Posts Tagged ‘erik ljunggren’

Drammen rehearsal concert, September 9th

Union Scene, Drammen, September 9th (Picture by Rune Tønnessen)

Union Scene, Drammen, September 9th
(Picture by Rune Tønnessen)

a-ha played a 50-minute rehearsal concert at Union Scene in Drammen, Norway yesterday, in front of around 600 people – most of which had won tickets at a Platekompaniet signing session in Oslo the day before.

The band has been rehearsing at Union Scene over the last few weeks to prepare for the upcoming South American tour, and this was the final dress rehearsal before heading to Luna Park in Buenos Aires, although the full shows are likely to include twice as many songs.

A 14-minute video with clips from all the songs performed in Drammen has been posted on YouTube, courtesy of Rune Tønnessen.

Three songs from Cast In Steel were played live for the first time last night, while “Sycamore Leaves” appeared in the setlist for the first time since 2004 – now with Morten singing it instead of Paul. “Early Morning” was played as a full band version, instead of the acoustic version they’ve usually done in the 2000s.

The biggest surprise was probably “Soft Rains of April”, which has rarely been played live since the late 80s – apart from the HHAL/SD concerts with the Oslo Philhamonics in 2010.

Setlist:
(with links to other YouTube clips)
1. The Wake
2. I’ve Been Losing You
3. Cry Wolf
4. Hunting High and Low
5. Forest Fire
6. Early Morning
7. Sycamore Leaves
8. Soft Rains of April
9. Under The Makeup
10. The Sun Always Shines on TV
– – – – – – – – – – – –
11. Foot of the Mountain

Just as on the two previous tours, a-ha are joined by Karl Oluf Wennerberg on drums and Erik Ljunggren on synth/programming, while new bassist Even Ormestad is going on tour with the band for the first time.

Reports from some of the fans who were at the show seem to indicate that the sound is less polished and more rock-oriented than it was in 2009-2010, with Paul bringing out his Gibson SG Fano Alt de Facto ML6 guitar for some heavy riffs.

Concert reviews:
VG: Konturene av et nytt a-ha – for tredje gang…
Dagsavisen Fremtiden: Gøy på øving
Rock and Roll Dreams: Klar til avreise

Wennerberg, Ljunggren and Ormestad join a-ha on Cast In Steel tour

Wennerberg and Ljunggren toured with a-ha in 2009 and 2010

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.

Buenos Aires concert, September 28th

Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 28th

Morten and his band played at the Gran Rex theatre in Buenos Aires yesterday, for an enthusiastic crowd. At the end of the show, he put on an Argentinian football shirt, to much applause from the audience. “Somebody gave me this. It certainly looks better on a footballer, but there you are”, Morten said.

YouTube videos posted so far:
Arriving at the airport   Lightning   Stay On These Roads   We’re Looking For The Whales   Out Of Blue Comes Green   Crying In The Rain   Foot Of The Mountain   Applause at the end

Photo galleries:
Flickr set by Synth 101   Backstage “meet & greet”

Update: Check out this multi-camera edit of the complete Buenos Aires gig, filmed from the front row in excellent HD quality: YouTube playlist

Dorsten concert, June 30th

Morten with Karl Oluf Wennerberg, Erik Ljunggren and Dan Sundhordvik in Dorsten

Morten and his band did a 10-song set at the Sommer Open Air event in Dorsten, Germany tonight, in front of a crowd of around 20.000 people. The concert was streamed live online at wdr2.de.

Unfortunately, Morten’s voice was in pretty bad shape. Therefore, the vocals seemed to be playback on some of the songs, particularly evident on Scared Of Heights. A controversial decision for sure, and possibly the first time Morten has ever used recorded vocals at a live concert.

Dorsten, June 30th

 
Here is the setlist:

1. Burn Money Burn
2. I’m The One
3. Keep The Sun Away
4. Move To Memphis
5. Forever Not Yours
6. Lightning
7. We’re Looking For The Whales
8. Stay On These Roads
9. Scared Of Heights
10. Foot Of The Mountain

The whole concert can be watched again at wdr2.de.
 
 

Krasnoyarsk concert, April 16th

Palace of Sport, Krasnoyarsk, April 16th
(Picture from sibnovosti.ru)

Morten opened his Out Of My Hands solo tour in Krasnoyarsk, Russia last night, backed by Karl Oluf Wennerberg, Erik Ljunggren and Dan Sunhordvik.

