Phono Festivalen

Over the last few days (the 12th-14th September) it was the Phono Festivalen in Bergen. The festival is organised by the Bergen Student Radio, and while it does include some culture events, the highlight of the festival are the various bands and artists from all over the world who come to play for a not-for-profit festival.

I volunteered during the festival (just helping out with selling tickets and bar work) and while I was there I was able to check out the bands/artists and discover some new music to take with me back home. Here are some of my favourites from Norway:

Cold Mailman - This group originally comes from Bodø, but now they currently reside in Oslo. On their Facebook page they describe their genre as 'postapocalyptic-surf-emo-pop' - this means in other, more simple words they fall into the broad indie pop category. Their songs are very catchy, and not in the annoying "Gangnam style" sense, but in a beautiful mesmerising way. The songs are soft, but they won't make you fall asleep. One of their tracks, "Pull Yourself Together And Fall In Love With Me" sounds very similar to a song by Death Cab For Cutie, except the lead singer's voice is more like Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian. They are definitely a band to keep a look-out for, and I recommend to start listening to them - especially if you are a fan of Death Cab For Cutie or Belle and Sebastian, or are just a lover of indie pop like me :)

Here's one of their music clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtRh_o5hvdY

Kaja Gunnufsen - I think the best way to perhaps describe Kaja to an Australian is that she is like the a Norwegian version of Julia Stone. Kaja, who is a 25 year old from Oslo, has a whimsical lullaby voice which fits perfectly to the backdrop of her folk-pop genre. Supposedly her lyrics are "unfiltered, ironic, and occasionally sad and melancholic" (quoted from her Facebook biography) - yet I can't tell since all her songs are in Norwegian, but they doesn't make them less entertaining and great songs to listen and chill out to. After watching her show (and also watching in awe how well received she is by the students of Bergen), it's easy to say she has a new fan from Australia.

I decided to put two songs of Kaja here, one which is much more upbeat, and the other a much more slower tune:
The upbeat one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTDZtQOYOvY
The slower one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhsHlPGHFCs

Rytmeklubben - oh boy, were these guys good to watch play live! They sort of arrange themselves in a semi-circle around each other, each with their own synthesisers and the result is they just have an incredibly fun time creating their electronic beats - which is what the band is known as. The "Rytmeklubben" literally translates to "the rhythm club", but they also have the tagline as "the electronic beat collective" or the "Norwegian beat collective". These guys originally come from Trondheim, but I think since their building success they have also now called Oslo their new residence. What I love about these guys is that no track is the same, you can listen through and never know what to expect - plus I absolutely LOVE synthesisers, so that's another drawing point for me.

They haven't really got any clips on YouTube, but they have plenty on Soundcloud, so check them out here: https://soundcloud.com/rytmeklubben

It was a great pleasure for me to be able to not only volunteer for the Phono Festival, but also to have the opportunity to see so many great Norwegian bands and artists (and not forgetting, the other international bands who played too, and were also very talented musicians). I think when we live so far from a country or place that isn't globally known for music - or in other words, it isn't broadcasted on global television or radios, unlike the huge surplus of music we get in Australia from the UK, US and Canada, plus then our own local talents - we don't always think to discover what the country has to offer in regards to its music. I'll be honest, before coming to Norway, the only Norwegian bands I had heard of were A-ha (I mean who hasn't? Actually I didn't realise until years later where they were actually from), and Young Dreams, whom I only found out about because my university magazine I write for asked me to write a review of their latest album. I mean sure there are probably songs or bands/artists who I have listened to over the years that actually are from Norway but I just haven't realised, because let's be honest, most of us when we listen to a new song or album our first impression is not to think "Oh where do they come from?" - but what I mean is, most of us never actually specifically go searching for music from a particular country (well at least I don't anyways), yet I think after residing here in Norway I have the desire to discover and find more Norwegian bands to listen to and to love and to immerse my ears in...

Above: This is Mark Fry playing at Phono Festival. I didn't speak about him because my focus was solely on my discovery of Norwegian artists, and this fellow is British. However his set was amazing, it was very intimate and extremely beautiful - I was sick the day of this festival but I went anyways, and I could feel sickness being cured from his soft voice and hush pickings of the guitar strings. Plus I wanted to share him because he should be an inspiration to all musicians in the fact that you are never too old to start playing music - there is no such thing as an expiry date on music or musical talent.