When I think back to my days working at IDJ magazine, I’m struck by how obsessive I got by certain artists, labels and musical movements. Frequently, I would stumble on something in a record shop (or occasionally, via the mountains of promos that turned up in the office every morning), have my mind blown and set out to find out more.

In 2004, while propping up the counter at the Eat The Beat record shop in Bristol – a short stroll from the office, handily – the co-owner James handed me a record and suggest I give it a listen. It had a long, convoluted title – ‘There’s a Drink In My Bedroom and I Need a Hot Lady’ – and ran to an epic 13 minutes. Musically, it blended synths, drum machines and live instrumentation – all spacey motifs, skewed disco guitars, dub disco bass and nods to Giorgio Moroder. I was hooked.

Fast forward three years and I’d become a Norwegian dance music evangelist. I hoovered up releases by Prins Thomas, Lindstrom, Todd Terje (then a rising star, rather than the anthem-making recluse he subsequently became), Mungolian Jet Set and others, keeping an eye out for fresh re-edits and remixes by Oslo-based artists, and sung the praises of whatever I came across in the pages of IDJ. I was convinced that there was something interesting and special going on in Oslo, so when a clutch of albums and mix CDs by core artists were scheduled to be released within a few weeks of each other, I sprung into action.

I can’t remember how I persuaded my editor and the magazine’s management to devote a cover feature – the most prominent in the magazine and a vital sales hook – to this Norwegian “space disco” wave, but somehow, I did. So, in early 2007 (I think), I found myself flying out to Oslo with photographer Nic Gaunt and PR man Jonas Stone (who incidentally found out that his wife was pregnant while we were over there) to try and chronicle what I assumed was a big and vibrant scene.

Of course, what I found once I’d landed on Norwegian soil was that this “vibrant scene” was the work of around 25 people. That didn’t make it any less of a story – there were a lot of very good records emerging from Oslo at the time and a genuinely eccentric, attractive and unusual sound that was decidedy different from what was happening elsewhere – but it does show how journalistic narratives can effectively create and codify a specific version of events. Whether this is the “authoritative” story or not, it is a genuine historical artefact now: the moment when Norway’s ongoing dance music story first made the front page of a British magazine.

The feature itself is a mix of reportage, classic music journalism storytelling, and an attempt to explain how and why this particular sound and scene emerged. In truth, there’s my ‘why’ than how, though you can find the latter in Ben Davis and Pete Jenkinson’s later documentary film Northern Disco Lights – a movie I appear in as a talking head, recounting why we did the IDJ cover feature, what I discovered when I got there, and why I think (or at least did at the time) that Todd Terje’s 2012 anthem ‘Inspector Norse’ will one day be considered an all-time dance classic.

What Northern Disco Lights does well, and I didn’t in the following 2006 “on the spot” scene report, is trace the roots of the Oslo wave (and Norway’s now-embedded homegrown dance music culture) to Tromso, in the far north of the country, in the early 1990s. In my piece, Pal Nyhus (AKA DJ Strangefruit, one of the greatest DJs I’ve ever heard – and you can quote me on that) and Per Martinsen talk about many of the Oslo wave being “country boys”. I didn’t ask more at the time, but Northern Disco Lights makes it clear that many of the ‘scene veterans’ I interviewed in Oslo were originally from Tromso (as is Geir Janssen AKA Biosphere, a very significant figure who doesn’t feature in my IDJ article at all) – a far-flung town surrounded by rather a lot of snow and ice covered countryside.

I once gave a presentation during the pandemic in which I laid out an underdeveloped theory about how dance music scenes are emerge, grow and ultimately become self-sustaining. A key part of the argument was that scenes need pioneers – DJs and producers who first establish a music community in a specific space – and ‘success stories’. By that I mean people who get records signed to labels, go on to DJ around the country and further afield, and in doing so show those coming up around them what is possible. Once those success stories inspire a new generation, a scene is on its way to becoming self-sustaining (or, as I’d say in a more academic context, culturally embedded).

There is no doubt that has happened in Norway and Oslo in particular. In the years following my piece, DJ Sotofett, Fett Burger and Telephones (amongst others) rose to prominence with a trademark sound that tweaked the template provided by their predecessors whilst retaining many of the sonic trademarks of Norwegian dance music.

