Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Viggo Bondi, Magne Furuholmen and Øystein Jevanord at the “Våkenatt” album launch in Trondheim yesterday

All four members of Bridges were at the Rockheim museum of popular Norwegian music in Trondheim yesterday, for the official release of their second album Våkenatt. Originally intended for release in 1981, as the follow-up to 1980’s Fakkeltog, the album is finally seeing the light of day this week, 37 years later.

The band members talked to the press and signed copies of the vinyl box set for fans who had pre-ordered it. An NRK TV news report from the event can be seen here (starts at 04:12).

“For me this is not just an historical document, but a new release. When I sat down to have a proper listen to the music again a couple of years ago, I was shocked by how good it sounded. We were an incredibly tight band, and this was music recorded live by four guys in a studio. We would often nail a song on the first or second take”, Paul told Aftenposten in an interview last week.

Mixing the album was done over a few days in Paul’s New York studio, and he wanted to keep things simple.

“I didn’t want the music to sound too modern, even if that would have been possible now. That’s why I came up with a dogma that only equipment invented and available pre-1981 could by used when doing the mix. That became my way of doing it. To make the album sound as good as possible, but not by cheating.”

 
When asked if there’s more to come from Bridges, Paul says:

“There are a few more songs [in the archives], but they didn’t fit in and would have been wrong to include on this album. Playing this material live again would have been cool, obviously, but it would be quite an undertaking to pull it off.”

“In any event, it feels really good and fitting to release it now. Many will view this as the story of an album being released 38 years later, but personally I’m just a really big fan of the album itself”, Paul told Aftenposten.

900 vinyl copies of the Våkenatt album have been pressed in total, of which 700 numbered copies are available for sale. The album can be ordered from Rockheim Musical Archives.

The album has already received in-depth reviews in English by Greg Lansdowne for The Electricity Club and by Christopher Hopkins for Campaign For More a-ha Remastered Deluxes.

Links:
NRK: Forgjengeren til A-ha ute med skjult album – 38 år etter at de laget det
Dagsavisen: Broen over til a-ha (paywall)
Aftenposten: Forløperen til A-ha slippes nå – etter 38 år (paywall)
Adresseavisen: – De prøvde å ta musikken vår til utlandet. Vi burde jo bare ha dytta etter (paywall)