This great and surrealistic review gave me the shivers! If you ever need a Grindstone 101 introduction to the record (and it's references - he got them all), it's all here.
Stylusmagazine.com - USA - rating B "[...]a bit like staring at a charging animal. It is a thrilling and changing experience—just prepare to get gouged."
New York Times - USA "Jorgen Munkeby [...] leads the group with brazen confidence, and his three band mates decisively match his frenzy. [...] It’s a completely over-the-top stretch of music, and that seems to be the point."
Allmusic.com - USA "[...]these cats are among the most sophisticated of the new European generation that listens to absolutely everything and learns to play it, too."
"[...]apparent madness that is both wise and wry, and that lets its outrageousness become part of the aesthetic. Fantastic!"
Sonicfrontiers.net - USA [i]"Grindstone's bombastic, weird, energetic, chaotic, and creative music has solidified Shining's rank as one of the top bands as far as boundary pushing music goes[...]"
Factmagazine.co.uk - UK "[...]Shining have produced one of the most compelling records released so far this year[...]"
Jazzwise - USA "Grindstone is an excercise in extremes played out with strict abandon[...]"
Buzz - UK "Of all the heavy rock/jazz/prog bands that are around at the moment [...] Shining are one of the most whacked-out."
Almostcool.org - USA "If you thought their first album was crazy, though, you really haven't heard anything yet."
International Herb "Prog’s become less of a dirty word over the last two years and it will be interesting to see whether Grindstone is picked up on as a figurehead for some sort of revival. Post-prog?"
2010-01-28 NRK P2, Musikkredaksjonen, Radio, 15:30-16:00 CET
2010-01-29 Horten, Norway
2010-01-30 På Hjørnet, Kristiansand, Norway
2010-04-15 SHINING Solo Show Roadburn Festival, Tilburg, The Netherlands
2010-04-17 A very special performance of the legendary "Armageddon Concerto", performed and written with ENSLAVED! Roadburn Festival, Tilburg, The Netherlands
2002 December China tour, 6 concerts, Shanghai, Harbin and Jiang Xing
"Stars of 2010" in Time Out New York!
16th Jan 2010
Time Out New York just put SHINING on their list of "Stars of 2010"!
They write:
Shining During the ’90s and the aughts, Norway established itself as a hot spot in both the jazz and metal undergrounds. So as we enter a new decade, it seems fitting that the country would spew forth a head-turning record that attempts to meld those two aesthetics: Blackjazz (out February 2 on the End Records), the fifth full-length by Oslo’s Shining, an international cult favorite still finding its audience in the States. The album’s title seems to signal a boneheaded genre mash-up, but the first single, “Fisheye,” finds Shining delivering a strangely majestic sort of bombast—part loopy ’70s prog and part mechanistic nu-metal, topped off with a frenzied sax interlude. It’s a state-of-the-art fusion, intricate and deafening. As for the rest of Blackjazz, fans of Norwegian black metal can look forward to a crushing cover of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man,” with guest vocals by Enslaved frontman Grutle Kjellson.—HS
Thanks to all of you who have contacted us about this! We are overwhelmed by the amount of mails we got!
We have now chosen two people to help us with this, which have been contacted by us.
To the rest of you kind people: We would like to express our deep gratitude, and hope that you might be willing to offer us some help in the future also.
Thanks!
Munkeby
Releasing second Blackjazz single 24th Dec 2009!
23rd Dec 2009
We're very happy to announce that the opening track on our upcoming album Blackjazz will be released for digital sales on all digital stores (iTunes, Amazon, eMusic etc.) tomorrow!
Please check out the song "The Madness and the Damage Done" from 24th December 2009!
Enjoy!
Kind regards, Munkeby
UPDATE DEC 30th 2009:
We're very sorry, but due to a combination of holiday vacation and extreme workload at our digital distributor, the second single was not released before Christmas.
It will probably be out as soon as the world starts spinning again, right after New Year's Eve.
Sorry for the "cry wolf"! We'll let you all know in this blog, as soon as the release is confirmed!
PS: As a token, we've put out the popular Extended Version of Fisheye for streaming on MySpace.com/SHININGofficial, until the new single is out. If it ends up having more plays than the TV Edit, it will be the version to stay.
Also, feel free to download the lyrics here (active until new single is out):
The Madness and the Damage Done is finally available for digital sales!
This time it should be available on all major digital stores (Play.com, eMusic.com etc.), not only on iTunes.
Enjoy!
Norway Blackjazz release shows announced
23rd Dec 2009
We're happy to announce the Norwegian "Blackjazz" release shows in January!
Blå, Oslo 20th Jan Garage, Bergen 21st Jan Tou Scene, Stavanger 22nd Jan
Blæst, Trondheim 27th Jan Live at NRK P2 Radio, Musikkredaksjonen, 15:30-16:00 CET, 28th Jan Horten 29th Jan På Hjørnet, Kristiansand 30th Jan
This is it for Norway this time.
SHINING Tokyo live show headlines the world's first ever YouTube music festival TOMORROW!
13th Dec 2009
Tomorrow, Monday 14th Dec, at 16:00 Norwegian time (07 am Los Angeles, 10 am New York), an awesome and energic SHINING live video from Tokyo is released on the first ever YouTube music festival called Involve Yorself.
Involve Yourself (www.involveyourself.com) is initiated by five Norwegian humanitarian organizations, with focus on the fight for Human Rigths throughout the world.
The Music Festival will take place at www.youtube.com/giveyourlive, and SHINING's contribution is going on-stage and on-screen at 16:00 Norwegian time.
The audience (you!) are encouraged to vote for the best contribution/act, and also donate their own contributions. A golden disc will then be composed out of the best material, and be sent out in space, as a more gloomy and truthworthy update to the Voyager Project: A more accurate description of our world's current direction, and an encouragement to involve yourself for change and a better world.
For more info, please visit www.involveyourself.com and www.youtube.com/giveyourlive.
We're extremely proud to announce that the first Blackjazz song is finally for sale!
The Fisheye Single are for sale (only) on iTunes from today. Search for "Fisheye" and press "display all albums" and you'll find it. You can also search for "SHINING" and press the same button to display all releases.
The Extended Version for sale on iTunes is much longer than the version that will be on the album, so it contains music only available on that single.
We've posted the TV Edit on our MySpace mp3 player, but I don't know how long it will stay up in it's full form. So make sure you take a peek now.
SHINING MySpace temporary out of service
28th Nov 2009
Unfortunately the SHINING MySpace page www.myspace.com/SHININGofficial is temporary down, due to a faulty redirection of our url.
This will be fixed asap!
Thanks for your interest.
J
Indie Recordings announces Blackjazz release!
Nov 24th 2009
A short while ago, our record label Indie Recordings, released this press release to start off the promotion period of our new album. From now on, it will be full speed ahead and no turning back:
From the Indie Recordings Press Release 2009.11.19:
SHINING
We are more than proud to announce the signing of the Norwegian act SHINING. Over their 10 years impressive career, the Norwegian band SHINING have created their own unique and bizarre hybrid of jazz and extreme metal, which is easily distinguishable from the musical world of their Swedish fellow label mates sharing the same band name (Shining Halmstad).
