All language subtitles for Northern.Disco.Lights.2016.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.BZ]

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MENTAL OVERDRIVE:
A lot of culture is based

in the kind of survival needs
of living here.

When you grew up,
that's the main cultural aspect

you're presented with.
It's like, "This is where we're from,

and this is what we'll do."

We were trying to escape
the dull reality of living in Norway.

KAHUUN: The mountains, the ocean,
you're so close to everything here.

PRINS: Norway's kind of the last stop
until you hit water.

MENTAL OVERDRIVE: We were trying hard
to create our own little space.

DOC:
We were very much on our own.

ANNIE:
We like rhythm. We like disco.

It's... I guess it's the dream,
you know, the perfect party.

If you look at Oslo or Norway now,

it's much more internationalized.

STRANGEFRUIT: That wasn't the case
at all 25 years ago.

It was much grayer.

(TRAIN HORN BLOWS)

MICHAEL:
Norway is, in many parameters,

a really weird country.

The least densely populated country
in all of Europe,

so this is a people
that are used to living

hundreds of kilometers
from neighbors,

from being isolated, from living amid

this incredible scenery
and surviving.

They were survivors clinging
to this very inhospitable landscape,

and I think somewhere deep
in Norwegians is this

almost primeval connection
to their landscape.

Of course, there's clichés
about living in Norway

how it was many years ago,

more of a country life in Norway

and the snow and the cold winters.

Deep in the Norwegian soul
is a low self-esteem.

We're... we're old...
I mean, we're potato land.

But there's this kind
of dysfunctional family relationship

in Scandinavia. With the Swedes,
it's like the goody-goody head boy.

The Dane is like
the rebellious younger brother,

and the Norwegian
is the kind of...

This isn't me.
This is what other Scandinavians say.

Norwegians,
like the retarded country cousin.

Of course, the biggest thing ever
to happen to Norway

is the discovery of this huge
quantity of oil and gas actually.

Ever since then,
they have just opened the taps

to a nonstop supply
of gold and wealth

and riches beyond anyone's imagining.

It went from a society where
everybody was fishers or farmers

or something
or to a more modern society.

I grew up, or we grew up,
in the middle of that.

STRANGEFRUIT: Norway remained
culturally communistic in a way.

Skateboarding was illegal in Norway
until the end of the '80s.

STRANGEFRUIT: You look to Norwegian
music from the '80s, or '70s, '60s,

the outside influence
wasn't really there.

INTERVIEWER: What were clubs playing
before dance music,

what kind of stuff did they play?

Mostly shit music.

Because in the '80s,
not that much was happening,

even if you had a-ha,
like a big pop success.

A-ha's breakthrough with "Take On Me"

was very important
for Norwegian artists

to kind of show that it is possible
for a Norwegian to make it in the US

or make it in England
and the rest of the world.

We have to go into the '90s
before something exciting happens,

and it comes from Tromsø.

There were a lot of artists
coming from Tromsø,

and it kind of started
the dance music

that is more... famous today.

DOC: Growing up in Tromsø was
with a great sense of freedom.

We have a lot of space to explore,
and we did.

BJØRN: It was kind of
a protected youth or childhood.

So It was kind of boring, in a sense,

because you didn't get much impulses
from within.

MENTAL OVERDRIVE: Before Internet,
almost before we had human language.

We could just sit up here
and monitor the world in a way.

We could sit here and watch

what the humans were up to
in the other parts of the world.

The crowd in Tromsø I grew up with,
we wanted to explore different stuff,

so we were like very curious
about alternative music in any form.

All the guys I knew
doing music or into music,

we were trying to escape
the dull reality of living in Norway,

which we saw as not happening at all.

MENTAL OVERDRIVE: It was a bedroom
movement. Freaks into synthesizers

and electronic music.
We imported a lot of youth culture.

We collected everything
into a big heap

that we shared among us.

The British music papers,
they were very much in demand here.

Trying to follow what was going on
beneath the surface in other places.

On the radio,
we had one program a week,

which played music
that could be good.

RUNE: So I built a AM radio amplifier
of signals...

...and had a 20-meter cable
out my window

to the neighbor's tree...
(BEEPING RAPIDLY)

...just to get in
whatever you could get in.

You had no other radio channels,

no commercial ones, nothing.

And suddenly,
they handed out licenses

for each, you know, area or whatever.

Local radios were big here in Norway.
It was in the '80s.

Beatservice was in the beginning
a bit mainstream,

but gradually more
and more alternative.

He was like playing all sorts
of stuff, electronic body music,

Prince, The Cure,
and all different types of sounds.

RUNE: Norway at the time
there was no rhythms.

It's not like if you were
in a block in the Bronx

and you can hear rhythm music
all around you.

BJØRN: Eventually
me and a couple of friends

started doing our own radio show

in another local station
called Brygga Radio.

