Kill The Evil

"Kill The Evil" started its life while jamming with a looper pedal, about 18 years ago. The drums where programmed on a computer, which was basically what you could do with computers back then. The guitars where improvised over the drum track. 
The song was one of many tracks that was being prepared for release with my “Ninth” project, (which was a solo project at the time). The album was never released, but an EP containing a version of Kill The Evil was released, this EP was supposed to be a teaser for the album to come. 

I recorded and produced the album myself in my own space, but ended up working on many of the tracks with other producers, whom I trusted and respected, 
On this song (and a bunch of others) I worked with Yngve Sætre at Duper Studio. 

This release is an earlier and longer version of the song, (but the same recording) and I have brought in some of Yngve’s ideas as well, as he’s a brilliant (and generous) guy, that indeed helped me a lot on these songs, for second to nothing. 

Still I wanted to present it here in a new light. 
 
On the recording session with me:
Geir Arne Ose:  Main drums
Yngve L Sætre: Synthbass/production

Requiem To Love

This song started out as a choral composition with trumpets, strings, church organ and and bowed guitars.

It had no drums, no words and was 7 minutes long. 

The arrangement was supposed to represent a dream of ancient times that was abruptly broken. It was originally named "Mountain Call".

It was a minimalistic piece. Long drones with few notes and primitive harmonies. 

The theme stuck however and I arranged it once again with the opposite in mind: a rock-hungry audience. We first played it with WOO around 2001.

I continued to work on the melody and it was destined for release on the Ninth Evolver Album (currently unreleased) 

Strangely enough it ended up more mellow in the final recording than originally intended, but it was fun to play and the audience seemed to love it when we performed it. 

There are several versions of this song and they are like night and day to each other.
Im not sure I will release them all but you never know.

Don't Look Back

Songs often has a tendency to be created in parallel situations. 

Along with heavy improvisation (with my band Woo) the first actual demo of “Don’t Look Back” was created on an old organ and a twelve-string electric guitar. 

The organ parts was inspired by  yet another song I had written for acoustic guitars. Then several arrangements were made, and recorded.

I was planning on releasing two of them here: one for horns and baritone guitar, and one for grand piano (both with voice).

But then again, I could have said this for just about every song. The reason I’m even telling this now is that;  just a few weeks ago, I really didn’t know which version I was going to release.

They are quite different, and have their own distinct statements. Together they speak more than a thousand words, in a blog like this. 

Anyway, "Don't Look Back" was heavily performed live with the band Ninth, using several live-looping pedals to complete the arrangement. I think I had 12 different record armed “loopers" on this song during the most crazy shows.

All You Need Is

This song was recorded live at a rehearsal with my band “Woo” a long time ago. 

The recording was not intended for anyone’s ears at all, and certainly not for a release. 

We played though the song two times on this particular rehearsal , however on the first play though, the guitar track was oddly missing, so it had to be the second one.  

I didn’t want to spoil the vibe with any production, so it’s like eavesdropping on the band. 

Personnell:

Geir Arne Ose: Drums

Give It On

“Give it on” is a song that changed over time, and through live shows mostly.

The song was frequently played with my band “Ninth”. It used to do well live, so it basically stayed with us, almost like a feeling, but changed drastically along the way.  

The quiet parts, on this version, was more inspired by “contemporary” composers like John Tavener and Arvo Part etc, which I listened to at the time. 

The song went through many different choruses, and quiet parts, even verses, beats, and chord progressions. Nothing is left of the original song that we originally composed. 

I must also say that the setting for the song came around a time when I was trying to combine the “nerve” of contemporary music with punk/hardcore culture (which I suddenly found myself in, at the time) 

Part of what fascinated me was the similarities these music cultures (sometimes) shared in raw (primal) expression.
To me they contain some very fundamental and important emotions. So I found this "merge" very powerful. 

I wrote a bunch of songs through this fascination (still do) and some of them will be presented here later.

Alight

I originally  wrote 3 different melodies and arrangements to Alight.
As mentioned before I was planning to release parts of them, here in the journal, but unfortunately I’m so behind my schedule right now. that I’m gonna have to do it later.

On this version, there was two different lyrics going on at the same time. The high pitched voice, reflected on “positive aspects” of life,  and the darker pitched voice, had lyrics reflecting, darker perspectives. 

Both voices had similar sounding words and were sung together in unison.

However on the released version, I decided to go for a mix of these two lyrics, and let both voices sing the same words, in order to avoid confusion.

Violins To Violence

Violins To Violence was written to a girl I was seeing, a long time ago. 

But after fooling around with the the song, (not the girl) the lyrics evolved into something closer to a “love tragedy”. 

The relationship with the girl had nothing to do with this though. 

As usual, I have several versions of the song. 

I was planning to publish some snippets of them here today, but I just couldn’t find the time for it. 

However, I hope to finish (and release) many of these different versions, in the future. And to my most dedicated followers, they will be made available for free, as a token of my gratitude.