With their one of a kind sound and extreme approach to music, they are the perfect match for Indie Recordings. SHINING adds the experimentalism, variety and boldness we have been wanting to add to our roster for a long time, and we are confident SHINING will continue to push the borders of what is happening in the scene!
Jørgen Munkeby comments:
After 10 merciless years and 4 ground-breaking and critically acclaimed albums, our sound is more punishing and extreme than ever before, and our fan-base bigger than ever.
For Blackjazz, we needed a label that would match our aggressiveness, along with our taste for catchiness. We needed people who shared our dedication to music and art, along with our ambitions of reaching a vast number of people, a label that would match our constantly growing numbers of fans worldwide and the ever expanding interest for our musical mission.
Indie Recordings is the perfect match for SHINING's Blackjazz! Their knowledge of the music industry is as immense as their love for good music. It will be a great pleasure to be working with this marvelous and ambitious label in the future!
“Blackjazz” will be released January 25th.
For more information, please visit one of the following webpages:
Friday 13th of November we'll be revealing the absolutely beautiful artwork for the upcoming release "Blackjazz" (to be released 25th Jan 2010)!
This special preview into the inner workings of SHINING will be exclusively for members of our mailinglist. So please be sure to subscribe to our mailinglist before Friday 13th to get the wonderful "Blackjazz" artwork before anyone else!
You'll find the subscription box on the front of our MySpace pagewww.myspace.com/SHININGofficial and somewhere on this main website (www.shining.no).
Or simply press the button below:
New MySpace address!
30th Oct 2009
Due to confused search engines, we have now changed out our old MySpace url (/gninihs) to the new vanity url MySpace.com/SHININGofficial.
Please update your bookmarks. Thanks!
(This new MySpace page will very soon receive a pretty extensive facelift, inspired by the super sexy artwork for the upcoming album. You´ll love it! We do for sure!)
Here we'll collect the coolest clips and videos of SHINING we find on YouTube. Actually we found a new and very cool looking homemade music video to our 2005 hit "Goretex Weather Report". Go to our channel to check it out. It's on our top favorite list.
Which of these will be THE one in the future is for you to decide. All the short and fast news will go here (I'm sure you figured...).
Yup, that's enough nerd time for today. Logging off.
The Mad Nerd
NEW ALBUM -BLACKJAZZ- COMING JAN 25th 2010!
19th Oct2009
Release date for new the new album "Blackjazz" is set to January 25th 2010!
Norwegian release January 18th.
PS: Remember to sign up to our mailinglist. This way you'll be sure to be absolute first to receive info, news and updates.
You'll find a sign up slot both below, and in the "About SHINING (official)" frame on our MySpace page www.myspace.com/gninihs.
You can also sign up to the mailinglist by sending an e-mail to the following e-mail address: mailinglist@shining.no.
SHINING performs new song on national TV Monday 19th! Few tickets left!
17th Oct 2009
Hey people,
SHINING will play on NRK TV show Store Studio Monday night. There are avaiable tickets to the show for those of you who happen to be in Oslo, Norway, that day. At this time I don't know how much it costs, or if it costs anything at all.
Store Studio is one of the biggest tv shows in Norway, and has about 400'000 viewers on average (yes, we are a small country: This is 1 out of 10 of every Norwegian).
SHINING will perform a new song from the upcoming album "Blackjazz", to be released in January 2010.
If you want to be in the audience during the show, please go to the following link:
Update: The TV world premiere of the song Fisheye recorded last night is already streaming. A studio version of Fisheye will be one of the songs on the upcoming album "Blackjazz". Here are the links:
SHINING / ENSLAVED performing their Armageddon Concerto at Roadburn 2010!
15th Oct 2009
From the Roadburn press release dated Oct 14 2009:
We are thrilled to announce that SHINING and Enslaved perform their special Armageddon Concerto at the next years Roadburn Festival, set to be held from April 15 – 18, 2010 at both the 013 venue and Midi Theatre in Tilburg – Holland.
Enslaved / Shining (NO) will be the main headliner of Roadburn Festival 2010, Tilburg (NL), playing their 90 minute Armageddon Concerto on Saturday, April 17th.
Both Enslaved and Shining (NO) are indisputably two of Norway’s most hard-hitting and progressive bands, constantly pushing musical boundaries on their own. Now both bands will be joining forces again, and impress and shock Roadburn Festival 2010 with a rare performance of the Armageddon Concerto –for the first time ever outside of Scandinavia. The Armageddon Concerto will lead Roadburn Festival 2010 on a journey from our present state to the inevitable downfall of this world - through Ragnarok and a following period of vacuum and nothingness, a brief and painful post-apocalyptic era; and finally through the rise from the ashes to a new beginning in a distant time and space.
Composed by Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson and Shining’s Jørgen Munkeby and arranged together with the band members, Bjørnson describes the Armageddon Concerto as “an experience of a life time. Prog, doom, jazz, extreme metal, northern mythology, science fiction –this is going to be massive.”
Enslaved will be this year's "Artist in Residence", and will also perform their critically acclaimed works Dream of an Opium Eater, a concert with fellow Indie Rec artist Trinacria, in additional tp a very special solo Enslaved concert.
Enslaved have been groundbreaking metal pioneers for almost 20 years. Since their Viking-metal inception, the band has been forging a connection between black metal and prog, arriving at an incredible melange of heavy psych and modern metal. Enslaved embodies the experimental, dark and psychedelic aspect of Roadburn, and we have invited them as our artists in residence – a premiere for Roadburn - for our 2010 festival. Enslaved, and various band members, will be doing several special shows during the festival.
For more info, please check www.shining.no, www.enslaved.no, www.roadburn.com.
___________________________
UPDATE: 11th November 2009
SHINING has been confirmed for a designated SHINING show at Roadburn, in addition to the already confirmed headlining concert with Enslaved.
The solo SHINING show will be April 15th 2010.
Please post this beautiful flyer (courtesy of Niko at Roadburn) as many places on the web as possible!:
Mixing new album - Flag at half mast in the City of Angels
3rd Sept, 2009 The City of Angels
While wildfires roar on all sides of The City of Angels, and ashes darken the sun, SHINING is mixing their upcoming album in the very heart of Sodom; in the middle of Hollywood Hills.
In Frank Zappa's old house, with Marilyn Manson's old bodyguard dog lying on the floor in the kitchen, the mastermind mixer and producer Sean Beavan (NIN, Marilyn Manson, Slayer) is working his dark magic on about an hour of new SHINING music.
Sean has been the absolute perfect match for our new music, and it has been a true pleasure and honor to have him work his wonders of musical aggressiveness and ominous color on the tracks.
And it will also be a true pleasure to finally unleash the album new "Blackjazz" on Indie Recordings January 25th 2010.