They let us play,
well, let us do anything.

You can just play Detroit techno
drive-time hours in the afternoon.

Anything got on air.
We would've been sued to death

for most of the things
that were done.

There was actually live sex and stuff
like that being transmitted.

Total anarchy.

That got me into music that
I wouldn't have found any other way,

so it meant a lot.

For us, the radio situation,
to have a place with sound equipment,

recording equipment,

learning how to use a mixer
and turntables,

that was crucial for us.

BJØRN: Okay, maybe we can start
making our own tracks.

So all the music I listened to,
they started using drum machines.

I remember I had this record
from a Canadian duo.

There was this machine.
I was, "What the fuck is that?"

I didn't know what it did.
It looked awesome.

And it was a TR-808 drum machine.
I was like, "I want one of those."

So I worked for the whole summer,
spent all my money on a TR-808.

We had a great time experimenting
with trying to make our own sound

but... failed.
(LAUGHS)

RUNE: The first thing
I heard about synthesizers,

which I thought was the coolest
but didn't know anyone who had it,

was Biosphere's brother,
who was in my parallel class.

I remember walking past the house
and thought, "Oh,

he has synthesizers."

Norwegian dance music
I think I first became aware of

probably through this guy Biosphere.

CARL: It was through him
I got an inkling about Tromsø

and these Norwegian places

that seemed quite alien to me,
I guess, at the time.

Nobody is gonna, you know, eclipse
what Biosphere has done, you know?

I ended up in England in 1987
in Hackney in a squat. (LAUGHS)

I guess I was pretty lucky
because everything that happened

in that period in London
was very interesting.

My first exposure to Chicago acid...

...and Detroit techno...

...was through a tape
that was given to me

from a guy who was also squatting.

It was kind of a revelation to me.

It was like, "Okay, there's a space
for this kind of music in the world,

and it's the clubs."

I read this story when I was a kid
in this Norwegian music magazine,

and there was an interview
with Biosphere and Mental Overdrive

saying the only thing you needed
to connect with the world

was a fax machine.

That sounds strange now,
but that was what they were doing.

They were sitting
in the north of Norway,

and they had international careers.

HANS: We have a strong connection
to nature.

You can kind of connect snow,
cold, ice

with sounds
that are kind of the same.

DIGBY: Long darkness
combined with beautiful nature,

it's going to have some sort
of effect on your psyche.

MENTAL OVERDRIVE: It's great
for actually taking the time

and get in depth with what you do,

and in the dark season,
what should you do?

You sit inside and do something.
You make music or listen to music.

It's a great place to contemplate
and to be productive.

JOAKIM: I think they were inspired
by the whole world.

And I think that they took influences
from London,

and they brought it home.

I remember Bjørn
and Rune was there as well.

Bjørn and Rune came over to London.

And we went record shopping in SoHo,
and they were like all over the show.

'89 was the first year
coming to London,

and then we made an annual trip,
or at least I did,

for the next 10, 12, 13 years.

MENTAL OVERDRIVE:
Bjørn, he was...

he was the most enthusiastic person
I think I had ever met in my life.

He was really,
you know, so, so genuine

about his interest in music

that it was really
fascinating actually.

"Wow," I thought,
"this guy, he means it."

I remember 1990 very well.

I think I brought back
over 100 titles.

(LAUGHS) And he did.
He meant it. He still means it.

Buy a hundred records,

obviously, you'll take some time
to get through them,

and you won't catch up
with everything at once.

You will find your favorites,
and keep something in the back.

And they will come forth

as they kind of mature
in your collection.

MENTAL OVERDRIVE: I didn't know
anybody outside Tromsø

who were into this kind of music
in Norway, no.

The first club
playing house music here

was when me and Bjørn decided
that we were going to put on a rave.

-Ah, there it is.
-Oh, that's it.

-Yeah.
-That's the one where we...

(BOTH LAUGH)

The most DIY event
ever put on, I think, on the Earth...

-Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
-...or in the Solar System, I guess.

MENTAL OVERDRIVE:
We rented a sound system.

We made all the décor ourselves.

I built two strobes, so we had that.

And everything was set.
It looked fantastic.

And then we had a rave, me and Bjørn.
He was playing. I was dancing.

And then I went on the decks,
and he danced.

So that was the kind of first club,
I think, from Tromsø.

What was your... your hardcore?

-Open Skies. Yeah.
-Open Skies, that was it.

You did hard...?
I didn't know you did hardcore.

We had one 12 out
on Reinforced, yeah.

-Happy hardcore.
-Yeah, almost.

Tromsø... (LAUGHS) Tromsø had

all these young,
very, very enthusiastic people,

and it was really refreshing.

I was playing at the festival here
in the '90s.

Four young lads
came up to me and said,

"Hi, we're going to play
the support slot for you."

