Lofoten, Norway
Bendik plays dreamy, haunting pop, drenched in harmonies and reverb. Originated as the solo project of singer and multi-instrumentalist Silje Halstensen, Bendik grew it’s branches and became a trio this winter, embracing Erlend Elvesveen and Eivind Helgerød, all living in the beautiful city of Trondheim, Norway. They are already playing on numerous norwegian festivals this summer, including Slottsfjellfestivalen in Tønsberg, Huset ved sjøen-festivalen in Nesodden, and Pstereo in Trondheim!
To Bendik, nature has a special room in our hearts, and we all know many beautiful places we would love to share. And some to keep secret. But we all share a dream of visiting what we know will become one of our favorites - Lofoten in Northern Norway! We dream of sleeping in the open under the midnight sun, hiking the mountains, dive in the sea, and listen to the silence of the prettiest place on earth. One day soon!
Bakklandet, Trondheim, Norway
Photo: Scanpix
Angelica’s Elegy plays melancholic indie pop inspired by Beach House, Deerhunter, Yo La Tengo og Madlib. The band was started by Simen and Erik at Trøndertun Folk high school. They have cooperated with people from Dråpe and Bendik (who’ll appear on this blog on tuesday).
Our favourite place is more of an area of the city we live in, than a specific smaller location. The place is called Bakklandet, and is an old part of the city laying next to the Nidaros river. This place is all “brick road, old tree houses, old shops and bridges”, with several cozy pubs and coffee shops. Also, the fact that Simen and Karl’s Greener Productions is located in a studio called Trondheim Studio at Bakklandet makes this place very relevant when we reminisce over “what made all of this the way it is?”, “how did Angelica’s Elegy come to this point?”
Angelica’s Elegy is playing at Slottsfjell festival in Tønsberg this summer!
Bergen, Norway
Foto: Embla Karidotter
Razika is the most honest indie-ska-punk band in Norway at this time. Their first album, Program 91, was released 2nd of may 2011 and their single Vondt i Hjertet is currently B-listed on NRK P3.
Our favorite place on earth is Bergen. All of us are born and raised her, this is the city we have a relationship with. We are all city-kids from the centre and “need” what a city can offer: shops, cafés, parks, cultural offers etc. And in addition to that, Bergen hare 7 amazing mountains and a harbor. Can it possibly get any better.
Yes, it’s one of the cities in Norway with most rain, but when the sun is out the city just explode! Everybody is outside and there’s a good atmosphere everywhere. Also, Bergensere (people from Bergen) is without doubt the coolest people in Norway. As Agnar Mykle once said, Oslo is the dog, Bergen is the cat. We support each other in Bergen patriotism. Just like the amazing musical environment: there’s no competition because everybody does their own thing and therefore everybody support and help each other. If it wasn’t for Bergen, the coolest city in the world, there wouldn’t be any Razika!
Slottsfjell artists
We are, as everybody else with a little sensibility, super excited about the festival summer. I can’t wait to get dirty feet on festival ground, buy the funkyest hat I can find, hang out with my old friends, make some new friends and sing on the top of my voice! I am also pleased to see that some of the bands that contributed to this blog is playing at the Slottsfjell festival in Tønsberg, Norway, one of the festivals I’m definitely going to :D
If you work with music and want to contribute to this blog: send an e-mail to marie@ufa.no and tell me about your favourite place and who you are (about your career) and a picture of the place.
Damsgårdssundet, Bergen, Norway
The Urørt (Norwegian BBC Introducing equivalent) team described Lovecult as “the sound of of the 60s successfully mixed with 70s krautrock and 80s shoegaze-pop, a place where finishing your songs with blissed out fuzz cacophonies and feedback orgasms is de rigueur. You don’t always have to be on the way somewhere, sometimes it’s nice to just be!”
On the shadow side of Bergen, just across Puddefjorden, you find Damsgård, an area awaiting major gentrification but sort of in limbo due to the financial crisis. It used to be an active shipping and industry area, but in the recent years it’s sort of been left to its own, ever more rapidly decaying. The area is quite ugly and all in all pretty dodgy, but it’s just so beautifully demised. There are several classic old brick and tile buildings with that unique old industrial atmosphere. Perfect for New York-style loft apartments and creative studios. When we first moved our rehearsal-studio there a few years ago, the area was mostly empty, but only since last year, more and more musicians and artists are filling in the vast spaces of old factories and storages. You can always hear music from one of the several rehearsal spaces in the area, or if you’re lucky, stumble upon an atelier. This is not an obvious place to visit, even if you live in the city. We probably wouldn’t be familiar with it if our studio hadn’t been located there. It’s close to the centre of Bergen, but there never seems to be anyone around, except the occasional junkie or jogger.
The reason why we chose the Damsgård area is that it is so filled with opportunity, contrasts, and inspiration. It’s a place that makes you want to explore and imagine what all these run down spaces could be used for. Since there never seems to be anyone around it’s a great getaway from everything. There’s also a couple of weird and sort of creepy David Lynchy elements in the area, like a small café under the Puddefjord bridge, crammed in between two huge industrial buildings, with an old army-tank parked in the backyard, or a ferry on the docks turned into a houseboat. This only adds to the sort of special mood of the area. Crossing the Puddefjord Bridge and walking down dusty Michael Krohns street always fills us with anticipation.
In the summer it’s nice to bring some cold beers to the docks, watch the sunset under the bridge and dream of what could take place here if enough people took the opportunity, before it is all turned into hi-end real estate. Bring a camera and capture images of an area caught in limbo. Finish the tour with beers at Bien bar!
