Posts Tagged ‘morten harket’

Morten preparing new solo album? (UPDATED)

According to the website of 140dB Management, UK producer Steve Osborne is “about to start work on a solo album for Morten Harket”.

Exactly when this was posted and how far along they are in the process is not known.

Osborne previously worked with a-ha as a producer, mixer and musician on the Foot Of The Mountain album in 2009. He also did alternate mixes of “Nothing Is Keeping You Here” and, most recently, “Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)”.

 

Update: The solo album info has now been removed from the 140db Management website.

In a message sent out to several fans, 140db Management writes the following:

“Steve is not currently doing any work with Morten. Unfortunately that is an error at this stage and nothing has taken place. One of our interns got over excited and has placed that on a page as he has been updating our website and assumed this project is happening. At this stage nothing has happened or is actually confirmed.

You can definitely pass the word as there is nothing going on at the moment. Of course that may change in the future but our official comment is that nothing is happening at the present time. Steve is currently working on a band from New York called Glint.”

(Thanks to “greeneyedgirl” and Carlos)

a-ha perform at National Memorial Ceremony

a-ha performed “Stay On These Roads” together with The Norwegian Radio Orchestra as part of the National Memorial Ceremony at Oslo Spektrum today, to remember the victims of the July 22nd attacks.

With them on stage they also had Karl Oluf Wennerberg on drums and Erik Ljunggren on keyboard. The song was arranged for orchestra by Kjetil Bjerkestrand.

If you missed the live broadcast, a-ha’s performance can be seen here. The whole 2-hour ceremony is available at nrk.no.

Morten sings in Vennesla

Morten and various family members singing at the Haydom fundraiser in 2007. His father Reidar by the piano.

Morten was in Vennesla in Southern Norway on Sunday, August 14th, to sing Christian hymns together with Harket Mannssangforening (The Harket Men’s Choir) at the annual fundraiser meeting to support Haydom Lutheran Hospital in Tanzania.

Morten has performed at this event a number of times in recent years (see August 10th, 2009 news update). He first joined the choir in 2003, after his uncle Kjell passed away.

“This choir is a continuation of a quartet that my father and other relatives had many years ago. Now we have taken this up again. Our only scheduled appearance is singing at this Haydom fundraiser”, Morten told newspaper Vårt Land when he performed at the same event in 2007.

“The history of Haydom is a story about an impressive effort done by idealistic people. With limited means they have managed to build a hospital that’s become important to a lot of people. If I, with my voice, can do something to support this work, I’m there”, he added.

No reports or pictures from this year’s event have appeared in the local press so far.

Morten at Bislett Games

Morten was in the audience at the annual Bislett Games track and field event in Oslo last night, where the highlight of the evening was Usain Bolt’s 200m victory with 19.86 seconds.

Interviewed in NRK’s broadcast from Bislett, Morten said:

“It’s fun to be here. Usually I haven’t been able to attend, but this year I jumped at the chance. I’m here with a whole group, a lot of family, so it’s really fun.”

Morten also said that within the world of sports, track and field is what has interested him the most. Although he hasn’t competed much himself.

The short interview with Morten can be seen on NRK’s web-TV here (starts after 5.40 minutes – and only available within Norway).

Update: I have now uploaded the interview on YouTube here.

Morten on Skavlan

 

Morten appeared on the Norwegian/Swedish talkshow Skavlan last night. He was the first guest and sat through the whole hour.

Other guests on the talkshow, which was taped in Stockholm on Thursday, were Arja Saijonmaa, David Garrett, Lykke Li and Yusuf Islam.

The interview centred around a-ha memories, like the Maracana concert in 1991, life as a celebrity and his knowledge as a teenager that he would one day become a international singer.

Talking about the relations between the band members in recent years, Morten said:

“The last two years have been intense. We have simply been working quite a lot. It’s been more brutal when it comes to disagreements between us, where we have taken decisions that we didn’t do before. So what separates the last two years from all previous years is that it’s become a much more binary process. We have just moved on without caring if one of us doesn’t want to, as long as the other two wants to. It’s become a more brutal process in that sense, and that’s been healthy. It’s meant that we’ve been able to follow through on our decisions to a larger extent. Imagine if we’d been able to do that before!”

Apparently there are many offers coming in about different projects, but he wouldn’t say much about future plans:

“I refuse to say what I’m planning to do in the year ahead, at least at this point. But I consider it very likely that I’ll keep singing. I haven’t quit doing music.”

The whole interview can be seen on SVT’s web-TV here.
It’s also available on NRK’s web-TV here.

Morten in Berlin

 

Morten has been in Berlin this week, to promote the live DVD.

On Thursday, March 24th, he was a guest on Radio Berlin. A video clip of the full interview can be seen at radioberlin.de. There is also a picture gallery on the same website.

He was also interviewed on WDR2 radio. A part of the interview can be heard at wdr2.de.

