Lindstrøm: Six Cups Of Rebel (6. February 2012)

November 11, 2011Comments Off

Lindstrøm – Six Cups Of Rebel – CD/2XLP (releasedate 6. February)
Bio by Rob Young

Five… four… three… two… one…

With the latest album from dance producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, Norway’s latest entry in the space race has been launched out of the wooded outskirts of Oslo. Six Cups Of Rebel, Lindstrøm’s fourth solo album, is a super-sized cosmic disco rocket that burns up a galaxy of eclectic influences in its wake, from Bach to Deep Purple, from Prog rock and arpeggiator disco to Acid House, while sounding sleek and utterly contemporary. He may worship at the temple of godlike European DJs from the 80s like Daniele Baldelli and Beppe Loda, but the relentless, occasionally monumental scale of Six Cups Of Rebel has the power to move mountains all by itself.

From the opening “No Release” – a five-minute coitus interruptus of cascading cathedral organ – to the pumping Detroit pistons of “Call Me Anytime” and the wah-wah stabs and fizzing 808 basslines of the title track, Six Cups Of Rebel acts like a star map of Lindstrøm’s own voyage to the outer limits of electronic music. When he holds back, as on the ten-minute “Hina”, it’s only to let rip with added propulsion, like a satellite using a planet’s orbit to push it to the next level.

In the Lindstrøm discography stretching back to 2003, albums tend to be a small interruption in a constant stream of remixes and 12”s (including one, under the anonymous moniker Six Cups Of Rebel, on the Feedelity label in 2005). He forms part of a constellation of Nordic producers that includes Diskjokke, Todd Terje and Bjørn Torske, Prins Thomas, He also regularly collaborates with fellow Norwegian space disco wizard Prins Thomas, whose self-titled album received much acclaim last year.

But is the ‘cosmic disco’ label a medallion or a millstone? “If ‘cosmic’ means music without any limits, I don’t mind being discussed in these terms,” says Lindstrøm. “I guess my definition of ‘cosmic’ comes from listening to mixtapes from Daniele Baldelli, Beppe Loda and other ‘cosmic’ DJs. And what is typical of the music that these tapes consist of, is a wide range of diversity, both in musical style, sound and genre. I leave it to other people to label/tag my music this or that, but it’s true that these legendary tapes has been a massive inspiration for me over the years. I really believe in mixing up everything, and having no respect for the traditional way of doing things.”

One major innovation on Six Cups Of Rebel is the use of vocals, a first for Lindstrøm. On “De Javu” it mutters about “that feeling that you’ve been here before” – an uncanny sensation that echoes his own music. There’s “Magik”, with its eccentric falsetto call and response, and the sarcastic laughter in “Six Cups Of Rebel”.

Lindstrøm: “I have to admit that the decision of including vocals has been with mixed feelings. I’m no vocalist, but I wanted to include my own voice this time. I’ve been trying out different approaches on how the inclusion of vocals would sound ‘right’ for the music. In the end, I decided that everything was allowed, including pitching, stretching and all kinds of voice-processing and manipulation. The vocals here isn’t the most important element, but just another part of the music, as important as the cowbell, the ARP Solina string synthesizer or the free-running arpeggios. Lyrically, I’ve been more interested in repeating mantras, simple repeating sentences without any other meaning than what’s being actual said or sung. Might sound stupid for others, but makes perfect sense to me.”

Unusually for a dance album, it’s introduced with a grand swell of mighty church organ, an aching tension-builder that refuses drop th beat for a tantaslising five minutes. “I initially planned to do this live in a church somewhere,” says Lindstrøm, “but I really like that semi-natural feeling you get when combining MIDI-organs together as one big-sounding artificial church organ. So I ended up doing it in my studio instead.”
He cites the likes of Jon Lord, whose gnarly organs gave so much classical flavour to the early Deep Purple. “I wanted to give the opening track that ‘larger than life’ feeling, similar to how I remember those old Heavy Metal albums from my youth. And nothing is larger than a church organ…”

“Quiet Place” is the album’s other major curveball: an eccentric club banger that pleads, “All I want is a quiet place to live”… Not the normal sentiments of a man who spends much of his life rocking international dancefloors. “It’s just a simple desire to live somewhere quiet,” he says. “Nothing fancy. In fact, I do have a cabin in the woods just outside of Oslo that’s being used for recreation, and growing of vegetables and fruit trees. And I don’t find that too weird for a dance track. I mean, who hasn’t been to a disco, dancing to boring music, wishing for someplace else? I do that all the time.”

