WHEN DEBUT ORIG.NORWAY LP LARS PEDERSEN-PROG-EXPERIMENTAL-ELECTRONIC-HOLY TOY

$

110

WHEN

 DEATH IN THE BLUE LAKE LP

Witchwood Records

Mega rare norwegian original of When - Lars Pedersen's legendary debut, a really hybrid, unique sounding album.

Some info on the release:   Rare original issue, released in Norway sometime in the late-80's privately by the artist on his Witchwood Records label, inspired by Norwegian author André Bjerke's psychological horror novel of the same name. The album had a strong atmosphere of fear and mourning, and was quite popular in Norwegian black metal circles. An excerpt from the album's A-side was commissioned as an intro to Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times "Walk the path of sorrows". The B-side of the album is an amalgamation of ethnic music, blues harmonica, coughing, psychedelic pop and glissandi effects. Today it is almost impossible to track down a copy of the album.

Here's a review from the internet: "Though his baroquely ornate latter day psych pop confections might put you more in mind of XTC circa Oranges & Lemons, there was a time when the sounds emanating from Norwegian Lars Pedersen were far from sunshine-y. Circa the late 80's and akin to his contemporaries in Famlende Forsok, Pedersen's work frequently exhibited an almost theatrical sense of bleakness. Laden with obscure samples and orchestral colorations, there's little wonder as to why Death In The Blue Lake would serve as a template for a certain kinda post-Black Metal experimental navel gazing and indeed, this album is the stuff of legend amongst the cognoscenti of such stuff; its thickly atmospheric and malevolent title track which occupies all of side A being shrouded with a veil of orchestral doom thick enough to cut with a knife and conveyed via mellotron flutes, doomed choirs shackled in the basement and a the kind of minor key orchestral ichor that flows through the veins of Peter Frohmader's compositions. It is however an album of almost schizophrenic contrasts, with much of the flip suggesting paths he'd later pursue after his technicolor re-invention, albeit wrought in steelier shades at this early date, with some of this material evoking the kind of mutated and world music-inflected prog pop structures later heard on Japan bassist Mick Karn's solo albums".

Lars Pedersen (b. 1961, Oslo Norway) his father, Tore Pedersen, was a Norwegian musical composer. At an early age, the younger Pedersen performed with his four older sisters and old brother; they were often compared to the Jackson 5 and The Partridge Family, popular bands of the time. Being in the spotlight at a young age, Pedersen met Chuck Berry and other stars. In the late 1970s Pedersen played in Hærverk, one of the first Norwegian punk bands, and later – as the 80's arrived – went on to form the band The Last James. The Last James explored The Beatles/Beach Boys sound, releasing three albums, The Last James, Grape, and Kindergarten. During the 1980s and early 90's, Pedersen was also a member of the experimental/new wave group Holy Toy, together with Andrej D. Nebb.

In 1983 Pedersen launched the one-man project Hospital Blimp, which would later become When. The debut album Drowning but Learning, was released in 1987, with When's trademark collage/cut-up technique already apparent. In 1988 When released Death in the Blue Lake, inspired by Norwegian author André Bjerke's psychological horror novel of the same name. The album had a strong atmosphere of fear and mourning, and was quite popular in Norwegian black metal circles. An excerpt from the album's A-side was commissioned as an intro to Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times "Walk the path of sorrows". The B-side of the album is an amalgamation of ethnic music, blues harmonica, coughing, psychedelic pop and glissandi effects. Today it is almost impossible to track down a copy of the album. Black, White & Grey, When's third album, conjured up images of war and urban decay. Chris Cutler (Henry Cow, Art Bears, etc.), who contributed to the album, was also a central inspiration. The album was released on Cutler's RéR Megacorp in 1990. 1992 saw the release of Svartedauen (Norwegian for "The Black Death"), a 38-minute musical description of the ravages of the bubonic plague in Norway around 1349. The album borrows elements from Norwegian folk music, and features a host of disturbing sounds: hearses, moans of the dying, rats, flagellants' whips and a scythe being sharpened, to name but a few. On 1994's Prefab Wreckage, When slowly started moving from the more abstract soundtracks of the earlier albums and towards a more song-oriented sound. The inner sleeve is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, one of the album's inspirations. In 1997 When released Gynt, which according to the liner notes is a "satiric play on Edward Grieg's Peer Gynt. Inspired by Henrik Ibsen." As Pedersen says: "I tried to put irony into the music. There is a lot of humour in When's music, it's not bloody serious all the time."

Condition: Vinyl lies in excellent condition, looks clean and plays nicely, while cover lies in very good++ shape, with split on top and light age wear (see picture).

Tracklist

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