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New Marius Beck EP, co-produced by Magne

Posted by Jakob S on December 6th, 2013
Recording the EP in London (l. to r.): Magne Furuholmen, Ole Richard Korsan Stuwe, Martin Terefe, Åsmund Knutson, Marius Beck, Nicolai Herwell and Sam Keyte.

Recording the EP at Kensaltown Studios (l. to r.): Magne Furuholmen, Ole Richard Korsan Stuwe, Martin Terefe, Åsmund Knutson, Marius Beck, Nicolai Herwell and Sam Keyte.

Marius Beck’s new 5-track EP Majors & Minors is released in Norway today.

The EP was recorded at Kensaltown Studios in London in September, and has been produced by Magne Furuholmen and Martin Terefe. Magne also plays keyboard on the EP, while Terefe plays bass guitar.

Cover

Cover of the new EP

“The songs are more melancholic and on a whole different planet than what I’ve done before”, Beck said in a recent interview with newspaper Oppland Arbeiderblad.

“The collaboration with Magne Furuholmen has been really good. I’ve been sending him demo tapes with new songs on a regular basis, and together we’ve seen the songs evolve”.

Majors & Minors is released through WiMP DIY and the Furuholmen/Terefe company Vox Watch Music. It is available for streaming and purchase on WiMP now, and will be up on iTunes soon. A UK release is planned for next month.

Links:
Marius Beck interview on WiMP blog    Marius Beck on Facebook

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Ltd. ed. Morten Harket jackets now available

Posted by Jakob S on December 3rd, 2013
Morten wearing the jacket at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards

Morten wearing the jacket at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, May 19th

The new fashion brand Jilani is now offering a limited edition Morten Harket jacket in their webshop.

The leather jacket was co-designed by Morten especially for his appearance at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas in May, where he performed together with Pitbull and Christina Aguilera.

“Morten wanted to wear a jacket that reflected both the 80s and the present. He co-designed it himself. The jacket was only intended to be used by Morten at this particular event, but already the day after the Billboard Awards people started contacting us, wanting to buy it. So we decided to produce a limited number of jackets for sale”, Jilani writes on their blog.

Morten recently visited the Jilani studios where he signed 50 limited edition jackets, which are now available for 9500 kroner ($1550) at jilanishop.no.

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Morten to perform at Brønnøysund Roots Festival

Posted by Jakob S on December 2nd, 2013

Morten is the first artist to be confirmed for next year’s Roots Festival in Brønnøysund, Norway. The festival is held between 16 – 19 July, but the exact date for Morten’s concert has not been decided yet.

“Morten Harket is apparently bringing along an incredibly good band”, festival manager Torstein Moe tells local newspaper Helgeland Arbeiderblad.

“This is all about putting enough money on the table to make it interesting. He turned out to be pretty expensive. By far the most expensive act we’ve had in the festival’s history. But we’re very happy to have him confirmed”, Moe says.

3-day festival passes are now available from billettservice.no.

Update (13 Dec.): The date will be 17 July.

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Night of the Proms tour opens in Cologne

Posted by Jakob S on December 1st, 2013
On stage in Cologne

On stage in Cologne
(Photo from regioactive.de)

The Night of the Proms tour opened with two concerts in Cologne this weekend, where a total audience of 25,000 people filled the Lanxess Arena on Friday and Saturday.

As the headliner, Morten came on stage at the end of the 3-hour show to perform five songs, including two new solo songs:

1. Foot Of The Mountain
2. Stay On These Roads
3. Did I Leave You Behind
4. There Is A Place
5. The Sun Always Shines On TV

At the very end all the artists did The Beatles’ Hey Jude together.

“Night of the Proms is something I’ve been asked to do over the years, but there’s never really been a suitable time. It’s with a big philharmonic orchestra. A lot of this and that musically, which is in itself interesting. It’s an opportunity of a different kind and I’m kinda curious as to what it will be”, Morten said in a backstage video filmed before Friday’s premiere.

Yesterday Morten also appeared at a press conference together with some of the other NOTP artists. The tour will visit twelve more cities until December 22nd.

Photos and reviews:
morten-harket.net    regioactive.de    wdr2.de    notp-fanpage.de

As for “There is a Place”, the song has now been confirmed to be released in connection with Night of the Proms as “a taste of the music he is working on for his new album”. Whether it ends up on the album or not remains to be seen. The song is now available for download and streaming worldwide, through iTunes, Amazon, 7digital, WiMP, Spotify etc.

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Morten to perform at Spellemann Awards

Posted by Jakob S on November 27th, 2013
Morten at the 2010 Spellemann Awards

Morten at the 2010 Spellemann Awards.

Morten will be premiering a new single called “Brother” at the 2013 Spellemann Awards (Norwegian Grammies) on January 18th, the official site announced today. The song, which is from his upcoming solo album, has been written by Morten, Ole Sverre Olsen and Peter Kvint.

This might indicate that “There is a Place” is a one-off single in connection with Night of the Proms, rather than an album track. Hard to say, as there’s been no official info about it yet.

“The album will be finished in December and is probably released in March. Then there’s a European tour in May, Norwegian and international festivals during the summer and even more touring in the fall”, manager Harald Wiik tells VG in connection with the Spellemann announcement.

The Spellemann show is held in Stavanger Konserthus and will be broadcast live on NRK1. Other acts scheduled to perform include Ask Embla, CLMD, Envy, Highasakite and Kvelertak.

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New single from Morten

Posted by Jakob S on November 24th, 2013
Single cover

Single cover

A new single from Morten called “There is a Place”, presumably the first single off his upcoming solo album, will be available this coming week, according to the Norwegian streaming service WiMP.