Your's truly, Munkeby
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT - Cancellation of two Europe concerts
May 1st 2009
We're sorry to announce that we have had to cancel the following two of our scheduled upcoming concerts in Europe:
May 12th: Effenaar (2nd Room), Eindhoven, NL May 13th: Corsica Studios, London, UK
We have been greatly looking forward to playing these concerts, and we really hope to be able to play these venues some time this Autumn.
We apologize to both the venues, the promoters, the booking agents and last but not least to our fans for this sudden cancellation, but hope to make it up to you in the future.
We will still play the scheduled concert at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton as planned, though! Hope to see some of you there!
Kind regards, Jørgen
NEW SHINING ALBUM COMING OCTOBER!
March 9th 2009
NEW SHINING ALBUM COMING OCTOBER!
Announcement from the Mad Monk:
------- 2046 -------
THE TIDE: Since our last Asia Tour it's been pretty quiet from us (except a very loud and noisy couple of days in New York in October). The reason is that we've been good and busy bees creating a brand new masterplan. We now have a lot of very good music summoned up for a new album; more than we would like our fans to be exposed to at one listening (precautions for your mental health's sake). We have already worked for some time on demos and earlier stages of productions, and will be recording in a couple of bigger studios in March and May. The album will be mixed in June with a scheduled release October 12th 2009.
THE VIBE: The new album will be much more aggressive than any of our previous albums. The compositions will be more compact, the arrangements will be more hard-hitting, and the mood will be desperate, sinister, aggresive and violent. (Those of you that have seen us live in the last year probably have some idea.)
THE EDIT: On the very next Friday 13th we will be posting a special musical preview of the new music on our MySpace page (www.myspace.com/gninihs). This will be available for 7 days. Stop by to get an impression of what the Fall will bring you of musical madness.
THE NEWS: After watching the pile of un-answered mails grow, from fans that have asked to be kept updated on our activities, tours, new merch, new music etc., we finally decided to make an automatic e-mail address collector for a SHINING mailing list. If you want to be kept updated, please subscribe to our newsletter with the subscription button at our MySpace page (or, though not permanently there, at www.shining.no).
THE NOOSE: We will also be able to offer the people on our mailing list special offers and insights into the inner workings of SHINING. Who says there will not be a special demo version for download, or maybe access to the very last 10 vinyl editions of Kingdom and Grindstone? Signed... So take the oppurtunity and add yourself to our mailing list, for both your and our convenience.
See you Friday 13th.
Regards, The Mad Monk
----------- 2001 - 2010 - 2100 -----------
SHINING newsletter mailing list
New Japan SHINING website!
8th Dec 2008
Our wonderful friend from Japan, Akane, has opened up a new website dedicated to our fans in Japan! Check it out here:
We've just come home from a fantastic tour in China and Japan, and wish to send a warm thank you to all the many wonderful people whom we worked with on the tour (venues, stage crew, merch sales persons, journalists, designers, light designer etc. etc.): We'd especially like to mention Yang Lei at Notch (NO+CH) in China and Tom Ohsawa and Shinske in Tokyo!
Also a huge thank you goes out to the incredible audience in China! You really made the long flights worth it! We really hope to be back soon!
Thanks also to the artists we toured with; Nils Petter Molvaer and Diskjokke for a great time on the road (in the air)!
In just a few days we'll be heading to New York City to do two exclusive shows at CMJ Music Festival. Friday will be at Cake Shop, and Saturday will be at The Knitting Factory. This will be the only two shows on American soil for a long time!
The show times are as follows: Cake Shop: Friday night at 01:30 AM (NEW TIME!) (that means Saturday morning...) The Knitting Factory: Saturday evening at 09:00 PM
Hope to see you there!
PS: TO ALL OUR FANS THAT HAVE CONTACTED US WITH CONCERNS ABOUT MISSING INFO ON THE VENUES' WEBSITES:
If you don't find these concerts listed on the venues' websites it only means that the venues haven't had time to update their websites (CMJ are pretty slow on deciding the details regarding their shows). We ARE going to play! You can bet your taxi fare on that!
The now famous SHINING+ENSLAVED Armageddon Concerto "Nine Nights in Nothingness - Glimpses of Downfall" was recorded by Norwegian radio NRK during the live performance in Molde this summer. We're proud to announce that this dark gem of a recording will now reveal itself to the public for the first time ever. It will be broadcast in three different ways: 1) On Norwegian radio NRK P2 ("Jazzklubben"), 2) on internet broadcast, and 3) on DAB radio.
The main broadcast of the concert will be launched Sunday 31st of August at 22:05 Norwegian time (I'm sure you'll manage to figure out what local time this corresponds to - if not, try http://www.worldtimezone.com/ or something similar. Norwegian time is GMT +1, and we're on summertime right now). There will also be a small interview with Shining's Jørgen Munkeby explaining some elements of the concerto.
For all our international fans, I guess the internet option is the only option possible. You will find the correct website on this link: http://nettradio.nrk.no/default.php?kanal=jazz. If you're having problems with this link, try going to http://www.nrk.no/, holding your arrow over the downward arrow to the right of the sign called "NRK NETTRADIO" (located in the upper right portion of the page). When the pop-up menu appears, click on "NRK Jazz" and a pop-up window with the radio transmission will appear. (If you plan on catching the transmission, I suggest you try out this manuever on beforehand. You'll never know how this page will funtion in your country without trying first.)
Since the concerto is over 90 minutes long, it won't all fit into one single radioshow. But after the original radio air wave broadcast is over, the internet and DAB transmissions will continue to broadcast so you can hear the rest of the complete concerto here. Of course if you want to follow it all on internet, you won't have to change medium in the middle of the show.
There will also be several repeat transmissions: NRK P2 (radio air wave only): Wednesday 3 Sept at 19:30 Norwegian time. DAB and internet: Tuesday 2 Sept 09:03, 15:03 and 21:03.
If you missed the concerto when it happened, this is your chance to make things (almost) right!
Enjoy!
MAIN BROADCAST - NRK P2, DAB and internet: Sunday 31 Aug 22:05, Norwegian time REPEAT #1 - DAB and internet only: Tuesday 2 Sept 09:03, Norwegian time REPEAT #2 - DAB and internet only: Tuesday 2 Sept 15:03, Norwegian time REPEAT #3 - DAB and internet only: Tuesday 2 Sept 21:03, Norwegian time REPEAT #4 - NRK P2 radio only: Wednesday 3 Sept 19:30, Norwegian time
PS: NRK interview done during the last preproduction of the concert to be found here (in Norwegian - sorry):
PPS: For those of you with an external word clock that runs the soundcard, please beware that the broadcast might be in 48kHz sampling rate. I have to manually switch my Apogee Rosetta 800 ADC from 44,1 to 48. To make sure you're in the right realm: The first drone in guitar and bass are supposed to slide between the tones B and C. Wrong sample rate gives wrong pitch...
Mini Asia tour announced!
24th Aug 2008
Hi there again. We're proud to announce that we're finally going back to Asia. China will get three concerts and Japan will get only one. Sorry for the limited amount of shows this time! Hopefully we'll be able do more next time, especially in Japan!
