Platekompaniet has now posted the album cover of Cast In Steel. The cover photo was taken in Rio de Janeiro in December 2014 by Just Loomis.
Cover photo by Just Loomis
“Under The Makeup” premieres on radio
Posted by Jakob S on July 1st, 2015
Single cover
The new a-ha single “Under The Makeup” has now premiered on Norwegian radio a few days early, after the song leaked online on Monday night.
The song features a big, orchestral arrangement, which Lars Horntveth comments on in a video posted by a-ha.com on YouTube: “We tried to do kind of like a big James Bond-ish arrangement on it. It was also inspired by a Bjørk song which is called “Play Dead” from her ‘Debut’ album. It sounds really big and almost like a “wall of sound” [production]”.
“Under The Makeup” has so far been getting mixed receptions from both fans and critics. As one fan put it on the West Of The Moon Forum: “Interestingly it seems to be satisfying neither the guitar rock brigade nor the synth brigade! It’s all about the strings, bass and orchestration. Could be promising however for the live set.”
VG‘s reviewer Stein Østbø gives the song 4/6 and calls it “Dripping with melancholy, majestic and sincere. And impossible to dislike.” But he feels the arrangement is overdone: “This song doesn’t need strings to underscore the drama of the lyrics and melody, this song needs a more sparse arrangement around Morten Harket’s voice.”
The song also gets 4/6 from Dagbladet: “The lyrics could easily be interpreted as confronting the ambivalence that the band has had to struggle with over the years. It’s about breaking up and reuniting. (…) Thanks to Harket’s trademark vocals and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy’s very distinct melodic signature, it’s hard for a-ha to do much wrong as long as they stick to their basic ingredients. But naturally that also makes them slightly predictable.”
Aftenposten‘s reviewer gives the song 5/6. “Whereas the previous album was leaning towards the modern pop of bands like Coldplay and The Killers, there’s something more genuine about the new single. (…) A bit pompous, but it sounds great, and it doesn’t take many listens before you’re singing along to the chorus.”
Adresseavisen also has a positive 5/6 review: “The song sticks in your head right at the first line and melody change, it only takes eight seconds to realize that this is a really good choice as a single.”
Dagsavisen however isn’t too impressed with the new single, giving it 3/6: “One could always hope, but “Under The Makeup” doesn’t exactly raise expectations ahead of the album Cast In Steel, and a-ha is now more reminiscent of a vanity project than a band with good ideas.”
Magne creates large sculpture park
Posted by Jakob S on June 26th, 2015
Magne at Tommerup Ceramic Workshop, hammering letters into one of his massive jars
(Picture from Aftenposten.no)
Aftenposten’s weekend magazine A-magasinet has a 15-page article about Magne’s most ambitious art project to date; he is in the midst of creating the largest ceramic sculpture park in Scandinavia. A-magasinet has followed Magne’s process of making the sculptures, which is being done at Tommerup Ceramic Workshop in Denmark.
Magne has also made the magazine cover, out of clay. A video clip of him working on the cover can be seen here. Another video featuring Magne’s art has been posted here. And a full English translation of the article is available at Aftenposten.no.
The park is another commission by Kjell Inge Røkke’s company Aker, for which Magne has previously done a number of projects, including decorating the enormous sail of Røkke’s yacht Aglaia and a unique steel sculpture to be placed outside Røkke’s cabin.
The sculpture park will be situated outside the new Aker headquarters at Fornebu near Oslo and has been given the name Imprints. It will be comprised of 40 ceramic elements, including the two largest jars in the world (6 meters tall), nine columns (2 – 4 meters tall) and a 12 meter long ceramic relief.
“This is the single most comprehensive commission in my artistic career. That is why this new park is extremely important to me as a visual artist. I was never in doubt whether I should accept the challenge”, Magne says.
“The park will be marked by things I wrote through the years, texts with a lyrical element. Some of them come from songs I wrote, but most is free standing English poetry. I have something like 5000 – 6000 unpublished poems. They have been stowed away, awaiting some project.”
Many of the poems will eventually end up in a book in connection with the park, to be published later.
In addition to working on the sculpture park, Magne will hold a summer exhibition in Sandefjord from 28 June to 16 August. Sometime in the fall he’ll be exhibiting in Washington, and in December he’ll take part in a group exhibition in Rio.
“I know where I shall be every single day until June 2016, but I never get tired from working hard. What tires me, is the waste of time and people who get obsessed with details”, he says.
The first section of the Imprints park is set to open in August 2015, while the whole park won’t be completed until next summer.
Wennerberg, Ljunggren and Ormestad join a-ha on Cast In Steel tour
Posted by Jakob S on June 20th, 2015
Wennerberg and Ljunggren played around 100 concerts with a-ha in 2009 and 2010
Drummer Karl Oluf Wennerberg and keyboardist Erik Ljunggren will once again join a-ha on tour in 2015/16, together with new touring bassist Even Ormestad. This was confirmed in an interview with Ormestad in the newspaper Tønsbergs Blad this week.
Wennerberg, Ljunggren and Ormestad are currently in the process of rehearsing between 20 and 25 a-ha songs, in preparation for the upcoming Cast In Steel concerts in South America.
“This is a comeback we’re talking about here, so our job is to make sure that it will sound fresh. We have to play a-ha’s music in our own way, while also trying to make it sound as ‘a-ha’ as possible”, Ormestad tells the newspaper.
Touring with a-ha is a childhood dream coming true, the bassist says.
“I’ve been standing in front of the mirror and playing bass to a-ha songs since before I was a teenager, so I should be well-prepared”, the 36-year-old bassist says with a laugh.