And that was... They were calling
themselves Aedena Cycle.

That was Torbjørn and Svein
from Röyksopp,

Gaute Barlindhaug and Kolbjørn Lyslo,
Doc L Junior.

We kind of got that impression that,

if we want to put out music,
we can just do it.

I mean, they did it,
so why couldn't we do it?

And they were kind of younger
than Bjørn's generation again,

so they were like the next step

of youngsters coming on
to the music-making scene.

MENTAL OVERDRIVE: I don't need
to get shaped by what surrounds me.

That was the freedom
of growing up here with music.

If I grew up in a bigger city
where there was a sound going on,

I would maybe start
trying to fit into that sound.

That's maybe the freedom
coming from the Tromsø scene.

You don't answer to anyone.
You just make what you want to make.

BJØRN: So, that's
kind of the start of it all.

All based in the boring,
non-happening,

gray little northern town of Tromsø.

We were lucky to have these...
alternative guys here in Tromsø.

Those people kept on releasing stuff
and making music and moved,

later moved to other cities
like Bergen and Oslo,

so there was kind of making things
happen in other places too.

I decided to move to Bergen,
"Yeah, I want to do this."

So I just took a chance.

That was '92 I moved here.

MIKAL: Bergen, it's a small city,
I would almost say a big village,

on the Norwegian west coast.

About 250,000, 300,000 people living
in the city and the surrounding area,

so it's definitely small.

KAHUUN:
And as a city, it's the perfect size,

and it's like everybody knows
everybody

when it comes to the music scene
as I see it.

That's maybe why
the music scene is as it is,

and was back then and is now.

Bang! Actually, the day I landed,
moving here,

I met a friend in the airport.
He said, "Moving to Bergen?

We're starting a club.
Do you want to DJ there?"

And I said, "Okay, yeah."

MIKAL: In the early and mid-90s,
most parties were illegal raves

and underground parties.

We discovered the techno scene
in Bergen, basically,

first through our older friends.

And through them,
we met with Bjørn Torske.

He was kind of our older idol,
I guess.

I don't know, we just looked up
to him. He was very into his music,

very knowledgeable about it.

He was five years older than us,
or about five years older than us,

so we'd started dancing the way
he was when we were younger.

Compared to other Norwegians,
he has his own funkiness.

He has his own funk.

Bjørn is like a tale in himself,
you know.

He's almost like
a mythical figure over here.

And his last name also means cod
in Norwegian.

-What does his first name mean?
-Bjørn is a bear.

So he's a mixture
of a cod and a bear.

He just... He has no limits
in what he likes to use.

He just doesn't care about rules.
That's very rock and roll, actually.

He seems to be the kind of enigmatic,
the enigmatic genius of Norway.

He doesn't sort of put himself
around much,

but everything I've heard has always
been either interesting or brilliant.

RALPH:
It's very hard to describe.

Catchy, quirky, strange,
beautiful stuff

that I think no one else makes.

JOAKIM: I think
everybody's looking at Bjørn Torske.

It's like, Bjørn Torske
is kind of the godfather in a way.

He was the first,
and he is just in his own bubble.

So, like, I would say
that he is the pioneer,

but he's not the biggest
and most popular.

But that, I guess, it's the way
of the world when you're a pioneer.

MIKAL: Kahuun, Bjørn,
and those guys had just started.

But I guess when I grew up,
I was more into punk rock

and hardcore music,
and then I met with Tore.

Tore, my friend,
called himself Erot,

he also had a heart failure
from birth.

He couldn't party hard.
He couldn't run around.

I never drank any alcohol.
He didn't drink alcohol,

so it was kind of...
We had our own world, I guess.

Me and Tore, we quite soon became,
I guess, part of the same scene

as much a driving force
as everyone. We were all doing stuff.

I knew when I was 16, 17

that I would start a record shop
as soon as I finished high school.

It became more of a youth club
than a record store.

Bjørn would be there.
Erot would be there.

Annie, Ralph Myerz, Röyksopp guys
would drop by as well.

A lot of people
kind of gathered around that shop.

RALPH: Primitive Records
was the hangout spot

where we would always meet

and listen to the records for hours,
drinking insane amounts of Coca Cola.

We were students hanging
more in the shop

than we were actually studying.

I don't remember when Erot
and Bjørn started working together.

BJØRN:
He started coming up

with his earliest productions
on cassette tapes, obviously,

and, well, yeah,
this is kind of something.

ANNIE: Obviously, Bjørn
was a bit older than Tore,

and I think Tore in many ways
really looked up to Bjørn

and thought he was really
an amazing guy, an amazing producer.

So I guess he found him inspiring,
and they really inspired each other.

And he never went about anything
with a half ass.

You know,
he wanted to make it proper.

