Bel Canto's "Shimmering, Warm & Bright" paved the way for the band worldwide. But did you know that the song was inspired by the band's experiences with a possible ghost from a Viking grave?
/ 19/09/2014 / Janne SieversOver 25 years ago, Anneli Drecker traveled with a friend to Dyrøy, about a three-hour drive south of Tromsø. Their experiences with a possible ghost from a Viking grave there inspired the lyrics to “Shimmering, Warm & Bright” (“there's an old, old giant, sneaking around in this house / help move the cupboard, make a huge barricade, so he won't enter.”) Drecker says they considered it “a bit silly to have it on the record,” but then-manager Per Eirik Johansen's belief in the song paved the way for the band worldwide and helped them play over 150 concerts in the wake of its release.
Tekst: Kai Lofthus
Mastering technician Audun Strype, who did the digital editing of the songs on the album, summarizes the band's position very well:
– They were the pop trio that – via Brussels – both charmed and impressed Oslo's rock scene. The concerts at Sentrum Scene and Rockefeller were a hit. Even Motorpsycho stood in awe when Bel Canto was around.
The trio, which in addition to Drecker consisted of founders Nils Johansen and Geir "Biosphere" Jenssen, became a duo prior to the recording of the 10 songs for the album. By then, they had embodied Norwegian-Arctic electronica since the mid-80s and laid much of the foundation for modern music export. They were signed to Crammed Discs in Brussels, and the first two albums were licensed to Nettwerk in Canada, while the second album was licensed to IRS/MCA Records in the USA. Later, in the 90s, Bel Canto was picked up by Lava/Atlantic Records.
– Heavy footsteps on the stairs
Even with the international ramifications, Johansen and Drecker brought the production of their third album, “Shimmering…”, back to Oslo. It was the first to be recorded in the capital instead of Brussels. Drecker sums up the production period by telling us what it was like working at night in a small, boiling hot loft apartment on Markveien in Grünerløkka (“we were dying”), often followed by morning beers at Beckers and lunches at Warner Music. She also says they got yelled at by their neighbors, both on Grünerløkka where Johansen lived and on Osterhausgata where Drecker lived.
– Paal Fure (who started HeadOn in Oslo and later became a trend analyst) lived above me, and he used to stomp on the floor when I sang, she laughs.
The song was created by Johansen in his home rig in a bedroom on Markveien in Grünerløkka in Oslo. This rig included a recently acquired Emax sampler, which was used to sample sounds from a TV program, among other things. Drecker elaborates on the lyrics of the song:
“We heard heavy footsteps on the stairs every night and were so scared that we pushed an oak cabinet in front of the door. There is a Viking grave outside the house, and anyone who has lived there for the past 20 years has had similar experiences,” she says. She adds that this is the only experience she has had with a ghost.
An Arctic branch
Audun Strype is full of praise for the band:
– Nils had a BBC Micro computer that he used to churn out pearl after pearl of pop songs, regardless of the fact that MS-DOS and Apple were becoming dominant sequencer platforms. Nils eventually modernized to Atari, and thus managed to steer clear of the mainstream in production tools once again. In doing so, he also retained most of his originality. All four albums; White-Out Conditions, Birds of Passage, Shimmering, Warm & Bright and Magic Box are very listenable to this day. They created their own arctic branch on the big pop tree.
Drecker says that there are two different versions of "Shimmering, Warm & Bright." The one on the album, which has one chord, was chosen as a single after the recommendation of Per Eirik Johansen.
– It was the first song we made for that album and we thought it would be a bit silly to have it on the record. We were surprised when it was chosen as a single. We didn't see it.
“Then we knew we had done something right.”
As soon as they finished production, they went to Ulf Holand in Skippergata for mixing.
– The head of Crammed Discs came there. He was a little mad that we didn't record the album in Brussels. We thought there was too little sound on the first releases, so we added even more sound. He was so mad; I'll never forget that look on his face! But then we knew we had done something right, she concludes.
Credits:
Composer/lyricist: Anneli Drecker
Composer: Nils Johansen
Publisher: Les Editions de la Bascule SC
Wimp: http://wimpmusic.com/track/3488893
Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/track/0PInkJ6JLQDUrUbPP6pl1v