Description
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HELENA – HELLO FRIEND! (1991)
St. Helena was a progressive, northern Norwegian group with members from Bodø, Hammerfest and Kirkenes. They played i.a. at the Kalvøya Festival in 1974, and also recorded a master tape for an entire album in the Scanax studio in Oslo. The band was led by guitarist Fezza Ellingsen, who together with drummer Willy Bendiksen moved on to Høst. St. Helena started in 1973. The band originally consisted of Willy Bendiksen (percussion), Kjell Arne Pleym (piano and organ), Rolf Mareno Andersen (vocals and acoustic guitar), Bjørn Haldorsen (bass) and Fezza Ellingsen (guitar and flute). . In 1974, they headed south, where Paul Karlsen in Kalvøya and Decibel Records became aware of them. They found their way into the progressive environment around the Henie-Onstad art center at Høvikodden, and performed at the Kalvøya festival in 1974 with Vestre Bærum Pikekor. The album recording, Hello Friend!, was not released until many years later. It first appeared in 1991 in an unmixed edition on the Skien-based record company Colors. The original tape with the material was then found in 2010, and was then remixed, and released on CD two years later. All the music was written by Andersen, Pleym and Ellingsen. The original bassist Bjørn Haldorsen also contributes to this later edition. This release will have the original cover from the first LP, but will include both CDs. Both the original unmixed, as well as the remixed which came in 150 copies in 2012.
1 Hello Friend
2 Concert No. 2
3 Song Is Sung / Lama And The Boy / Magic Garden