In the evening he appeared at the Echo Awards show, to present the award in the “Best international female artist” category. The winner was Amy Macdonald and a video clip of Morten presenting the award can be seen on YouTube here.

Then on Friday, he made a surprise appearance at an a-ha.com fan party which featured a full screening of the new live DVD.

 

Next Friday, April 1st, Morten will be one of the guests on Skavlan – the most watched television talk show in Northern Europe. Skavlan is broadcast on NRK1 in Norway and on SVT1 in Sweden. Morten has appeared on Fredrik Skavlan’s talk show twice before, in 2002 and 2003.

Morten: – Life after a-ha is exciting

“Queen goes a long way back for me”, Morten said at the premiere of “We Will Rock You”.
(Picture by Heiko Junge/Scanpix)

Morten and Inez attended the Oslo premiere of the Queen-musical “We Will Rock You” at Folketeatret tonight.

Freddie Mercury’s style of singing was a major influence on Morten as a teenager, and he’s been known to perform songs like “Love Of My Life” and “Killer Queen” on several occasions.

“Freddie Mercury was one of the vocalists I tried to sound like when I first started singing“, Morten told Dagbladet on the red carpet.

“He hit me when I was around 15-16, during a period when I was really developing [as a singer], and I walked the streets trying to sing like him and Johnny Cash. That’s how I became what I am.”

Morten was also asked about his current plans after a-ha.

“What I’m going to do now? The possibilities are endless. But reality itself sets the limits, you could say that being creative is about setting certain limits.”

“The end of a-ha is not sad at all“, he added in a short interview with TV2. “It’s great to have the time to do something different“.

Morten is also interviewed in this video clip on VGTV.

Original Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor also attended the premiere in Oslo, and May was expected to perform at the end of the show.

Hits 2010 book

Hits 2010 - book cover

Book cover

Norsk Noteservice, a Norwegian publisher of music books, recently published Hits 2010 – the latest in an annual series of books featuring some of the biggest Norwegian and international hits from the last year, complete with tabs and chords for guitar and keyboard, as well as lyrics.

a-ha’s final single “Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)” is among the 36 songs that can be found in the book. “Den Stilleste Timen”, the charity single for Haiti that featured Morten on vocals, is also included.

And as you can see, Morten is on the cover of the book.

Hits 2010 can be ordered from Norwegian online book stores such as Haugen Bok, Bokkilden or directly from the publisher at Notebutikken.no.

 

Speaking of books; don’t forget to pre-order Just Loomis’ new a-ha photobook, which will include a foreword written by Magne.

The book can be ordered from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, with a March 31st publishing date.

Oslo press conference

Morten at the press conference

Morten at the press conference

Morten held a press conference in Oslo on Friday, to talk about the upcoming concert in Oslo Konserthus on 4 October, where all the proceedings will go to the Christian organization Mercy Ships.

Also present was Lord Ian McColl, medical surgeon and chairman of Mercy Ships UK, who has done volunteer work for the organization since 1996.

Morten first heard about Mercy Ships one year ago, when a cabin neighbour told him about it. The neighbour, Erling Natvig, turned out to be the chairman of Mercy Ships Norway.

“I couldn’t understand that I hadn’t heard about this fantastic project before. Therefore the most important thing about this concert is to spread the word about Mercy Ships“, Morten says.

“They take care of people with limited resources, and heal them. It’s an impressive work.”

For the concerts in Oslo and London, a-ha will be backed by 30 musicians from Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.

“This won’t be an ordinary charity show, where the program has been put together at the last minute. The audience will get to hear our whole debut album, “Hunting High And Low”, in a unique concert“, Morten says.

Links:
TV2: a-ha synger for sykehuskip i Afrika (with video clip)
Dagbladet: Morten Harkets giver-iver
VG: a-ha gir bort billettpenger til flytende sykehus
Dagen Magazinet: Harket hyller Mercy Ships

“It’s our gift to the audience”

Kristiansand, September 7th

Kristiansand, September 7th

Magne and Morten were in Kristiansand yesterday to promote a-ha’s last ever stadium/outdoor concert.

Fædrelandsvennen has a video interview here, while Radio Sør has an audio interview here.

There was also a TV report on NRK Sørlandet, which can be seen here (starts after 7.45 minutes).

Magne: “We’re now ending the most grandiose stadium tour in Norwegian history in Kristiansand on Saturday, so that will be a special concert for us and it will be very special for those who are coming to see it as well.

We have lots of friends and family down here, so it will be really cool to put on a real show at Sør Arena. We have brought along the world’s most amazing stage production and I think people’s jaws will drop. There’s never been anything like it in Norway and I don’t think any other band besides us could have done the same. And I don’t think anyone would have been crazy enough to pay for such a big production for so few shows. You need to tour for a year in order to pay for a production like this. It’s our gift to the audience.”

13.500 tickets have been sold for the Kristiansand concert so far. The rigging of the stage is being streamed live here.

 
And here’s a new interview with director Steve Barron about the “Butterfly” video:
promonews.tv

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