The dates are as follows:
02/10-2008 Beijing, China Venue info: Yugongyishan (6404 2711): West courtyard of Duan Qirui Government Former Site, Zhang Zizhong Road 3-2, Beijing
03/10-2008 Shanghai, China Venue info: 669 Greenhouse (6485 5356): 669 Gui Guo Road, near Tian Lin Road, Shanghai
04/10-2008 Guangzhou, China Venue info: Sapphire Art Space (8776 8558): 2F Holiday Inn City Center, 28 Guangming Road, Huanshi Road E., Guangzhou
06/10-2008 Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan Venue: Tsuki-miru Kimi-omou Venue phone number: +81 3-5474-8115 Ticket office: Office Ohsawa, info@bigstream.co.jp, +81 3-3728-5690
The China dates are a part of a fabolous festival called NOTCH.
Norway's best band - right now. (In Norwegian, of course.)
6th Aug 2008
Hey, dudes. A Norwegian review here for you all from our small club concert last night. Rated 6 out of 6 and announced as "Norway's best band right now" (my emphasis...).
For those who don't know how to read Norwegian yet (about time to learn!), try one of the cool (/weird) automatic translation pages on the net. Should be fun!
- 5 minutes -
Errr, after a quick search for a site that offered automatic translation from Norwegian, it dawned on me that the Norwegian language isn't as important to the rest of the world as it is to us... No sites, sorry. For Norwegian eyes only this time.
Back from Molde! Pics and update.
July 22nd
We want to thank all our wonderful fans that showed up for our Armageddon Concerto in Molde Saturday! Thanks for making the night a real special one!
SHINING is really happy about how it all turned out.
We'll be away for some time now, but until we post more info you can check out some pictures from the concerto on these links:
The first one of these pages (www.flickr.com/groups/shining) is a brand new SHINING Flickr group. Here we'll try to collect all SHINING pictures in the future. It's created and managed by the wonderful HeadOvMetal (Head Øv Metal) from Austin, Texas. Thanks for your help!
Also a huge thank you to the impeccable ENSLAVED for wonderful music, great compositions, super musicianship and last but not least: A hell of a good time!
The concert was partly funded by Norsk Kulturråd. Thanks a lot!
SHINING and ENSLAVED's brand new 90-minutes Armageddon concerto for a rare performance!
9th July 2008
Nine Nights in Nothingness - Glimpses of Downfall -
We're proud to announce that SHINING and ENSLAVED will give their first and probably only live performance of their brand new 90-minutes Armageddon concerto on Saturday 19 July in Molde, Norway. The newly hatched piece of musical art describes the process from the present state to the inevitable downfall of this world - through Ragnarok and a following period of vacuum and nothingness, a brief and painful post-apocalyptic era, and finally through the rise from ashes to a new beginning in a distant time and space. The work draws inspiration from Old Norse apocalyptic sagas, along with prophesies from more modern doomsday prophets and cults.
SHINING and ENSLAVED are headlining this years Molde International Jazz Festival. The festival writes on their website that SHINING and ENSLAVED are two of Norway's undisputably most hard-hitting and progressive bands, in the word's truest meaning. The bands have shocked, impressed and pushed boundaries each band on their own: Now they gather their power and unite for a blasting, dark and mindbending experience that will be hard to forget.
The two bands performed together for the first time during their European tour in October 2007. The concerto is composed by Ivar Bjørnson (ENSLAVED) and Jørgen Munkeby (SHINING) and arranged together with the band members.
“This will be an experience of a life-time. Prog, doom, jazz, extreme metal, northern mythology, science fiction – this is going to be massive”, comments Enslaved guitarist Ivar Bjørnson.
The SHINING interview is currently number 1 on the list. As new interviews are posted, you'll probably have to search down on the list to find it.
Back from Istanbul!
19th April 2008
We want to thank all our lovely fans in Istanbul for making last weeks concert at Babylon a great experience for us! Also a huge thank you goes out to Hakan, Aylin and Ekin for taking so good care of us; showing us the beautiful city of Istanbul and making the whole journey a memorable experience.
We´re just finished sorting through the aftermath of our successful US tour. It´s been a pleasure to visit the US, and we´ll make sure that we´ll be back asap.
A big thank you goes out to the wonderful venues, promoters and the other bands we played with in all the cities! We really hope to see you again soon!
We also humbly want to thank the Øya Festival, Norsk Kulturråd, UD/MIC, Njf and Mfo for making the tour possible.
New limited edition double LP vinyl for sale
29th March 2008
Our first and only vinyl pressing is just out for sale: A stricly limited 2LP edition in only 500 copies, with the extremely elegant black cover by Kim Hiorthøy (which is in fact the original version intended to be the Grindstone cover).
This vinyl includes two albums, both "Grindstone" and "In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster" and comes in a beautiful gatefold sleeve.
Only 500 pressed and counting down fast, so be quick and grab this rare vinyl before it's gone!
While in Austin, ENSLAVED and SHINING confirmed that the two bands are doing a show together at this year's Molde International Jazz Festival in Norway.
The ceremony will be held in Bjørnsonhuset at the last day of the festival (July 19th). It will be a 90 minutes long piece.
In an interview in the Texas newspaper The Austinist Jørgen describes his thoughts on the still unborn symphony: "Right now I'm thinking Ligeti meets Dillinger meets SunnO))) meets Pharoah Sanders at the day of Ragnarok."
The New York Times visited our gig in New York last Monday. They bring this statement:
"On the whole the performance, which drew from the band’s audacious recent album, “Grindstone”, was a study in coordinated whiplash."
Chicago Reader on upcoming US tour
8th March 2008
Chicago Reader on 6 March:
"Critic's ChoiceSHINING In just nine years this Norwegian five-piece has transformed itself from a post-Coltrane jazz combo into a sort of cyborg prog band, playing a jumpy, elaborate patchwork genre that sounds like the first thing it assimilated was symphonic metal. On last year’s Grindstone (Rune Grammofon) bandleader Jorgen Munkeby has all but totally supplanted his agile saxophone with crunchy electric guitar, and Shining are clearly interested first and foremost in rock—the music is brutally no-nonsense, unmarred by turgid epic structures or drawn-out solos, despite the worrying presence of “classical” interludes, including fuguelike passages on ersatz harpsichord and faux arias by guest vocalist Ashild Skiri Refsdal. Producer Kare Vestrheim plays a crucial role, keeping the profusion of layers comprehensible by playing up contrasts—between distorted guitar and operatic vocals, between thunderous riffs and ambient keyboards, etc. At times the songs seem deliberately inorganic, more like intellectual exercises than emotional statements, but the music’s rich surfaces and breathtaking power make it hard to complain. If the band can replicate the studio detail of their records onstage, this ought to be an incredible set. Loop 2.4.3 and Male open. Arrow 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $8. —Peter Margasak"
Flyers - NYC + Austin
March 4th 2008
Flyers for gigs New York City and Austin can be found on the following links. Please post anywhere you see fit!
