I’m always on the lookout for unusual back stories, especially those concerning the formation of a band but I’ve never come across one before that originated out of a weekly musical jam and songwriting session amongst a group of neighbours on the Norwegian coastline at their local community ‘Vaskerie’ or laundry.
That’s what happened to the group of folk who eventually formed Laundry House (what else?) and the members hail from Western and Eastern Norway, Iceland and the USA. I assume they weren’t sailing in from the latter two places to do their laundry and that they were living there.
‘Edge to the Sea’ is an ode to and celebration of the natural beauty of the Norwegian coast while also honouring the strength and resilience of its people. It would make for a good theme tune to the next series of ‘Coast’ on the BBC.
There’s quite a mix of nationalities here and hence of musical styles but judging from this track they’ve settled on a traditional, almost classical form of rock.
I have to say that any song that has an Anna Calvi-like title and begins with the same sounding thunderstorm (albeit a quieter one) as N-Trance’s original version of ‘Set you free’ – the greatest dance track of all time – is going to attract and retain my attention.
After that they might have recited the Stavanger telephone directory for all I care but instead they serve up a sublime piece of soft rock which builds over five and a half relentless minutes of eight verses, no choruses and a couple of half-bridges, out of a ballad into a banging anthem.
And imagine U2 meets A-ha for the depth of sound they produce out of three guitars and keys and Kjell Ove Knutsen’s powerful vocal presence.
Coming to a laundry near you sometime (I hope) where they’ll probably blow the roof off with this one.
Laundry House is currently finishing their first LP, recorded and mixed by our old mate Jonas Kroon at Saga Studio, Oslo. ‘Edge to the Sea’ will be part of this LP release.
The band:
Vocals: Kjell Ove Knutsen
Guitar: André Rybakken
Guitar: Jason Moore (the American I presume)
Guitar: Christer Hellstrøm
Keys/vocals: Robert Knutsen
Drums: Elvar Þór Eðvaldsson (the Icelander I assume).
Bass: Andreas Lindberg Svensson
Find them on:
Website: http://www.laundryhouse.no/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laundryhouseband
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