Live at Fjord Cadenza, 31 August
(Screenshot from video by Miyuki Ishihara)

Magne has spent the week in the Ålesund area on the Norwegian west coast, being this year’s festival artist at Fjord Cadenza in the nearby village of Skodje.

Rehearsals started out on Monday at Ocean Sound Recordings on the island of Giske, the same location a-ha used for their 2017 MTV Unplugged performance. He was joined by Martin Halla and Tini Flaat on vocals, Dan Sunhordvik on guitar and the Animato String Quartet.

On Wednesday, 28 August, Magne’s festival exhibition “New Song” opened in Skodje, which included a mini-concert in a tent set up outside the gallery. The festival has posted an extensive photo gallery from the event on Facebook, and an audience member has posted a couple of video clips on Instagram; “Stay On These Roads” and “Take On Me” (the clips have since been made unavailable).

The main event followed on Saturday, 31 August; a festive concert held at Gomerhuset, featuring a set by Magne and his musicians, a solo set by Anneli Drecker, and all backed by The Norwegian Naval Forces Band. According to people who were in the audience, Magne performed two new songs from his upcoming solo album called Living With Ourselves; the title track and “Time Is On Your Side”. The latter song was among the demos Magne posted on Instagram in 2021. The festival website has been referring to Magne’s new solo album as Magnefied, but this week Magne said on Instagram it’s actually called Living With Ourselves.

Here is the setlist, with a few video clips (courtesy of Miyuki Ishihara):

1. Living With Ourselves
2. Time Is On Your Side
3. You Have What It Takes
4. Stay On These Roads
5. Take On Me

“Yesterday’s concert was fantastic, thanks to this team. Let’s do it again!”, Tini Flaat posted next to a backstage photo on Instagram on 1 September.

Fjord Cadenza has also posted a large photo gallery from yesterday’s concert on Facebook.

Performing “Stay On These Roads” on 28 August
(Screenshot from video by Bente Wangsmo)

In an interview with the Ålesund news site AESby.no earlier this week, Magne explained the background for his appearance at the festival:

“I was initially asked to hold an exhibition at the festival, which I agreed to. But then the conductor and artistic director for the festival, Rune Bergmann, contacted me. We have worked together before, both with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and abroad with that supergroup of mine, Apparatjik. He wanted to collaborate on something again and told me more about Fjord Cadenza – that it’s mostly a festival for classical music, but also includes a selection of other artists. I told him that I had a solo album that was supposed to have been finished last year, but that I had been completely knocked out for half a year due to long Covid. Maybe we could have a release concert at the festival?”

In the end, it wouldn’t be a release concert, as his new solo album has been pushed back and won’t be out until closer to Christmas. But Magne still promised a special performance:

“I have selected a few songs from my whole career, from “Take On Me” up until present day, re-arranged them and made new versions. This is the first time I’ll be performing with The Norwegian Naval Forces Band, so that will be something special. On the a-ha songs I won’t be doing the lead vocals, so I have brought along Martin Halla, who won The Voice in the season I was a mentor. Also Tini, who was part of that same season of The Voice and who sings a duet with me on my latest album, will be part of the concert”

In the interview, Magne also talked about how the events of the world in the last few years, like the pandemic and the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza have affected him, both as a human being and as an artist:

“I have become a grandfather and can’t say I’m too optimistic about what the future holds… But I feel I also have my own responsibilities in that regard. In a band situation there are compromises and more carefullness when it comes to personally motivated messages, but when I’m on my own I can speak about what’s important to me, and use my contacts to get the message across. I’m also far more outspoken, more political and less optimistic in my own lyrics than in the lyrics I’ve written for a-ha. At the same time, I still have hope for the future, because there are many good people who are working hard to come up with good solutions”.