The stage production was rather sparse, without any video screens, but Morten appeared to be in fine vocal form – despite some false starts and forgotten lyrics.

Here is the setlist (according to setlist.fm), with links to video clips on YouTube:

1. I’m The One
2. Keep The Sun Away
3. Move To Memphis
4. Scared Of Heights
5. Forever Not Yours
6. Lightning
7. Burn Money Burn
8. Los Angeles
9. Crying In The Rain
10. Spanish Steps
11. A Kind Of Christmas Card
————————-
12. Out Of Blue Comes Green
13. Foot Of The Mountain
14. Stay On These Roads
15. Take On Me

“Out Of Blue Comes Green”, which won the fan voting on Morten’s website, was performed live for the first time since 1989.

This means there were 7 a-ha songs performed, 5 songs from Out Of My Hands and 3 songs from Wild Seed. Nothing from Letter From Egypt or other English-language solo songs.

It had been said beforehand that the tour would include “a selection of a-ha songs”. The fact that this “selection” turns out to be almost half the setlist – 7 out of 15 songs, is sure to disappoint those who had been hoping to hear mostly solo songs at his solo concerts.

Too bad he doesn’t have more confidence in his own material at the moment.

Picture gallery from the concert

Concert review at newslab.ru

Article from Krasnoyarsk press conference

Video from Krasnoyarsk press conference

NTB interview

Picture by NTB/Scanpix

In a new interview with NTB, Morten talks about the process of choosing songs for the album:

“Ten songs aren’t much. But those are the ones that made it through our filters”, he says, referring to a team consisting of manager Harald Wiik, Erik Ljunggren and in part producer Steve Osborne. Especially Wiik and Ljunggren have what he calls “an entirely different taste in music”.

– But are you in control?

“I won’t let anything make it to the album that I can’t stand behind, I’m not compromising myself. I could have been more hands-on, but we’re a team”, he says, while admitting that his team’s views of what makes a good Morten Harket-song and his own views don’t always match up.

“a-ha would have benefitted from a larger degree of playful collaboration between the three of us. And that’s not been easy to accomplish on this album either. We’re all grown-up, busy people with obligations in life. The kids, your home life, bed times. Every day. You need to have a strong desire – strong enough to want to break free of your daily life in order to do it.”

Of the songs on the album, he describes “Quiet” and the title track “Out Of My Hands” as “classic, complete ‘me-songs’ “. He says the following about the latter song:

“There’s a lot of me in it. It’s a purely spiritual song, about where we come from and belong, and it makes quite a firm statement about the real nature of life – beyond the reality we experience.”

More tour details

According to a press release posted at music-news.com, Morten’s touring band this time will be the a-ha musicians Karl Oluf Wennerberg on drums and Erik Ljunggren on keyboards/bass, plus Dan Sunhordvik from Magne’s solo band on guitar.

In addition to solo material, he will also perform “some selections from the a-ha catalogue”.

2009 charts / Ljunggren interview

The 2009 statistics of the official Norwegian album chart shows that Foot Of The Mountain was the 8th bestselling Norwegian album of 2009 and the 15th bestselling when international albums are included. The whole list can be seen on Farojournalen’s website.

On NRK P1, Norway’s largest radio station, “Foot Of The Mountain” was the 2nd most played song in 2009, only beaten by Beyonce’s “Halo”. The 15 most played songs can be seen on NRK.no.

And on Hit 40, the official Norwegian radio chart, “Foot Of The Mountain” was the 4th most played Norwegian song in 2009 and 7th overall. The top 100 songs are listed here.

 

In Germany, Foot Of The Mountain ended up at number 22 on the list of the bestselling albums of 2009, which is available here. The album is actually still in the German album chart, currently at number 52 after 29 weeks.

 

a-ha’s backing musician Erik Ljunggren was recently interviewed by the German magazine Keyboards. Scans of the interview has been posted on the German forum by Elanur.

UK tour dates announced

a-ha.com has announced the first dates of the 2009 European Tour. They are as follows:

2 November: National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, UK
3 November: MEN Arena, Manchester, UK
4 November: O2 Arena, London, UK

The a-ha.com presale starts on Wednesday, March 25th. More details can be found here.

The names of a-ha’s new backing musicians have also been revealed today. Erik Ljunggren (Seigmen, Zeromancer) on keyboards, bass and programming, and Karl Oluf Wennerberg (Dreampilots, Magne F) on drums.

More concert dates, including a German tour in October, are expected soon.

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