in Norway after three days, Farojournalen reports. Which means that 30.000 copies have been sent out to retailers.

On the Norwegian singles chart, FOTM climbs up to number 11 this week – its highest position so far. On the radio airplay chart FOTM remains at number 2.

 

In Austria, a video show hosted by a-ha is set to air on the music channel GOTV. The show will air on 21, 25, and 27 June. A list of the videos that a-ha picked can be seen here.

 

Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman is credited as one of the photographers in the booklet of the new album. In an interview with Laut.de, Morten says that Guy took the picture of the mountain that the front cover is based on. It was taken on a mountain trip that Magne and Guy did.

In the same interview, Morten says that he has recently made some bronze sculptures for the Norwegian Refugee Council. Sculpting is something that Morten had wanted to do since he was a teenager.

 

Guy Berryman’s photos were also mentioned in the VG webchat that a-ha did today. The questions and answers (many of which are in English) are now available here.

 

Recent interviews:
HitRadio Ö3 – video clip (Austria)
Kurier – video clip (Austria)
Kleine Zeitung – video clip (Austria)
NRK P2 Kulturnytt – audio clip (Norway)
DiePresse.com (Germany)
morgenweb.de (Germany)
Kleine Zeitung (Austria)
Kurier (Austria)
Vienna Online (Austria)

And more album reviews:
Göteborgs-Posten (Sweden) – 4 out of 5
Now Magazine (Austria) – 4 out of 5
Gaffa (Denmark) – 4 out of 6
Plattentests (Germany) – 7 out of 10
letmeentertainyou.de (Germany) – 3 out of 5
Laut.de (Germany) – 3 out of 5
Bizarre Radio (Germany) – 14 out of 15
CDstarts.de (Germany) – 6.5 out of 10
Trønder-Avisa (Norway) – 5 out of 6
AB24 (Norway) – 4 out of 6
Avisa Nordland (Norway) – 4 out of 6
Romerikes Blad (Norway) – 3 out of 6
Nettavisen (Norway) – 3 out of 6

(Thanks to all the fans who have posted links in different forums)

Interview day in Oslo

Oslo, June 12th

a-ha were back in Oslo today, to meet the Norwegian press at Grand Hotel.

They were interviewed both together and seperately, and the first press reports have started to appear.
Varden.no has an article here, while TV2 had a report in their evening news. A video clip of the TV2 news report, as well as the new music video, can be seen here.

 

a-ha.com reports that Magne and Morten will do a signing and an acoustic performance of the single at HMV Oxford Circus in London on 13 July.
Unfortunately, it seems that Paul won’t be able to join them for this event.

a-ha.com also reports that the UK release dates have once again changed. Now they’re back to the original dates, with the single out on 6 July and the album on 13 July.

 

On Wednesday, Morten answered listeners’ questions on the German radio station FFN.
Twelve short extracts of his answers (which were, by all accounts much, much longer), are now up on the radio station’s website here.
As West Of The Moon forum member Claudia points out, Morten says in the last answer that 2010 will be a much bigger touring year for a-ha, compared to 2009. So that’s good news.
In another of the answers, you can also hear Morten managing to use his favorite word “response” four times in 12 seconds. An impressive feat, even for him.

“We’re taking back what once belonged to us”

Here is a selection of quotes from yesterday’s press conference in Berlin:

The band in Berlin

Magne: “We aren’t sure if this album is the beginning of something new, or the end of something. But it encompasses a-ha’s entire history and sums up all the directions we have tried.”

Magne: “We worked by trial and error, but something happened during the process. This is vital! We’re taking back what once belonged to us.”

Morten: “We are never satisfied, but I think this album is really good. This is an album I can listen to. I usually need a distance to albums I have contributed to, but not this time.”

Morten: “The reception we’ve had here in Germany has been fantastic. It feels great.”

Morten: “But the album we have made now is good enough to be our last one.”
Magne: “The album isn’t just good enough. It is more than good enough.”
(After denying that they have any plans about retiring)

Magne: “It wasn’t synthpop back then. It was just something new. Bands like Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Kraftwerk, Soft Cell – they were all a big inspiration for us back then. Their sound influenced the edge in our own sound. And it worked.”

Morten: “As a vocalist, the most important thing for me is that the songs have the right
a-ha-identity, rather than who has written them.”
(When asked why he hasn’t written any of the songs on the album)

Magne: “In order to make a-ha function as it should, Morten has to function.”
Morten: “But I am completely dysfunctional.”
Magne: “Yes, we are aware of that. But we’re trying to make it function anyway.”

 

More pictures and video clips from the press conference can be found at tikonline.de.
And additional articles has appeared in Dagsavisen, seher.no and in VG’s paper edition.

