Posts Tagged ‘martin halla’

New Martin Halla album, co-produced by Magne, out now

Martin Halla - Winter Days - album cover

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

“Desembertoner” concert

Martin, Tini and Magne. Oslo Domkirke, December 21st.

Martin Halla and Tini Flaat Mykland performed the song “Falling Slowly” (by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová) at the “Desembertoner” concert in Oslo Domkirke on Friday, accompanied by Magne on piano.

Martin and Tini also did a couple of songs on their own; “Take It With Me” (Tom Waits) and “Wintersong” (Sarah McLachlan).

The whole “Desembertoner” concert can now be seen on TV2’s web-TV (subscribers only). “Falling Slowly” starts after 30 minutes.

Martin and Tini also performed two songs together on “God Morgen Norge” on TV2 on Thursday morning; “In The City” and “Falling Slowly”. There’s a video clip here.

Magne is producing the upcoming debut albums of both Martin and Tini, together with Martin Terefe.

Martin Halla talks debut album

Martin and Magne at a rehearsal
for The Voice, May 2012

Martin Halla has been interviewed by Aftenposten in connection with the upcoming Desembertoner concert, where he’ll be performing together with Magne.

His debut album is soon to be completed, he says:

“The recording process is almost finished. I’m going back to London in January together with my producers Magne Furuholmen and Martin Terefe, to add the final touches.”

– How will the album sound?

“Well, the music is a kind of… not indie, not pop, not rock, but something in between. With some jazz on top.”

The album is planned for release sometime in the spring of 2013.

“Desembertoner” concert on TV2

As previously mentioned, two “Desembertoner” Christmas concerts will be held at Oslo Domkirke on December 21st, where Magne is one of the musicians taking part. He will be performing together with Martin Halla and Tini Flaat Mykland from The Voice.

TV2 in Norway has now announced that it will broadcast a 1-hour version of the concert the following day, on December 22nd at 22:10. It will also be repeated on December 29th at 12:45.

“Desembertoner” Christmas concert

Free concert on December 21st

The third annual “Desembertoner” Christmas concert is taking place at Oslo Domkirke [Oslo Cathedral] on Friday, December 21st.

Magne is one of the musicians taking part. He will be performing together with Martin Halla and Tini Flaat Mykland from The Voice.

Two concerts will be held, at 17:00 and 20:00, and they are both free of charge.

Other artists performing include Kari Bremnes, Donkeyboy, Envy and Frikar.

“Desembertoner” is sponsored by the Nordea financial group.

Oslo concerts, September 14th/15th

Sentrum Scene, September 15th 
(Picture by Jakob)

The setlist at Morten’s concerts in Oslo this weekend was noticeably different from the standard setlist earlier this year. “Just Believe It”, “Scared Of Heights”, “Forever Not Yours” and “Take On Me” were dropped, and instead replaced by “Wild Seed” (performed live for the first time since the 90s), “Movies”  and “Send Me An Angel” (in a new live arrangement).

To celebrate Morten’s birthday on Friday, the backing band surprised him at the end of the show with Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday”. Martin Halla also came on stage to join them, as you can see in this YouTube clip.

Here is the setlist from Friday’s concert:

September 15th

1. Burn Money Burn
2. I’m The One
3. Keep The Sun Away
4. Crying In The Rain
5. Out Of Blue Comes Green
6. Move To Memphis
7. Los Angeles
8. Wild Seed
9. Lightning
10. When I Reached The Moon
11. We’re Looking For The Whales
12. Movies
13. Foot Of The Mountain
——————–
14. Send Me An Angel
15. Stay On These Roads
16. Spanish Steps
——————–
17. Lay Me Down Tonight
18. A Kind Of Christmas Card
19. Happy Birthday (Stevie Wonder cover)

On Saturday, the setlist was mostly the same, but “Spanish Steps” was performed twice due to technical problems. The set ended with “A Kind Of Christmas Card”.

Check out more YouTube clips from the concerts here.

Catherine with the panel; Harald Wiik, Erik Ljunggren, Dan Sunhordvik and James Maillardet 
(Picture by Jakob)

Another highlight of the weekend was an interesting Q and A session with Harald Wiik, Erik Ljunggren, Dan Sunhordvik and production manager James Maillardet at Sentrum Scene on Saturday. One of the more amusing stories involved getting booked to play a venue called Circus in Novosibirsk, Russia earlier this year – and then arriving in the city and realizing that the venue was an actual circus (complete with lions backstage!).

