Last Lullaby

The riff on “Last Lullaby” was born through a long impro/jam session with my band.

The sound waves was captured on a minidisk and put together with hundreds of other minidiscs; on a shelf (along with hundreds of tapes and other media), all containing live recordings.

Strangely enough, I remember pretty well, what’s on these recordings, but I never remember where the stuff is stored. It’s not easy to name these abstract sound waves something memorable.

After the song was finished, the song was recorded and produced, and to be released on my first solo album.

However (much like with “Steal The Day Back”), the song ended up to be used with my new band “Ninth” as we needed songs, fast.

Last Lullaby has been performed extensively in Norway, and other countries. But has now returned to its home, and become a part of this five-year-long monument of craziness.

Purpose With No Meaning

I wrote this song directly after buying a brand new guitar in LA (Martin D45).

When I wrote the words, I played around with, changing various sentences I believed in, into the opposite, (by putting “don’t” and “not” into the sentences).

It was quite fascinating as I realised that what makes me happy, or gives me meaning, is closely connected to what makes me doubtful or sad.

They’re two sides of the same thing.

That realization made me appreciate the ups and downs in life in a more meaningful way.

Juncture

“Juncture” is a playful guitar piece, that was recorded on the fly, together with a bunch of other songs. These recordings aren’t the kind of sessions that are planned, or really produced.

They just happen, outside of the «studio mentality», and more for the fun of it.

The reverb on the track is the ambience from the room (it was recorded in) and you can kinda hear (in the reverb); how loud a human voice is, compared to an acoustic guitar.

So it’s the instruments that need to be turned up (in the mix) on acoustic recordings usually. Not the case, on rock recordings.

Steal The Day Back

“Steal The Day Back” was written and recorded for my own solo project, while working on my first solo album.

The song was recorded along with (now, already released songs) “Night”, “Come” and “Alinear”, to name a few, and was meant to appear on my second or third album.

However, after forming a new band (Ninth) we were in need of tracks, (for our first EP), and I ended up using these recorded songs from my solo album, and re-do the vocals with our new singer.

In fact we had to re-record the vocals with several singers, but that’s another story.

The song was picked out to represent Norway at the “Midem” music festival in Cannes.

And we got several festival invitations, and events out of it. Like the “Norwegian Wood” festival (which we had to cancel due to a tour in the US).

And perhaps the most meaningful, a performance at Grieghallen in Bergen, where we were asked to perform the song in order to highlight and honor young people with mental health issues.

Mirror Release Me

“Mirror Release Me” is based around a clavinet kind of riff, an instrument I was hooked on in my early teens.

I used to hunt down every old funk recording I could find (especially the lo-fi ones) and wrestled for years with mastering those clavinet arrangements on the guitar.

After a while, it became a part of the way I play, not only on funky stuff, but on many things.

The song itself was basically composed in transit. Meaning on the bus, or while walking to (and from) the studio.

The whole arrangement and lyrics was ready to go before I started to play and record it.

Visual art by James Roper

Fire

“Fire” is one of many guitar pieces I’ve entertained myself with, since my teenage years.

Many versions and improvisations have been recorded over the years.

This version, was recorded live in my living room after a couple of beers (on a nice summer evening).

After the guitar, I grabbed the cello and improvised three tracks on top of it, and that was that.

I make it sound simple, but the structure, lyrics and melody was worked on for many years.

It’s a song that might be “challenging” for some, but I really like it.

I love its atmosphere, and its attitude, as it is pretty resilient and stout.

Ishtar Rise

“Ishtar Rise” is the second and final part of the “work” I started on with previous release: “As We Speak”.

Huge parts of the improvisations was recorded live with bass and drums.

It’s always fun to do something different with a traditional instrument. Earlier this year I used a banjo to play sitar sounds, and the real sitar as a Russian plucking instrument.

This time it’s the mandolin that had to go east, getting dirty playing first fiddle in a middle-eastern impro situation. (I’ve always liked to use the mandolin on eastern stuff, but rarely get the opportunity to do so).

With me on the recording:

Bjørn Tore Kronen Taranger: Drums