MIKAL: They found each other
for love of the music,

so as soon as they found each other,

they kind of just started
producing music.

I was deejaying in Bergen...

...just landed and met up with Bjørn
as I always did.

And he said, "You have to bring
your portable DAT player with you."

And I was like, "Why?"
And he said, "I can't tell you."

I brought out my portable DAT player.

And Bjørn had this younger friend
with him, and he said, "Meet Tore."

And without saying much,
he just went,

"Put on your headphones."
And Tore gave me a DAT

with his music.

I had to listen to it
without any talk and was like, "Wow!"

But I immediately knew
that this had to be released.

RALPH: His stuff didn't sound
like anything else.

It has a very,
very special swing to it.

GAUTE: Listening to "Song for Annie"
by Erot for the first time,

it sounded
like nothing else, like magic.

It sounded like a new start
for... for music.

That was a moment for...
like a turning point or something.

It's the otherworldliness.

It's the he's prepared to go past
what's considered to be normal.

STEPHAN: Tore was always pushing,
"Yeah, we should do this, do that."

So positive, you know?

Bjørn was maybe more the brain
sometime, you know,

and Tore was just coming like...
(WHOOPS)

It was going like lots
of disco happiness.

Bjørn Torske
suddenly discovered disco around '95,

and Erot discovered disco.

And it all kind of changed in a way.

I was initially into the more
Chicago- and Detroit-based music.

It was all very house and techno.

We had kind of been laughing a bit
about the '70s disco

being kind of kitschy, you know,
but when we started digging

in the underground with
less kitsch value and more groove,

we started pulling to that.

Pål Strangefruit had also
a very great role in this influence

because he was the guy
that promoted the disco sounds

of the '70s, '80s.

I think he's been
an underrated massive influence

on a lot of the slightly
younger generation

in Oslo in particular,
but in Norway in general.

STRANGEFRUIT:
I always wanted to be a DJ

since I was like 12 or something.

The music I got into was
through basically mysterious tapes.

INTERVIEWER:
Where were the tapes from?

STRANGEFRUIT: I don't know where.
It was suddenly at my friend's table.

It was a red Maxell tape

filled with this great new music,
synthesizer, disco.

It was actually a tape
from Kiss FM in New York.

And I was very far
from Paradise Garage,

but this was the music
of Paradise Garage.

So it kind of like created
an imaginary sense

of what New York was like.

It was just like a pure fantasy.

Musically, I felt
that what I was playing was

a bit strange and exotic in a way.

He started doing
his national radio show on Saturdays,

and that was very disco-fied thing.

The good thing in Norway,
you had terrestrial radio

like the BBC, like the NRK.

They had shows from Norwegian DJs
on Saturdays.

They had Olle Abstract first
and then DJ Strangefruit.

Me and Olle was pretty much left
to do what we wanted to do.

OLLE:
That was quite an important role

for quite a few
of the bedroom producers

in the outskirts of the big cities,
in the small villages around Norway.

On Saturdays,
we had nowhere to go to.

To parties,
we had to drive around with a radio.

DISKJOKKE: Olle Abstract's radio show
sounded totally different

from all sorts of music
that I'd been exposed to all my life.

It really caught me.

MAGNUS: Strangefruit was good at
promoting local music.

He was like the guy
that spread it all across Norway.

They got influenced by listening
to good music on Saturday nights.

It could've been a trance show.

It could've been a trance show
for 14 years.

We'd probably sound a bit different
in Norway now.

BJØRN:
When the artists of Bergen

started evolving,
especially around Erot,

Mikal was thinking, yeah,
maybe he could do something there.

The three of us did a party
that made enough money

to start Tellé Records

called Den Elleville Festen.

MIKAL:
It was inspired by a great movie.

-Animal House.
-Animal House.

MIKAL: So they're gonna save
their fraternity house

by having a toga party.

So we were supposed to save,
kind of, our scene by having a party,

and the money that we made
would go to printing records.

MIKAL:
So we were allowed to sell

1,200 tickets, I think,
and we probably had

about 1,500 to 2,000 people
kind of crammed into this.

And we had to turn away
probably a few hundred people.

BJØRN: This was when people
were crawling up on the roof

-and coming in by the ventilators.
-Yeah, yeah.

And the roof windows to get in.

I remember we were playing.

It just turned
into this crazy explosion

of dance and fun.

The whole show was stopped
because they were afraid

that the floor couldn't actually
stand the jumping.

It went, in many ways, too well.

MIKAL:
Erot, he did the design of the logo.

I wanted to do pop songs
of the electronic music that I liked.

So we were very inspired
by Motown when we started,

so it was 7 inches
with a big center hole.

The first release
is a 7-inch by Erot on one side

and a side project of Bjørn Torske
called "Torske Mendel Explosion"

on the other side.