There are scores of producers, too, who have released on Full Pupp, Prins Thomas’s Norwegian-focused label, who would have been extremely young when he released his first records back in 2005. Add to this the continued efforts of the old guard – Terje’s productions have been few and far between in recent years, but Thomas and Hans-Peter Lindstrom remain prolific, while the Sunkissed night discussed in my 2007 piece will soon celebrate its 25^th birthday – and you have a scene that is, from the outside at least, as vibrant as it ever was. At least that’s how it appears from the outside, but it could still be the work of 20 or 30 people.

Scroll down to read the 2007 IDJ ‘Norwegian Good’ cover feature in full, complete with its original box-out – a selection of 15 “essential” Norwegian releases associated with the Oslo scene at that time. Immediately below you’ll notice an embedded Soundcloud player. This features a 2017 mix I did, made up entirely of Norwegian productions, remixes and re-edits. It was recorded as part of the promotion for a screening of Northern Disco Lights at the Cube in Bristol.

NORWEGIAN GOOD!

It may have escaped your attention, but right now Oslo is the centre of the disco universe, with LINDSTROM, PRINS THOMAS, TODD TERJE and a whole host of others setting dancefloors alight with their own peculiar brand of cosmic ‘space disco’ and far-out Scandolearic beats. In a bid to get to the bottom of this very distinctive Norwegian phenomenon, IDJ travelled to Oslo’s capitol city to find out more…

It’s mid afternoon on a typically cloudy May afternoon in Oslo. IDJ has barely been on Norwegian soil for a couple of hours and already we’re finding the place a touch ‘cosmic’. While Norway’s leafy, laidback capitol city is hardly the first place you’d expect to find the world’s most celebrated underground disco community, the early signs are good.

We’re stood inside the entrance hall to Nydalen subway station, gaping in open-mouthed awe at the most impressive disco light show we’ve ever seen. It really is something to behold: as you slowly ride the escalator towards the platform below, you’re transported through a constantly changing tunnel of light – from green to orange, blue to purple, red to yello and back again on a seemingly endless loop. With sound effects. All we need is Todd Terje’s remix of Lindstrom’s ‘Another Station’ blaring out of the speakers, and we could be in some future disco.

Immediately, we’re buzzing with excitement. We’ve come in search of the secrets of Norway’s burgeoning ‘space disco’ scene and already we’ve struck cosmic gold. To us Brits, raised on a thumping late-night diet of strobelight house, darkroom techno and throbbinh drum & bass, it seems most odd that a city like Oslo would be home to the world’s most celebrated group of contemporary disco producers.

Yet over the last four years, a group of DJs, musicians and producers has emerged from the city and changed the way we listen to electronic disco music. The likes of Hans-Peter Lindstrom – whose ‘I Feel Space’ reportedly sold in the region of 18,000 copies – Prins Thomas and Todd Terje have pioneered a form of dubby, heavily textured disco that veers from stripped down and electronic on one hand to spacious and psychedelic on the other.

And they’re not alone either. In Oslo alone there are numerous lesser-known producers ploughing their own quirky disco furrow – the likes of Blackbelt Andersen, Kango’s Stein Massiv, Mungolian Jet Set, Ost & Kjex, Mental Overdrive and Magnus International. And that’s before we get to the oddball electronica of the Smalltown Supersound label, Frost’s sprightly electronic pop or the weird out jazz of Bugge Wesseltoft, Nils Peter Moldvaer and others. From the outside, Oslo is buzzing… but is it really?

NORSE ATTACKS

The first stop on our whirlwind tour of Oslo is a café/bar in the centre of the city, where we’ve arranged to meet this month’s cover stars, Hans-Peter Lindstrom, Prins Thomas and ‘Todd’ Terje Olsen. We’re running late – partly due to the amount of time riding the escalators at Nydalen – and when we arrive the trio are tucking into beers and some particularly impressive looking open sandwiches.

