By:Larm 2015 is just around the corner and we can’t wait to see Oslo turned upside down as the heart of the city is filled with music and more.
“We are proud to announce a raft of Nordic artists, each of them cutting edge in some way or other. This is one of our biggest releases to date, and we think it’s also one of the strongest. Among this new addition to the artist line-up we’ve got everything from three-times Spellemann Prizewinner Jonas Alaska to the star-studded AURORA, who have a real buzz around them right now”, says one of the brains behind the by:Larm booking, Morten Gjersum.
Alaska and AURORA are joined by ten promising Nordic acts, including disco dynamo André Bratten, Denmark’s Vinnie Who, The Amazing (feat. members from Dungen and Granada), and Hilma Nikolaisen’s newly unveiled solo project.
This brings the number of confirmed artists up to 85, and next Thursday we’ll reveal the final 22. Stay tuned!
Click on each name to visit their artist page and read more. To see all artists confirmed for by:Larm 2015, click here.
THE AMAZING (SE)
The Amazing is a Swedish band that consists of musicians from bands such as Granada and Dungen. The band inhabits an aural landscape that’s all its own: a panoramic, constantly evolving spectacle marked by layers of intertwining guitars, richly textured keyboards and a rhythm section adept at skewed tempos and a tendency to veer off in unexpected directions. The mid-tempo music on The Amazing’s new album “Picture You” has its own unique texture and timbre. The music is as compelling and enigmatic with atmospheric keyboards, twanging guitars, and anguished crooning float through the slowly intertwining melodies.
ANDRÉ BRATTEN (NO)
Andre Bratten was born in Oslo and grew up in a suburb of the Norwegian capital, which borders on the deep, dark Scandinavian forest. Currently dwelling in the heart of the city, his efforts with the synthesizer coincided with a huge boom in Norwegian electronic music, his productions recently came to the attention of Norwegian ‘cosmic disco’ mogul Prins Thomas and his Full Pupp colony. Andre’s tracks share the exploratory vibe of the 80s synth pop pioneers, and misfit electronic pop musicians like John Foxx, who were forced learning to sculpt new sounds with new tools. Yet he updates those sounds to a contemporary rhythm matrix, in parallel with the day-glo analogue dance music of Lindstrøm, Todd Terje and Prins Thomas himself – and he just happens to share the central Oslo studio space used by that glorious trinity. But Andre has always known his own mind and was never going to be content with being just another anonymous insect in the logpile. His debut album, Be A Man You Ant, is a string individual statement, his ‘I am Spartacus!’ moment.
AURORA (NO)
Some spend a whole life working on a music dream. Others are born to the task. Aurora Aksnes is the latter. After she made her Oslo debut at by:Larm in 2014, she gained a lot of praise from a unanimously positive press. The newspaper Dagbladet gave her top marks, 6/6, and wrote: “With a clear, flexible, slightly drawling and tender voice, she’s in full control of her fluttering phrasings – not unlike another remarkable Norwegian artist who got her by:Larm breakthrough at an early age. To compare someone with Susanne Sundfør is a rotten thing to do to both of them (and it’s rarely suitable), but when you hear Aksnes’ lovely vocals and lines in “Runaway”, it’s difficult to escape that association”. Her current single “Under Stars” shows an artist with a maturity that few singers at her age have.
COURTESY (DK)
Najaaraq Nicoline Kleist Vestbirk has had a few aliases in her time, most recently she’s settled on Courtesy, a moniker she uses to produce techno that sounds like it was ripped from the dirt and then rocketed into the stratosphere. A self-described maker of “Deep sea techno.” Though Vestbirk is an accomplished DJ and producer with a crew around her, (Apeiron Crew) she taught herself how to DJ and produce in a vacuum after she saw a female DJ play out at a club when she was 18 and realized she could do it too. Currently, she’s working toward a Master of Arts in Modern Culture, while also focusing on journalism.
FRØKEDAL & FAMILIEN (NO)
Frøkedal has been a significant figure in Norway’s indie rock scene for years, mainly as frontperson, guitarist and songwriter in Harrys Gym and in I Was A King. Her songwriting is poetic, melodic and often dark, inspired by everything from 60’s folk music to Brian Eno’s minimalistic pop. Frøkedal has collaborated with artists such as Robyn Hitchcock, Chad Valley and Ost & Kjex and written music for contemporary dance and film. She is currently putting the finishing touches to her first solo release and performing with the band Familien, whose members consist of people from both the popular and traditional music scene. Frøkedal’s melodic pop songs are dressed up with love for acoustic music, but not without a hint of the sounds and rhythms of Oslo nightlife.
