Posts Tagged ‘just loomis’

‘Cast In Steel’ album cover

Platekompaniet has now posted the album cover of Cast In Steel. The cover photo was taken in Rio de Janeiro in December 2014 by Just Loomis.

Cover photo by Just Loomis

Cover photo by Just Loomis

Morten on TV Total

Cologne, May 16th

Morten was in Cologne, Germany yesterday, to be a guest on Stefan Raab’s talkshow TV Total on ProSieben.

During the interview, Raab asked Morten what the album cover was all about:

“I was in the water. I was fed up doing the regular photo shoots, and I did that with a photographer, a brilliant guy, his name is Just Loomis. He photographed us with a-ha, for the first cover we did, Hunting High And Low. So there’s a lot of history there. I met up with him in Los Angeles last year and we went for a shoot. And we ended up in the water –  well, I did, anyway”, Morten said.

You can see the whole 10-minute interview at tvtotal.prosieben.de (without dubbing).

Interview with Just Loomis

Acclaimed photographer Just Loomis, known for his past work with a-ha, teamed up with Morten again in Los Angeles last year to take the cover- and press photos in connection with Morten’s upcoming solo album Out Of My Hands.

I recently had the chance to ask him some questions about those photo sessions. Loomis also shared his thoughts on the trip he did with Morten to Jamaica, seeing a-ha live on the Farewell Tour and visiting Norway for the first time last year.

Read the full interview here.

Message from Just Loomis

Photographer Just Loomis recently got in touch to share the following info:

“I am moving and clearing out my space and so will be offering my book, “Aha, the photographs” at a special price. I will be selling signed versions with a signed 8×10 print for $200. Including shipping. The old price was $300.”

The book can be ordered from his official website at justloomis.com.

More album and single info

Album cover, with photo by Just Loomis 
(From a-ha.com)

The Out Of My Hands album cover was revealed on a-ha.com today, along with the single cover of “Scared of Heights” and a press release. The photos have been taken by Just Loomis.

“Scared of Heights”, the cover version of Espen Lind’s 2008 hit song, will apparently be the first single in countries outside of Norway (instead of “Lightning”), and is released on March 23rd. There will also be a music video for it.

 

The album’s title track, “Out Of My Hands”, has been written by Morten together with Norwegian producer Lars Hustoft – who posted a picture from the recording sessions on Facebook today. “I can promise you a VERY good pop album from the best vocalist we have in this country”, he says.

 

Meanwhile, an audio sample of “Lightning” has been posted on YouTube by Universal Norway.

The single has been getting mixed reviews, and Aftenposten‘s reviewer Svein Andersen isn’t particularly impressed by it, giving it a 2 out of 6 rating:

 

“With a title like this, one might expect some rumble and noise, but there is a surprising lack of energy here. “You would hit me like lightning”, he chants, and one can sense some kind of desperation in the lyrics, but musically you’re instead lulled to sleep. The melody is wrapped in an atmospheric production that rolls ahead in a monotonous drive without much drama or power.

It’s as if you don’t want to disturb. Even though Harket sings that he would have done anything to get his love back – we remain untouched. He sings with his characteristic voice, albeit in a restrained tone, but the vocals alone can’t make the song fly. Quite simply because the song is neither catchy nor interesting and doesn’t manage to take hold of you.

The feelings are sparkling and the blood is racing, he sings, but there’s no trace of Kent’s well-known darkness or a singer that does anything out of the ordinary here.

a-ha is history. Morten Harket continues his solo career, but this offering is too tame. After having heard “Lightning”, Coldplay (who consider a-ha a great influence) now seems almost like pure Metallica in comparison.”

Signed photobooks

Signed copies of Just Loomis’ a-ha photobook are now available from his official website at justloomis.com.

There are two pricing options; signed book with priority international shipping ($90.00) and signed book plus signed 8×10 print with priority international shipping ($225.00).

Loomis’ exhibition “As We Are” at the Stenersen museum in Oslo is open until April 3rd.

Just Loomis book and exhibition

A sample of the book

The 96-page photo book a-ha photographer Just Loomis was published in Norway earlier this week. It features a selection of Loomis’ a-ha photos between 1985 and 1991, taken in the UK, Canada and Brazil.