The single will be released on November 29th, the same day Morten starts his 18-date Night Of The Proms tour in Germany and Luxembourg.

“There is a Place” has a length of 3:14 minutes and is released through Morten’s own company Compass Point.

Update: 7digital.com now has a 1-minute preview of the song here.

News about Morten’s 2014 solo tour has also started to appear this week. Two dates have been announced; l’Olympia in Paris on May 14th (ticket info on the official site) and London on May 16th (venue and ticket info TBA).

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Magne interviewed on The Briefing

Posted by Jakob S on November 20th, 2013
Magne in London earlier this year (Picture from Dagbladet)

Magne in London earlier this year
(Picture from Dagbladet)

Monocle.com’s radio talkshow The Briefing is doing a special Nordic edition this week. Yesterday the show was broadcast live from Oslo, and Magne was one of the guests.

The interview with Magne was done in London however, as he was there to do some work. The conversation with Tom Edwards touched on Norwegian cultural politics, Magne’s visual arts and the music he’s doing for the upcoming Beatles movie:

“Musically, right now I’m deep into a film score for a film called ‘Beatles’. I think it’s gonna be called ‘Yesterday’ over here. It’s actually the first time that The Beatles have allowed original material to this degree. There’s three full Beatle recordings in the score, and I’m supposed to write original music that can stand up to that. That’s a bit of a challenge (laughs).

On the other hand, if I look at it differently this is a return to my own childhood. This is the music I grew up listening to, which inspired me to go out and make my mark on whatever world stage. It’s a little bit about returning to that feeling of growing up in a sort of a provincial place in the 1970s, where you had one hour of pop music on the radio every day. Kids today can’t even relate to that, but that’s what it was like.

I’ve sort of gone into a method around it that allows me to now go into Abbey Road – I’ve gotten hold of the “Lady Madonna” piano and the mics that they used and the recording equipment they used – and to set it up as a kind of authentic setting to recreate, not the music of The Beatles, but that zeitgeist, that time period.”

The whole interview can be heard here (starts at 45 minutes).

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Morten attends funeral of Lage Fosheim

Posted by Jakob S on November 12th, 2013
Morten outside Uranienborg church, November 12th

Morten outside Uranienborg church, November 12th

Morten attended the funeral of The Monroes vocalist Lage Fosheim (1958 – 2013) in Oslo today, together with a-ha manager Harald Wiik. Other musicians present included Sissel Kyrkjebø, Espen Lind and a-ha touring musician Dag Kolsrud.

Lage Fosheim and Eivind Rølles formed The Monroes in 1982, which quickly became the biggest band in Norway – until a-ha had their breakthrough. Their first two albums spawned the no. 1 hits Sunday People (1983) and Cheerio (1985).

Fosheim later became head of promotion at Universal Norway and worked with a-ha and Morten on various projects.

The Monroes: Eivind Rølles and Lage Fosheim

The Monroes: Eivind Rølles and Lage Fosheim

“This is sad and very unexpected. Lage was an unusually lively character. He’s been a central part of the Norwegian music scene since we started out. a-ha and The Monroes did many of the same things and cleared a path [for Norwegian pop music] in different areas”, Morten told VG before the ceremony.

“Lage was an extraordinary guy, with a unique level of energy. He made a difference in the way he was, not least how he embraced each day. His death came very sudden for all of us who didn’t know he was ill”, Morten added to Her og Nå.

Both members of The Monroes died of cancer this year, Rølles in March and Fosheim in October.

Articles about the funeral:  Dagbladet    VG    NRK    Her og Nå    VG photo gallery

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Stolper + Friends gallery to close next month

Posted by Jakob S on November 6th, 2013
Magne in front of the gallery

Magne in front of the gallery

Stolper + Friends, the Oslo art gallery that Magne co-owns together with Paul Stolper and Hugo Opdal, is set to close its doors by the end of the year.

“Our owners have ongoing projects all over the world, and we have decided to close down the gallery. The company will continue, but we will instead focus on so-called “pop-up” exhibitions around Oslo”, daily manager Kate Smith tells Dagens Næringsliv’s paper edition.

The gallery opened in September 2011 and has featured artists such as Peter Blake and Damien Hirst, in addition to Magne’s own projects. His Norwegian Wood sales exhibition, which ended this past weekend, was almost completely sold out.

“Our exhibitions have been successfull, but our rental agreement at Tjuvholmen ends in December, so we decided to close down”, Smith says.

The gallery’s last exhibition will be Art Under Pressure (8 Nov. – 22 Dec.), a smaller version of the Atelje Larsen group exhibtion which was held in Helsingborg, Sweden two years ago. Magne and Apparatjik are among the artists represented.

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Morten performs for Södra Cell employees

Posted by Jakob S on October 28th, 2013
Morten performs in Hurum, October 24th

Morten performs in Hurum, October 24th
(Picture from Grønsand Gjestegård’s Facebook page)

Morten did an intimate solo concert in Hurum last Thursday, October 24th, in connection with a private dinner held for 150 former employees of the local Södra Cell Tofte cellulose factory, which closed its doors in August.

A total of 295 people lost their jobs when the owners decided to cease production.

“Morten has a personal involvement in this issue. That’s why he wanted to take part. Normally he doesn’t do events like this”, Jan Morten Trønnes of Södra Cell tells newspaper Røyken og Hurums Avis.

“He felt sad that the factory had to close, and he can’t understand why Norway doesn’t want industrial facilities that can produce renewable energy”, Trønnes says.

The dinner was held in a barn at Grønsand Gjestegård, and Morten apparently performed songs from “his entire career”, including a couple of new ones. He was accompanied by producer Lars Hustoft on keyboard.

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