SHINING nominated for 100'000 EUR StatoilHydro Grant!
5th February 2008
Norway is a crazy country!
Today SHINING was nominated for a 100'000 EURO grant from StatoilHydro!
StatoilHydro is the biggest offshore oil and gas company in the world, and is a merger between the partly government owned Staoil and the private Norsk Hydro. Today's Norway is basically built on oil money, and it's a great pleasure to see that StatoilHydro wants to help build our future music and art exports.
StatoilHydro has a history of supporting Norwegian classical musical talents (among them the trumpet virtuoso Tine Thing Helseth), and this year they are delving into the realm of rhythmical pop/rock-music for the first time. Hopefully not for the last.
The grant is to be used for exporting the band to the rest of the world.
StatoilHydro has put together a jury which will decide which band/artist is most deserving, on basis of quality and export potential. The jury is led by Magne Furuholmen (musician and visual artist) and will announce their decision Saturday 23 February.
In addition to Shining, the other 9 nominees are:
Madcon Lukestar The Lionheart Brothers Susanna Wallumrød Ida Maria Ungdomskulen Charlotte & The Co-stars Superfamily Serena Maneesh
All nominated bands are playing at this year's by:Larm festival in Oslo from 21-23 Feb, and the grant is a collaboration between StatoilHydro and by:Larm.
Only in Norway...
Danish big band plays SHINING - on cd
Jan 18th 2008
The Danish Big Band Extravaganza "Blood Sweat Drum'n Bass" is releasing a live recording from last years Roskilde Festival and Århus Jazz Festival. Jørgen visited this Danish group last Summer and joined them on a small tour, among them these two concerts.
Next week Jørgen will be playing SHINING compositions with them again at the following concerts:
Our latest album is nominated for the other Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannprisen! The outcome will be announced during the live tv show Feb. 2nd. Good luck to music!
In October we won the Alarm Prize for Grindstone.
Grindstone #4 on US online Best Of 2007 list!
Jan 2nd 2007
On place #4:
"4). Shining - Grindstone If recognition can be readily granted to the easily defined, it should also be granted to those that defy classification. Grindstone, amazingly conceived album from Norwegian band Shining, is as much of a talent showcase as it is a confused masterpiece. Unafraid to stand outside the safety of categorization, Grindstone stands as one of the year's most original and potentially groundbreaking albums."
Dec 17th 2007 The UK Magazine Rock-A-Rolla has listed Grindstone on their Top 30 Records Of 2007.
Here is the Rock-A-Rolla staff and contributors' pick of 2007, as seen in Issue 12:
1.Oxbow 'The Narcotic Story' 2.Neurosis 'Given To The Rising' 3.Tomahawk 'Anonymous' 4.Dillinger Escape Plan 'Ire Works' 5.Big Business 'Here Come The Waterworks' 6.Dälek 'Abandoned Language' 7.John Zorn 'Six Litanies For Heliogabalus' 8.Om 'Pilgrimage' 9.Jesu 'Conqueror' 10.Sleepytime Gorilla Museum 'In Glorious Times' 11.The Locust 'New Erections' 12.Angels Of Light 'We Are Him' 13.High On Fire 'Death Is This Communion' 14.Unsane 'Visqueen' 15.Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO 'Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under The Stars' 16.KTL '2' 17.Pig Destroyer 'Phantom Limb' 18.Fog 'Ditherer' 19.Qui 'Love's Miracle' 20.Pelican 'City Of Echoes' 21.Orthodox 'Amanecer En Puerta Oscura 22.Thurston Moore 'Trees Outside The Academy' 23.Sunburned Hand Of The Man 'Fire Escape' 24.Shining 'Grindstone' 25.Magik Markers 'Boss' 26.Battles 'Mirrored' 27.Caina 'Mourner' 28.Merzbow 'Coma Berenices' 29.Pissed Jeans 'Hope For Men' 30.Liars 'Liars'
SHINING and guests from Enlaved (Ivar, Grutle, Herband) and Keep Of Kalessin (Thebon) teams up at Backstage in Münich, Germany, for the ultimate version of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man". Date of destruction: 26.10.2007
Grimm!
SHINING on LastFm.com - soon including our first albums!
Nov 2nd 2007
Now you can listen to SHINING's two latest albums on LastFm. Grindstone is open for listening to the whole tracks.
There also seems to be some controversy about which SHINING band is the most liked one; Swedish or Norwegian. Join the fight if you want.
PS: I will soon try to post our two first albums there also. ACOUSTIC JAZZ! GRIMM! Check back in a couple of days...
Back from European tour...
Oct 31st 2007
We're finally back from the tour with Enslaved and Keep Of Kalessin. It was hard work, but definitely worth it!
A big hail goes out to Enslaved and Keep Of Kalessin for making this tour a super cozy experience. (The Shining-Enslaved-Keep Of Kalessin-version of 21st Century Schizoid Man in Holland and Germany was a killer!)
We'd also like to thank our driver Guido for perfect driving and Enslaved's manager Tonje for babysitting drunk guys. Last but not least thanks to all the people who attended the concerts and bought cds and merch!
We're coming back soon. Promise.
Also thanks to FFUK, Norsk Kulturråd, NJF, MFO and MIC/UD for economical support.
SHINING won the Alarm Award (Alarmprisen) for best jazz album of the year! Thanks so much to the 60 music journalists in the jury and the people who voted for us!
Grindstone has been nominated for this year's Alarmprisen award. The hammer falls on 27 October, while we're out playing with Keep Of Kalessin (also nominated - congrats!), and Enslaved (not nomiated?).
As yearlier years, the prize is based on both a populistic internet voting, and a jury.
You can vote for SHINING and Keep Of Kalessin at www.alarmprisen.no. You'll find Keep Of Kalessin under the METAL category, and SHINING under JAZZ.
Either: 1)
Check the box (circle) for your favorite band, and then click on the grey button "Legg igjen din stemme" below.
Or: 2)
Click on the button that says "Legg igjen din stemme", and then click on the best band.
Thanks!
PS: Last years it seemed like you could vote a second time after waiting for some days after your first vote. Don't know how things are this year, but be sure to check in after a while to see if the gate is opened again.
European Tour 2007 - SHINING Puts Europe To The Grindstone - Support for Enslaved
Sept. 20th 2007
SHINING Puts Europe To The Grindstone:
We're proud to announce the "Grindstone Over Europe" tour. (This will only be the first part.) We will play support for the legendary Norwegian metal band Enslaved. Joining us on tour will also be the Norwegian Extreme Metal act Keep of Kalessin. This will be a line-up that will freeze your heart, boil your blood, and make your brain shake hands with your soul.
20th Oct 2007: Rennes - Ubu (FR) 21st Oct 2007: London - Mean Fiddler (UK) 22nd Oct 2007: Nottingham - Junktion7 (UK) 23rd Oct 2007: Mezz, Breda (NL) 24th Oct 2007: Biebob, Vosselaar (B) 25th Oct 2007: Doornroosje, Nijmegen (NL) 26th Oct 2007: Munich - Backstage (DE) (w/ Secrets of the Moon) 27th Oct 2007: Saarbrücken - Roxy (DE)
See you there!
