Scandinavian Culture Viewed, Reviewed & Interviewed
2005.06.30
— Music
OK, I have 2 reasons to talk about Live 8, a series of concerts and events across the world which are being staged to highlight the problem of global poverty. First, there will be 2 Scandinavian artists on stage: the Icelandic diva Björk, in Tokyo, and… the Swedish band A-Ha in Berlin. I know… But there’s a better reason: the organization behind this, One.org, needs your voice (and not money) to Make Poverty History. One.org wants to send a clear message to President Bush and the G8 with our help, and one way to help using your blogs. The goal is to get 100,000 blogs pinging Technorati (they make the count) with that kind of post before the next G8 summit starts.
For more informations:
Tag: live8
2005.06.29
— Music
Despite its name, Bulgaria Magazine is a Finnish paper focused on photography, design, fashion, music and art. Launched in 2004, it has already gain respect among professionals in visual communications around the world.
They launched a new website… interesting. Make your own opinion.
2005.06.28
— Music
Safe As Milk 2005 is a small music festival taking place in Haugesund, Norway. The program features Supersilent, Serena Maneesh, Kim Hiorthí¸y, Dälek, Steffen Basho Junghans, Samuel Jackson 5, MoHa and Colleen. If you come there from another country, the kind folk organizing the festival will gladly give you a free ticket. They will also be happy to help you finding the best way of travelling and a suitable accomodation. All details on the festival website.
Thanks Lalli
2005.06.27
— Music
I’ve never posted on the Concretes on Noisedfisk, and that’s a shame. Cause they rock. There must be something like 8 girls and boys in this swedish band who sound like Camera Obscura, only more orchestrated (well, that’s only my opinion… and I know some of you don’t like those comparisons… but as far as I’m concerned, I like comparisons. It means: don’t expect any electronic sound in the Concretes music, just P!O!P! guitars and violins and drums and nice vocals…).
They released a great album last year, which is worth buying from your local store, and they will soon release a US exclusive b-sides/rarities compilation, Layourbattleaxedown. All of the songs on this special release have existed as b-sides from the numerous singles released in the U.K., with the exception of three previously unreleased tracks.
So it’s time to discover the Concretes.
2005.06.27
— Music
When you’re surrounded by a world you don’t understand anymore, when you feel disgusted by what’s going on around you, just ride a bike. Or listen to the Kings of Convenience. Or read this novel. Or maybe the best thing to do is to ride your bike to a nice park, lie on the grass, listen to the Kings of Convenience and read Erlend Loe’s novel at the same time. You’ll quicky forget about the bad things you’re experiencing. It will make you happy. Hopefully.
Erlend Loe is a young norwegian author, born in Trondheim in 1969, whose Naí¯ve Super is often considered as a contemporary masterpiece. At least in Norway. This simple novel is an original meditation about the life of a 25-year-old narrator, who quits university to think about existence. He writes lists, he becomes obsessed by time and whether it actually matters, he uses a fax machine to communicate, falls in innocent love with Lise. Such a simple language, such simple words, and yet complex feelings and impressions…
Don’t expect any typical norwegian atmosphere in the novel, though. Just let yourself carried away by the style, by those ironic anecdotes and start writing your own lists.
2005.06.24
— Music
I went to the Iceland Airwaves festival for the first time last year. I’m not sure it was the most fantastic festival I have ever seen, but it was the opportunity for me to discover Iceland… Wandering around in Reykjavik, having a bus tour in the nearby countryside, bathing in the Blue Lagoon, listening to music, drinking… What else would you want from a 3 day-week-end?
Part of the programme of the next Airwaves festival has just been unveiled on this website and the ticket sale has already started through the Icelandair offices.
International acts confirmed for 2005 are: The Zutons (UK), The Fiery Furnaces (US), The (International) Noise Conspiracy (SWE), The Mitchell Brothers (UK), Zoot Woman (UK), Annie Mix – Decks, Beatbox & Vox (NO), José González (SWE), High Contrast – DJ set (UK) and Rodrigo & Gabriella (Mex)
Icelandic acts confirmed for 2005 are: Nine Elevens, Ampop, Apparat Organ Quartet, Bang Gang, Brain Police, Deep Jimi, Dr. Discoshrimp, Dikta, Eberg, Forgotten Lores, Gus Gus, Hairdoctor, Hjálmar, Jagúar, Jan Mayen, Leaves, Kimono, Mínus, Rass, Sign, Ske, Vinyl and Without Gravity.
Special events: For the second year Kerrang! magazine will host their own branded night, Spex magazine from Germany will host a special night and as will Voice from US. UK independent label Moshi Moshi, home to Hot Chip who became national heroes in Iceland at last years Airwaves, will put on a special label night. Local drum & bass club Breakbeat.is will organize their yearly Airwaves session on the Thursday night.
Photograph: Mike Benson
2005.06.24
— Music
Frederik Callinggård has directed many of these short movies called music videos and TV advertisements. Despite the mainstream and commercial intentions with clients such as Madonna, Kent, Depeche Mode, New Order, Nick Cave, Kellog’s, Coke, Carlsberg, … his talent cannot be denied. I especially like these commercials for Ikea with this very particular Scandinavian humor you’ll meet nowhere else:
Frederik recently directed two brilliant commercials for the Rådet for Stí¸rre Færdselssikkerhed (Danish Road Safety Council) campaign Speeding Hurts:
2005.06.24
— Music
What a good surprise: I just discovered this band, 5 minutes ago, and I already love it. Midaircondo, a swedish laptop music girl trio that uses Powerbook aswell as saxo, flutes, … And they sing, too, with a particular charming ethereal voice. And their concerts are not only an acoustic show, they are also a visual performance.