HARALD BJÖRK (SE)
Harald Björk’s music is a naive and emotional form of melodic minimal techno with a melancholic Scandinavian touch. His hardware-only live set hooks a host of machines up to the mixer in preparation for a journey through dystopian melodics, exploding breaks and motoric beats, with Harald as jockey at the helm. His parallel DJ career meanwhile was first embarked upon as a teenager, flirting with hip hop in the days before techno stardom beckoned, eventually evolving towards the modern variant of music-for-dancing-to that we see today. Harald’s tracks has ended up in everything from DJ-sets by Sven Väth, Carl Cox and Miss Kittin to appearances on mixes by Four Tet and Toro y Moi.
HILMA NIKOLAISEN (NO)
Hilma Nikolaisen honed her musical skills in cult bands such as teenage girl trio Umbrella and the Loch Ness Mouse in the late 90s. Later, perhaps most importantly, she appeared as a bass player in her brother Emil’s internationally acclaimed psychedelic noise-pop outfit Serena-Maneesh – one of the most influential Norwegian bands of the last decade. Now on her own, but backed by a full band, Hilma returns to the stage with new material. The songs have elements of projects past, particularly Serena-Maneesh, evident in the sonic variation, rich textures, and juxtaposition of lighter and darker moods, but they are truly her own creations. There’s a sense of melody and ear for alluring musical detail that really stands out – ambitious pop music built on strong songwriting, rounded out by unique, androgynous vocals and a fully formed sound.
JONAS ALASKA (NO)
The young singer/songwriter Jonas Alaska is known for his strong, personal lyrics, combined with clever, and often shamelessly catchy tunes. Alaska had great success in Norway with his gold selling debut album, for which he was nominated for 3 awards, and took home the Norwegian Grammy for Best New Act in 2011. His second album, “If Only As A Ghost” was released in 2013, again to much praise from the reviewers. The first single “I Saw You Kid” went top 5 in the radio charts, and the album entered #4 in the Norwegian Billboard. In the end of February 2015, Alaska is releasing his third album “Younger”, where he’s exploring a slightly rougher and less organic sound. The first single “Summer” is a good example of this.
JULIAS MOON (DK)
2014 was a big year for Julias Moon. Between spring and autumn, they released “Technicolor VISION”, consisting of four singles and four videos: four scenarios that show four different sides of the band. The first single “Lipstick Lies” took the Danish nation by storm with its progressive pop sound. Sex and melancholy are some of the recurring themes in the trio’s lyrical universe, themes universal to pop and soul traditions since the very beginning. With their cutting-edge electronic productions, the band creates a modern Nordic sound with references to both American R&B, neo-soul, 80’s synthpop, 90’s Euro and contemporary British electronica. Julias Moon is a band where the ‘pick and choose’ mentality of the newer generation is warmly embraced and this results in an irresistible pop vision.
KRISTIAN KRISTENSEN (NO)
Kristian Kristensen is 22 years old and from Harstad in the north of Norway. After an amazing performance in TV2’s ”The Voice” in 2013, Kristian wanted to stay away from cameras and cover versions and concentrate on his own music. Kristian has his own band, consisting of three handpicked musicians (metal-fanatic Sondre Larsen on drums, bluegrass- connoisseur Eirik Jacobsen on bass, sound wizard/jazz enthusiast Martin Sternberg on keys and Henrik Østgaard, master of electronics on guitar and synths). But it’s Kristian’s voice that is the essence in their performances. His first single ”Rusen våkner igjen” (sounding like a mash-up of James Blake, Bon Iver and Jeff Buckley) was voted as the 5th best song on NRK P3 2014. ”Lyset”, his second single, has been one of the most played songs on Norwegian radio during winter 2015.
OLEFONKEN (NO)
Olefonken is a man of few tracks and even fewer words. But when something comes out it is solid, envisioned, and full of love. Raised in Africa, his sound has a warm funky rhythmic quality to it, but since growing up in Norway it also contains fresh, cold and sometimes melancholic melodies. Olefonken’s distinctive touch can be heard on solo projects as well as on his band hubbabubbaklubb’s latest endeavors.
VINNIE WHO (DK)
Vinnie Who has accomplished more in a few years than most musicians dream of achieving through a whole career – having the most played single three times in a row on Danish national radio P3 in less than a year with the singles “What You Got Is Mine”, “Remedy” and “Killerbee”. Several performances at some of the most prestigious Danish award shows along with the opening act-performance at the Roskilde Festival’s legendary Orange Stage in 2013 are just some of the many impressive events and milestones Vinnie Who has attained and been acknowledged for during the first years of his career. The starting point for Vinnie Who’s musical universe has so far been characterized by the disco genre, but with the new single, “Seven”, new musical inspirations has been encountered. “Seven” is the precursor to an album that will see the light in the spring of 2015.”
Have you got your festival pass for by:Larm 2015 yet? Make sure you don’t miss out! Festival passes and day passes are now available.