The tour is supported by FFUK, Norsk Kulturråd and UD / MIC.
Seldon Hunt SHINING artwork for t-shirt and hood
SHINING guitarist prized jazz soloist
Last week our wonderful (vicious) guitar player Even Helte Hermansen won the prize for best soloist in the annual Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition! We congratulates!
On YNJC' MySpace page they write:
"Even Helte Hermansen - Best soloist
We chose Even because we feel he is original. In sound, line and expression, he seems very much his own man. He plays like a master, with great natural confidence, and much obvious pleasure. An extremely promising musician."
We agree.
After the fericious show he was finally called by his rightful names:
"Vibrato-man"
"Vibrato-boy"
"Vibrato-Kalle"
"Man-what-a-vibrato"
"Man-what-kin-da-strings-do-you-use"
Watch the whole Øya concert on the web!
Aug. 9th 2007
You can now see the whole SHINING concert from our wednesday gig at the Øya Festival again - or for your first time. Click here.
Setlist: Goretex Weather Report Stalemate Longan Runner The Red Room In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster 21st Century Schizoid Man Winterreise Fight Dusk With Dawn
Sound mixed by NRK.
NB: THE PAGE DOES SEEM TO POSE HUGE PROBLEMS FOR MAC USERS. YOU MIGHT END UP WATCHING "BARE EGIL BAND" INSTEAD. TRY SEARCHING ABOUT 5 MINUTES INTO THE FILE IF YOU'RE SEEING A BAND WITH MORE OR LESS THAN FIVE PERSONS.
The previously mentioned amatuer music video sent to us by a fan is now our official music video for the song Winterreise. Thanks so much to "- / - Virtual Y3K - / -" for this great video!
Fans: If you want to make a music video with our music, please send it to us, and we'll post a link on our website.
EDIT 9th Aug. 2007: Both Winterreise videos and the "21st Century Schizoid Man" cover from NRK radio studio is discussed on Pitchfork Media.
New SHINING video?
Aug. 1st 2007
We've registered that there is a new SHINING video out on YouTube.com. Although we really dig this video, we can't take credit for making it. It seems like the guy on the screen is the one who's made it. We don't know who he is, but really appreciate his effort to help bring out our music. We also share his disappointment with how the transition to new millennium has turned out.
IN OTHER WORDS - THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL SHINING VIDEO, BUT DO CHECK IT OUT AT THESE URLS:
We welcome all other fans of our music to also make their own music videos to our music and post them on YouTube.com. Send us a message or an e-mail, and we'll post a link or even embed them on our page.
Jørgen
SHINING is looking for a new booking agent in Europe
June 28th 2007
SHINING is currently looking for a new booking agent in Europe. Please contact us if you're interested in being our European agent.
For inquiries and offers in Europe, please contact the band at e-mail address mad@monk.tc until further notice.
SHINING goes big band!
June 23rd 2007
The Danish big band exellence Blood Sweat Drum'n'Bass Big Band is playing big band versions of at least 5 SHINING compositions at three major festivals this summer! They have also invited Jørgen to rehearse and play with them. This will hopefully be the hardest kicking big band on this side of Mars.
The lucky places are these: Roskilde Festival - DENMARK - July 8th Århus International Jazz Festival - DENMARK - July 14th Copenhagen Jazz Festival - DENMARK - July 15th Århus International Jazz Festival - DENMARK - July 17th
Go to Denmark this summer...
Video: SHINING plays King Crimson
July 11th 2007
A homemade music video of SHINING playing 21st Century Schizoid Man live at NRK's radio studio is posted here:
Prog Archives (www.progarchives.com) have made a page dedicated to SHINING where you can get facts and information, read reviews and maybe even post your own reviews of our albums.
Feel free to visit!
Rare album Sweet Shanghai Devil found on eBay.
Apr. 24th 2007
Our album # 2, "Sweet Shanghai Devil", has been unavailable for a long time. The record label has no more of them in stock, and there will be no more pressings. The first two editions was pressed in a total of 1500 copies only.
If you want it, this is a rare chance. Even we, the band, don't have any more of these.
SHINING plays King Crimson
Apr. 20th 2007
If you live in Norway, or can somehow manage to get the radio channel NRK P3 in on your computer, be sure not to miss SHINING playing King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" live on the air, next wednesday (25th) somehwere between 18:00 and 19:00.
The show is called Lydverket - Hør og Lær.
FOLLOWUP: Apr. 26th 2007 You can listen to it here. "21st Century Schizoid Man" is about 3/4 out in the program. Skip the boring talk, like I would do.
VG-lista for three weeks
Feb. 27th 2007
After being on the previously mentioned sales list VG-lista for three weeks (!), we're now back on our own ten feet.
New booking agency in Norway!
Feb. 19th 2007
Today Pilot Management is taking over our booking in Norway:
Pilot Management AS Postboks 8910, Youngstorget 0028 Oslo
This has been a strange week, indeed! The "official" (and heavily debated, due to it's Berlusconi methods) music sales chart in Norway is called VG-lista. (It's actually named after Norway's biggest and most selling newspaper, which is the same newspaper that prints the list in question - weird, huh?).
Well anyway, after this newspaper assured us all that SHINING's music definately was not meant for every one, we actually sold enough records to go to the number 33 most selling albums in that week (week nr. 6, international list), and number 19 of the Norwegian albums! How weird is that?!
And it gets even better! A few minutes ago I wanted to post a link to this list, and realized that Norways most selling "danseband" (definately not music for the few!) had suddenly taken our place! After a second look I also discovered that the same band also was sitting on place number 28 on the same list - with the same album! I didn't know that was possible? Or even legal?
For sure, the VG-lista is not exactly famous for it's credibility, and has been under heavy pressure the last year after several discoveries about their mafia like methods of being their own judge and jury. Also, it should be mentioned, the VG-lista is controlled by the organization running the four major record labels in this country (Universal, EMI, Warner and Sony BMG).
Here's the links to the two lists in question; one right and one wrong. Check out place 28 and 33 in the international one:
Today, monday the 29th of January 2007, Grindstone is in the stores in Norway. We've posted three songs from the new album on our MySpace page www.myspace.com/gninihs.
PS: The posted reviews are moved to DISCOGRAPHY. and the right collumn.
Shining at Øya-festivalen 2007
Shining has been confirmed to play at Øya-festivalen 2007 (8th of August to the 11th of August).
Taken from the festival's MySpace page: "Shining delivered a handful of musical kicks in the groin on their previous album, "In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster" (2005). [...] In 2007 Shining will be striking down so hard that we simply didn't dare not to book them. Get ready for a powerful band that'll pack your head with new impressions."
We're also playing at Vossa-jazz the 31st of March.
More concerts to be announced shortly!
New album in early march - Grindstone
The new SHINING album Grindstone will be released in Europe (excluding Norway) in early March. The release time in Norway and other territories (USA, Japan etc.) may vary.
