Norsk Musikk
Alright ! Norway !
What have we discovered in Norway ? Well, quite a few things, actually, as you'll see. But first things first.
Also, we already knew a few bands.
Of course, there's A-ah, pretty well known internationally for this one song. But we were also playing some Mods at Etienne's restaurant every time Norwegians were coming by. Everybody was loving it. Good memories.
We also knew a few Folk bands like the Scandinavian trio Huldrelokkk, or other artists like Øyonn Groven Myhren & Anne Hytta, for example. Hey actually Edvar Grieg was Norwegian too!
We won't speak here about Sámi music (we speak about it over there!), even though it obviously has a big importance in the history & culture of the country. That said, some non-Sámi Norwegian artists have been collaborating with some of the great artists we discovered up-North. We're thinking about the fantastic Trondheim String Orchestra that played on Marja Mortensson's album Lååge - Dawn, or the Arctic Philarmonic that played with Manne.
So, now we're in Norway ! Let's discover stuff !
Day two of our Norwegian adventure, we started shazaming songs in the bus, and discovered the very popular and very Pop band Halva Priset. We also discover a relatively big name in Norwegian Folk-rock scene since the 70's, Lillebjørn Nilsen. Pretty nice.
Asking around for what people like, we get some recommendations as Motorpsycho, Rock band that likes blending styles and mixing stuff - some songs sound like Black Sabbath, some like Radiohead -, Raga Rockers, a quite popular Rock band since the 80's with some Punk accents, Dumdum Boys, Trondheim-originated band named after an Iggy Pop song, and Madrugada, a bit more recent, and maybe a bit more open to wider audiences, also because they sing in English.
It seems that, quite generally, when Sweden developed quite a taste for Pop music, Norway developed a music scene clearly more on the Rock side of the spectrum, as we've learn later during our trip.
As we were listening to the local Radio on International Women's Day (March 8th), we got treated by a program going through time, highlighting Women Artists and bands that marked the culture of Norway, in one way or another.
Non-chronologically, and non-exhaustively, we discovered bands like the forgotten Jenteloven, the radically leftist and feminist theatre band Tramteatret, we discovered the 80's Punk Rock band Can Can, and even more 80's Rock band like Veslefrikk and Nøkken.
We heard Jannicke here for the first time as well, a quite popular Swedish-Norwegian Pop-Rock singer that would occasionally sing mixing both languages.
More contemporary, there were bands like N°04, the Pop singers Maria Mena and Bertine Zetlitz,,
Last but definitely not least, we discovered a band called Valkyrien Allstars. They too blend genres, namely Jazz, traditional Folk and Rock music. Really quite good.
And then we arrived in Trondheim. Aaaaand, well, a small disclaimer first. We happen to have visited a museum which was... a little bit too good for this project about Norwegian music.
Rockheim, located in Trondheim, hence the name, is a museum opened in 2010 and solely dedicated to Popular Norwegian music since the 1950's. And it is such an amazing museum, truly impressive. Not only do they have records and archives from so many bands, but they also give so much information regarding the national and global context of the period, additional info about the artists, the conditions of production., historicity of the music in question. All of that in a comprehensive and frankly quite fun manner.
Thumbs up from us, if you happen to be visiting Trondheim, this museum is great.
That said, given that we discovered so many - so many - different band names, this whole article will therefore consist for us in sorting out and eliminate some music to make this compilation coherent and readable, much more than trying to discover bands. Let's see how it goes.
The museum is organized in decades, showcasing influential artists from the ear in question, starting with the 50's : here we heard about Norwegian authors like Alf Prøysen or Otto Nielsen, Folk singer Vidar Sandbeck, or the popular Jens Book-Jensen, and Kurt Foss & Reidar Bøe, amongst many others.
Glossing over the many Elvis copycats, we arrived slowly to the 60's, when bands like Gluntan would start their long career. Glossing over the many many Beatles copycats, we heard there some artists like Wenche Myhre, The Vanguards or Kirsti Sparboe, very very 60's.
In the 70's section we will listen to some Aunt Mary, as well as the previously mentioned LilleBjørn Nilsen; but it really is in the 80's that Norwegian music will start to shine, especially in Rock circles with bands like Jokke & Valentinerne, Lava, DeLillos, the Punk band The Aller Værste! (great name, it means "the very worst!"), as well as many of the bands we mentioned before...
There was as well an interesting sub-exhibition about the underground cassette scene, especially in Punk and alternative circles, were we could listen to some rare / unfindable mixtapes from forgotten bands or collectives such as Ym-Stammen, Brød & Sirkus, Autistiske Barn and the likes. Amazing museum.
And then we came to the 90's and more modern bands. Aaaand there's just too much. For real, litteral thousands of names, we'd need actual years to listen to it.
That actually made this project look a little bit pointless at times. How can one compile the music from one country - let alone multiple countries ? That's just too much, that's just becoming a listing of names, without taking time to listen to them, to incorporate their singularities, what they have to say.
Instead of just listing everything, then, we decided to focus on the bands other people would recommend us. Music we would also hear on the radio, see on posters somewhere. Artists that seemed to be relevant by their presence in our environment, somehow. It's probably not perfect, but hey, that's what we can do.
And here we go !
Electro-Pop bands like Bel Canto and Lemaitre ; Folk band Masåva ; super popular Pop-Folk singer AURORA ; Ballad / Folk-Rock singer Stein Torleif Bjella and musician Thomas Dybahl ; Self described "Alternative Pop Orchestra" MEER and other Alternative Pop-Rock band Lady Friend ; Rock bands like Kaizers Orchestra or The September When with lead singer Morten Abel - and member of cult band Mods; Heavy Metal band Witch Club Satan - Death Metal / Jazz band (yes) Agabas (try it) ; Traditional Folk musicians Ånon Egeland & Mikael Marin : all those things - and many more we cited before - are NICE.