Description
EXLEX - BRUMAIRE/FRIMAIRE (1984)
Ex Lex Formed: 1981 Split: 1987 From: Lillestrøm Postpunk duo from Lillestrøm, started in autumn 1981 by Eystein Hopland and Øyvind Aarlid. They first started the side project Styggfaen og Slimfittene which via Apati developed into Ex Lex. Here they put on a cultural display at the Lillestrøm cinema, with angle grinders, oil barrels, sledgehammers and a backwards recording of Stravinsky's “Våroffer". It triggered a number of readers' posts in the local newspaper, such as: "If these people are human, I am embarrassed to be human myself. They took the name Ex Lex from a Norwegian, socially critical and satirical joke magazine from 1919. It means "outside the law", and the duo thought it suited the intentions they had for their music, in the sense that they intended to break conventions and notions of what one could allow themselves as musicians. They themselves were inspired by everything from rock and post-punk through artists such as Einstürtzende Neubauten, Holy Toy, Psycick TV, Tuxedomoon, The Jam, The Cure, Joy Division, Wire and Eyeless In Gaza, to contemporary music such as Arnold Schønberg, John Cage and Arne Nordheim . In May 1984, they released the cassette Brumaire/Frimaire on their own label, before it was reissued the following month on Likvidér. The music was quieter than what they had performed live, and harder to put into words. Nevertheless, the cassette suggested serious young men with a very conscious relationship to sound and rhythmic structures. "Indefinable" and "atmospheric" it was described as in the fanzine Golyden.
1 Blant Mordere
2 Kast, Lek, Eventyr
3 Natt
4 Etter Tåken
5 Selv I Drømmene
6 Lek Blant Trærne
7 Stemmen
8 Et Tårn
9 Koral
10 Kast, Lek, Eventyr
11 Immer
12 The Voice Of America
13 Møte Med Narren
14 7