The Personal SHINING MySpace Page
It took some time, but SHINING has finally created a SHINING MySpace page.
This MySpace page is managed by Jørgen, and we would like to stress that any views expressed here (except comments by other users of course) are solely Jørgen's personal views, and not other band members' views (as Jørgen's often tend towards the extreme). This is important as the members of the band are very different individuals with very different views and beliefs. From now on www.shining.no will take care of the official side of SHINING, while www.myspace.com/gninihs will only be Jørgen's personal page, updated at his whim.
Feel free to visit, I will be updating the page at whim.
Sincerely, Jørgen
KHLYST - Chaos Is My Name
Witchcraft whips the world to shreds. Rasputin and Baba Yaga teams up.
James Plotkin (Khanate (do not R.I.P.), Atomsmasher, Phantomsmasher & c )
Hydrahead Records describes this awesome free metal record like this:
"Chaos Is My Name’ is like waking up in the basement hospital of Jacob’s Ladder only to realize that the permanently disfiguring abuse you’re about to endure has already taken place. The rest of your brief, excruciating life will be spent as a hideously deformed flesh puppet, flailing helplessly under the high-pitched whine of various torture devices and experimental dental equipment, while Seraphim sing in the distance, never once offering you their hand."
The only possibility of hearing this rare phenomenon live is during the CMJ Music Festival in NYC, USA, at Sin-E November the 2nd. Be sure to be there!
We kindly ask the person who registered this page please get in touch with us. We're happy that someone did this, but would like to know who this person is.
Kind regards, Shining
Videos finally out on the web
We finally figured out a way to get these videos out that we promised you... Our drummer uploaded them to www.YouTube.com. It was a great concert to play, even if there was only 50 people in the club! Here´s the links:
I just have to tell you all about the greatest concert I've seen in a long time:
Entombed played in Oslo last night (02/06/06). Although I've been an Entombed fan since their very first album, this was my first Entombed concert ever. It was awesome! I never heard them harder and more to-the-point. I never for one moment missed the second guitar (Cederlund just quit the band), and the new drummer Olle Dahlstedt is the best thing that's ever happened to the band. With his un-metalish, but extremely groovy swing and his perfect fills, he glued the music together and pushed the band forward like a steam engine on steroids. Wow! I'm a fan once again.
Their new album "SERPENT SAINTS" is out the 06/06/06 (aren't they sweet?). Hope Olle is on it...
Jørgen
Shhh/Peaceful
New release date for brand new album: January 2007
No concerts before that.
lufecaeP/hhhS
MONSTER jazz
MONSTER is being listed in Jazztimes´ list of the 50 best jazz albums of the year 2005 (the list is published in the new January/February 2006-issue). We got number 50. So let´s hope there were released MORE than 50 jazz albums in 2005 - if not we´re the worst jazz album...
We´re glad to have listeners among both prog-rockers (see the Gagliardi award below) and jazzers!
This is what they say about how they worked out the list: "Our top 50 CD's of the year are compiled from our individual critic's picks. If a critic chose a CD as her top album of the year, it was s given a score of 10. If a CD was picked as number ten on a critic's top ten list, it was given a score of 1. The scores from all of JazzTimes' contributors were then tallied and the 50 CDs which scored highest are listed below. Note that many CDs received the same combined score. CD's with the same combined score are listed alphabetically within their ranking."
We haven´t seen the issue yet, and don´t have the score... Maybe we´re lucky our album wasn´t named From The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster?
Shining won the Alarm Award 2006
Shining won the Alarm Award 2006. Thanks to all those who voted for us!
SPELLEMANNSPRISEN
GNINIHS is nominated to Spellemannsprisen in the category "åpen klasse" (where all the rest go). Spellemann is the commercial award in Norway. I´m sorry to disappoint you; but this time there´s nothing to vote on. The final decision is made public Jan 28th.
PS: The videos I promised are coming soon...
Michael Brecker is still seriously ill!
The greatest sax player alive is seriously ill and needs a bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant. His family has been looking for a matching donor for a long time, but still hasn't found one. Please help him find a matching donor! His condition is critical.
Click here to go to his website to learn how you can help.
MONSTER on GAGLIARCHIVES´ top 100 Radio Internet Poll!
In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be A Monster is voted #36 of 100 (there vere over 1000 albums nominated!), and will be featured Sunday at 1:20AM EST as part ofthe 10th Annual Global Progressive Rock Top 100 Discs of 2005 Listener poll at Gagliarchives. This program is their most listened to every year and is rerun several times throughout the following year. A big thanks to the GAGLIARCHIVES and to the people who voted! (Sorry about what I wrote earlier about the vote of the people...)
Here´s their press-release: "Join the GAGLIARCHIVES Saturday Night 12/03/05, 10pm Eastern Time, for program 929...PART 2 of the 3 part Globalprogressive Rock Network's Top 100 CDs Of 2005! Numbers 65-33 will be Featured tonight. The program begins Saturday at 10pm Eastern Time. Like 2004's Top 100, voter turn out was strong. There were over 1000 plus progressive rock related discs this year…some of which cover different sides of progressive rock and it's genres."
As a thanks we will soon post a series of live video clips from our latest concerts in Oslo and Bergen! Stay tuned!
Alarm Award 2006
Monster is nominated for best jazz (!) record of the year in the Norwegian Alarm-prisen award. It is journalists in Norway that has worked out the nominations, and we´re glad to be on the list! The more sorry part is that now it´s up to the people to vote on their favorite, just like on tv... And anyone that has ever read a history book knows that the vote of the people and art do not mix well. But we´re happy to get your vote! Click here to go to Alarm-prisen´s webpage, where you´ll find us under the jazz category. "Stem!" means vote... Thanks! (And don't forget to also vote for our brothers in arms in Jaga Jazzist! They're under the category "frimusikk/electronica".)
Alarm-prisen is supposed to be an alternative award, especially compared to it´s more commercially oriented brother Spellemannsprisen. Unfortunately these two brothers have become more and more like twin brothers the last couple of years, but we hope that Alarm is again going to take a stand for quality music. Real music needs powerful friends.
Christmas, studio. . .
Well, this is it for 2005! No more concerts. Thanks to all the nice people who came to our concerts and made it a nice evening for us!
We're now working on a new album, and will be recording in studio in the very beginning on 2006.
We'll also do some selective touring in spring 2006, so stay tuned for info...
Hope to see you all again with a new Shining album!
Kind regards, Jørgen
Big Outside of Norway?
Pitchforkmedia sent Nick Sylvester on a pilgrimage mission to Øya-festivalen in Oslo this summer to get dazzled by Norway's divine music, but went back home dissappointed after finding almost only "Christian hardcore bands, black metal, and mainstream acts who all sound like Dave Matthews"! Well, no one living in Norway ever said we had only good music. It's just like he says in his article, too much bad and too little good... Read it and have a good time!
