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CD
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GR 830CD
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In August 2006, Norwegian band The White Birch played what seemed at the time to be their final show, and broke up after ten years and four albums together. The band survived, though, in the heart and mind of Ola Fløttum, who refused to forsake the band. He began composing music for films, learning bit by bit how to accompany pictures with his music. He describes his time since the band's break-up: "It has taken nine years, many songs have been thrown out the window before I eventually found my 12 chosen ones. During these years I've lost my mother, started a family, raised two kids, and bought a house in Oslo were I've recorded most of the album in the basement." The resultant music takes the form of sometimes almost unnoticeable tones and soundscapes. The Weight of Spring. The world as we see it. A long road. In the end Darkness will prevail. "Once I was just a boy with the urge to destroy. I did not read these newborn sparks through the wilting trees, I could only see the dark as it came." Earth, as it awakes. Warmth. "I was blind, now I can see... no more darkened doors." And as it elapses. Pain. "As the morning dew fell as rain." The White Birch became Ola Fløttum. "A lot of freedom, not always so easy to cope with, since you have to argue with yourself." Fløttum recorded alongside the classically trained composer Ole Henrik Moe on violin, viola, and singing saw, with rhythm from Norwegian Academy of Music graduate Pål Hausken and Moren Barrikmo -- both members of Susanna Wallumrød's Magical Orchestra (Wallumrød herself contributes vocals on "The Hours"). The album also features Ingrid Olava, Ingar Hunskaar (Kings of Convenience, St. Thomas, Serena-Maneesh,Jaga Jazzist), and Fløttum's wife, the actress Ellen Dorrit Petersen. Grammy-winning mastering engineer Bob Katz put the final touches on The Weight of Spring. Will we remember this album in the distant future? And if so how? Names? Instruments? Its origin? The places it took us to? The White Birch: The Weight of Spring: Love, as it awakes. "Love will never change the morning sun, love will never change the way the darkness runs."
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