Magne live at Kulturkirken Jakob, 4 December

Magne performed an exclusive White Xmas Lies concert with his band at Kulturkirken Jakob in Oslo this afternoon. The 1-hour concert, which was Magne’s first proper solo concert since 2008, sounded really good and was attended by an appreciative audience of specially invited Salvation Army and a-ha.com guests.

When the doors opened, the audience were greeted with warm soup and bread inside the church, handed out by Magne himself and others.

Magne, who switched between piano, acoustic guitar and electric guitar, was joined by an 8-piece band on stage; Karl Oluf Wennerberg, Even Ormestad, Morten Qvenild, Tini Flaat Mykland, Madeleine Ossum, Emilie Heldal Lidsheim, Ingvild Nesdal Sandnes and Dan Sunhordvik. On the last song they were also joined by a horn section from the Salvation Army.

Ten of the songs were taken from White Xmas Lies, but in addition Tini performed “You Can’t Have it Both Ways” – written by Magne for her 2014 album Undo My Heart (which was given out for free after the show).

Here is the setlist:

1. Snow is Falling
2. The Light We Lost
3. A Wintry Silence
4. The Season to be Melancholy
5. Caprice Des Dieux
6. This is Now America
7. You Can’t Have it Both Ways (Tini)
8. So Cold It’s Hard to Think
9. White Xmas Lies
10. Revelation Song
11. There Goes Another Year

See a short video clip from the show posted by Magne’s label Drabant Music on Facebook.

The whole concert was filmed by a multi-camera production and may end up as a TV-special soon. And even if this was the only concert this year, Magne is planning more concerts for next year.

As a warm-up for today’s concert, Magne performed “There Goes Another Year” at the lighting of this year’s Christmas tree at the University Square in Oslo on Sunday, 1 December. A couple of video clips can be seen here and here. He was also a guest on NRK P1’s Nitimen on the same day, which is available at nrk.no (starts at 28:30).

Update: It seems Magne also did a second concert at Kulturkirken Jakob tonight, but this time it was more of a closed, corporate gig.

Magne signing albums at Big Dipper, 23 October (Screenshot from Drabant Music on Instagram)

Magne’s new solo album White Xmas Lies is released by Drabant Music today, and is available on CD, vinyl and digitally. It can be streamed or downloaded here. Or you can support this fansite by ordering through the Amazon links on the right.

Positive album reviews have already come in from Musicvein and Essentially Pop in the UK and Bleistiftrocker in Germany.

The official music video for the new single “There Goes Another Year” is now up on YouTube. The Norwegian Salvation Army has also posted a video clip in connection with the song being released as a Christmas single in Norway.

Magne has given a number of interviews in the last week, to promote both White Xmas Lies and the HHAL Tour.

On Monday Magne was a guest on NRK P13’s Selskapssjuk. The 25-minute interview included the premiere of “There Goes Another Year”. Listen here (at 41:00).

Other Norwegian radio interviews include NRK P2’s Kulturstripa on 16 October (at 36:20) and NRK P1’s Ukeslutt on 19 October (at 49:00).

He also appeared on Lørdagsrevyen on NRK1 on 19 October (at 13:30), seen rehearsing with the a-ha backing band in Oslo.

There have been two extensive interviews in English, one with Altvenger Magazine and one with XS Noize. He also talked with The Industry Observer in Australia.

Aditionally, a long interview in French appeared in Rolling Stone France.

On Wednesday Magne did a signing session for White Xmas Lies at the Big Dipper record store in Oslo, where he was also interviewed by NTB.

Meanwhile, today a-ha will be starting production rehearsals for the Hunting High And Low Tour in the UK. Yesterday afternoon Paul was live on the air on The Lynette Fay Show on BBC Radio Ulster in Belfast. Listen here (at 34:20).

Paul has also been interviewed about the HHAL Tour by Eon Music.

Promotional photo by Nina Djærff for Drabant Music

Magne’s upcoming solo album White Xmas Lies can now be pre-ordered from Amazon UK (CD / 2LP), Amazon Germany (CD / 2LP), plus Tiger and Platekompaniet in Norway. Release date 25 October in Norway/Germany and 1 November in the UK.

The final album tracklist seems to have a different running order compared to the initital announcement. It also includes an additional song; a cover version of The Kink’s “Father Christmas”. So 17 tracks in total. A selection of pictures of the regular vinyl edition have been posted on Instagram by Magnus Rakeng, who designed the cover together with Magne.

A limited edition of the album on vinyl (200 copies), which includes an exclusive art print, is now sold out. A YouTube video filmed in August 2019 documents the process.

Single cover

The second single from the album, “The Light We Lost”, was released by Drabant Music on 4 October and can be streamed or downloaded here. There’s also another lyric music video.

In an interview with Dagsavisen (paywall) yesterday, Magne says that the album project started with the title track, which he originally had intended for a-ha.

“The songs were written during a-ha’s Electric Summer tour, and recorded during Christmas. I started out alone, not thinking that it would end up as a double album, but it just kept growing.”

“This is meant to be a melancholic winter album, which will hopefully be uplifting. Some songs are specifically about Christmas, while others are loosely connected to winter.”

According to the interview, Magne will do one exclusive solo concert in connection with the new album. The concert will be held for an audience especially invited by the Norwegian Salvation Army – plus a few lucky fans.

Single cover

“I didn’t intend to portray Christmas as all misery, but to make songs that can include everyone that aren’t as fortunate in life”, Magne says.

“I have an ambition to do the same in other cities later on. Meaning this project won’t come to an end once Christmas is over, but will return next year as well.”

The next and third single from the album seems to be “There Goes Another Year”, which is released in collaboration with the Norwegian Salvation Army on Magne’s birthday, 1 November.

No further details on the solo concert have been announced yet.

The cover art unwrapped

A press release quoted on Northern Irish music website xsnoize.com has revealed more details about Magne’s upcoming solo album:

“‘White Xmas Lies’ is the third solo album by A-ha co-founder and keyboard player Magne Furuholmen. As the title suggests, it is an album with a different take on Christmas. A melancholic winter album, it consists of fourteen original new songs and two surprising cover versions.”

Although the release date is not mentioned, it will apparently be out on 25 October.

Looking at the full tracklist, the album does include the current single “This Is Now America”, plus what could be a new version of “Differences” (originally recorded by a-ha in 2001) and a cover version of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells”:

  1. There Goes Another Year
  2. The Light We Lost
  3. A Punch-Up On Boxing Day
  4. Caprice Des Dieux
  5. This Is Now America
  6. White Xmas Lies
  7. Differences
  8. Revelation Song
  9. The Season To Be Melancholy
10. Snow Is Falling
11. Dark Days, Dark Nights
12. Hells Bells
13. So Cold It’s Hard To Think
14. A Wintry Silence
15. The Ghost Of Xmas Past
16. Come Back Home