Thomas is initially the most open and forthcoming, updating us about his hectic DJing and remix schedule. Hans-Peter is quiet and contemplative, offering the occasional insight into his weird and wonderful musical world. Terje, the youngest of the three, says very little, choosing instead to hand us a series of CDs featuring his famous re-edits, remixes and a smattering of original productions. The trio have worked together on and off for the last four years, with Thomas and Hans-Peter going back even longer. The duo originally met in a club in Oslo, where the former was DJing. “I remember Thomas was playing at Club Tropicand,” Hans-Peter reminisces. “I really liked that track [he was playing] but I would never have played it in a DJ set because I wasn’t sure I was allowed to play it! He just played in anyway – I liked that.”

At the time, Thomas was well known on the Oslo club circuit, being a regular at the city’s numerous small venues. During the day he worked at the Norwegian Immigration Office – where Full Pupp label mate Daniel ‘Blackbelt’ Andersen now works –indulging his passion for music in the evenings. When he met Hans-Peter, he soon found that they had things in common. “We were both in bands when we were younger,” Hans-Peter points out. “I played smooth fusion jazz when I was at college, and I was in some heavy metal bands too. Is it all there in the music? Maybe.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Thomas was in a psychedelic band. “That’s true,” he nods. “I think that’s what we have in common – having a musical background playing various instruments. That and getting into dance music at various points. I guess our reference points are similar.”

The subject of ‘reference points’ comes up numerous times as the conversation unfolds. Thomas admits to listening to a lot of new house and techno amongst the disco and Balearica, something which can’t be said for his lanky studio-mate. “I think Hans-Peter is more fascistic when it comes to new music,” he says, causing his sometime studio partner to chuckle. “I used to be more into old stuff and wasn’t into new music at all, but over the last four years I’ve been getting into a lot more stuff which is more functional than musical. That does very little for Hans-Peter.” It seems strange that someone like Hans-Peter should have such an attitude towards new music, considering the far-sighted and futuristic nature of his records. While it is clear that tracks like ‘Further Into The Future’ (one of Hans-Peter and Thomas’s first collaborations to get a release), ‘Arp She Said’ (originally released under the Six Cups of Rebel pseudonym) and ‘Music In My Mind’ are rooted in the original synth futurism of the early 1980s, they all sound incredibly new and fresh.

In fact, they sound like nothing else out there. What’s more, some of the duo’s most famous works – notably their collaborative remixes of The Juan MacLean’s ‘Tito’s Way’, Alden Tyrell’s ‘Disco Lunar Module’ and Hans-Peter’s version of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Disco Tribulations’ – are real dancefloor thumpers: never-ending, otherworldly disco epics. That reach for the lasers from start to finish. Then there’s the small matter of ‘I Feel Space’, Lindstrom’s accidental dancefloor smash. Originally only a hit with underground disco heads, it quickly became popular with house, techno and even trance DJs.

“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” he admits sheepishly. “I was meant to be one of the tracks on the first 12” I did for Feedelity, but I thought ‘this is too obvious – I cannot use it’. I put it on a couple of CDs I sent various people with lots of tracks on. I started to get a few emails telling me the track was really good. After it came out, it was really strange to get emails from trance DJs in Israel saying ‘we’ve done this version of ‘I Feel Space’. When I listened to it, I couldn’t believe it! But to me, the original sounds very soft. It hasn’t really got pumping drums. It’s more downtempo. I don’t understand house progressive house or trance people can play it.”

But play it they did – in their thousands. The combined total sales of the Feedelity and Playhouse Releases (the latter featuring remixes from Tiefschwarz, M.A.N.D.Y and Freeform Five) is rumoured to be around 18,00 – a phenomenal amount for what basic ally amounts to a 21^st century Italo-disco record. It was on the back of this – and the duo’s fantastically trippy album for Eskimo – that dance music lovers began to look to Oslo for inspiration. The remix requests came flooding in –Thomas and Hans-Peter, along with their re-edit crazy mate Terje, were suddenly flag-bearers for Norwegian dance music. The world went “Scando-disco” crazy and a scene was born… a scene that wasn’t all that new at all.

