by:Larm 2012: ane brun

i took some time off from everyday life to travel to oslo. visit friends, see an opera, volunteer for by:Larm once again. by:Larm is the perfect rock/pop/music festival for me: it is very well organised, takes extremely good care of their volunteers, everything is indoors, and the concerts are so short that it doesn't matter if one or two of them are not as expected - you can just leave to see something else.

one of my best moments there was the beginning of ane brun's show at kulturkirken jakob. together with magnus renfors (who had earlier worked together with roy andersson on "du levande"), she had produced "one", a short film musical based on four of her new songs, which had premiered a little earlier this year at gothenburg international film festival. the film was screened on a reflective glass plate standing in front of jakob kirke's old altar painting. the juxtaposition of the film's bleak aesthetics to the dark, warm colours of the painting made the experience quite magical, intensified by the church's wonderful acoustics.

you could say that the film shows a poetic circus, with bleak colours and strange props. it circles around suffering and death, but also the wonders of life and creativity. her video for "do you remember" is part of the film:



if you ever have the chance to see "one" as a whole, i heartily recommend it.

the melody festival

every year, my favourite person in the world and i sit down and watch at least one of the many episodes of the swedish songcompetition "melodifestivalen", when sweden votes for their contribution to the grand prix d'eurovision. also, it has become a tradition for us to find fault with each and every song and band and of course to make fun of them. after all, most of what is on offer might as well be classified as to trigger acute ear cancer.

however, every now and then we face the problem of - fasten your seatbelts - a nice or even great song! something we actually could imagine to put onto our spotify-playlist!

this year it was a song that might not be the best in the world, but it really makes me happy. so happy that every time i hear it i start loughing because it is so hilarious and funny. and sweet:



i mean, really - those dancers with their trumpets and pretty mod dresses! and the video in the background, the clapping hands and dancing mushrooms! and the perfect timing of those smoke clouds! and no wind-machine! and he can actually sing! but what i probably like best of all is that the whole thing doesn't take itself so serious.

by:larm 2011

this weekend it was time for by:larm again. i worked a few hours as a volunteer, just like i had done the last two years, and in turn had a good time with friends, made new friends and got to see lots of concerts and great bands. these were my highlights:

most danceable: pow pow



most charming: pascal pinon
i even went to see them twice. and bought their cd. these teenage girls simply made me so happy with their unaffected performance and pretty lyrics. plain wonderful.



most interesting: forza
i'm usually not interested in hip hop. however, i do like musical influences from the balkan. this was a perfect mixture. definitely the most energetic concert ofthe weekend and best surprise.



most listened to since the concert: me and my army
kleerup plus her majesty, this just couldn't go wrong.

imogen heap

we went to see imogen heap on tuesday. earlier in the day she had visited at the opera. of course the lucky devil to show her around the house was my collegue who didn't even know who she was, while i was having lunch at the cafeteria. i could bite my butt for not being there when she turned up!



the show was wonderful. i have never experienced a person on stage who is, at the same time, so playful and elegant, but also extremely professional, kind and entertaining. in swedish there is an expression "att bjuda på sig själv". it means literally to make yourself a present to others. imogen heap really did this, she was herself on stage and let us all take part in her life at that moment. there was not a single moment that felt rehearsed, just plain musical magic.

music on the roof

one of the most amazing venues for open air concerts this summer must have been the roof of the norwegian opera where i work. the stage was floating on the fjord while the public was sitting on the roof. we had a couple of wonderful shows there, amongst others with the norwegian band big bang (who gave the expression stage diving a whole new meaning... the fjord was really cold at that point!) and a charming al green.

for me, however, the absolute highlights were two evenings in a row, with the goodbye show of the folk rock act gåte and the swedish singer/songwriter lars winnerbäck. while i have admired the latter for a long time (and what i loved best with his show were all the old songs and classics he played. wonderful.), i had never heard gåte before, and was very pleasantly surprised - two hours of waiting in the rain was surely worth the bombastic light show and explosive music that followed:







i really don't think i've ever seen a light show better adjusted to the music than here. i'm still amazed.

kent

me and my favourite person in the world, we went to see and hear kent at the oslo live festival last friday evening. we decided to go quite spontaneously and had a great, but wet evening - there was heavy rain from the second song they played until about five minutes after the show...






kent, together with lars winnerbäck (whom i will see later this summer on the opera roof here in oslo), really represent the core of sweden to me. there is something deeply swedish in their music, their lyrics.