In fact, for an audio astronaut, this music’s maker is surprisingly down to earth, a family man turning out his music from a factory floor-type existence. “Well, I don’t believe in sitting up all night drinking and waiting for that special moment of inspiration. I’m working every day at the studio, nine to four, and I’m totally happy with a straight lifestyle. Being away on tour for more than four days makes me uncomfortable and grumpy. In fact I usually get homesick before I leave home. I love Mondays, and discovering that everything is just as I left it on Friday afternoon…”

It’s not rocket science: Six Cups Of Rebel might just be the finest dance record of 2011.

Mungolian Jetset: Moon Jocks N Prog Rocks 12″ (29. November)

November 8, 2010Comments Off

This 12“ is a limited edition version of 500 copies, no repress.
It will not be released digitally.
This is the first single taken from the album „Schlongs“ that will be released in May 2011.

A dude of southern Norwegian origin once said this: “Anyone can make a piece of art, but disco is for gods”. Whether you find any truth in that or not, one thing is for sure, the new single by the printer-galactic troopers of Mungol is one hell of a ride through the sonic wonders of discofied art involving one dude`s rather merciless meeting with the (un)godly. It only happens occasionally, but it DOES happen. You`ve probably heard rumors, or read about it somewhere. Maybe it even happened to YOU? With “Moon Jocks n Prog Rocks”, Mungolian Jetset have put it – literally – on the record: abductions by beatmongering disco aliens with prog-rock fetishes are on the rise, sometimes with hilariously fatal consequences, such as this tale of one unfortunate individual`s meeting with the more funky forces of the Cosmos. Well, the story is as hilarious as it is epic, and musically is one of the more grandiose sounding pieces of dance music that will be released this year. This is Mungolian Jetset`s rather gloriously zonked-out tribute to every major disco act of the late seventies with all it takes: feet-altering basslines, holistic fanfares, ethereal synths, alien voices, earthly vocals, chunky brass, and enough drum breakdowns to make The Muppets’ Animal blush, all brought to you in disco friendly full-on 13 minutes. The second track on this vinyl, the satellite to “Moon Jocks n Prog Rocks”, is “Moonstruck”. Many Mungolian scientists have long hypothesized that this orbiting satellite was original part of the “Moon Jocks” cycle, while other says it is simply an independent planetoid that fell into the orbit when Babylonia Jones did her monthly twang. Whatever the truth is, we do know that this track contains dense deposits of prog ore (as in prog whore), alongside substantial amounts of groovinium and funketonium and significant amounts of naturally occurring dub alloys. A particularly lecherous listener has described the track as “just plain wet, where`s the umbrella?” which somewhat goes along with one of the Mungolian`s music-makers rather demystifying comments: “Nah – it`s just us pretending that we`re in Weather Report or some fusion-ilk like that”

Lindstrøm & Christabelle: Real Life Is No Cool (out now)

October 29, 2010Comments Off

After the release of Lindstrøm’s critically acclaimed solo album Where You Go I Go Too, in 2008 and 2009`s collaborative album with Prins Thomas, II, Norway’s maestro of disco returns once again. This time he teams up with sultry vocalist Christabelle, to bring us Real Life Is No Cool, an edgy pop album of structured chaos and hypnotic beats.

Hans-Peter Lindstrøm actually began work on Real Life Is No Cool before Where You Go I Go Too, it just so happened WYGIGT was finished first. It was his work on this new album, containing 10 short pop songs with vocals, which became the impetus behind creating the epic and colossal masterpiece, WYGIGT (with only 3 long tracks and a opening track clocking in at 28 minutes). Essentially, WYGIGT was a kind of reaction to his work on Real Life Is No Cool. When WYGIGT began making waves around the world, Lindstrøm went back into his studio to complete Real Life Is No Cool.