Berlin press conference

At the press conference

a-ha held a press conference at the Norwegian embassy in Berlin today, in connection with tomorrow’s German release of the new album.
Following a 10-minute photo session, the “Foot Of The Mountain” music video was shown. The band then answered questions from the press for about 45 minutes.
The Norwegian news website ABC Nyheter has a report from Berlin here.
More pictures from the press conference are available on klatsch-tratsch.de and Getty Images.

 

Promotion in Germany is shifting into high gear tonight, with an unprecedented promotional stunt on the TV-channels that belong to the ProSiebenSat1 broadcasting group.
The “Foot Of The Mountain” video will be shown simultanously on Pro7, Sat.1, n24 and Kabel Eins, in addition to all their websites and the video platform Myvideo.de.
This happens tonight at 8.13 pm.

Tom Bohne, Senior Vice President of Universal Music Germany says in a statement:
We are delighted that one of the most important bands of the 1980s and 1990s also continue to play a big role in the new century. This position manifests itself with the simultanous premiere of their new music video on all the channels and platforms of our partner ProSiebenSat1. We are certain that a-ha will be dominating the charts in the coming months. The successfull performance of the current single has already proven that this will be a “summer of a-ha”.

 

While in Berlin yesterday, the a-ha members took the opportunity to attend the Depeche Mode concert at Olympiastadion.
We never go to concerts together. But it was worth it“, they said at today’s press conference.
A few pictures of a-ha at the concert are available on Wenn.com.

 

Morten was recently in Vienna, Austria to do interviews, and some of them are starting to appear.
Life Radio has an interview available for listening here, and OE24 has a 6-minute video interview here.

Album reviews and chart update

a-ha are currently in Berlin to do more promotion. Here is a Twitter picture of Morten at the Regent Hotel earlier today, where he was being interviewed by Laut.de.

 

The album is getting mixed reviews in Norway and Germany.
Here are links to some of them:

VG (4 out of 6)
“Quite a typical a-ha album. With new reasons to keep loving them. And to keep hoping for an even better album next time.”

Dagbladet (4 out of 6)
“A coherently solid album, with a nice symbiosis between art pop and more commercial music.”

ABC Nyheter (4 out of 6)
“The retrospective sound fits Paul Waaktaar-Savoy and Magne Furuholmen’s song material surprisingly well in 2009.”

Aftenposten (4 out of 6)
“a-ha deliver a solid and well-crafted product, but it’s still a big weakness that the album doesn’t have a single obvious hit-song.”

Dagsavisen (3 out of 6)
“The album brings out the worst in a-ha: the pomposity, flatness and the acute lack of groove.”

P4.no (3 out of 6)
“Morten Harket’s fabulous vocals raise the overall impression of an otherwise mediocre a-ha album.”

NRK Kultur
“Lacks memorable melodies. The production is tame, outdated and sounds cheap.”

Soundbase-Online.com
“The album is, except for the very strong first single, a complete disappointment.”

Spiegel.de
“Foot Of The Mountain” is one of the weakest a-ha albums.”

Lizzynet.de
“I am personally very surprised by how good this album is.”

So that was the first press reviews.
But more importantly – what do you think of the new album?
Head over to the West Of The Moon forum and discuss with other fans.

 

The single climbs up to number 2 in Norway this week, on the airplay chart. Only beaten by Beyonce’s “Halo”, and in front of U2’s “Magnificent”.
On the singles chart, FOTM drops from #17 to #18.

In Germany, the single drops from #3 to #9 in its second week.
But the album is currently number 1 on Amazon.de’s bestseller chart, two days before release.

 

And finally, a-ha.com has the details of an exclusive iTunes version of the UK single release, which includes two new remixes.

Album pre-listening

Universal Norway are now streaming the whole album for free on their website.
All you need to do is click on the banner below, fill in your e-mail address where it says “Epost”, and click on the button on the bottom left which says “Gå til forhåndslytting!”:

Video premiere / Arqivas / New song from Morten

The new music video premiered on VIVA in Germany last night.
Here it is:

 
Another event last night was a-ha’s live performance at the Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards in London.

They performed five songs, and updates and pictures can be found on Twitter.

Setlist:
1. The Sun Always Shines On TV
2. Riding The Crest
3. Foot Of The Mountain
4. Take On Me
– – – – – – – – – –
5. Analogue

 
The movie Yohan, in which Morten has a supporting role, is set to premiere in Norway on 11 December.

Producer Odd Hynnekleiv reveals in an interview with Fædrelandsvennen that Morten will probably also contribute a song especially made for the movie, which will be on the soundtrack CD.

More info about Yohan on the movie’s official website.

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