By:Larm – the Norwegian showcase festival – is a yearly event in Oslo, located in the center, around Youngstorget. The town square is filled with tents that function as venues for the festival. Yesterday night was the first night of showcases on these and the surrounding venues. Here are some pictures of the acts I managed to see last night. (Picture above: Veronica Maggio and a photographer)
The band highasakite originally started at the jazz conservatory in Trondheim where two of the band’s members studied. They released their first album All That Floats WIll Rain in 2012 to great reviews. They also have had success live, with sold out venues. Just recently they released their second album, Silent Treatment to even better reviews than their first. Yesterday they played a packed Blaest in Trondheim.
Claudia Scott is born in Newcastle, but moved to Norway with her family when she was a child. Her father, Clive Scott, started Norway’s first country band, The Skywegians in the late 60’s, and Claudia performed with the band from when she was 10 years old. Yesterday she played a release concert for her newest CD, Follow The Lines, and she has come a long way musically since her recording debut in 1970.
We have many very good songwriters and artists in Norway, but few as good as Thomas Helland, or Thom Hell as he calls himself. He has released four solo albums plus a best of album in his own name, the latest, Six, was released a few weeks ago. Yesterday I saw his release concert at John Dee for Six in Oslo.
If you have heard Bob Dylan’s Like A Rolling Stone or The Man in Me or You Can’t Always Get What You Want with the Rolling Stones, you have heard Al Kooper’s organ. And these songs are but a few of the songs Al Kooper has played on, written or produced during his 50 year run since he started out in the early 60’s. February 5th he is 70 years old.
Ung Pike Forsvunnet is a Norwegian band that was active in Norway in the 80’s. Their musical style was hard and funky, and all their lyrics were in Norwegian, a somewhat unusual phenomenon at that time. Thirty years later they started to play again, if not as actively as before, and last night they held a concert, this year’s first.
Artist Pictures Blog 