We probably spent a year
selling those 500 records,

and then the next one, I think,
took six months to sell.

And for every release,
it went faster and faster.

When we came
to the fourth or fifth release,

we always sold out
on the day that they arrived.

GAUTE: We were looking to Bergen
and were impressed

about what they were doing.

Being creative and doing
new stuff without thinking.

The Tellé stuff was more
from a kind of left field pop angle,

and "The Greatest Hit" by Annie was
the one that really caught my ear.

The first time I actually met
Mikal Telle was at a rave party,

and that's the way
I got to know him.

Erot, he was there.
And, yeah, I met him, and...

And... yeah, then we became
really good friends,

and we started doing music together.

MIKAL: When I heard
"The Greatest Hit," it was just...

You remember when you heard the track
instantly, it's, "This is something."

Has the sample been cleared
in "The Greatest Hit"?

(LAUGHS)
Well, yeah.

Well, you should maybe ask Loaded
about that. I think he...

MAN:
Sounds like a no.

He sampled Madonna. You know?

-And...
-Nobody's been sued yet.

After a week, we started to get like
a lot of interest from labels

and, yeah,
and journalists and... yeah.

Mikal came on and put out all these
7 inches with brilliant music,

and then it started
just, you know, exploding.

ANNIE: So many people
doing music at that time.

So Röyksopp had a record
and he released their record

and same with me
with The Greatest Hit.

RALPH: Everybody were helping out
and hoping that people would succeed.

It was a very good vibe.

MIKAL: I don't think I've wrapped
my mind around what happened,

feeling of actually communicating
with the rest of the world.

INTERVIEWER: Were you surprised
that it was so successful so quickly?

Yeah, yeah.
Astonished, yeah. Really.

KAHUUN: It kind of defined the sound
of Norway, I guess, at that moment.

The first Bergen wave
that's just a...

you know, a terminology created
by journalists, because suddenly,

a lot of artists come up with music
at the same time,

and they call it a wave.

The other thing that I really like
about them is their insistence

on releasing loads of music
with Norwegian titles

that mean nothing to anyone else.

It's so funny
when you do these names

and people like try to pronounce it
from abroad. It's like... (SNICKERS)

MAN 1:
"Jeg Vil Være Søppelmann."

Jeg vig... Oh.

MAN 2:
2000 Isvar Fra Morellviene.

2000 Isvar Fra Morellviene.

MAN 1:
"Tur I Maskinparken."

That's a tricky word that.
Maskinparken Tu I...

And it kind of became the norm,
you know.

Full Pupp, it means a full titty.

But it also means the whole shit.

Erot, which is like Tore backwards.

Then you have
Jeg Vil Være Søppelmann,

which is like the most famous one
of Bjørn's.

That means,
"I like to become the garbage man."

(LAUGHS)

Which is weird
because I've never seen Bjørn work.

BJØRN: That was in '99,
I think, it was released.

It's a very percussive thing.
It did quite well, actually.

He went so mental
on the beat production there.

And suddenly, everyone was raving
and going mad about this track.

And Danny Tenaglia played
like two copies for 25 minutes

in Miami the same year,

with Carl Cox standing on the bar
going crazy,

and we Norwegians were like,
"Yeah! Fuck yeah!"

I had to ask him
how did that track happen

and he's just like, "I'm sorry,

but I was really,
really drunk that night,

and I can't remember how I made it."
(CHUCKLES)

EMILIO: That is one of the best
Norwegian house records of all time.

It felt like there was
a strong scene there.

There was a lot of DJs.

There was, you know,
a lot of parties going on.

The mid- to late-90s scene,
club scene, in Oslo and Bergen

was very healthy.

Lovely music, lovely people.

Yeah, all the good stuff you need
to have a club scene.

OLLE: It was a dark little space
that used to be like public toilets

and it was converted
into a nice little futuristic,

metallic-like little box of a club
with a big sound system.

G-HA:
At that time, it was like...

it seems to me like every night
was just magic.

It was crazy
like three nights a week.

First time we went,
you thought, "This is nice.

It'll be a nice sort of intimate,

like playing in a bar or something."
Little did we know. (LAUGHS) Yeah.

CONRAD:
Absolutely insane. Mental.

Proper, proper mental.

BILL: That was a bit
of a legendary club at the time.

I think it got voted in Music's
"50 Best Clubs in the World."

OLLE: Erot had his first DJ gig
there outside Bergen.

One of the legendary nights
he played live the first time,

and that was in Skansen,
and that was absolutely crazy.

MAGNUS: He resonated with people
outside of Norway as well, you know.

We were like hearing stories of,
"Erot has been to Japan,

and they fucking love his music."

We were like, "Is that possible?

How can this little boy from Norway
go over there and play music?"

This is a big deal.

We got so much offers and...

Suddenly, like...

