Posts Tagged ‘joakim berg’

Morten’s new single “Lightning” premieres

Single cover, with photo by Just Loomis 
(From universalmusic.no)

The first single from Morten’s upcoming solo album is called “Lightning” and premiered on several Norwegian radio stations today. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s the same song as the first preview clip that was played in Rio.

“Lightning” was written by Morten together with Joakim Berg and Martin Sköld from Swedish band Kent, and produced by Steve Osborne and Erik Ljunggren. I have posted the lyrics here.

The collaboration with Kent was Morten’s own idea, Joakim Berg wrote in a post on the official Kent forum last week.

As previously mentioned, the album will also include an English version of the Kent hit song “Kärleken Väntar” from 2002. In addition, Morten wanted to do an English version of another Kent hit from 2002, “Dom Andra”, but that was eventually dropped because of a tight schedule and difficulties in writing English lyrics that matched the original.

“He loved those songs and wanted to test out English versions”, Berg says.

An additional song that Joakim Berg has written together with Jonas Quant may also end up on the album.

 

“Lightning” gets a 4 out of 6 rating from VG’s reviewer Stein Østbø:

“The song is missing a stronger grip, even when the drums kick in after the first 70 seconds. Harket is only barely present in between all the electronic effects and doesn’t dominate in the way Morten Harket’s voice normally does – and should do. But what could easily have turned into a song rejected by New Order years ago, eventually evolves into an attention-grabbing earworm after all”, Østbø writes.

 

“Lightning” will be available for download on March 9th, while the album Out Of My Hands is released on April 13th (at least in Norway).

Morten collaborates with Pet Shop Boys and Kent

(Picture by Just Loomis)

Manager Harald Wiik is interviewed in today’s VG, and reveals that members of Pet Shop Boys and Swedish band Kent have written songs for Morten’s new album.

Here are some quotes:

“This has been an open process where Morten obviously has written a number of songs himself, but we have also been in contact with various other songwriters.

When there’s an opportunity to work with Pet Shop Boys and Kent, of course we’ll say yes. Both bands have extremely good songwriters and have been at the top of Morten’s wish list.

We are well underway with the new album. Our goal is to be finished by Christmas, which would mean that the album is released in March next year.

There will also be a solo tour that starts in April. But this all depends on whether we get finished in time or not.”

Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Tennant has in previous interviews talked about a-ha being one of his favorite bands and about Morten having a fantastic voice.

Kent vocalist Joakim Berg has also praised a-ha and their songwriting skills, most recently in an interview with ABC Nyheter last year. You may also remember that his brother Adam Berg directed the music video for “Summer Moved On” in 2000.

 

Update: Wiik provides some further comments to Dagbladet about the album and tour.

Regarding the songwriting collaborations, Pet Shop Boys have written one song for the album, while Joakim Berg and Martin Sköld from Kent have written two songs together with Morten.

Work on the new album started in April this year. It’s being produced by Steve Osborne, and will be released by Starwatch/Universal.

Wiik also shares some more details about the tour:

“Morten will be touring all over Europe, starting in mid-April, and there’s likely to be a tour in South America in February/March. Plans for the fall of 2012 aren’t ready yet, but we assume the tour will include Japan and Oceania in that period.”

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