Posts Tagged ‘bodø’

Update on True North album

a-ha in Bodø, November 2021
(Photo by Lasse Jangås – see more of his photos here)

After several days of rehearsals, it seems the main recording session for the True North album together with the Arctic Philharmonic orchestra took place in Bodø on November 4th and 5th.

Karl Oluf Wennerberg posted a Facebook picture together with drummer colleague Per Hillestad on Friday night, saying:
“The a-ha album recording is now finished. We have both participated as best we can 🙂 Per Hillestad, you’re a great guy in every way. Thanks for the company. Hoping the world will embrace the upcoming album/concert film.”

Another picture posted by Karl Oluf reveals that one of the songs on True North is indeed Magne’s “You Have What It Takes”, while Paul posted a video clip from rehearsals that included the hashtag “#makemeunderstand” – which may also be a song title.

A series of pictures from the True North sessions taken by Lasse Jangås, head of communications for Arctic Philharmonic, was posted on Facebook. One of them includes a glimpse of a list of the 12 songs on the album. Although it’s hard to make out what it says, in addition to “You Have What It Takes” it seems to include Magne’s songs “I’m In”, “Between the Halo and the Horn” and “Bluest of Blue”. Possibly also Paul’s song “Make Me Understand”, if that’s the title.

Arctic Philharmonic has posted an article about the project on their website, with text and photos by Lasse Jangås. It includes some quotes by Paul:

“We have a bit of a chequered past, and instead of going through three months of bickering in a recording studio we wanted to try out a new way of making an album”, Paul says in the article.

“The initial idea was to film everything in a regular studio, but then this idea came along, to do it with Arctic Philharmonic in Bodø. And this is really exciting. It’s always fun to work with a good orchestra – it adds entirely new colours to the music.”

Half of the songs on the album have been written by Magne, while the other half were written by Paul. And while Magne’s songs were arranged for orchestra by Kjetil Bjerkestrand, Paul songs have been arranged by Joe Mardin.

To conduct the Arctic Philharmonic orchestra, renowned Swedish musician Anders Eljas was brought in for the occasion. He is full of praise for the True North project and a-ha’s songwriting:

“Two different songwriters and two different arrangers gives the album something extra, different colours and a good dynamic. I don’t like it when an album is too even, and Paul and Magne’s different characters provides the album with different facets and will make it interesting to listen to”, he tells Lasse Jangås in the article.

“This is a band that writes songs with a unique character and that cares about how it sounds. And the songs are really good!”, Eljas says.

a-ha in Bodø to record True North

Magne inside the Svømmehallen concert hall in Bodø
(Screenshot from TV2)

a-ha arrived in Bodø a few days ago, to prepare for the recording of the new film and album called True North during the coming week. They are joined by Even Ormestad, Kjetil Bjerkestrand (who has done some of the string arrangements) and Karl Oluf Wennerberg – plus a second drummer; Per Hillestad, who was a-ha’s drummer from 1990-94. In total, a crew of 100 people will be at work on the project.

Karl Oluf behind the drums in Bodø
(Screenshot from TV2)

Earlier in the month a-ha had been rehearsing at Studio Paradiso in Oslo, the same studio where Paul did some recording sessions with Per Hillestad back in the summer of 2019.

Meanwhile, Arctic Philharmonic recorded the string parts for True North at Store Studio in Bodø on 15 October. This was partly to see if the arrangements were working and partly as backup if something should fail during the upcoming live performance.

TV2’s evening news had a report from the Svømmehallen concert hall in Bodø on Friday, where Magne was interviewed about the project. It can be seen on TV2 Play (subscribers only). There is also an article on TV2.no.

Magne could be seen playing what appeared to be a melody line from “You Have What It Takes”, which may indicate it’s one of the songs that will end up on True North.

“This is a special project because we’re joined by Arctic Philharmonic, which provides a larger pallette to use. We have challenged our own sound in different ways previously as well, but this is where we’re at right now. This is a-ha’s diary from 2019/20/21”, Magne tells TV2.

Over on Instagram, Paul posted some pictures and video clips from a shoot with Stian Andersen in Bodø, which will probably be used as part of the True North film.

The planned release date for True North is late 2022.

True North: New a-ha album, film and world tour

a-ha announced a new album and film today:

‘True North’ is a filmed live-performance for future streaming release with new music from a-ha.

Set in the awesome landscape of Northern Norway and recorded in the town of Bodø up above the Arctic Circle, the music from the film will be made available as a new album from the group for the first time since ‘Cast in Steel’ (2015).

“We chose this location as a way to showcase some of Norway’s most spectacular nature – where majestic mountains meet the raging sea – far up north, but right at the centre of the dramatic effects of climate-change.”

“We want this film to be a poetic homage to the importance that nature holds in Norwegian culture, and in particular the ocean, which has provided us with a privileged life up here, from the early fishing boom to the troublesome riches extracted from the seabed in the form of oil,” says Magne.

The album and film will be recorded over two days in November 2021, at the Svømmehallen Scene concert hall in Bodø, and planned for release in the autumn of 2022. It will include 12 new a-ha songs, with songwriting contributions from all three members.

a-ha will be joined by the Arctic Philharmonic orchestra on all the songs, and there will be a total of 36 musicians on stage (including a-ha and their backing band).