New a-ha single: “Under The Makeup”
Posted by Jakob S on June 15th, 2015
The first single off a-ha’s upcoming album Cast In Steel is called “Under The Makeup” and will premiere on 3 July, a-ha.com announced today.
The song, which was completed last week, has been written by Paul, and produced by Paul and Erik Ljunggren. Mixing by Cenzo Townsend and string arrangements by Lars Horntveth.
Norway’s largest radio station NRK P1 has already announced it will add “Under The Makeup” to its high-rotation A-list, starting in week 29.
Links:
Official announcement on Facebook
VG article: Den nye a-ha-singelen er klar
S&M featured in NORD magazine
Posted by Jakob S on June 13th, 2015
The cover of NORD magazine, June 2015
Magne Furuholmen and Simen Staalnacke are featured in a 7-page article in the summer issue of Norwegian food/lifestyle magazine NORD (#3/2015), in connection with their new drink and snacks company S&M Feelgood Factory.
The company, which was celebrated with a launch party in Oslo on May 7th, has a special focus on making non-alcoholic drinks, as explained in an article on a-ha.com.
In the NORD magazine interview, Magne says that he can really feel the positive effects after 3-4 months without alcohol:
“I feel healthy and happy, my head gets clearer and I can feel positive changes in my body. I encourage everyone to try longer periods without alcohol, if only to become more aware of its effects.”
“There are many people, focused on a healthy lifestyle, who would like to go out with their friends without necessarily drinking lots of alcohol every time. We want them to be able to sip a Holy Moly drink, instead of always ending up with a glass of soda and a straw.”
Magne and Simen in NORD magazine
Their products available so far are:
– Holy Moly
– Holy Moly Energy
– Iced Tee
– Chill-i-Coffee
– Dos Amigos chips
– Retox chips
There are also several other S&M products coming soon, including Bloody Mary popcorn and Sweethearts sweet potato snacks.
“There are so many boring softdrinks and types of snacks out there, and we want to make something that’s more fun. What’s life without some humour?”, they say.
Dates added in Russia, Latvia, Belarus and Luxembourg
Posted by Jakob S on June 13th, 2015
An ad for the Moscow concert
Seven new dates on a-ha’s Cast In Steel Tour 2016 have now been announced:
6 March: Sports Palace, Yekaterinburg, Russia
8 March: Basket-Hall, Kazan, Russia
10 March: Ice Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
12 March: Olympic Stadium, Moscow, Russia
15 March: Arena Riga, Riga, Latvia
17 March: Minsk Arena, Minsk, Belarus
27 April: Rockhal, Esch/Alzette, Luxembourg
Tickets are already on sale for St. Petersburg, Moscow and Esch/Alzette.
The links can be found on a-ha.com.
This will be the first a-ha concert ever in Luxembourg, although Morten performed there on the Night of the Proms Tour in 2013.
UK tour dates announced
Posted by Jakob S on June 2nd, 2015
Four a-ha tour dates in the UK in March 2016 were announced today:
25 March: Manchester Arena, Manchester, UK
26 March: O2 Arena, London, UK
28 March: The SSE Hydro, Glasgow, UK
29 March: Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham, UK
There will be a presale tomorrow, 3 June, starting at 9am GMT. The general sale starts on Friday, 5 June, at 9am GMT.
Apparatjik to perform in Karlsruhe
Posted by Jakob S on June 2nd, 2015
Magne on stage with Apparatjik
Apparatjik will be performing a free concert at the Pavilion stage in Karlsruhe, Germany on September 12th. The concert is held as part of GLOBALE – 300 days of artistic events in connection with the 300th anniversary of Karlsruhe.
Some info from zkm.de:
“Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman, MEW singer Jonas Bjerre, the A-HA keyboard player Magne Furuholmen as well as the music producer Martin Terefe in a unique constellation: They have produced for the stage a unique show in which auction tickets for bidding are distributed among the public: one uniquely produced and mastered vinyl record will be auctioned, live on-site!”
Apparatjik’s latest project The Sound of Fosnavåg, performed together with The Norwegian Radio Orchestra at Fosnavåg Konserthus in October 2014, was broadcast on NRK P2 on May 20th – or at least parts of it. It can be heard online at radio.nrk.no, where it will be available until November 16th. There’s an interview with Magne at 1h 9mins, while the performance itself starts at 1h 16mins.
Magne and Steve Barron at The Arts Club
Posted by Jakob S on June 2nd, 2015
The new book cover, designed by Magne
(Photo by Judith Heinrich)
Magne and director Steve Barron appeared at The Arts Club in London last Thursday, May 28th, to celebrate the release of a new special edition of Barron’s 2014 memoir Egg n Chips & Billie Jean: A Trip Through the 80s, for which Magne has designed the cover.
“I’ve read the book and it’s hilariously funny. And not just the parts that I was a part of (laughs). There are some amazing stories in there and I’m happy that you let me contribute a little bit with the cover”, Magne said.
Paul Stolper introduced the two of them, who talked for an hour about Barron’s work with a-ha – he directed eight music videos for the band between 1985 and 2010 – and the other music videos he’s done. Barron also read an extract from his book about the time he and the band were in Montana filming the “Crying In The Rain” video in 1990. Afterwards they did a little signing session.
Magne and Steve Barron signing books
(Photo by Judith Heinrich)
“The first three [a-ha] videos that you did, they were all your ideas. They were all you. We were kind of just kids coming in. We might have been allowed to say something about it, but we just kept ourselves back. I don’t think it was until Manhattan Skyline that we said ‘Steve, we really want to talk about our situation’. The media are referenced and Brazil – the Terry Gilliam film – about this guy disappearing in newspapers and we started interacting about [that concept]”, Magne said during the conversation.
Some photos from the event were posted by Paul Stolper on Instagram:
Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3
Thanks to Judith Heinrich for the info.