We didn't have plans about what
we wanted to do with the project,

but I talked to Tore and said,

"Okay, maybe we should do
some more songs."

And I had some ideas.
He had some ideas.

And the plan was to do an album.

But, of course, then Tore
got really sick and...

I guess it was like
half a year after.

He was starting to feel weaker
and weaker,

and he got into the hospital.

And he got really, really sick and...

I was visiting him, and of course,

I really hoped
that he was gonna be better and...

...which he didn't.

And, yeah, then after one and a half
year or two years, he died.

(RAIN PATTERING)

AUNT: Here's Tore and he's done
brilliantly on his physics exam.

-Haven't you, Tore?
-Well, it went quite well.

AUNT: That's good.
What are you going to do

after that hurdle
has now been just accomplished?

-What are you going to do?
-Well...

...I'm gonna focus on music making.

KENN: He could have died
the first 24 hours,

because he had a very serious
heart condition,

but the doctor saved his life.

Then he had the next operation
when he was 10 years old.

He always lived on borrowed time

because they didn't know exactly
how to correct the disease.

His heart condition
made it impossible for him

to be like a football player
or something like that,

so he had to have some hobby.

(SPEAKING NORWEGIAN)

(SPEAKING NORWEGIAN)

I always... I don't have
any memories of him

without Mikal or Annie.

Yeah, we were really small
when they started seeing each other,

so she was kind of like
a big sister to us as well.

He was a really funny guy,
first of all.

I remember he was really funny.

And he had a lot of sides to him,
a very interesting person.

Erot was...

Well, he was one
of the nerdiest guys I knew.

He would know everything.

He had a brain that was probably
too large for his own good,

so he was huge... Well,
he had knowledge about everything.

(SPEAKS NORWEGIAN)

KENN:
He said, "I'm going to Japan."

"What are you going to do in Japan?"
"I am going to play music."

Maybe this was too much for Tore,

because when he came home,
it did go half a year,

then he started to get ill.

They realized that his lungs
were now also damaged.

So we kept the optimism,

and somehow,
we thought it would be okay.

He was ready for the operation,
and he was just waiting.

And something happened.
We don't know.

In fact, we don't really know

exactly what was the situation
when he died.

But it was in the middle
of the night, and the nurse,

she just came into his room
and saw that he was...

He was not breathing.
He had no pulse.

Anna and Mikal
were only a few kilometers away.

They came to the hospital,

and we had some hours
together with Tore.

And that...
that felt very good for us.

Yeah. And... how sad it was,
how good it was,

that they were there, yeah.

I miss him as the boy he was.

KENN: The funeral,
it was amazing because...

And hundreds and hundreds of people,

it was crowded
inside the church and outside.

I couldn't see anything.

I was empty,
but I saw all these people.

That was very special.

There is certain people
that are, yeah, building things

and holding things together.
He was one of those.

Of course, for me,
it was a big loss and...

But also, I think, for...
for sort of the scene in general.

You would be correct to call
those records seminal that he made

because listen to them.

People should be aware
of the equipment he used

to make those records.

People would laugh now.
Your phone is more powerful.

The stuff he did
freed a lot of producers

from what they believed
was right and wrong.

Producers like him is
really necessary for music to grow.

It's weird how it works
that like the saddest thing happens

at the same time as some
of the funniest things, like.

So at the same time as he died,
everyone was sad,

like Röyksopp got signed
and did really well.

Ralph Myerz did and... and...

some... not some electronic music,
but Kings of Convenience.

Like, they all did pretty well
and became quite well-known names.

So people went on having success,

but the scene
wasn't as tight after that.

The band kind of blew up
after releasing our Special EP.

It was starting getting airplay
heavily on the radio,

and not only in Norway,
but in the US and Europe.

RALPH:
And we toured all over the world.

Our kind of reputation as a live act
was helping us with the record sales.

The shows were very energetic

and a lot more up-tempo
than the albums.

That combination
just kind of worked very well for us.

In the early 2000s, we had Röyksopp,
who went very large.

But suddenly, Erlend Øye, who
had been in Kings of Convenience was

Whitest Boy Alive.

I'd hear things and think,
"Sounds like it came out of Norway."

You could tell something special
was gonna come,

a sound could come out of there.

RALPH:
The next wave of people

kind of directed the spotlight
from Bergen to Oslo.

What really turned me on, I think,
to... things that were happening

was the... was the second wave.

MATT:
It was just really kind of spacey

and all these odd,
different influences.

Over the next year, couple of years,

you just started hearing more
coming out of Oslo.

GAUTE: Oslo feels now like
a natural home for that type of sound

because there's
so many brilliant musicians

making that type of sound from Oslo.

And if you walk into any club,

chances are
that you'll hear that type of music.

I'd describe it
as a weird, strange melting pot

of, I suppose, '70s disco.