VIKINGS OF TOMORROW

Although British music journalists like to think that they’ve discovered something new, Oslo has been a home to quirky dance music for a number of years. While the Bergen scene of the late ‘90s – home to Royksopp, Telle Records, Annie, Kompis, Bjorn Torske (perhaps the original Norwegian nu-disco don), Erot and others – was briefly big news, Oslo has always had its fair share of genre-busting DJs, producers and musicians. The Smalltown Supersound label has long flown the flag for the more esoteric side of Norwegian music, dispelling the “bad Eurovision hits and Black Metal” myth through an eclectic mixture of electronic jazz (see Bugge Wesseltoft, Nils-Peter Moldvaer and Marie Boine), nu-disco (Bjorn Torske, Prins Thomas), experimental electronica (Jaga Jazzist) and cosmic rock (120 Days). Then there’s the techno musings of Mental Overdrive (AKA Norwegian veteran Per Martinsen), the barking minimalism of Ost & Kjex and the house/disco of Rune Lindbaek. And that’s just for starters.

One man who has seen it all is Pal ‘Strangefruit’ Nyhus, an old friend of Prins Thomas who is probably Oslo’s most influential DJ/producer. He’s highly regarded by those within the city as “the originator”, a man whose love of disco, electronica and jazz has long helped unite Oslo’s various micro-scenes. He was “Norway’s answer to Pete Tong” for five years from 1997-2002, presenting national broadcaster NRK’s flagship Friday night dance show. Recently he’s begun to make a name for himself as one half of the bonkers-but-brilliant Mungolian Jet Set, makers of quite possibly the most unashamedly out-there dance music in Norway (and that’s saying something).

With Terje, Thomas and Hans-Peter heading home to grab records and a bite to eat before tonight’s festivities, we’re joined by Pal and Per Martinsen. They’ve come to help us make sense of the city’s current rude musical health, and hopefully provide a few answers. IDJ has a head full of questions, first and foremost: why? Pal thinks for a little while before answering. “I think it is maybe a psychological thing – maybe people outside of Norway were making the connection themselves. There are not really that many of us who are doing these things.”

“It started a long time ago,” Per interjects. “Oslo has a kind of energy field where people come and go. Bergen was the same a few years ago. There’s something going on in that people trigger each other to make music. It’s inspiring to see others do well and have a lot of output.”

Pal nods in agreement. “I think so. If you look at a lot of the people from the so-called ‘Oslo scene’, the one thing that everyone has in common is that none of us here is from Oslo – we’re all from the countryside. I don’t know whether that has any influence on the music. I can’t really tell.”

He could be onto something. Listen to the work of Lindstrom, Prins Thomas, Rune KLindstrom, Mungolian Jet Set and others; one thing it has in common is a weird, slightly icy spaciousness amongst the bustling beats. IDJ came to Oslo thinking that this might have been a reaction to the city’s leafy open spaces, large amounts of water and general ladiback vibe. Maybe it is, but maybe it’s just the product of a scene forged by country boys and girls playing in the ‘big city’ (or Norway’s equivalent – Oslo has a population of just over 500,000).

Pal has another theory. “The superclub thing never happened in Norway. It wasn’t a cultural phenomenon like it was elsewhere. It was nothing like Cream or any of those clubs that became an institution. That’s not to say that there haven’t been institutional clubs, but the clubs here that are institutions have a capacity of 100 or 200 – really small places when you compare them to Ministry of Sound or wherever. Therefore, a lot of the music being played here wasn’t the big hard stuff and you had to play a bit different. A bit more… not necessarily mellow, but more intimate.”

Later in the evening we head down to one of the city’s most celebrated venues, Bla (pronounced ‘blu’). A 300-capacity space in a converted warehouse that doubles up as a rock/metal venue, the vibe is most certainly intimate. As someone with an alarming amount of disco records, it’s invigorating to see 200-plus people going bonkers to Hamilton Bonhannon, spangly Glimmers remixes and the sort of obscure, dusty grooves usually only championed by very boring men.

Prins Thomas and Sweden’s Mark Seven (actually a bearded cockney living in Stockholm) are the men at the controls, with Per Martinsen donning his Mental Overdrive alias for a live laptop set. The crowd is pleasingky mixed and generally pretty drunk, somewhat surprisingly given Norway’s famously high booze prices. Outside there’s a neat terrace, where punters go for fag breaks and five minutes of peace and quiet down by the river. The whole experience is very Norwegian – laidback and tranquil on one hand, but fun and up-for-it on the other. Say what you want about or Scandinavian cousins, but they know how to party in style – and with remarkable decorum too.