Stian Andersen and Morten, interviewed by Asbjørn Slettemark 
(Picture by Jakob)

Later in the afternoon, Stian Andersen and Morten were interviewed in front of a large crowd at Oslo Book Festival. This can be seen on YouTube, posted by Chris F: 
Part 1   Part 2

Articles in the Norwegian press: 
Fra grillfestival til Harket 
Nostalgisk bursdagsselskap

More info from the 30th anniversary weekend to follow…

Martin Halla EP now available

CD cover

Release Me – the EP that Martin Halla and Magne recorded at the end of May – was released by Universal Norway on Monday, July 2nd.

It includes new versions of four of the songs from The Voice, plus a cover version of “Dragonfly”.

Tracklist:

1. Release Me (2:36)
2. Hurt (4:07)
3. Take It With Me (3:44)
4. We Found Love (2:39)
5. Dragonfly (2:38)

One would perhaps expect Magne to be credited as producer or musician in the cover, but there is no such info listed, except for songwriting credits.

It does sound like Magne is doing the backing vocals on “Dragonfly”, though.

The CD is now available from platekompaniet.no, and digitally on iTunes, Spotify, Wimp etc.

30-second audio samples can be heard at amazon.de.

The Voice-special on TV2

A one-hour special about the first season of The Voice was shown on TV2 on Saturday, which included a new interview with Martin Halla and Magne, backstage clips and highlights from the show.

Host Øyvind Mund asked Martin why he chose Magne over Sondre Lerche at the first blind audition:

Martin: “I thought about some of the things he’s doing outside of music. He’s doing abstract work in the world of arts, and I’ve been making a lot of abstract music. So I thought we could connect on that level.”

– Has this contest been good for your self confidence?

Martin: “It’s been very good. I do have confidence in what I’m doing, but getting accept for it and being embraced by both the mentors and the people has been an extremely good experience.”

By the end of the interview, Magne was asked what will happen now:

Magne: “We’re going to record an album during the summer/early fall. We have already been in the studio to record an EP. Long days and long nights in the studio; it’s been many years since that was my lifestyle. But it’s incredibly inspiring and there’s a great atmosphere in the studio.”

Martin: “Yes, absolutely.”

– What are your ambitions for Martin?

Magne: “They are unlimited. But then again, I’m never able to limit myself.”

– So you have worldwide ambitions?

Magne: “Yes, that’s what I’ve been saying all along. And if it doesn’t work out, I can at least say that I tried. But I do have lots of contacts in London that have already heard of him, and to some extent listened to him as well. If I decide to bite down on something, my jaw locks – like a pitbull.”

Magne in the studio with Martin

Magne has been in the studio with The Voice-winner Martin Halla this week, to record an EP which will be released by Universal later this month.

“On Tuesday we recorded an EP with several full versions of songs from The Voice plus an additional song, which will be released now in June. When that’s done, I’ll start work on a whole album”, Martin Halla told TV2.no.

He was back in Bergen this weekend, where he did his final exam concert after studying music at The Grieg Academy for the past four years.

Update (June 5th): The EP will include four songs that Martin performed on The Voice; “Hurt”, “We Found Love”, “Release Me” and “Take It With Me” – plus a cover version of the Magne/a-ha song “Dragonfly”. (Info from VG)

Team Magne wins The Voice final

After 18 weeks of blind auditions, battle rounds and live shows – tonight it was time for the Norwegian final of The Voice, live from Chateau Neuf in Oslo.

The show opened with Magne and the other mentors performing the Patti Smith song “Because The Night”, where they were joined by the four finalists at the end. There’s a video clip of it here.

The finalists then did a song each:

Aleksander Åsgården (Team Sondre) performed “Finer Feelings”
Hege Øversveen (Team Hanne) performed “Are You Happy”
Martin Halla (Team Magne) performed “Take It With Me”
Leif Anders Wentzel (Team Yosef) performed “Feeling Good”

After all the votes had been collected, the winner turned out to be Martin and Team Magne – and that moment can be seen here.

“Magne has been an extremely supportive mentor. He’s been available at all hours of the day”, Martin told host Øyvind Mund on stage.

When asked what will happen with Martin now, Magne said:

“I’m sure a lot of people will have an opinion on that. But I will try to do my part, to make sure he gets the best possible conditions for further growth.”

As the winner, Martin gets a Lexus car and a record contract with Universal Music.

Magne is sure to be involved in some way with the album Martin is going to make. But he is also planning to keep working with several of the other talents on his team.

“I think we’ll make an album for people really interested in music, not an album that will be ready in time for the 2012 Christmas sale”, Magne said last week, about his plans for an album with Monika Blomeid.

Magne also has plans to work more with Tini Flaat Mykland. Next month, Magne and Martin Terefe will do some recording sessions with her in Martin’s studio in London.

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