woven hand

we went to see woven hand play at john dee here in oslo last week. it was amazing. like a desert storm blowing our minds. like a thunderstorm cleansing out everything bothersome.







i remember seeing 16 horsepower back in 2000 play at the bardentreffen in nürnberg. what i remember best is david eugene edwards sitting on his stool in the middle of the stage with his white trainers. the rain was pouring down and the music was mesmerizing. it still is.

we won't run

yesterday, my friend maria amelie asked me to join her and some friends for a free concert at internasjonalen. i didn't know anything about who was going to play, but she has good taste in music and it was a while since i was out for beer and music (and i am missing it a bit), so i said yes and went and was very pleasantly surprised. sarah blasko (from australia) offered some highly imaginative texts and a beautifully simple show. i loved how her movements looked like she was running in slow motion, and how she seemed totally absorbed in her music.

what if gravity is just another trick of the mind

it's by:larm again. i worked again as a volunteer and got to see the concerts for free. however, after waiting for the metro for ten minutes with no sign whatsoever for it ever appearing, i decided to stay at home tonight (it's freezing cold and very snowstormy outside!). which feels a bit sad since i had wanted to go and see a wonderful band - actually, to see them once more, as i had already seen them yesterday. instead, i listen to their music on the sofa. and am very happy about having discovered them. lovely.



the tiny is magical and enchanting and strange and weird. you can download their albums on their online-shop for very little money, which is what i am just about to do.

blog break

until i have handed in my thesis in two weeks i take a little break from blogging (as you probably have noticed).

here is a brilliant electro version with a brilliant video of one of my favourite swedish songs, "jag ger dig min morgon" - kite with "i give you the morning"

el mariachi

every now and then i have a melancoly day when i somehow or other get the notion to google old acquaintances. today i wanted to see what became of one or two bands from my old school, and while i couldn't find anything about most of those bands i found that one, "repent", actually are still doing stuff. it's a trash metal band and i never really liked their music, but in 7th grade i was really fascinated by their guitar-player and also by their lead singer. they graduated that year, so they were a lot older, and i thought they were tough and cool. that was the time when i started to like guys with long hair. which i still think can be very attractive. the (now ex-) lead singer still looks like antonio banderas, just with a different nose, and the guitar-guy also still kind of looks the same as back then, only a bit older, with a few wrinkles and not as cool anymore. i think it's fascinating how your perception of what is cool changes with time.

speaking of antonio banderas, whom i liked very much both in zorro and desperado and once upon a time in mexico - i wonder when he will do a good movie again? here is a little music with him for tonight:

laundry

just discovered:



charming!

fever ray

only heard today. totally amazed.
fever ray - when i grow up

nostalgia

i've been having a fit of teenage-nostalgia today. early teenage, that is. i was a huge fan of the kelly family way back when i was, well, 13, 14? i guess i was a fan for about two or three years, first very openly, then a bit more ashamed and then it didn't take long until they were replaced by, well both bands i considered cooler, and bands who were far less expensive and a lot easier to see on concerts (the former being die toten hosen and black sabbath, the latter being fiddler's green).

anyway, i have finally come over the phase of being ashamed for admitting to have been a fan, and today, with everybody being so nostalgic about michael jackson i spent a few hours on youtube watching kelly family videos. here you go, my back-then-favourites:








and no, i never was a paddy kelly fan. not angelo either.

longing for sweden

i'm a little homesick for sweden today. it seems ages since i was in stockholm.



and who wouldn't be in love with this music?

pale horses

moby's new single. perfect melancholy for a rainy sunday afternoon.

the knife + opera = exciting

i just read that the knife and the danish performance company "hotel pro forma" are producing an electro opera together on occasion of darwins 150th birthday. it is called "tomorrow, in a year. a darwin opera" and will have its world premiere on sep. 2nd in copenhagen. i think this does sound exciting and special, interesting and promising.



if it is anything like the stuff the knife have been doing until now, i sure would like to see it.

just rediscovered

this was part of my berlin soundtrack in summer 2006. two months internship at the filmarchive plus living in the capital. not so bad for a summer. and of course i was totally head over heels fresh in love. i love him still. he's perfect.

the greatest

just. beautiful.
the movie and the song.



my blueberry nights. would have been. the perfect movie for tonight. but. a selfmade mangolassie is helping a little.

dirty dancing

this song is going on repeat on my spotify right now:



ever since i saw frida hyvönen live i've come to appreciate her more and more. and i really have to see dirty dancing again. it's been a while since last time.