BBQ BEATS

The next day we make our way down to another of Oslo’s most celebrated clubs, Fabrikken, for an early evening BBA just across the river from Bla. It’s here that the scene’s camaraderie really starts to shine. While Thomas, Terje and Hans-Peter are abroad playing records, pretty much everyone else is on hand to share a beer with the travelling British contingent.

A trio of up-and-coming DJs soundtrack events with a brilliantly Balearic selection of Italo-disco, wonky Norwegian beats and off-kilter, Idjut Boys style dub disco. The sun beats down as Oslo’s musical movers and shakers chew through heaving plates of meat, all washed down with ice-cold bottles of a local brew. Reverso 68’s Pete Herbert, who is here to DJ for Sunkissed later on, chats contentedly with Pal. The latter’s partner in Mungolian Jet Set, Knut [Saevik] drunkenly poses for pictures while Trailerpark Records boss Runeand producer mate Kango (of Kango’s Stein Massiv fame) look on. The atmosphere is noticeably jovial.

IDJ is introduced to Rune Liandbaek, someone who knows the Oslo scene inside out. His Klub Kebbab and Head On parties at Skansen and Nomaden are legendary, while he was one of the first Norwegian producers to put the city on the dance music map with his work as part of Those Norwegians on Paper Recordings in the mid 1990s.

“I think it’s fair to say there’s a lot happening now,” he says with his usual goofy grin. “I’m glad! The whole Norway thing started for me and Bjorjn Torske 10 years ago, but there are all these new guys who are doing brilliant stuff, and they work really hard.”

Rune agrees with IDJ’s assessment that there’s something of a community feel to the scene: “Oh yes. None of us make any money, so there’s no competition. Norwegians are shit at business – horrible. Shit at getting things done, shit at promotion. There are so many nice people and it’s just about fun –and really trying to make good records that are inspiring.”

While Rune disappears to dig out some records for us, we grab tonight’s hosts, DJs Olanski and g-Ha, promoters of the renowned Sunkissed night. While Rune and Pal have both told us that ‘superclubs don’t work’, Sunkissed is trying to buck the trend. Taking place monthly for the last seven years – their seventh birthday takes place in August – Sunkissed is an attempt to “take abroad to Norway”. Ola [Olanski] has lived in London for the best part of a decade, and his experiences at clubs like Fabric and Plastic People forged Sunkisseds policy of mixing-up bookings, taking risks and bringing the best European talent to Oslo.

The night started at Bla, then moved to across the river to two-room Fabrikken in January. Previously they’ve hosted everyone from Ricardo Villalobos and Richie Hawtin to the Idjut Boys (who Rune previously told us have god-like status in Norway – something that might explain the obsession with echo-laden productions and epic, dubbed-out disco) and the Matthew Herbert big band. “It’s been hard to build the night up,” Ola admits. “Sunkissed has grown steadily across the years at Bla and now Fabrikken – it wasn’t just, ‘wow, there are 3,000 people trying to get in’.”

Sunkissed is probably the closest thing Oslo has to a British-style club, with 800 people partying across two rooms. Yet even with bookings that wouldn’t look out of place in London, Leeds or Liverpool, it still has a distinctly Norwegian feel. That feel is particularly evident on their recent mix CD for Smalltown Supersound. Packed with brilliant Norwegian dance music – from Lindstrom, Prins Thomas and Todd Terje remixes to the wonky house and techno of Mental Overdrive and Magnus International – it’s an essential snapshot of where Oslo is right now.

“Although Sunkissed was about trying to take abroad to Norway, it’s good to pay homage to what’s going on here,” Ola enthuses, his mobile phone buzzing with more guestlist requests. “When I first moved to London I never thought I’d hear Norwegian dance music in the clubs over there. Then suddenly the electronic jazz thing happened, and at the other end there was the whole Bergen scene with Telle and Royksopp and it opened up a lot of doors. It felt like you’d not heard a lot from Norway since A-ha, but behind these people who broke through like Royksopp, there were a lot of people who made music because they loved it. I think we have a different perspective to a lot of people in England,who can get obsessed with making it. They really stick their ear to the ground and listen out for what might make them famous. It’s not like that here.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the key to the whole Norwegian ‘invasion’: passionate music lovers making and playing tracks becayse they love it. Producers who grew up with the sound of disco, house, psychedelia and black metal in their ears, and a head full of weird and wonderful ideas. It turns out that ‘why’ was not that complicated a question after all.