They have just finished the recording of their album Shopping For Images on label Type Records. Release expected this September.
Midaircondo website features 5 songs free to download, and more to listen to. Can’t stop visiting again and again to listen to Serenade.
Photo: Midaircondo | Source: tinyWays
2005.06.23
— Music
Ultrasport hail from Finland and their music is just everything you’d expect from a great indie-pop band influenced by the Lucksmiths and 22-Pistepirkko. They’ve just released a debut album, Nothing can go wrong, that will probably find a good place in my personal top 10 at the end of the year. And they’re nice guys: they’ve answered some questions by e-mail. That’s the first interview published by Noisedfisk and it won’t be the last, hopefully!
Who are Ultrasport?
Sami and I were the nucleus of ultrasport, we started out drinking and talking about music. After a while we realized we probably should do something with our dreams of starting a great pop band. We realized we needed more people so we attached Samuli, a friend of Sami to our nucleus. The year was 2000. Fast forward to 2001 and we realized we needed a drummer to really get our live show going. We met Olli when we played at a club he was organizing, he seemed like an all round nice guy and a great drummer so we grabbed him and have not let go ever since.
I haven’t found your debut album yet but the couple of songs I downloaded are just fantastic. Can you tell us a bit more about this album?
The sole reason this album exists is the Japanese Quince Records. We had recorded a five track EP and were shopping around for a license contract when all of a sudden Quince contacts us and says they want to release a full length from us. They specifically wanted to release stuff from our older EP’s alongside with the new material but we were a bit concerned it would sound like a compilation. Luckily we managed to lure our good friend Petri Nakari from the band Red Carpet to remix the older recordings so the album would have a more consistent sound and feeling. He did just that and suddenly we had a debut album on our hands.
There’s a link from your website to the Lucksmiths. And to tell you the truth, I find that your music is pretty close to the Lucksmiths…
I think we do sound a bit like The Lucksmiths, maybe there’s a similar vibe or maybe we share some influences. We have quite a healthy indie scene here in Finland and there are lots of bands we have similarities (and share members) with, like Harry Hunks and Red Carpet. We do feel pretty close to the Swedish indie scene, there seems to be many people there who share our musical tastes, especially on the Labrador label. And they are our neighbours after all.
When it comes to our influences, I guess what you listen always tends to creep into your music in some way. At the moment I’ve been listening to a lot of older Bruce Springsteen, The Magnetic Fields and Hidden Cameras. I always thought that there’s some echos of earlier R.E.M. in our music, plus some Hefner and maybe Belle and Sebastian. And definitely 22-Pistepirkko.
How do you feel about the finnish music scene and the finnish cultural life?
Slightly problematic geographical location, unique history and probably some weird genes result in what we call Finnish mentality. It does differ from the rest of the world in some ways… we do have a penchant for deadpan humour and melancholy bordering on comical among other things. Then again we are very much a part of Europe culturally so there are probably as many similarities as there are differences. We tend to mix Bordeaux wine and Parma ham with high suicide rates and excessive drinking, so to speak.
At the moment the Finnish indie scene seems very much alive, lots of great active bands and few good clubs as well. Only problem is that Finland really is small and therefore when you’re in the marginal you really are small…
We have a great portal for Finnish indie if you are interested, it’s called One Chord To Another and it’s maintained by Vesa Lautamäki.
You said to me once that “many people in Finland feel that we are part of Scandinavia… or at least as much a part of Scandinavia as Iceland is”. Can you tell us more about that?
Well, strictly speaking Scandinavia is the cultural and historic region of the Scandinavian Peninsula and that only includes Sweden, Norway and Denmark. In a broader sense the term Scandinavia is quite often used to describe Nordic countries which both Finland and Iceland are a part of. Nitpicking is so rock’n'roll! :D I guess we Finns are just oversensitive when it comes to us and our place in the grander scheme of things. Tiny Country Syndrome, I guess, we fear we’ll always be labeled as “that tiny country that’s practically part of Russia”…
Any chance to see Ultrasport tour Europe?
Definitely! Just point us to your local club organizer/venue or arrange something on your own. We play pretty much anything if it doesn’t cost us too much money and we are planning on touring Central Europe this autumn. Only thing we need is help, we don’t have vast knowledge on different countries scenes and when you are Doing It Yourself the knowledge means everything. No wait, wasn’t it time? Ah… :D
What’s the best novel and the best film by a scandinavian author/director in your opinion?
The book is probably Supernaive by Erlend Loe but the movie is harder… hmm… I’ll have to say Drifting Clouds (Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat) by Aki Kaurismäki is pretty close to being the best. Though Together (Tilsammans) by Lukas Moodyson is pretty close too. Feel-good movies.
Listen to Ultrasport on their website.
Buy Nothing can go Wrong on Fraction Discs or Darla.
Many thanks to Juho…
2005.06.22
— Music
Fabrice from Paris, France was in Norway last Christmas. He came back with nice pictures from Slevik Platå, Fredrikstad and Gressvik presented in a slick Flash website.
