Magne details new solo album and podcast

Picture by Carlos Maciá

In a new update posted on a-ha.com, Magne has shared more details about his upcoming solo album “Living With Ourselves”; the recording process, the unconvenient delay due to Covid and the current release strategy.

“i have decided that a staggered release of songs later in the year leading up to christmas and beyond is that way to go, and to record a weekly podcast episode to go along with the release of each song”, Magne writes.

He is also inviting fans to submit questions for the podcast:

“for this podcast i would warmly welcome questions from you all – if you could please submit them to editor@a-ha.com before september 20th. ask me whatever. i’ll try to answer questions to the best of my ability..”

He also hints about “a limited physical release to be announced shortly” and plans to “celebrate music with you all in 2025 in some live format or another”.

Visit a-ha.com to read the whole update, which includes new song titles and a series of photos from the recording session in France in June 2023.

Magne performs at Fjord Cadenza

Live at Fjord Cadenza, 31 August
(Screenshot from video by Miyuki Ishihara)

Magne has spent the week in the Ålesund area on the Norwegian west coast, being this year’s festival artist at Fjord Cadenza in the nearby village of Skodje.

Rehearsals started out on Monday at Ocean Sound Recordings on the island of Giske, the same location a-ha used for their 2017 MTV Unplugged performance. He was joined by Martin Halla and Tini Flaat on vocals, Dan Sunhordvik on guitar and the Animato String Quartet.

On Wednesday, 28 August, Magne’s festival exhibition “New Song” opened in Skodje, which included a mini-concert in a tent set up outside the gallery. The festival has posted an extensive photo gallery from the event on Facebook, and an audience member has posted a couple of video clips on Instagram; “Stay On These Roads” and “Take On Me” (the clips have since been made unavailable).

The main event followed on Saturday, 31 August; a festive concert held at Gomerhuset, featuring a set by Magne and his musicians, a solo set by Anneli Drecker, and all backed by The Norwegian Naval Forces Band. According to people who were in the audience, Magne performed two new songs from his upcoming solo album called Living With Ourselves; the title track and “Time Is On Your Side”. The latter song was among the demos Magne posted on Instagram in 2021. The festival website has been referring to Magne’s new solo album as Magnefied, but this week Magne said on Instagram it’s actually called Living With Ourselves.

Here is the setlist, with a few video clips (courtesy of Miyuki Ishihara):

1. Living With Ourselves
2. Time Is On Your Side
3. You Have What It Takes
4. Stay On These Roads
5. Take On Me

“Yesterday’s concert was fantastic, thanks to this team. Let’s do it again!”, Tini Flaat posted next to a backstage photo on Instagram on 1 September.

Fjord Cadenza has also posted a large photo gallery from yesterday’s concert on Facebook.

Performing “Stay On These Roads” on 28 August
(Screenshot from video by Bente Wangsmo)

In an interview with the Ålesund news site AESby.no earlier this week, Magne explained the background for his appearance at the festival:

“I was initially asked to hold an exhibition at the festival, which I agreed to. But then the conductor and artistic director for the festival, Rune Bergmann, contacted me. We have worked together before, both with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and abroad with that supergroup of mine, Apparatjik. He wanted to collaborate on something again and told me more about Fjord Cadenza – that it’s mostly a festival for classical music, but also includes a selection of other artists. I told him that I had a solo album that was supposed to have been finished last year, but that I had been completely knocked out for half a year due to long Covid. Maybe we could have a release concert at the festival?”

In the end, it wouldn’t be a release concert, as his new solo album has been pushed back and won’t be out until closer to Christmas. But Magne still promised a special performance:

“I have selected a few songs from my whole career, from “Take On Me” up until present day, re-arranged them and made new versions. This is the first time I’ll be performing with The Norwegian Naval Forces Band, so that will be something special. On the a-ha songs I won’t be doing the lead vocals, so I have brought along Martin Halla, who won The Voice in the season I was a mentor. Also Tini, who was part of that same season of The Voice and who sings a duet with me on my latest album, will be part of the concert”

In the interview, Magne also talked about how the events of the world in the last few years, like the pandemic and the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza have affected him, both as a human being and as an artist:

“I have become a grandfather and can’t say I’m too optimistic about what the future holds… But I feel I also have my own responsibilities in that regard. In a band situation there are compromises and more carefullness when it comes to personally motivated messages, but when I’m on my own I can speak about what’s important to me, and use my contacts to get the message across. I’m also far more outspoken, more political and less optimistic in my own lyrics than in the lyrics I’ve written for a-ha. At the same time, I still have hope for the future, because there are many good people who are working hard to come up with good solutions”.

Magne to premiere new solo music at Fjord Cadenza festival 2024

Ad from Fjord Cadenza’s Facebook page.
Picture by Nina Djærff.

The Norwegian festival Fjord Cadenza (28 August – 1 September) has announced Magne Furuholmen will be this year’s festival artist.

