INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVALS REACT TO MANCHESTER ATTACK

As music festivals in Norway grow, the danger of attending a concert also rises. The Manchester bomb attack following an Ariana Grande concert killed 23 attendees and wounded many more. Festival and concert organizers in the U.K., the U.S., and Norway, which has one of the highest per capita music event attendance rates in the …

Advertisement

​FIRST NORWEGIAN SUPERHERO IS AN AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND SCHOOL TEACHER

Josef Yohannes is the creator of “The Urban Legend,” about the protagonist he claims is the first Norwegian superhero. The comic series features a black African immigrant who fights street crime with martial arts skills, protects the innocent, and is committed to justice in the fictional setting of Capital City, a city ravaged by corruption. …

Norwegian teens graduate school of rock

By Jack Hastings The future of the Norwegian music industry is in good hands as the younger generation begins to take over. Daniela Reyes, Sivert Sivertsen and other teenage rock stars are actively working to make meaningful music that is both skillfully crafted and audibly pleasing. Singer-songwriter Reyes is a force of nature. The 18-year-old …

Interview: Oslo Ess

Punk band Oslo Ess’s rock music is transcending audiences and country borders as they turn the humdrum into the spectacular. “We want to tell stories about our lives,” vocalist and guitarist Asmund Lande said. “We kind of have a Bruce Springsteen perspective on it all, you know, like the working class perspective on it because …

Norwegian Wood rock festival turns 25

Oslo’s Norwegian Wood Festival celebrated it’s 25th Anniversary, June 15-17, 2017. But Norway’s longest running festival almost didn’t happen this year. The rock and folk fest has boasted headliners from Bob Dylan to Band of Horses, David Bowie to Linkin Park, Patti Smith to Arcade Fire. However, after a slow decline in attendance and a …

SHAKANAKA: From Bergen to the Big Time

Shakanaka is the Bergen-based British-punk-influenced lo-fi rock duo of guitarist Torgeir Høgheim and singer-drummer Eirik Gundersen. Shakanaka’s sound embodies the highlights and vulnerabilities that come along with youth. Høgheim and Gundersen perform with a laidback attitude, not taking themselves so seriously. Shakanaka perfectly encapsulates the dichotomy between creating serious art and having fun. But the …

Poster Boys: Making Rock Real Again

“Everything goes in circles,” Emil Haglund, vocalist and guitarist for power pop band Posterboys, said. “I think it’s time for some rock and roll.” Posterboys, based in Oslo, Norway, are bringing energetic pop rock to the forefront of an electronic dominated music scene. The band is comprised of vocalist and guitarist Anders Løland, drummer Trygve …

Americans in Norway

I attended my last music festival in Norway this past week, which was kind of a sad moment. I ended my festival run with Piknik i Parken, a relatively new festival that is hosted at the historic Vigeland Museum. The festival is quite literally a picnic in the park. What set this festival apart from …

Tall Heights Take Two

I have been able to see the band Tall Heights twice since I’ve been in Norway. Tall Heights is a progressive-folk duo from Boston currently touring in support of their debut album “Neptune.” The band is comprised of guitarist Tim Harrington and cellist Paul Wright. Both Harrington and Wright also provide vocals. Tall Heights’ sound …

Bergen is One for the Books

The time we spent in Bergen was brief and brought up a question for me: how can a place as beautiful and serene as Bergen contribute so much to the development of black metal? I think there is such a strange relationship between the two but Bergen was full of similar dichotomies. The difference between …