FJORD FOCUS
The 15 Oslo-related releases you should own

120 DAYS – COME OUT, COME DOWN, FADE OUT, BE GONE [MENTAL OVERDRIVE REMIX] (Smalltown Supersound 12”)
Norway’s kings of cosmic rock get taken on a peak-time dancefloor journey by Per Martinsen. Reach for the lasers!

FROST – SLEEPWALKER (Frostworld Recordings 12”/CD)
Next-level, Italo-influenced electropop from Per and Aggie. Comes backed with superb dancefloor versions from Mental Overdrive and Rune Lindbaek.

KANGO’S STEIN MASSIV –TERSK FESK (Trailerpark 12”)
Hardcore acid funk for those dancefloor moments when “wonky” just isn’t enough.

KLUB KEBBAB – KLUB KEBBAB (Noid Recordings CD)
Hush-hush re-edits set from Rune Lindbaek, featuring a mix of oddball Balearica, strange 80s new wave and strobelight disco.

LINDSTROM – A FEEDELITY AFFAIR (Feedelity/Smalltown Supersound CD)
An essential trawl through Hans-Peter Lindstrom’s early work, including the ubiquitous ‘I Feel Space’ and ‘Another Station’ (which, incidentally, you should also pick up on 12” for the Terje remix)

LINDSTROM & PRINS THOMAS – REINTERPRETATIONS (Eskimo Recordings CD)
The duo rework tracks from their brilliant debut album in a dancefloor-friendly style. Also includes B-sides and their superb cover of Can’s ‘Mighty Girl’.

L.S.B – ORIGINAL HIGHWAY DELIGHT [MUNGOLIAN JET SET’S MIAMI CAMP MIX) (Eskimo Recordings 12”)
Pal and Knut go crazy on their version of Pete Herbert and co’s Balearic disco roller. Arguably their finest work… though their Bebel Gilberto rub is pretty hot.

MAGNUS INTRENATIONAL – KOSMETISK (Full Pupp 12”)
Where beautiful Balearic house meets Italo-disco… uplifting electronic genius.

MAJOR SWELLINGS – MAJOR SWELLINGS (Noid Recordings 2LP/CD)
Prins Thomas dons the Major Swellings guise for an album of disco re-edits for the Idjut Boys’ imprint. Hard to find on vinyl, but CDs are still floating around.

OST & KJEX – MILANO MODEL [A MUNGOPHONY IN TWO PARTS] (Dialect 12”)
The bonkers minimal duo’s camp electro original gets turned into a grinding electrofunk epic by Mungolian Jet Set, Oslo’s most inventive production duo.

TANGOTERJE – DIAMONDS DUB (Supreme 12”)
Probably Terje’s best re-edit, and he’s done a few. Takes Paul Simon on a dubbed-out journey, with beautiful results.

TODD TERJE – EURODANS/ITALIAN STALLION (Full Pupp 12”)
Undoubtedly Terje’s finest hour as a producer so far – a pair of peak-tine electronic disco beasts that still sound great after umpteen plays.

PIZZY YELLIOTT – COULD YOU BE LOVED? (Traiulerpark 12”/1965 7”)I
In which Mungolian Jet Set and pals take Bob Marley to the cleaners, returning with a thoroughly insane mutant dancehall version. Plus the longer flipside ‘acid’ remix is genuinely nuts. So wrong, yet so right!

VARIOUS ARTISTS – SUNKISSED (Smalltown Supersound CD)
Fantastic mix of Norwegian dancefloor fare from g-Ha and Olanski.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – PRINS THOMAS PRESENTS COSMO GALACTIC PRISM (Eskimo Recordings 2xCD)
Thrilling double CD mix-up from Prins Thomas. About the best mix CD so far this year!

This feature was originally featured in IDJ magazine as the cover feature of an issue published in the spring of 2007. Featured photo, scanned from the magazine, by Nic Gaunt. Used with thanks. For more information on Nic’s work, head to his website.