“The concept of True North was originally inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s Western Stars. Our idea was to create a Norwegian version – a film which is a sort of a travelling letter from a-ha, with the ocean as a backdrop and with brand new music”, Magne tells Avisa Nordland (paywall).

“Long periods in the studio has usually lead to quarreling and frustrations for us. In deciding to create a film and do it as a live performance I think it will be much easier. Initially we planned to do it with an audience, but for logistical reasons it will be a film instead – with only the crew as “audience” and the finished film being the concert experience for our audience”.

“This is a live performance that will be filmed, and the music from that film will then be released as a new a-ha album. If we achieve what we’re hoping for, I think it will appear considerably more spontaneous and fresh than years of studio polishing”, Magne says.

The release of the film and album will be followed by a True North world tour, starting in late 2022 or early 2023.

“This is something that will fit into the aesthetics of a-ha. It’s not coincidental that we’re doing this in Bodø and Northern Norway. The album, film and subsequent world tour will be called True North”, a-ha manager Harald Wiik tells Avisa Nordland (paywall).

“The ways of releasing music has changed in recent years, and physical formats are almost completely gone. That’s why a-ha wants to release the music as a film experience first. We’ll have a crew of 100 people during the recording and aim to have the film available on Netflix or one of the other major streaming services. In addition to the material from the live performance, we’ll use footage from the nature around Bodø”, Harald Wiik says.

“I can’t really imagine a better way of using our music than making an artistic statement that embodies both worries and hope for the future”, Magne tells VG.

a-ha world tour 2020 opens in Norway

Trondheim Spektrum, 7 February 2020

After a two-month break from touring, a-ha opened the second leg of their Hunting High and Low 2019-2020 world tour with concerts at Nordlandshallen in Bodø on 1 February and at Trondheim Spektrum in Trondheim on 7 February. While the audience of 9,700 in Bodø was all-standing, the audience of 6,000 in Trondheim was all-seated.

Reviews in the local press were generally quite positive, with both Avisa Nordland (Bodø) and Adresseavisen (Trondheim) giving the concerts a 5 out of 6 rating. Adresseavisen’s reviewer called it “the best a-ha concert I can remember in Trondheim”, highlighting the band’s “authority and musical weight” and how they have “a clear and common vision” on this tour. He also praised the video production with its “incredibly elegant execution”.

The whole Trondheim concert was filmed, to be used as additional footage in the upcoming a-ha: The Movie documentary film.

The setlist remains the same as last year; starting with the HHAL-album being played in full, followed by ten additional songs after a 20-minute break.

 
Setlist
1. Take on Me
2. Train of Thought
3. Hunting High and Low
4. The Blue Sky
5. Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale
6. The Sun Always Shines on TV
7. And You Tell Me
8. Love is Reason
9. I Dream Myself Alive
10. Here I Stand and Face the Rain
(20-minute break)
11. Analogue
12. Foot of the Mountain
13. The Swing of Things
14. Crying in the Rain
15. Sycamore Leaves
16. Digital River
17. I’ve Been Losing You
18. Stay on These Roads
– – – – – – – – – – – –
19. Scoundrel Days
20. The Living Daylights

 
Bodø reviews and pictures:
Avisa Nordland review (5/6) (paywall)
Bodø Nu review (3/6) (paywall)
Bodø Nu photo gallery (paywall)

Trondheim reviews and pictures:
Adresseavisen review (5/6) (paywall)
Musikknyheter review (8/10)
Trondheim24 photo gallery

The tour continues with two concerts at the Dubai Opera today and tomorrow, followed by Cape Town and Johannesburg on Friday and Saturday.

a-ha to perform in Ålesund and Bodø next year

Two new festival dates on a-ha’s 2018 summer tour have now been announced, adding to the already known date at Kongsberg Jazzfestival on 6 July:

17 August 2018: Jugendfest, Ålesund, Norway
18 August 2018: Parkenfestivalen, Bodø, Norway

Jugendfest is held at Color Line Stadium, the same football stadium where a-ha played in August 2006, as part of the Analogue tour. Parkenfestivalen is held at the Rensås park, and this will be a-ha’s first ever concert in Bodø (Morten and Paul have both done solo concerts in Bodø).

Tickets for Jugendfest go on sale on Friday, 25 August at tikkio.com, while tickets for Parkenfestivalen won’t be available until 1 November.

Press articles:
A-ha bekreftet til Jugend 2018
Nå kommer tidenes norske band til Parken

Norwegian concerts in late summer

As previously reported, concert organizers in Bodø, Norway have been in contact with a-ha Network about getting a possible date on the Farewell Tour.

The concert would have been held as part of the Aspmyra Live mini-festival, but it seems that the plans didn’t work out.

As it stands now this won’t happen, unfortunately“, a-ha manager Harald Wiik tells local newspaper Avisa Nordland today.

According to the newspaper, a-ha will be doing concerts in Norway between August 20th and September 12th.

There was a weekend during that period when we could have arranged Aspmyra Live, but that wasn’t a good time for the band. Aspmyra Live is usually held in June, but it wasn’t possible for a-ha to come here [that month]“, Gøran Aamodt of the event company Tag Productions tells Avisa Nordland.

As for which Norwegian cities that will get a visit from a-ha in late summer, there have been rumours about both Stavanger and Bergen.

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