Space echo and tape delay.

Eighties synth pop.

Bright synthesizers,
usually played on vintage hardware.

Experimental noise in there.

Live, slightly off-kilter basslines.

You've kind of got the sound
in a nutshell there, I think.

So we referred to it a lot
in iDJ magazine as "Scandolearic."

It was sort of what we used to call
heroin disco.

Kind of modern disco
with a lot of effects.

A lot of dub stuff and...

Skrangle disco.

New disco, space disco, cosmic disco.

Yeah, like, slippy-sloppy,
sloppy house, you know?

One-legged disco.

It's really hard to say

whether Norwegian music
has particular characteristics

because I think it's more to do
with individual producers.

Proggy disco, I suppose
you'd call it, that's become a thing.

And if anyone started it,
I'd say it's Lindstrøm.

LINDSTRØM: A lot of the stuff
that at least I was making

was trying to use inspiration

from all of the music
that I've been doing,

like... like from church music
to folk music.

Rather than being embarrassed
about my musical past,

I was more like, well,

trying to implement that music
into my own music.

So that's basically it.

"I Feel Space" feels
like a beefed-up version

of Giorgio Moroder,
you know, from "I Feel Love."

That record was enormous.
It was everywhere.

Lindstrøm is the biggest influence
on everyone,

because he was the only guy
at that time

who actually put something out
that was noticed and big.

House music was lying a bit dead,
you know?

It kind of kick-started
a new type of vibe.

LINDSTRØM: Looking back now,
I realize that maybe it had

a bigger impact
than I really understand.

(CROWD CHEERING)

BLACKBELT: Thomas has been
a fantastic ambassador abroad,

and he's pretty huge
in Norway as well.

MAGNUS: As a DJ, he's one of those
guys that can make anything blend.

He plays eclectic music
without losing the energy.

BILL:
He's a really, really good DJ.

I would say I was probably
mostly inspired by disco,

by all these like loose rhythms

and, you know, trying to find a way

to make the music
sound not too mechanical.

He was like not really
into club music,

but a lot of like weird stuff.

And we kind of started
doing stuff together.

It was Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas
when I started to go,

"There's something going on here."

JAMES: Lindstrøm and Prins
have been able to take

the best of those kind of sounds
that were popularized

in the '70s and '80s
and bring it up to date

and create something
that's, you know...

you know, a nod to the past,
but always kind of forward-looking.

We both kind of like played
everything we got our hands on.

We just played, like used this
as percussion and...

And did a lot of weird stuff.

PRINS: We probably didn't know
exactly how things should be done.

LINDSTRØM: It didn't sound
professional, but it kind of maybe

gave the music a more like
homemade feel or something.

(LINDSTRØM LAUGHS)

I guess there was some kind of a hype
after we did a lot of remixes.

PETE: You're listening to Radio 1.
Welcome to the Essential Mix.

Another installment,
a bit special this week.

Our guests are two amazing DJs
and producers

from the land of Röyksopp.

It's already a contender
for Essential Mix of the year.

From Norway,
Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas.

PRINS:
Doing stuff like Essential Mix,

at the time,
that was actually a big deal.

CARL: When Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas
landed an Essential Mix,

a really important milestone
in any DJ-producer's career,

it was really influential
and seminal.

And I guess that is,
if you wanted to pinpoint a moment,

that would be maybe when you'd say,

"Ah, Norwegian dance music
has arrived."

CONRAD: I think what Thomas
and Hans-Peter Lindstrøm did

was awaken...

It's like a sinful thing.
People were like,

"Oh, you can't really listen
to high-energy, driven music.

You can't listen
to those arpeggiated basslines.

That's music for gay clubs."
You know?

And they just... just tore that down.

CONRAD: From that day until now,
the floodgates opened, you know.

That is the sound now
without question.

All of a sudden, we had
all this response from everywhere.

If you want do this remix,
go here to play, there to play.

We got a bit scared
because it kind of blew up

way out of proportion, you know.

We both had way too much success
to really handle it.

And we ended up
almost burning the bridges

by getting tied up in having to do
these three remixes this week

and kind of ended up
taking on too much, I think.

We made a pretty conscious decision
to weird out on the next record.

BILL: Norwegian musicians have
absorbed all kinds of oddball ideas

that they distill into their music.

DIGBY:
With Norwegian dance music,

there seems to be
less structure to it.

Experimented a little bit more
with beats,

tracks that evolve a lot more.

And they seem to have a bit more fun
and take a few more risks.

CARL: I think there's a certain
cheekiness, a certain sort of playful

almost mischievous nature to some of
Prins Thomas' and Lindstrøm's stuff.

And I'd say that has been
an influence on a lot of producers

to try new things out.

It's been fascinating to watch
Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas

bubbling under for years.