We must thank him, though, for his kind words about our band: "Bridging free-jazz to metal, Shining argued the two genres are technically the same. I wrote elsewhere that "this is a marriage of dueling technical proficiencies, where destruction of musical space via improvisation ends up ='ing destruction of musical space via complete organization, where free is fast is rigid is slow." You knew that though. Shining are free-jazz covered in metal's honey, sugar on the cup rim for Norway's hardcore and metal fiends-- a Tull fan's dream."
He also speaks kindly of our friends in Kill, Navyelectre and Jaga Jazzist. In Part 2 he composes a list of his favorite Norwegian modern tracks, among them Shining's Jaga-remake and Navyelectre's Marvellous Day.
NEW BASS PLAYER!!!
Shining has got a new bass player. After Aslak quit the band, Morten Strøm has grabbed the axe and is whipping the music into shape like it´s never been before! We´ve just finished off five rehearsals with him, he´s just the right man for the task! Shining´s back, this time heavier and meaner than before!
Check out the new live dates: Geneve, Utrecht, Porsgrunn, Gøteborg, Oslo and Bergen.
PS: We´re also working on a new album. Studio is booked in January and February. Estimated release in september 2006.
Shining plays Shakespeare´s Hamlet
The Norwegian theater group Teater Ibsen, in collaboration with Vestfoldfestspillene, is putting up Shakespeare´s Hamlet these days. Jørgen has written and recorded new music for this piece, along with Torstein and Kåre. (They also use a piece of Goretex for a dance suite.) We saw the premiere on Thursday, and it was great! If you happen to be in Norway these days, we greatly recommend that you check this out!
(We also just heard rumors that the Norwegian legend Arne Nordheim watched the show yesterday, and said that he loved the music. Thank you very much!!!) (We believe in rumors, don´t we? At least when they´re good...)
Thanks to Hultsfred...
...for a great festival! We just got home from our concert there, and it was great! Nice weather and a beautiful landscape! Thanks to Slayer for another great concert! (We saw you in Oslo, too.)
Finally sound on web
We finally managed to put out some sound samples from MONSTER. Check it out under our submenu SOUND.
Shining at BBC radio + UK tour
We're planning a short UK tour in the summer (dates coming up soon), and therefore it's great to see that there's interest for Shining in UK: BBC has put Goretex on their PMS playlist. Thanks! We hope to see some crazy Brits in the summer!
Shining at Hultsfred
Shining is playing at Swedens best rock-festival in Hultsfred friday June 17th at 21:30. We're very much looking forward to it! They're great program includes artists as Slayer, the Mars Volta, Mastodon, Snoop Dogg and Nine Inch Nails among many, many other great bands. Check out their website www.rockparty.se.
Listen to Shining on the net... again...
I'm sorry for taking so long to fix this site... We've been getting a lot of requests of where to listen to Shining on the web: We'll soon present a couple of songs on this page, but until then - please click on the following links to hear our songs:
Wednesday we're leaving our country for a small tour in Belgium. We're doing five support shows for our favorite band Jaga. You'll find the tourdates on the left side of our website.
Hope to see many of our Belgian friends again! (For info about MONSTER and an enormous and monstrous interview, go to www.kwadratuur.be/
Listen to Shining online
I've been receiving several mails in the last weeks, especially from the US, from people who wonder where they can listen to some of the MONSTER-tracks. I'm sorry that we haven't been able to present some samples on our page yet, it will be taken care of in a couple of days. (We'll also fix a whole lot of other features...)
It´s not everyday a small band from the north pole is in the Sunday New York Times - one of the word´s biggest! But yesterday it happened. We´re honored.
Sunday March 20th: "A band from Norway whose members have jumped from jazz to something much bigger - not the millionth dopey, clinical fusion of jazz and rock, but a mushrooming that's harder to figure out. Through brilliant use of the recording studio, "In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster" (Rune Grammofon) crisscrosses between acoustic and electric, small band and large band, vocal choir and instruments, a close-miked sound and a distant, reverbed-up one, clanking drums and careful snare-brushing, soft woodwinds and dirty, overdriven synthesizers, quiet and penetratingly loud, live-in-the-studio and and musique concrète. There's an auteurish producer behind it, Kare Vestrheim, who's not part of the band but clearly functions here as the sixth member of Shining. (Available through www.forcedexposure.com.)"
Great reviews in important american press!!
Pitchforkmedia.com, one of America's most important forums for music, has put MONSTER on their BEST NEW MUSIC list, rated 8.3!
"Strikingly original Norwegian art-rock combo makes its debut [...] Colossal."
Almost Cool is also deeply impressed and writes a great review, rating KINGDOM a good 8.
"Occasionally mindblowing, and very entertaining."
Even the jazz people seems to like the crazy shit we make: www.allaboutjazz.com writes "[...] the record is so extreme, so outside, that it would likely send most King Crimson fans running for the hills." Hi hi!
The underground radio staion the GAGLIARCHIVES - http://auralmoon.com - is presenting MONSTER on air and on the net March 5. at 10pm EST and Tuesday March 8. at 11am EST. This is long before scheduled release of the album in USA. But it seems like some people both hav eyes and ears... Tune in, log on!
Funny Norwegian Multimedia-Review
Check out www.dongery.no->internettforum->anmeldelser/anbefalinger->musikk->Shining - In The Kingdom Of Kitsch You Will Be Da Monso.
Better than most professional reveiwers...
MONSTER rated TOP 10 in Metal Maniacs!
We're proud to see that the legendary Stephen O'Malley from the allmighty SUNN (O))) and KHANATE is rating our album in his top 10-listing on the Metal Maniacs website! For an old metal-fan like me, it warms my heart to see that metal-heads can appreciate our music. Thanks!
After our small tour in Norway, our album has been A-listed on studentradion i Trondheim and rated "album of the week" in Bergen. Listen for Shinings Monster on your local radio!
Studentradion i Bergen quote: "Et av Bylarms høydepunkt i år kom fra et band som ikke kan sies å være helt nytt, men som har en originalitet og kraft få kan etterfølge. Fra å være et dristig jazzband kan man muliens nå hinte til at bandet er et dristig jazzrockprogband. Et annet jazzelektroband som tar progbussen denne våren er Jaga Jazzist. Det vil bli vanskelig for dem å etterfølge Shinings brilliante lydlek og dynamikk. hjelp! Progtrollet!"
Men vi som er så heldige å ha fått prøvehørt den nye Jaga-plata "What We Must" veit at det ikke blir noe problem!!
SHINING AT ØYA-FESTIVALEN !!!
We're proud to announce that we're playing at the best festival in Norway this summer, the Øya festival. The concert will be held saturday August 13th in Oslo.
"Shining - This is a giant monster art rock band that doesn't hesitate to expand the already extreme idea of how far you can take jazz and still call it jazz, an idea other Norwegian bands already have taken quite far. With their brand new album In the Kingdom of Kitsch You will Be a Monster, Shining has had their cake and eaten it, too. Not only are we quite possibly talking about the album of the year, though within a rather indefinable genre, but the band has also come up with the best album title of the year."
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