Issue #015 (November 2006) Rune Grammofon Email this article to a friend Interview by Oliver Laing Rune Kristoffersen spent the eighties playing bass in Norwegian pop outfit Fra Lippo Lippi, signed to Virgin and had an album produced by Walter Becker from Steely Dan in LA. As Fra Lippo Lippi’s popularity waned in the nineties, he returned to Norway to teach primary school children, before embarking on a career as a label owner with a purity of vision. Welcome to the world of Rune Grammofon. In the transient world of the independent record label, how does a small-scale enterprise that at its inception may have been pessimistically envisaged to last as long as the summer flowers of the arctic tundra, become an institution? An independent music enthusiast’s record collection would certainly contain a percentage of releases from labels that showed great potential, but were ultimately short-lived. Likewise, some of the bastions of the independent, such as 4AD, Drag City, Mille Plateaux and Touch would be represented in the same collection. Labels that started out on a hope and a prayer and through a heady concoction of inspiration, hard work and good luck have gone on to become almost greater than the sum of their releases. In the eight years since its inception, Norway’s Rune Grammofon label has managed to metamorphose into an institution. I hijacked label boss Rune Kristoffersen Rune Kristoffersen’s lunchtime in Oslo to fire off some questions about one of the most vital and eclectic labels for contemporary music to emerge in the last decade. The label’s debut releases in January 1998 were, in retrospect, a perfect way to introduce Rune Grammofon to the wider world. Supersilent 1-3 and Arne Nordheim’s Electric were almost transmissions from another galaxy. I had been in thrall to electronic music emanating mostly from the UK, Germany and the US. In 1998, other than Motorpsycho, I would have been hard pressed to name a Norwegian band. Dense improvised jazz (and I use that term loosely) and reissues of electronic compositions by Norway’s greatest living composer seemed to be coming even further out of leftfield than I was used to. These first two releases seemed to be a statement of intent. Supersilent 1-3 was so new and foreign, almost as if it was erasing all that had come before. Arne Nordheim’s work, sounding vaguely reminiscent of early Nurse With Wound to these ears, had a more recognisable frame of reference. The tension between disparate elements has been employed by Rune Kristoffersen to amass a substantial body of work. ‘We didn’t have a very long term plan at all. There was sort of a hope that I would be able to actually produce a substantial catalogue, but if you start out with marginal, experimental music from a small country like Norway, you don’t really have any idea that it can last and what it can amount to. I felt I’d had a really good start with the first two releases, really strong releases. There wasn’t any more planning than taking it from there and trying to have a consistent profile and a good output. Well, now we are pushing sixty releases, so I’m really happy about that.’ Rune Kristoffersen was working for Grappa, Norway’s oldest independent record company, as label manager for the iconic German Jazz label ECM. I could draw parallels between ECM ‘s visual identity, and that of Rune Grammofon. Some of ECM’s music has a similar Nordic melancholy to certain releases on Rune Grammofon. Kristoffersen responds; ‘That’s absolutely true, but I’ve been more influenced by labels like 4AD, Factory, Impulse! and Rough Trade. But of course ECM, definitely. At least when it comes to having a consistent design profile.’ Rune first met Helge Sten (Deathprod) through audio engineer Audun Strype, a mutual acquaintance. Helge mentioned that he had discussed forming a band with Veslefrekk, an improvised jazz trio with a line-up of Arve Henriksen on trumpet, keyboardist Ståle StorlØkken and Jarle Vespestad on drums. Rune replied that he was planning to start up a label and; ‘…that seems like a perfectly natural idea for some really exciting music. If you want to record, I’m happy to release it’. That’s how it started. To Rune, free jazz was an intriguing proposition, the idea of playing music devoid of a codified set of pre-conditions. But ultimately, it was the concept, more than the reality that appealed to him. ‘I had seen Veslefrekk at the London Jazz Festival. I’d previously not been very into free improvised music, but they sort of knocked over the prejudices I had against free music. They were not really what I would have considered a free jazz group’. Around the same time, Rune was trying to find some of Arne Nordheim’s electronic works on CD in Oslo’s supposedly better-stocked record stores. ‘Suddenly realising that his electronic stuff wasn’t actually available on CD. I had a couple of old vinyl albums and I thought that it was strange that some of the important works from arguably the greatest living Norwegian composer weren’t readily available, which I thought was a scandal.’ ‘So I basically just approached Nordheim and told him how I felt about it. He was concerned that his electronic music would be forgotten if it was not documented in a proper way, and he was very happy about the idea.’ Veslefrekk and Deathprod’s new outfit, Supersilent had been extremely busy in the studio in the interim. They insisted that their debut album was to be released as a triple CD. Rune Kristoffersen suddenly had two iconic releases to debut his new enterprise with. One of the great joys of any Rune Grammofon release is the sleeve design of Kim HiorthØy. The aesthetics of the label have been very shaped by Rune’s association with Kim, who had previously designed Motorpsycho’s sleeves. I find the continuity between Rune Grammofon releases is a really compelling part of the label. Despite the fact that Kim tends to work with different mediums, effects and feels, they always have a specifically Rune Grammofon feel to them. ‘The thing about Kim is that he has actually done all of the design from the first release (onwards), which I think is quite special. At least, with a label that has an output of over fifty releases. There are certain house designers, but I can’t think of any label with that many releases where the one designer has done absolutely all of the releases. From the start it was a very conscious decision to have a strong profile with the design. I think we have succeeded very well, I got Kim onboard, and he was my first choice. We like the same sort of music and we hit it off straight away. He was very keen on doing that sort of work for one label. I think that it has been really important for Rune Grammofon.’ Kim HiorthØy is something of a renaissance man, finding time to paint, write, make movies and also produce his own music, which has been released predominantly on Smalltown Supersound, another Norwegian label. I have often wondered why Rune Grammofon has not released an album of his electronic inventiveness. ‘Kim is friendly with the owner of Smalltown Supersound; he presented him with music before we started working. It was natural for him to stay with that label. Since we have this close relation with the sleeves, it might be wrong to do the music as well. Having said that, if he came to me and asked me to release his music, I would definitely do it, because I really like his music.’ ‘I would say that artists on Rune Grammofon have a lot of artistic freedom. But of course, I have agreed to release them beforehand, so I know what they do.’ It’s a fait accompli in a way, Rune has asked them to record, he wouldn’t have asked them if they were a death metal band. ‘Well, at least not until I know what they are about musically, that would never happen. Because I need to work with people that I like musically, that’s the first thing that needs to be in place. That’s how a small independent record company works anyway.’ ‘Sometimes I will have a dialogue with them regarding a couple of songs, I will ask them if they have something else. If they push strongly, then they will be able to keep them; it has happened only a couple of times. But of course, some of the artists, like Supersilent, I will trust them to come up with the goods and basically, what they say is the finished album is the finished album. I’ve never had any problem with that. With others, if I know them well and we have worked together before, they will pretty much have artistic freedom to deliver the album they want. Sometimes if the artist needs to be in the studio, it’s happened that I have been there with them. I have been with Scorch Trio both times, also with Moha!, I’ve been twice in the studio with In the Country, they pretty much do what they want, I will only come with minor suggestions.’ Things really started to fall into place in August 1999 with the release of ‘Love comes shining over the mountains’, the label’s first compilation. Rune wanted to document the momentum of the burgeoning experimental electronica/improvised music scenes in Norway. Rune Grammofon is a label that celebrates extravagantly; with the book/album ‘Money will ruin everything’ commemorating thirty releases and the 10” Box Set ‘Until Human Voices Wake Us and We Drown’ for the half-century. ‘It’s essential for a label such as Rune Grammofon to do these things. We want to reach the record-buying public that is really into the physical product, as well as the music,’ says Kristoffersen. ‘We want to fight a bit against the whole download issue. That’s because I like records myself, I like vinyl and I like good packages. Economically it doesn’t always make sense, but it’s strange how expensive, non-format things can sometimes grab the attention of people. It obvious that there are a lot of people out there that are interested in the same things and when they get a chance to get their hands on something that is outside the norm and a bit special and beautifully made, then they will grab it.’ I’ve listened to a lot of electronica, and it’s something that if it’s done moderately, it can annoy me (melodic electronica/IDM rage, anyone?). If an artist is putting together sounds in a way that is truly their own, rather than aping what others are doing, it wouldn’t matter what palette of sounds were being used. Definitely falling into the later category is Alog. ‘I contacted Espen, who is Phonophani, because I knew that he had released his first album on Biophon. I have recently re-released this album. Espen said that he had just started this duo called Alog and they were looking for somebody to release it. I really liked it straight away. A very important band for me, I think that they have had a really good development. ‘Miniatures’ was excellent, but all their three albums are really good. I think that they are very special, very unique.’ Unique would be a term that would also describe the album ‘Hermetic’ by Furuholmen, Bjerkestrand & Wadling; ‘That was a one-off project. Furuholmen is the one called ‘Mags’ in A-ha, the Norwegian pop group. He’s been doing some film music on the side. He had done some film music previously that had been released on BMG and all of a sudden, he was keen on me releasing it! We did one hundred hand-made versions, where it was made with a lead cover that he actually cut out and processed, even the labels are hand painted. The music program is varied so that none of those albums are the same. We got a lot of attention for that in Norway. These hundred copies sold at five hundred Norwegian Kroner each and they were sold out immediately. They will no doubt become collector’s items.’ When I first listened to ‘Fevergreens’ by Jono El Grande, it didn’t sit too well with me—the Residents meet the Muppet band in Oslo, or something similar. It’s an album that has grown on me immensely, now I listen to it and I know every change and every passage. ‘I think the interesting thing about Jono El Grande is his compositions. He’s also a special figure in Norway. He has a lot of press, not in the music press, but in the normal press, so to speak. He’s a quite close friend with members of the Royal family. A very interesting composer who’s doing absolutely fantastic live shows, because he is a bit of a comedian as well. He has an excellent way of timing, his concerts are always very funny, they get people in a really good mood. Although, he is extremely serious about the music itself. It’s definitely a very different sort of a concert. Now he is working on new material. Hopefully we will be able to record another album. The problem is he needs musicians, he needs studio time, both things are expensive.’ If I was to put on one Rune Grammofon album for people who don’t like the sort of music I listen to and they may be able to get into it—it would have to be either ‘Fevergreens’ or Susanna and the Magical Orchestra. Susanna’s new album ‘Melody Mountain’ recently reached into the upper echelons of the Norwegian charts. One release I would feel confident to say didn’t make an impact on the charts was the Deathprod Box Set. The black case, the four blacker-than-black CD’s—it was definitely a statement. ‘That was Helge’s suggestion’, explains Kristoffersen ‘We hadn’t talked about any Deathprod releases at all, as he was very occupied with Supersilent. He’s also been busy producing other artists. He’s not been very happy about how his previous output has been released. There had been problems with other labels; the releases had been very limited. He felt that it was time to collect everything that he was happy with from the very beginning. I really liked the idea about how to package it.’ ‘Again, I think we did a really good job, we haven’t saved money on anything; it was the full six-page digipack with a thirty-two-page book. The box itself is really thick, not the sloppy ones you get in many box sets. I think people appreciate the effort. With the record business, people find ways to do things cheaply all the time. If you present things in a cheap way, then it appears to be cheap. We want to try and go the other way, it’s better to spend money and make it good quality. I think that people actually appreciate that, or at least the people that we want to reach. Even major record labels are starting to see that, because now they want to give people value with their physical product, although maybe not in the same way that I want to. The Deathprod Box Set is a good way to show that you can do this marginal, very experimental music in a proper way and still be able to sell it to people. It will pay off in the long run. If not necessarily in money, then in other ways.’ It certainly has paid off for Rune Grammofon, but maybe not in terms of unlimited financial success. It’s paying off in more intangible ways, with artistic integrity, a breadth of vision and a commitment to releasing the product that Rune would like to see available to the record buying public. In the last two years, he has been able to devote all his time to running the label, although I doubt he’s earned enough for a new Maserati. Look forward to a second album from In the Country and the debut from Huntsville, ‘which is sort of something between drone music and instrumental country, if that makes any sense.’ In the world of Rune Grammofon, it makes perfect sense.