Bakklandet , Trondheim , Norway
Ida Jenshus is a 23 year old americana/country artist from Steinkjer, Norway. After releasing her debut album “Color of the sun” (2008) and her follow up “No guarantees” (2010), she has been crowned Norway’s new country queen. See her tour schedule at www.idajenshus.com.
When I had to think of one favourite spot , the first place that came to mind was Bakklandet. This area in Trondheim has been my home for the last 4 years . It’s just the nicest place to live, and to come home to between being on tour or working in the studio. I`ve grown up in a small town myself, so I fell completely in love with this small-town-feel-area in the heart of Trondheim. It`s got this old bohemian look, with crooked houses, small cobblestone streets, vintage shops, small cafes and the Nidelven river running through .
In the summer I love to sit around the benches down by the river with my morning coffee, music on the ear and a book, Ive written a lot of lyrics and songs down there. It´s kind of a peaceful and quiet area, although it’s in the middle of a bigger city. I love the way I can sort of “hide away” here, be in my own world if I want to and find peace to work on my music, but at the same time it has got its pulse.
On sundays the street cafés are always crowded, especially in summer or whenever the sun is out. Try the sweet chilli coffee at Dromedar, it`s the best! Or catch a outdoor concert and a beer at Rabarbra. The Baccalao for lunch at Baklandet Skydsstation is also a favourite of mine, so is the carrotcake. Whenever I need new dresses or outfits to wear on stage, I usually go to the small vintage/re-design shop Stella Snella, where I design my clothes with the sweetsweet owner Hege Biermann . She has the loveliest pieces and the biggest smile .
Watch out for my little black kitten “Søta” ( Cutie ) running around .
Åmli, Larvik, Norway
Jonas Alaska makes music inspired by the old singer/songwriter tradition with strong elements of folk and americana. His backing band consists of a clean and tight rhythm section, CSN and gospel influenced backing-vocals as well as honkey keys and guitars.
His album is expected in June, 2011.
My favourite place is my hometown, Åmli.
Åmli is a small village deep inside the woods somewhere in the south of Norway. I haven’t lived in my hometown since I was 16. I currently live in England but I tend to write a lot when I’m home visiting my family. I’ve got a guitar and a borrowed el-piano standing by the window so when I write songs I’m staring straight into the woods.
There is only one street in Åmli. I know that street inside out as I used to skateboard when I lived there. There are also three hairdressers on that small street in the middle of the woods!
I really like living in the city though, and I hope I get to move to New York soon, but my dream is to build myself a cabin somewhere in my hometown with a studio in it. That way I can still live in the city, and write new songs the way I like it.
I sometimes like to think of my hometown as upstate New York, in the Woodstock area, where Dylan, Young, The Band and a bunch of other artists bought a house, made good coffee and recorded some awesome music.
Haukeliseter, Norway
Haukelifestivalen, Foto: Kjell Bitustøyl
Earlybird Stringband is Norwegian 6 piece band playing original acoustic singer/songwriter music from a bluegrass point of view. They’ve been gained critical acclaim by audiences, musicians and critics for their style of music, and was recently nominated for a Norwegian grammy award for their debut album.
Among us, in our band, there’s different tastes in every side of life. Some like fish, some like to fish. Some are city slickers, some can’t even stand to live in the city. But one thing we can all agree on - when you need to unwind, you leave for a remote location. Alot of these places wouldn’t be interesting for anyone else to visit - because they really could be by any lake in any country. (And because we don’t want anyone else to know about them.) But some of these places are unique, and we would believe them to be just as beautiful to us as to anyone else. We would like to recommend Haukeliseter.
Haukeliseter is situated up in the southern mountains between Oslo and Bergen. It’s above tree level, and there’s snow in the peaks all year. You can go hiking or skiing, depending on the season, and really get some peace. If you are just driving by, stopping here to eat is also nice, because they serve real food with real ingredients.
And also, more specific, we’d like to recommend the Haukeliseter festival, which is a folk music festival in the middle of June. We played at this festival in 2007. It stands as an unforgetable experience. Great concerts of folk music and beyond, amazing food, amazing scenery, friendly people, hot tub and ice bathing, workshops in food, drinking songs, dancing, handcrafts, and jam’s that last from dusk ‘till dawn.
You can rent a room in a Snuffy Smith-like cabin, or you can bring a tent and camp by the lake. If you don’t manage to enjoy yourself here, we’ve never met your kind of person.
Ballparken, Oslo, Norway
Dråpe is a Oslo based band that plays aggressive and calming noisy pop. See them at by:larm in Oslo on thursday 17th of February on Mono and on saturday 19th at Dattera Til Hagen
Favorite spot where members of Dråpe loves to chill must be “Ballparken” at Grünerløkka in Oslo. Ballparken is wonderful because there is so much you can do there when shiny summer days appear. The area is several basketball courts with great smooth ground. There you can shoot some hoops with friends or with other people.
Theres always people dancing with some old skool hip hop music that sets a great mood for a sunny day. Even better when you have gathered your friends for a barbeque to make some sweet memories. If you are a skater the smooth ground comes in handy, it doesn´t matter how good you are people are there just to have fun. Are you more of a relaxing person but still want to compete there is a couple of ping pong tables out on a little grass field.
The surroundings around Ballparken is filled with cosy shops, café´s and restaurants with food from all over the world. From Oslo sentrum you simply take either 11, 12 or the 13 tram up to “Olaf Ryes Plass” then its about 2min from the station.