Christabelle (also known as Solale to Lindstrøm followers) has been working on and off with Lindstrøm since 2001. Their relationship began when she immediately fell in love with his sound after hearing her brother Dennis (a friend of Lindstrøm) play some of his tracks at home. Upon listening, she proceeded to lay down vocals on some of his tracks, and her brother then delivered them to Lindstrøm. His first impression was, “Wow! This sounds totally fresh, wild and quirky”. A meeting was set up and the two found a common ground. ”We found out that we shared many of the same musical references, such as Motown, Grace Jones, 80s soul, Vanity 6, etc.” says Lindstrøm. “We even tried to make a cover of Zapp`s ‘Computer Love’. This meeting led to a collaboration resulting in two 12”s — 2003’s “Music In My Mind” and 2005’s “Let’s Practice” (then under the name Lindstrøm and Solale). They never planned on making an album together, but the collaboration slowly evolved into a collection of songs that ended up becoming Real Life Is No Cool. (The title is a line taken from the album track ‘Keep It Up’ — a track about violent relationships.)

Christabelle, whose full name is Christabelle Silje Isabelle Birgitta Sandoo, was born in 1981 to a Norwegian mother and a father from Mauritius (an island in the Indian ocean) in Oslo, Norway. Her father is a musician and music teacher, her mother a vocalist, and her brother a drummer. “All my life I have been surrounded by music, musicians, and instruments, so it was kind of obvious that I would also make music”. She started working with some of the best producers in Norway, but got off to on the wrong foot as she soon rebelled against their slick sound and attitude. As she said, “There was simply no room for going crazy and having fun, and I didn’t want to sell my nomad soul”. One of the things that attracted Lindstrøm was this rebellion against being “produced”. He would just let Christabelle do what she was inspired to do – she found room for improvisation and was able to let herself loose working with him. She created most of the lyrics on the spot, while the two were jamming, and recorded half of the tracks’ vocals at home and on her own, using a simple Shure SM55 “elvis”-mic, which gave her vocals an intimate and raw character. Lindstrøm would then edit and produce the jams later. Christabelle was not into the house music that Lindstrøm was into at the time, which forced him to think differently. The result was a more loose and improvised sound than what Lindstrøm had done before.

Lindstrøm calls their collaboration “structured chaos”, him being the structure and Christabelle bringing the chaos. This chaos is also very much a part of Christabelle`s personal life. She has always been a nomad — impulsive and restless, she’s a self-described “on-the-road girl”. She moved to London when she was 16, and, since then, has lived in Paris, Marseille, Mauritius, and Stockholm. She now lives in Oslo. She is, in many ways, the total opposite of Lindstrøm, who lives a quiet family life and makes disco nine to five, Monday to Friday, traveling to play one gig a month so that he can have time with his family.

Real Life Is No Cool is a meeting of these two different personalities.

Bjørn Torske: Kokning (15. Nov)

September 13, 2010Comments Off

Bjorn Torske is a special artist with a special name. He was born in northern Norway where fishing has been the main industry for hundreds of years and his name literally translates as “Bear Cod”. Even making dinner is unique in Norway: you put the potatoes on to boil, go out to sea and catch a fish, then return to prepare the meal…This process is known as “kokning”. To say that northern Norwegians do things their own way would be putting it lightly…To say that Bjorn Torske is making music his own way would be exactly right.

Kokning was conceived between the release of Feil Knapp and the beginning of 2010. Through series of studio sessions of experimenting with different sounds; instruments, objects of different textures, whose sounds were played within different spaces of various acoustics. The results were then edited into basic rhythm tracks which then were overdubbed with new series of recordings in similar manner. The album it involves more organic/ acoustic sound basics and less programmed patterns than Feil Knapp.

Since Feil Knapp he has been working on a number of remixes for other artists, including Sunburned Hand of the Man, Lindstrøm, Crimea X, Big Robot feat. Conrad Schnitzler etc. Also working with music and soundscapes for a stage production, as well as touring with my own band, Bjørn Torske Band.

