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Magne is a guest on the latest episode of NRK P2’s radio show Musikklivet [Music Life], to talk about the 40th anniversary of “Take On Me”.

Among the topics is Poing and Hekate’s concert in Oslo earlier this year, where they covered the entire Hunting High and Low album and where Magne made a guest appearance on stage playing “Take On Me”:

“A fantastic concert. One of the most enjoyable concerts I’ve attended. They had completely different arrangements of our songs, so it was a significant experience. I was the only [a-ha member] at the show, and I felt since they were doing it as a tribute to us it would be a shame if I didn’t go. I hadn’t planned on taking part, but then I was asked to join them on stage. They were playing the album in reverse order, with “Take On Me” last in the set. It was completely unrehearsed, I just walked out on stage and threw myself into it.”

Near the end of the interview, the conversation turns to Morten’s Parkinson’s diagnosis and if this means the end of a-ha:

“I think Morten is very brave and strong in the way he’s handling the disease. But I don’t think he’s completely ruled out that something could happen at some point in the future. The rest of us have simply said that we’ll do something if Morten wants to. But what that may be is something we haven’t really discussed.
There’s been quite a lot of pressure on celebrating the 40th anniversary, but first of all we’re not very good at celebrating ourselves and secondly it needs to be something that Morten really wants to, and that he’s comfortable with it.
It’s an insidious disease. Many people have it and it’s impossible to know how you’d react to it personally. So right now I think Morten’s focus is entirely on finding out how he’s going to live with it going forward.”

Poing on the left and Hekate to the right, with Magne in the middle.
(Screenshot from video clip posted by Poing on Facebook)

The Norwegian jazz ensemble Poing joined forces with up-and-coming vocal trio Hekate for a special live performance of a-ha’s Hunting High and Low album at Riksscenen in Oslo on Friday, March 28th.

With a special blend of jazz, contemporary and folk music, they started the concert with “Here I Stand and Face the Rain”, playing the full album in reverse order.

Before the show it had been hinted that “special guests” may appear, which became evident when Magne walked on stage to join them on keyboard during “Take On Me”.

Poing has posted a video clip of the performance on their Facebook page.

“It was fun to experience the album like this. And I wish we had recorded a couple of the songs in a similar fashion”, Magne told Norwegian music website Ballade after the concert.

Poing and Hekate will perform Hunting High and Low live once more as part of the Risør Chamber Music Festival on June 26th.