Description
JACOB HOLM-LUPO
THULE – NATT
The Honningsvåg band Thule, which started in 1983, is probably marginally better known outside the world than here at home, as part of the Scandinavian new-prog movement which is still strong internationally. Still, despite a low profile at home, Thule's 1990 album Natt ended up on Morgenbladet's list of Norway's best record releases - even in a solid 54th place. Natt was created during the dark hours in Honningsvåg, recorded on an 8-track cassette recorder. It is the sound of desperation, existential anxiety, anger, and precisely darkness - but also hope and beauty. A place where the sensual life of post-punk meets the structures of prog rock. Natt was album number two on the tiny Skiens label Colors, which also released prog rock giants such as Änglagård and Dungen's predecessor, Landberk. In the album's handwritten liner notes, it is stated that it is a "crisis production", which probably reveals a bit of the musicians' state of mind when they recorded Natt. The book wants to delve into both how and why the album came about, and will include interviews with the band members.
Jacob Holm-Lupo, who thinks Natt is Norway's best album, is a musician, sound engineer and journalist/author. He has steered the ship in the prog rock band White Willow since the mid-nineties and also runs the art-pop project The Opium Cartel. He has written books about Blue Öyster Cult and Toto for the British publisher Sonicbond and has been a regular at various Classic Album Sundays. As a journalist, he has a background both as co-editor of the prog magazines Tarkus and Hybris, as a music reviewer in Det Nye and the British magazine Prog Magazine, and as a desk journalist in various colorful magazines. He lives on Sandøya in Telemark where he runs his Dude Ranch Studio.