Kokning starts out beautifully. It’s both melodic and melancholic with a warm, slow ambiance. Soft psychedelics and a Balearic rhythm are introduced before it fades into Torske’s signature skrangle-house* and then ends with what can only be described as “Moondog disco” (imagine if Moondog and Count Ossie got together to make disco).

Kokning is Torske’s most fulfilled album and by far his best. This release takes avant-disco, weirdo-dub, post-punk, and quirky electronica — all elements found on his previous albums (Nedi Myra / Ferox, 1999, Trøbbel / Telle, 2001, Feil Knapp / Smalltown Supersound, 2007) — and mixes them into the ultimate Bjørn Torske album.

The first 12” from the album will feature a remix by DJ Harvey. The cover for the album is made by Kim Hiorthøy.

* Along with the late Erot, Bjørn Torske invented a genre known as “skrangle-house” (“rattle house” direct translated from Norwegian) and translates as a bit of everything from dub to disco, jammed within a resonate floor-friendly house pulse. This four-four Scando-movement began at Oslo venue Skansen, inspired by club regulars The Idjut Boys, and the term “skrangle-house” was henceforth associated with Torske and Erot. Torske’s underground hit “Søppelmann” (Svek) quickly became the skrangle-house anthem and the movement later became the foundation for the next generation of space disco artists such as Lindstrøm, Todd Terje, Prins Thomas, and Diskjokke.

Bjørn Torske Biography:
Bjørn Torske comes from Tromsø, a small area north of the artic circle and the capital of Norway’s electronic music scene. This town has bred great artists such as Mental Overdrive, Biosphere, and Royksopp. Torske was put in touch with SSR/Crammed Discs in Belgium through Geir Jenssen, and in 1991 he appeared on two separate 12″ singles on the label. From there, Dutch label Djax-Up-Beats picked up on the talented young Norwegian, and in the following years Torske released a string of underground 12″ singles on Djax-Up-Beats, as well as Reinforced Records, run by Mark & Dego of 4Hero.

The early 90’s found Torske in Bergen playing synthesizer in Biosphere’s live shows and touring with Geir Jenssen. After releasing an album on Djax-Up-Beats in 1995, Torske concentrated on DJing for a couple of years, releasing only one single on Per Martinsen’s Love OD label. His hiatus did have a noticeable impact, when “Fleet” became a club hit in Amsterdam and was pumped regularly by DJs Dimitri and Derrick May. Eventually Ferox’s Russ Gabriel was introduced to Torske’s music and an on-the-spot phone call led to the release of Nedi Myra in 1999.

Back in Norway, Röyksopp’s Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland followed Torske’s lead and moved from Tromsø to Bergen. New acts, clubs, and labels were emerging, transforming the otherwise sleepy university town on Norway’s west coast to the hippest place to be. Meanwhile, Torske had begun releasing singles through prestigious house label SVEK and on Bergen’s own Tellé Records and released “Disco Members” (2000, Tellé Records) and “Aerosoles” (2000,SVEK). In the same period, Torske produced his next album, Trøbbel (Tellé Records, 2001), as well as remixing his studio-partner’s Røyksopp`s first hit single “Eple”. Torske also toured Europe with Royksopp in the spring of 2002, but soon after he went underground for a few years. When Prins Thomas was asked: “What is the most desirable artist to sign, if money grew on trees?” by Fact Magazine, his answer was: “if I could lure him out of his cave for a second, I wouldn’t mind getting some new stuff from Bjorn Torske”. Thankfully, Smalltown Supersound managed to lure him out of that cave to return with the critically acclaimed Feil Knapp album in 2007.

Arp: The Soft Wave (out now)

September 13, 2010Comments Off

You can buy the CD and LP here

When ARP’s In Light came out in late 2007, it stood out, marrying an eye–catching prismatic pop art/New Age aesthetic with glowing exercises in coastal analog synth minimalism, appealing to fans of Krautrock, avant pop, cosmic, Balaeric, drone, and those generally inclined towards minimalism. The artwork (with hand–drawn neon text by artist Tauba Auerbach) simultaneously evoked Ed Ruscha, Harmonia’s Deluxe and the otherworldly sunset in Eric Rohmer’s film The Green Ray.

