Midnight Magic
Videos by VICE
Immer 2
t is hard to believe that Norway’s Skatebård could ever top the off-kilter brilliance of his debut, Skateboarding was a Crime (in 1989), but somehow he has. Released in 2002 on the Telle label (what happened to them?) to no fanfare whatsoever, that album didn’t have much to do with skateboarding at all but had stacks to do with synthesisers and raving and melody. One or two of the tracks went on a bit but the whole package—gatefold vinyl, enormous close-up inside spread of a keyboard, and a cover photo of Skatebård looking like he’s just shot through—more than made up for that. In truth, Skateboarding… was one of those albums that was rarely as amazing as you wanted it to be. But the whole idea of a portly bespectacled chap from Bergen with flowing blond Prince Valiant locks composing the sweetest acid disco, at the time when his buddies Röyksopp were striking platinum, was too good to ignore.
Which makes his unexpected return four years on with Midnight Magic almost too exciting for words. Out on his own label Digitalo Enterprises (“Digitalo” being a suggestive mix of “Digital” and “Italo”—clever, eh?), it’s the album Bård “Skatebård” Lødemel was born to make. Not since Traxxdata by Swedish producer Peter Benisch’s FPU project (check his cover of Jan Hammer’s “Crockett’s Theme”) has there been an album that so warmly evokes the best of Giorgio Moroder and Richard James, winter sunsets, snow crunching under foot, and gambolling new age fauns. Bård calls Midnight Magic “the natural combination of neon and pine wood”, and while some of you might think of an IKEA table lamp, there are others who quite correctly hear Savage’s “Don’t Cry Tonight” refracted through a prism of romantic analogue ambient aristo-pop as snowflakes gently kiss your cheeks. Maybe we’re reading too much into it.
Anyhow, we caught up with Bård to find out everything about him. First some background: the guy’s from a small village called Hovdebygda, located in a valley on the northwest-coast of Norway, six hours drive from Bergen. He grew up on the same farm as Ivar Aasen, the founder of the New Norwegian language—his middle name is also Aasen. He started out drumming for various experimental rock groups from the age of 13. Luckily his parents have a 100-year old second home where the bands would rehearse. He moved to Bergen a little over six years ago and started to overflow Mikal who runs Telle with demo tapes, about one a month, until he had to release a record. And that went on to be the cult classic (in our heads), Skateboarding was a Crime (in 1989).
Vice: Was skateboarding a crime in 1989 in Norway?
Bård: Skateboarding was forbidden from 1980 to 1989, and selling skateboards too. People used to either smuggle boards when they came from vacation, or like me, make a board in woodwork at school and place rollerskate wheels on it; not really the smoothest ride of all time. Norway is a very strict and regulated country, everything that is dangerous or unhealthy for you is either forbidden or taxed heavily.
Have you ever lived in poverty?
Compared to the living standard in Norway, I have been poor. But the living standard here is ridicilously high, Norway is one of the richest countries in the world. Only if you’re addicted to heroin are you poor in the international sense. Poverty is relative to which country you live in. Norway has a strong government, and you can say that sometimes you feel that you are being too regulated, but on the other side, there’s strong social security.
Prices are nuts there. I remember once I spent £30 on a mediocre bottle of house red in a Trondheim restaurant.
Yes, the price of alcohol is the reason why many Norwegians make their own spirits. At desperate times you’ll find people of both sexes using tampons soaked in Norwegian “vodka”. Others drink aftershave or technical spirits. Not so amusing, just a harsh reality.
What were your thoughts while making Midnight Magic?
I was thinking that I wanted to make something beautiful, a resurrection of romanticism, and at the same time trying to combine two seemingly opposite poles: a feeling of synthesis of neon and pine, future and nature. A seemingly impossible and peculiar combination.
What is it about you Scandinavian synth guys and your outrageous electronic music? Luke Eargoggle, Lindstrom, VCS2600, Jimi Tenor, Nu Science, Imatron Voima… untouchable stuff.
Yes, there is something. Don’t quite know what it is. Probably the fact that we are all total freaks. Also the scene in the Netherlands and Belgium has some excellent artists in this style, centred around the Cybernetic Broadcasting System and Viewlexx crew and Crème Organisation.
What else?
I learned to ski at the age of two. And I was born with 12 fingers. It’s true. I am also a member of Norwegian hip hop masters Side Brok. And you should visit my site at myspace.com/skatebaard.
There are one or two other crucial releases this month, such as Michael Mayer’s Immer 2 mix on Kompakt which, like the first one, takes a while to settle into but once you’re there, you don’t want to go anywhere else. Once again the tastemaker’s tastemaker Mayer has selected new or overlooked tracks by a number of thrusting young bucks including Jesse Somfay, Brooks (been around but still young) and The Rice Twins, making this a woozily attractive if predictably conservative proposition. A bonus download-only MP3 compilation is available from kompakt-net.de and this features, for example, AM/PM’s stunning “No Matter Whether”. Incidentally, AM/PM’s Radovan Scasascia releases another two singles, “Bought and Sold” and “Maratea” on his own Dreck label this month which explore squelchier, more club-based, territory. As the minimal style slowly buckles back into one succulent deep house groove across raveland, Scasascia proves he’s one step ahead again.
PIERS MARTIN