And kind of,
people have been aware,

but it's not sort of gone as big
as perhaps I thought it could do,

or perhaps they had the ability to,
and certainly the talent.

But to be around and see Todd Terje

just take that uniquely
Norwegian sound and elements of it

and really make it his own,
but just...

That album's been huge.

It's sort of a pinnacle
of what's been happening

and bubbling under for ages
with those guys.

But now, Todd Terje did it,
didn't he?

It's cheeky, I think.
He's cheeky and it's like, yeah.

I don't know, something
that I can't put my finger on.

But it's like, yeah, you've got
to dance to it, you know.

"It's very difficult to not like it.

The music makes you happy.

CONRAD: He has got even more
of a pop sensibility about him.

I think he finds that effortless.

Hopefully, he'll sit down
with somebody

and deliver some amazing songs
for us,

because I think that's well
within his range.

BILL: Been pretty amazing
to watch him go from

being a very keen teenager
to being someone

who's feeling at home
working with Bryan Ferry.

It's pretty incredible, really,
what he's done.

He's just enormously talented.

Well, he's incredibly musical

and he's really accomplished
as a keyboard player and programmer.

BRYAN:
A great all-round musician, you know?

And I was amazed at how quick he was,

and I've worked with good people.

So he's very good at creating
atmospheres and drama.

I saw it in person
when I did the festival here in Oslo.

The crowd was going crazy.
They really loved his music.

It was a huge audience
of very young people who...

Actually, of all ages,
which I think is good,

who were really into it.

MATT:
Inspector Norse was enormous.

In 20, 30, 40 years' time,

people will still think of that
as a classic disco record,

possibly,
an all-time dance music classic.

BILL: There's a simplicity
to the music he makes.

All great music
is really about simplicity, I think.

Almost all great records,
something simple about them,

you listen and think, "I could've
done that." The fact is you didn't.

(CROWD CHEERING)

MAN: He seems to have gone global
more than anyone.

What do you think
makes his music...?

Yeah, why do you think
it's gotten so big?

Well, he's...

For the first, he's particular
in his ways, like Erot was.

He's very like into
how he's gonna make it.

Obviously, it's good music,
good dance music.

(CROWD CHEERING)

First impression I have
of Erot's musical adventures,

it was kind of a rave sort of thing

with a lot of silly samples
and stuff.

It was really funny.

I don't know if any of those tapes
still exist,

but what I know is that Todd Terje...

And his big sister
was a friend of Erot,

so he got to listen to these tapes
when he was like 10 or 12.

I just got to know last year
when Terje told me,

so that was kind of funny.

STRANGEFRUIT:
Like, in Oslo now, you have

one of the most
happening musical cities.

There's loads of concerts here.
There's loads of food stores.

So in many ways,

what has happened here
in the last 25 years

has maybe happened in England
in the last 70 years.

It's just happened
in a much faster scale.

There are a lot
of great Norwegian musicians.

They've had a very big
kind of imprint on music.

Lindstrøm, Thomas, Terje's
breaking out definitely influenced

world dance music, no doubt.

To me, they are the people
who really, really blew Norway up.

STRANGEFRUIT: Disco never happened
here in the first place.

It had to be a new generation
to see the wonders of it,

so we basically discovered disco

20 years later
and made our own version of it.

Norwegian dance music
now has got a blueprint.

Once there's a blueprint

and once it's ingrained
in a musical culture,

it's self-sustaining.
It'll go on. People will continue

making records like that.
They'll put their own twists,

but it'll still have
that distinctly Norwegian feel.

Norwegian identity, it's strange,
because you can't...

...go anywhere in the world
and not bring yourself with you.

So it's like,
I'm always gonna be Norwegian.

I'm always gonna be
Northern Norwegian.

Yeah, maybe it's important.

Maybe it's important
that I'm Norwegian.

BJØRN:
There's definitely stuff happening

with the younger generations

and also in the dance music,
house department, yeah.

Exciting stuff.

MIKAL:
When we grew up, we didn't care

what other people in Bergen
or in Norway had to say.

Several young new producers
have done exactly the same.

They haven't kind of talked to us.

They've just gone out
and done the same thing.

I find it really cool that there is
like a new wave of things happening

and people kind of not caring
about what the elders do.

I have no idea if we had any effect
on the world of music,

but we had fun, though.

My favorite Norwegian record ever?

Wow, uh...

-Um...
-Umm...

-Um...
-Hmm.

Oh, that's a tough one.

-That's a tough one. I...
-Um...

-Um...
-Ugh.

-Ooh.
-Wow.

My favorite,
favorite ever Norwegian track?

-Of all time?
-Well, um...

-I... I think...
-Um, that...

-(SIGHS)
-(SMACKS LIPS)

(EXHALES)

Let me think a little bit on that
and I'll... Yeah.