In the intervening years, Alexis Georgopoulos, the man behind the music, hasn’t stood still. After all, this is someone who’s released 10 albums and as many singles in various incarnations over the past 7 years on labels such as DFA, RVNG INTL, Troubleman Unlimited, Lo, Rong, Type, Root Strata,Eskimo, and Deitch Projects, to name a few.
Recorded as Georgopoulos relocated from San Francisco to New York, The Soft Wave is expansive in scope, unfolding like a collection of short stories or filmic vignettes, each piece building upon the other. Whereas In Light was made with only vintage analog synthesizers, The Soft Wave incorporates guitars, piano, flute, and Ebows to create a dense brocade of sound. Georgopoulos even steps up to the mic for the gorgeous centerpiece “From A Balcony Overlooking The Sea”, calling to mind classic John Cale and Brian Eno along the way. Though Georgopoulos still has a knack for creating environments in which you want to recline, hammock–style, he’s also peppered The Soft Wave with soft blasts of blissed–out fuzz. Recorded to 2–inch tape, it’s warm glow and blown–out formalism will undoubtedly appeal to a broad, sophisticated range of tastes.
Leading up to the release of The Soft Wave, Georgopoulos composed his first score for modern dance in Replica, a duet between Merce Cunningham andTrisha Brown dancers, which debuted at New York’s New Museum. He played a live score to artist Doug Aitken’s film Migration at 303 Gallery (New York), participated in the Boredoms-curated 8.8.08 88-drummer extravaganza in Los Angeles, and remixed Lindstrøm. His music was featured in directorGary Hurstwit’s film Objectified. He also made music in Q&A (formerly Expanding Head Band), his new DFA project with partner Quinn Luke, and his band The Alps released two albums III & Le Voyage (Type) to critical acclaim. ARP shared bills with Cluster on the coast of Big Sur, Sonic Boom, White Rainbow, Four Tet, Lucky Dragons, Growing, and Wooden Ships, among others. The track “Potentialities” from In Light was recently featured on James Holden’s DJ KICKS. Most recently, he released FRKWYS Volume III, a collaborative album with minimalist composer Anthony Moore, as part of RVNG’s new FRKWYS series. The duo recently performed with a string section as part of New York City’s Wordless Music Festival.

The 12-inch single Pastoral Symphony will be released in August and will feature remixes by Swedish luminaries Studio (Information), Carl Craig chumEtienne Jaumet (Domino) and Mauve Deep, the alias of visual artist Keegan Mchargue (Metro Pictures).

The Soft Wave tracklisting:
01 Pastoral Symphony: I. Dominoes II. Infinity Room
02 White Light
03 Alfa (Dusted)
04 Catch Wave
05 High Life
06 Grapefruit
07 Summer Girl
08 From A Balcony Overlooking The Sea
09 Silver Clouds

THE PRESS ABOUT IN LIGHT:

“Georgopoulos has a very specific vibe in mind for Arp, and he uses whatever works; though a small, simple record on the one hand, In Light, on its own terms, is a big success. The sort of thing I hope becomes a trend in electronic music.” – Pitchfork

“Arp’s no-overdub/analog-gear approach to electronic music and his solemn devotion to less-is-more composition ensure that In Light emits a sun-dappled warmth, evoking an eternal dawn of optimism.” – XLR8R

“A pristine, organic electronic journey through vintage arts past. . . a piercingly beautiful series of tracks that seamlessly wed nature with machine” – Filter

“There’s been a resurgence of arty ambient music on the West Coast lately, with groups like Arp, White Rainbow, and Lucky Dragons foregrounding pastoral synths and loops. Georgopoulos (aka ARP) has been a tastemaker.” — Flavorpill

“Contagious . . . Cosmic Dream Pop.” – Anthem

“Shimmering. 9/10″ – Vice

“Top 20 Underground Albums of the Year” – Uncut

K-X-P: K-X-P (out now)

July 31, 2010Comments Off

Out now on CD and download.
You can buy the CD here

K-X-P is a drums, bass and synth trio from Helsinki, Finland, born out of the fire and ashes of the seminal Op:l Bastards and The Lefthanded, both of which were led by Timo Kaukolampi. The band is comprised of Timo Kaukolampi (electronics, vocals), Tuomo Puranen (bass and keyboards) and rotating drummers Anssi Nykänen and Tomi Leppanen. The band mixes electronics, krautrock, noise, and even rockabilly into a hypnotic and minimal motorik groove inspired by Raymond Scott, Moondog and Martin Rev, and remindful of Spacemen 3, This Heat, 23 Skidoo, Suicide and NEU!.