The book also includes a foreword written by Magne, an interview with Morten (done by Loomis himself) and a text written by Paul. There are also interviews with Warner executive Jeff Ayeroff and graphic designer Jeri Heiden.

We recognised in Just someone whose ambition and passion for photography matched our own ambition and passion for music: he wanted to take great pictures, we wanted to make great music“, Magne writes in the foreword.

Just Loomis with some of the photos on display at the Stenersen Museum

The book release tied in with the opening of Loomis’ exhibition As We Are at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo on Thursday, February 10th, which also features some of his a-ha photos.

WOTM forum member “Hermetic”, who attended the opening, writes:

“Both Magne and Morten were at the opening of the exhibition, and I was lucky enough to have my copy signed by both + Just. Lauren was there too, but no sign of Paul though (might have left already as I arrived quite late).”

Update: Just Loomis has posted a couple of pictures from the opening on his Facebook page. Here he is with Morten, Magne, The Swing Of Things author Jan Omdahl and head of Press Publishing Håkon Harket. And here is another one with Morten and Jan.

A TV interview with Loomis from NRK Østlandssendingen can be seen here. There were also interviews with him at Dagbladet.no and Foto.no.

“This is the first time I’m in Oslo and it’s a great honour for me to show these photos now, following a-ha’s farewell tour”, Loomis says in the Foto.no interview.

“It’s very special for me to be among those who were there from the start, taking part in the process that eventually turned a-ha into international stars”, he added to Dagbladet.

The exhibition at the Stenersen Museum is on display until April 3rd.

The photo book, which will be available outside of Norway next month, can be pre-ordered from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

If you’re in Norway, the book is now available from online stores such as Bokkilden and Haugen Bok.

Hits 2010 book

Hits 2010 - book cover

Book cover

Norsk Noteservice, a Norwegian publisher of music books, recently published Hits 2010 – the latest in an annual series of books featuring some of the biggest Norwegian and international hits from the last year, complete with tabs and chords for guitar and keyboard, as well as lyrics.

a-ha’s final single “Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)” is among the 36 songs that can be found in the book. “Den Stilleste Timen”, the charity single for Haiti that featured Morten on vocals, is also included.

And as you can see, Morten is on the cover of the book.

Hits 2010 can be ordered from Norwegian online book stores such as Haugen Bok, Bokkilden or directly from the publisher at Notebutikken.no.

 

Speaking of books; don’t forget to pre-order Just Loomis’ new a-ha photobook, which will include a foreword written by Magne.

The book can be ordered from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, with a March 31st publishing date.

Just Loomis photos – now on a-ha.com

Passing along a message from photographer Just Loomis:

Thank you all a-ha fans who purchased prints from my website: justloomisahaart.com. This site is no longer live.

The time has passed to do this on my own and I now announce that I am happily working with the official a-ha site now.
If you are interested in getting a print please go to the official site.

thanks again to all that supported my site,
Just Loomis

Just Loomis selling favorite a-ha photos

One of the photos available from the website; a-ha on a beach in Brazil, 1991.

One of the photos available from the website;
a-ha on a beach in Brazil, 1991.

American photographer Just Loomis is the man behind some of the most iconic a-ha photos of the 1980s and 1990s. The cover photos of “Hunting High And Low”, “Stay On These Roads”, “East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon”, “Headlines And Deadlines” and “Memorial Beach” were all taken by him.

Now, for a limited time only, he is offering for sale some of his favorite a-ha photographs on a new website – justloomisahaart.com. The 12×15 inch high quality prints cost $230 (including international shipping).
Update: The price has now been lowered to $150, with two different shipping options – Standard International Air Mail ($15) and Express International Tracking ($45).

In addition to photo samples, the website includes Loomis’ own memories of the various photo shoots, like him and Magne climbing into a locked pub on the HHAL cover shoot and Terry Slater nearly falling through an unstable floor in Brazil.

In Norway, an exhibition of some of his works will be shown at the Stenersen Museum in Oslo from 10 February to 3 April 2011. The exhibition will also include a selection of a-ha photos, according to his own website at justloomis.com.

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