Some years ago, Erling moved from Trondheim – one of the bigger towns in Norway, if there can be said to be such places – to a small island called Træna far out to sea and situated on the Arctic Circle: just him, less than 500 other people and a lot of birds. The nature was rich, the weather heavy and the air fresh.
Erling was no maiden voyager, however. Fraillaments may be his first album under his own name, and his first album together with The Armageddonettes – a posse drawing on members of Armenian folk/punk/ethno glam heroes Wattikan Punk Ballett and Hungary´s biggest drum & bass band, Brains – but not so long ago, he toured and released four albums as the singer and bassist of gloom-poppers and alco-jazzers Schtimm. The band toured Europe – in particular Germany, though they even made it to Russia – and recorded TV & Radio sessions, picking up great reviews along the way.
That was in the ‘00s. But in 2012 he was back. He hasn’t really been away, though. He’s just been somewhere else. Even so, he hasn’t been merely staring at the sea, growing a beard, and fishing for his own food. He’s released five albums under the name Æ, singing in the North-Norwegian dialect and repeatedly touring his homeland. He’s picked up radio play, performed at countless festivals, and earned a reputation for poetic lyrics and powerfully melodic songs.
During these island years, Erling also travelled to Hungary, and it was this that inspired Fraillaments. He’d established friendships with a number of people in Budapest, building up an uncontainable urge to work with them. So, having recorded a Norwegian double album, and not being a man for sunny holidays, he called his Budapest family, as well as his bassist and producer compadre for many years, Hallstein, and of course Kjell: The Omnipotent Aestethic, who always visualises his musical escapades. And so it was that Fraillaments came to life, and Erling was (re)born.
A couple of years ago, La Blogotheque saw fit to visit him during the internationally renowned Træna Festival to film him performing on the island in his boathouse. You can find that hidden here
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