The musical background of K-X-P’s members varies wildly, ranging from the disco-idiotism-turned-into-spiritual-hide-and-seek of Op:l Bastards, to the fusion and free jazz explorations of Pekka Pohjola, of which Anssi Nykänen was a member, and Jimi Tenor, in which Tuomo Puranen played, to the Kraftwerk-ish visions and East European soulscapes of Tomi Leppanen’s former band, Aavikko. Timo Kaukolampi is possibily best known as Annie’s main producer and co-writer; he’s the individual who connected Annie with Smalltown Supersound and led to STSS releasing her 2009 album, Don’t Stop.

K-X-P initially began to form in 2006 when Timo gave Smalltown Supersound some demos of a new project he was working on. Smalltown Supersound’s Joakim Haugland was completely blown away and in an effort to convince the not-yet-formed band to become an official unit, he booked them a gig in Oslo in 2007. Gradually forming around very loosely organized studio sessions based on Timo Kaukolampi’s programmed ideas, the Finns turned into the groove entity that is now K-X-P. The self-titled album was finally delivered to Smalltown Supersound in December of 2009.

Glasgow’s Optimo has been a strong supporter of the band from the beginning. Before K-X-P finished recording the new album, Optimo remixed their “18 Hours of Love”. He has also invited the band to be one of the final performers to play at his legendary Sunday club in Glasgow, Subclub, in late April 2010.

Drivan: Disko (out now)

July 31, 2010Comments Off

Releasedate 18. August 2010 on CD, limited edition LP and download.
You can buy the CD and LP (on white vinyl) from our mailorder here

Drivan is a new band by Kim Hiorthøy, consisting of Kim, Swedes Lisa Östberg and Louise Peterhoff of Sweden, and Kristiina Viiala of Finland. The group met in Stockholm in the fall of 2007 while working together on a multi-faceted dance piece by choreographer and performance artist Gunilla Heilborn, entitled The Potato Country. The moving, yet humorous performance piece incorporated spoken word and songs written by Hiorthøy, which were fleshed out with the help of his new collaborators. Upon the completion of its run in Stockholm, Hiorthøy asked Lisa, Louise, and Kristiina if they would be interested in collaborating further.

In early 2008 the group met in Skåne in the south of Sweden, where they worked on initial sketches and tracks in the remote house and studio of Bebbe Risenfors. New songs were written and subsequently recorded in Stockholm during the fall of that year and spring of 2009. Most of the tracks on the finished album, Disko, began their evolution as a Kim Hiorthøy loop, eventually being built upon by all the collaborators. Drivan is a group first and foremost, with everyone cooperating on lyrics and melodies, and although there are flourishes of Hiorthøy’s signature sound, the recordings’ folk-oriented and organic feel has the band drawing more from Swedish folk and prog of the 70s, as well as Stina Nordenstam’s People Are Strange album.

Sung entirely in Swedish, a lot of the songs on Disko revolve around themes of collectivity and the salvation of something through destruction. Although some of the meaning is lost in translation, lyrics like “If you lose your memory, I will lie about everything in your life” and “Everything we did/we’ll do it better later” resound as clearly in English as they do in Swedish. The lyrics to the opening track, “Som en Läderlapp”, which can roughly be translated to “Like a piece of leather”, take some inspiration from “Bat Out of Hell” by Meat Loaf. (“Läderlapp” was also the original Swedish name given to Batman when the comic was first published there).