Fjord Cadenza is a culture festival mainly focused on classical music and a selection of contemporary music and art. It is held in the village of Skodje, a 30-minute drive from the city of Ålesund on the west coast.

In addition to presenting an art exhibition (28 Aug – 1 Sep) of woodcuts and ceramic works, Magne will headline a festive concert at the local culture house Gomerhuset on 31 August, where he’ll perform new songs from his upcoming solo project “Magnefied” and a selection of a-ha songs – joined by guest vocalists Martin Halla and Tini Flaat.

In addition to Magne, Anneli Drecker will do a set of her own songs and The Norwegian Naval Forces Band will perform a selection of classical music, conducted by Rune Bergmann.

Tickets for the event are available now at fjordcadenza.no. The venue has a capacity of only 350 people and tickets are selling fast.

Update 13/8: The main concert on 31 August is now sold out, but the festival has announced Magne will also do a free mini-concert at the opening of his art exhibition on 28 August. More info on the festival website.

Time and Again to be released on vinyl

The new vinyl set
(Cover photo by Knut Bry)

The music website superdeluxeedition.com reports that an updated version of the 2016 compilation album Time and Again: The Ultimate a-ha will be released on vinyl later this summer, on 9 August 2024:

“What was a 19-track collection is now expanded to 21 tracks and making this the only a-ha compilation to include songs from all 11 original studio albums.

The bonus tracks are ‘This Is Our Home’ from 2017’s MTV Unplugged: Summer Solstice and ‘I’m In’ from 2022’s True North. The album was originally issued as a 2CD set (with bonus remixes on disc two) and has subsequently been made available on streaming platforms.”

The 2LP set is released through Rhino Records and can be pre-ordered from amazon.co.uk and amazon.de.

Magne planning album release in August

Live in Barcelona 2022
(Photo by Carlos Maciá)

Magne has revealed on Instagram that he’s planning to release his new solo album in August this year. Alongside some new photos with babygoats on the farm he co-owns on the island of Stormolla in Lofoten, Norway, he writes:

“with your help i am planning some sort of release of my new album 31st of august in norway. should really have happened last year, but hey – longcovid was no joke!”

In early 2023 Magne was working on the album in his home studio with producer Bjarne Stensli, who also produced 2019’s White Xmas Lies. Later he and Stensli were joined by Karl Oluf Wennerberg and Even Ormestad for a recording session at Magne’s holiday home in Vence, Southern France, in June 2023. This is also where he recorded A Dot Of Black In The Blue Of Your Bliss back in 2007.

It will be interesting to see if Magne is planning to perform live in connection with the album release, like he did with White Xmas Lies.

What we do know is that on 12 September there will be a Q&A session with Magne at Aker Tech House, the recently opened office building located right next to his “Imprints” sculpture park at Fornebu. The event will be hosted by legendary Norwegian footballer Jan Åge Fjørtoft, who now works for Aker Property Group. It’s not clear if it’s open to the public, but more info is to follow. Update 14/8: Aker says the event is “Only available for people working at the campus at Fornebuporten”.

Magne has been keeping a low profile so far this year, apart from a few appearances. On 10 February he attended the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) event at Telenor Arena near Oslo, where he could be seen in the TV broadcast during the match between Casper Ruud and Nicolai Kjær.

While on 11 April he visited Høyenhall School at Manglerud, where four of his artworks were added to the school’s art collection. Both Magne and Paul went to primary school at Høyenhall in the late 60s/early 70s, and there is now a conference room called “Furuholmen” and another conference room called “Waaktaar”, named after its two most famous students.

One who’s been keeping an even lower profile recently is Morten Harket, who made his last public appearence in October 2022. But he’s been seen out and about occasionally, most recently at IKEA in Oslo last weekend, 4 May. Regina Crosby Haug, an American filmmaker living in Norway who’s also the founder of the OneWhale organization, ran into Morten there and posted a picture with him on her Instagram.

CD version of Under coming in March

Picture by Jakob

The first part of a new Fan Q&A with Paul was posted on a-ha.com this week.

In it, he reveals that Savoy’s Under will be getting a CD release next month. Originally the album was only released physically on vinyl, but many fans have requested it on CD as well.

The CD can now be pre-ordered from edda.tigernet.no, with a March 15th release date.

Paul also shared exciting plans for the Savoy back-catalogue:
“With SAVOY we have remastered the back-catalogue of albums yet to be digitally released which we’ll get to after ‘Under’. Vinyl & CD could happen too. We’ll also be going back to the master tapes for hi-res versions of all our videos and documentaries so they can be added to our YouTube Savoy channel.”

There is work being done on the a-ha back-catalogue as well:
“a-ha are in the process of making sure all the albums are available on all the platforms in extended deluxe versions, and I’m sure there will be vinyl/CD’s available at times too.”

And he says his Waaktaar solo album will finally be released later this year:
“At this point it can venture off in different directions but I’m pretty happy with the material.”

Read the whole Fan Q&A on a-ha.com

There is also a new interview with Paul on the Norwegian music site Popklikk.

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