Backgrounds:
Kim Hiorthøy is based in both Berlin and Oslo, but has mostly lived in Berlin over the last couple of years. Extraordinarily talented and a veritable jack-of-all-trades, Kim operates in many different artistic fields in addition to music. He’s released three albums – Hei in 2000, Melke (a collection of remixes, 7 inches, rarities and unreleased tracks) in 2002, and 2007’s My Last Day, as well as several singles and EPs. As a graphic designer he is responsible for the album artwork of Rune Grammofon and many Smalltown Supersound releases. He’s an artist represented by Standard Oslo (www.standardoslo.no) and a writer published by Norway’s Oktober Forlag, who published Kim’s Du kan ikke svikte din beste venn og bli god til å synge samtidig. He released a design book called Tree Weekend with Germany’s Die Gestalten Verlag, a book of photography in Japan, and a book of drawings entitled Alt Fins,. Additionally, Kim has illustrated several children’s books. Kim has worked in film as a photographer, having shot the acclaimed Norwegian movies Kroppen Min and Ungdommens Raskap, as a video director for the concert film Supersilent7, and as a filmmaker, having just debuted as a director/screenwriter on the Swedish/Norwegian co-production, Hur Man Gor.

Lisa Östberg, Louise Peterhoff, and Kristiina Viiala all have backgrounds in the performing arts and work in a variety of capacities; Lisa is currently acting in a feature-film she also co-wrote, Louise is touring with a Belgian dance and theatre company and preparing to start rehearsals to perform works by August Strindberg with a theatre in Stockholm in the fall. Kristiina is collaborating with Mattias Fransson from the Swedish comedy group Klungan as well working with Gunilla Heilborn, the director of The Potato Country, on her new piece.

Diskjokke: En Fin Tid (out now)

June 24, 2010Comments Off

Out now on CD, LP and download
You can buy the CD and the LP from our mailorder here

Diskjokke delivers another trippy mastodon of epic prog disco with his new album, En Fin Tid. At once hypnotic, stomping and futuristic, the new record maintains this aesthetic without sacrificing melody or subtlety. The album flows like a journey in sound, with each song seamlessly drifting into the next. Whereas Diskjokke’s debut album, Staying In, was a collection of songs made over many years, En Fin Tid was created with the intention of being released as a complete album, lending itself to an evident continuity. The album, recorded and entirely self-produced in Diskjokke’s new studio, draws its inspiration from Holger Czukay’s mid 80s period, Brian Eno, Arthur Russell, European disco, Allan Parsons, Tangerine Dream, Arthur Lyman and Craig Leon.

En Fin Tid, which means “a happy time” in Norwegian, refers to the period in which the album was written and recorded. Since the release of Staying In, many of Diskjokke’s dreams have come true – he now focuses on music full time (as opposed to Staying In, which was recorded in the midst of studying), he performs at the clubs where he always aspired to play, and most importantly, has become a father. Additionally, Diskjokke has become a much sought-after remixer. He’s made quite a name for himself with his distinctive, dubby blend of house, italo and disco remixes. In 2009, Diskjokke released Discolated, a compilation of remixes for Lykke Li, Bloc Party, Foals, Metronomy and more. Since then he’s released remixes of Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, The xx’s “Basic Space,” the “Rosenrød” 7” for Moshi Moshi’s singles clu,b and a handful of 12”s for Prins Thomas’ Full Pupp label. He’s currently working on a remix for Allan Parsons.

The 28 year old Diskjokke (aka Joachim Dyrdahl) was raised in Svelvik, a small town southwest of Oslo with 5,000 inhabitants, but presently lives in Oslo. He’s a classically trained violinist, which he has played since he was five years old; classical music has always been, and continues to be, an important part of his life. Joachim became interested in electronic music at the age of 15 when he discovered Norwegian DJ legend Olle Abstract`s radio show, and he’s been hooked ever since. Joachim has studied mathematics for eight years, but his studies have been put on hold as he is now focusing on music full time. Together with friends Prins Thomas, Todd Terje and Lindstrøm, Diskjokke is one of the mainstays in Oslo’s pulsing disco scene. His first break came, in part, thanks to Prins Thomas, who released three tracks on his Full Pupp label. At the same time M.A.N.D.Y, DJ T, and the Get Physical gang in Germany released five other tracks and two 12″s on their label Kindish. Now Diskjokke releases albums on Norway’s Smalltown Supersound, the label behind his debut full-length, Staying In.

Diskjokke Online: