musik

MEMORIAL (FINEST MOMENTS AND FAMOUS LAST WORDS)

IRMA VICTORIA
CD
NOVEMBER 2001
MNW (MNWCD369)

On the one-year anniversary of Danish “diva” Irma Victoria’s death (November 10, 2001) Martin Hall and MNW released the album Memorial – Finest Moments and Famous Last Words. The double-cd is a mix of her best recordings as well as a few at the time unreleased tracks. The release also includes a bonus disc, a Danish National Radio programme commemorating the life and art of Irma Victoria, originally broadcasted on the 9^th of December 2000.

1. Expo 1: A Hospital Room (1:09)
2. Shine The Light on Me (3:33)
3. September Song (0:45)
4. Heart of Darkness (3:17)
5. Expo 2: The World Is Everything that Is the Case (3:13)
6. The Devil in the Flesh (0:44)
7. River of Light (3:45)
8. The Gospel According to Anti-Christ (1:01)
9. Expo 3: In Memory of Liberace (1:13)
10. The Beauty of Emptiness (4:40)
11. Palladium (2) (3:26)
12. European Need (2:59)
13. Expo 4: The Chatterbox Revisited (1:02)
14. Fight It Part 2 (2:21)
15. Tears and Morphine (4:06)
16. The Voices of the Dead 1:25)
17. Expo 5: Worst Case Scenario 0:35)
18. Angels and Devils 1:37)
19. Silent Rage 1:59)
20. Expo 6: In Transit (0:55)
21. Itsi-Bitsi (4:44)
22. Life Is but a Dream (3:03)
23. Expo 7: Famous Last Words (1:04)
24. Memorial (3:53)

25. Irma Victoria til Minde (14:55)

Aud Wilken: Backing vocals
Christian Skeel: Keyboards
Henrik Marstal: Bass
Jens Brygmann: Drums
Lars Top-Galia: Guitar
Martin Hall: Instruments
Ole A. Laursen: Backing vocals
Ole Hansen: Trumpet
Peter Westh: Backing vocals
Sharin Foo: Backing vocals
Torben Engberg: Organ

Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Henrik Möll/Casper Sejersen

Born on the 2^nd of September 1923, Irma Victoria made her debut at the age of 66 with the song “Memorial” on the Martin Hall production The Hall of Mirrors released in September 1989. The track instantly became a cult classic and mystique subsequently rose as to who this new Martin Hall finding was. In September 1990 she performed on the ep Palladium and in November 1990 she released her debut album The Rainbow Theatre – an album that quite surprisingly earned her a Danish Grammy nomination in the category “best female singer” in February 1991. Competing with the Danish multi-platinum act Hanne Boel and legendary Savage Rose lead vocalist Annisette, Irma Victoria unfortunately didn’t win the award.

Having received The Medal for Meritorious Service, a distinction handed to her personally by The Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, for loyal service in the Danish Department of Defence, in the autumn of 1993, Irma Victoria released her second and highly anticipated album Phantasmagoria – The Second Coming in October 1994. The record contains contributions from several prominent musicians on the Danish independent music scene (such as members from the original punk and post-punk bands Sort Sol and The Poets) and the release received massive media coverage … all helped along very nicely by a widespread poster campaign sponsored by Carlsberg.

Phantasmagoria received a line of great reviews in both Denmark and abroad and was exported to France, Germany and England. At the time of the release several tracks wound up in heavy rotation on the French radio station Scandal and a few years later the British neofolk group Death in June used the album as lounge music on their 1997 European tour.

In the autumn of 1995 Irma Victoria performed on the controversial tribute album to the legendary Danish sixties band Steppeulvene, Hip, where she interpreted the group’s signature song “Itsi Bitsi” (the track was singled out as one of the highlights of the album by the press, although several journalists found her version to be an outright desecration of the original song). In the spring of 1997 she furthermore appeared on the ep Hallmark 1–4 performing the title “Tears and Morphine”, a new version of “Tears in the Rain” from Phantasmagoria.

By invitation of the Danish record label Addiction Martin Hall and Irma Victoria discussed the possibility of recording a newly written narrative by Hall shortly before Irma Victoria’s death. Due to the singer’s deteriorating health the idea was never realized, but the titles “Expo 1–6” on the Memorial compilation album are based on the test recordings made towards this end at Holbæk County Hospital.

Irma Victoria died on the 10^th of November 2000.

Memorial was released concurrently with the exhibition A Hospital Room at Ystad’s Konstmuseum (a Swedish art gallery), an audio installation made by Martin Hall about Irma Victoria. The exhibition ran from October 20^th until November 25^th 2001. You can read more about the event here.

As a special feature on the Memorial album, Sharin Foo – singer and front figure in the world famous Danish indie darling act The Raveonettes – appears as guest singer on the “River of Light” track.

All songs on Memorial are written and produced by Martin Hall except “Itsi Bitsi” which is authored by Eik Skaløe and Stig Møller.

When Irma Victoria died several international artists expressed their grief with her passing. Among names such as Jean Pierre Turmel from the French avant-garde label French Sordide Sentimental and Martyn Jacques from the renowned English cabaret band The Tiger Lillies, the most fierce appraisal of her talent probably came from Douglas P., singer and front figure in Death in June: “Her work was fantastic. May her soul live forever.”

“This voice that seemed to emerge from such depths immediately talked to my unconscious, passing my understanding completely by. This was her quiet strength. Irma Victoria: a true person, complicated and different … not only a human being, but a real individuality!”
Jean-Pierre Turmel, Sordide Sentimental, France

“I have enjoyed so much listening to Irma Victoria. I dislike/do not listen to virtually any contemporary music, so this has been such a pleasant surprise.”
Martyn Jacques, The Tiger Lillies, England

“Phantasmagoria is one of the most haunting albums I have ever heard. A desolate, sinister and totally honest work … a broken story that will drive you to tears if you listen carefully! Once it has grabbed you, it will never let you go, it will never leave your heart and soul. It is hard for me to hear that Irma Victoria is dead. A legend already in her own lifetime, she is ready to become real cult now. We already miss her sadly!”
Ecki Stieg, Grenzwellen/Music United, Germany

“Her work was fantastic. May her soul live forever.”
Douglas P., Death in June, England

METROPOLITAN SUITE

METROPOLITAN SUITE

MARTIN HALL/CHRISTIAN SKEEL
CD
MARCH 2001
MNW (MNWCD361)

Metropolitan Suite is a classically orchestrated work made in collaboration with visual artist Christian Skeel. The album was Martin Hall’s first release as a singer since his gold record achievement with Boel & Hall in 2000.

The album features 25 musical fin de siècle vignettes. Electrical instruments were banned on the recordings, a method of working that secured the album its fine air of Viennese exclusivity.

1. My Argentine Rose (1:52)
2. Opium and Sugar (1:10)
3. Stating the Obvious (1:17)
4. Plaza Flesh (2:31)
5. A Vulgar Display (1:42)
6. She’s My Goodbye Europe (0:58)
7. Unzipping the Abstract (1:11)
8. The Moon’s a Balloon (1:24)
9. The Mephisto Effect (1:36)
10. An American Tragedy (1:04)
11. Walking on Eggshells (1:59)
12. Natives of the Gutter (1:10)
13. Animal Emotion (2:04)
14. The Circus Comes to Town 2:18)
15. Young, Vain and Beautiful 1:52)
16. Pieces of Venice (1:23)
17. In Chambers (1:13)
18. Subject to Injury (0:51)
19. Pink and Fuzzy (1:03)
20. Eichstadt (2:23)
21. A Lonely Impulse of Delight (0:44)
22. Pristine (1:27)
23. Greed (2:10)
24. A Résume Highlight (0:35)
25. Tomorrow Belongs to Me (1:14)

MY ARGENTINE ROSE

She’s a cool breeze of discontent
She’s like a story that never ends
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose

See the twenties within her eyes
Eternal stardust that never dies
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose

She’s my melancholic maybe
Come and save me
Come and set me free

OPIUM AND SUGAR

Don’t flatter yourself
You died a long time ago
Opium and sugar helped me along

Now my heart is closed
To your bourgeois repertoire

So
I know your face
But no
I can’t relate
To the things that you say

STATING THE OBVIOUS

Hey
I don’t know what to do
I’ve
Fallen in love with you

Would you mind if I stated the obvious?
Would you mind if I did it again?
Would you mind if the sky fell apart?
Left us caught in the thunder and rain

Hey
I don’t know what to do
I’m
So in love with you

PLAZA FLESH

Show me your true desires
Show me your plaza flesh
Pictures of people dying
Seem to have no effect no more

I don’t really give as much as a toss anymore
I just want to hide away, never beg anymore
I don’t really count the days or the hours anymore
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone

Come now, inject the daylight
Come here, each little girl
At first, I just want to kiss you
But then I want it all
I want excess
Your plaza flesh

A VULGAR DISPLAY

I don’t know where to start
Never ever seen such a vulgar display
Losing mind, losing heart
Never ever want to fall in love again

No new sights to be seen
Sailing on the ocean of arrogant dreams
Chasing nightmares away
Trading any reason for lost yesterdays

Don’t spread your stars
Around this perfect moon
Don’t spread these stars
Around this perfect moon

SHE’S MY GOODBYE EUROPE

She’s my goodbye Europe
She’s my goodbye to the world
She’s my goodbye Berlin
She’s a goodbye to a thousand girls

UNZIPPING THE ABSTRACT

I believe in sincerity
I believe in it all
I believe in the good life
I believe in encores

I believe in forevermore
More and more

I’m unzipping the A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T
The libido-re-mi-fa-sol

THE MOON’S A BALLOON

The moon’s a balloon
That hangs in the room
The moon’s a balloon
All broken and blue

Where will it be tomorrow?
Where will it be by then?
Where will it be tomorrow?
Where will it end?
Where will it all end?

THE MEPHISTO EFFECT

Now that you’re losing yourself
Now that you’re so far away
I want you to leave me
To never believe me

Now that your porcelain skin
Is cracking apart from within
I want you to love me
Forever think of me

Licking your sugartrace skin
Stirring up one final scene
To ensure and correct
The Mephisto effect

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY

Your mouth’s so open your brain spills out
You’re everything I can do without
But I love you
For a moment
Of despair

When Johnny comes marching home tonight
He’ll find his beloved in tears of delight
She’s wearing that beautiful smile again
Cause I loved her
And I left her
To him

WALKING ON EGGSHELLS

Walking on eggshells
Finding my way to you
Midnight in Dresden
It’s such a depressing view

From Café du Monde the music still flows
All the way back to Rwanda dust roads

But where are you now?
Where are you?

I can’t seem to find myself
I can’t seem to find nobody else

NATIVES OF THE GUTTER

Never thought that I’d lose you again
To the thunder of the open day

Never two of a kind, me and you
Natives of every gutter we choose

ANIMAL EMOTION

I want to reach out and grab any pink cloud
I want to shoot them all down
I want to put you inside of that pink cloud
I want to push you around

Gonna show you animal emotion
Gonna show you automatic motion
Gonna raise a little locomotion now

I want to show you invisible cities
I want to waste images
I want to ride into sunsets on horseback
I want the world in a kiss

THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN

The circus comes to town
Ballerinas and clowns
Nothing new but the pain they provide for us all

I don’t give second thoughts
To the waves of applause
Pop a valium and chill
Art for art’s sake and the thrill
When they all end up crying and sad

I feel so glad
I feel so gay and marvellous
I feel refreshed for all of us
I feel like I am someone else
Someone better than myself
But then I’m not

What about me?
What about you?
What about us?
What are we going to do?

YOUNG, VAIN AND BEAUTIFUL

Young, vain and beautiful
For you I’d change it all
Your oral services

See you
Nowhere
But where my heart is

All blue
For you
For me too

PIECES OF VENICE

Hey-hey
Get a sailor and a priest
Hey-hey
Tame the world beneath my feet

Pieces of Venice
Pieces of Venice
All cool and mellow
I told you I’d love you
I’d love you
I’d love you

Is it Paris in the spring?
Hidden underneath your skin
Is it just another dream?
Hidden nowhere even near you?

Hey-hey
Be a soldier for a day
Hey-hey
Keep the enemy away

So alcoholic
So diabolic
So metastatic

IN CHAMBERS

We’re in chambers
Just like you wanted
We’re alone now
Until the end
Can I ask you that single question?
Can I ask you not to pretend?

SUBJECT TO INJURY

She’s so subject to injury
She’s so frail

Poor impulse control
They just don’t care how old she is

PINK AND FUZZY

Pink and fuzzy
Carved out of make-believe
Dreaming of good times
Working in coal mines
Breaking my heart

Pink and fuzzy
Not that you need to be
I’ll pay you off

A LONELY IMPULSE OF DELIGHT

A lonely impulse of delight
Raising Cain down the borderline
I don’t know, I don’t know
Words of the virus and words of the host
I get so tired without even trying

PRISTINE

I can’t forget
The words you said
Your voice, so loud
Your talk, so foul

Maybe the sea will hush my heart
Maybe the sea will wash away the stars
Within your eyes

Pristine
The mother of bad things
Pristine
Conveyor of nothing
Pristine
I never believed you

Pristine
Pristine

The day will come
My will be done
Forevermore

GREED

Famous last words
A playlist encore
Lips red as blood
Give me some more

Bad gene behaviour
Seems like my saviour
Hunting and shooting
Your tinseltown beauty

Love me for me
Love me for my greed

With pockets full of stars
Forgetting who you are
Your imitated gods
Were never quite enough

And these mighty dresses
A photographic session
With jazz age believers
The skyscraping feelings
Where have they gone?

TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME

Thunder on the sky
I wish it’d last forever
Caught within the night
You don’t know what it means to me

Set ablaze any sails
Aragon, Mandalay
Now I know that tomorrow is mine
Yesterday’s far away
Nothing left of today
But I know that tomorrow belongs to me

“A sublime work … a high-flown European cycle of songs.”
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian)

“Martin Hall’s voice is more many-facetted and well-balanced than ever … a stirring and beautifully delivered project.”
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent)

“In the history books Metropolitan Suite will easily override a whole section of Danish Music Awards.”
Geiger (the Danish equivalent to Wire Magazine)

“Exciting and visionary.”
( * * * * * )
Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest daily newspaper)

Christian Skeel: Piano
Martin Hall: Vocals
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra

Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Casper Sejersen

Less than a year after Martin Hall’s gold selling collaboration with Danish platinum act Hanne Boel Hall and Skeel released the album Metropolitan Suite, a labour of love that had taken the two gents three years to finish.

With titles such as “Walking on Eggshells”, “Unzipping the Abstract” and “Plaza Flesh” the audience was given a fair warning – this was not a work of intending radio hits, rather a joyous voyage of exploration into the literary realms of vaudeville, chamber music and cabaret-styled intellectualism.

Quoting Hall from an interview made at the time of the release, Metropolitan Suite was his idea of “the perfect follow-up album to the Boel & Hall success”. Despite critical acclaim the record was obviously destined to remain a niche release, so although Metropolitan Suite was an artistic highpoint, it remained a commercial disaster costing Hall’s new label MNW a fair amount of money.

The album featured the single “My Argentine Rose” (catalogue number MNWCDS 300), a release that included an instrumental bonus track called ”Pantomime Bloodline”.

by admin

MY ARGENTINE ROSE

MY ARGENTINE ROSE

MARTIN HALL/CHRISTIAN SKEEL
CD SINGLE
FEBRUARY 2001
MNW (MNWCDS300)

My Argentine Rose is a single released to support the classically orchestrated album Metropolitan Suite made in collaboration with visual artist Christian Skeel. The single was Martin Hall’s first release as a singer since his gold record achievement with the Boel & Hall album in 2000.

The album features 25 musical fin de siècle vignettes. Electrical instruments were banned on the recordings, a method of working that secured the album its fine air of Viennese exclusivity.

1. My Argentine Rose (1:52)
2. Pantomime Bloodline (2:46)

MY ARGENTINE ROSE

She’s a cool breeze of discontent
She’s like a story that never ends
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose

See the twenties within her eyes
Eternal stardust that never dies
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose

She’s my melancholic maybe
Come and save me
Come and set me free

Christian Skeel: Piano
Martin Hall: Vocals
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra

Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Casper Sejersen

Less than a year after Martin Hall’s gold selling collaboration with Danish platinum act Hanne Boel, Hall and Skeel released the album Metropolitan Suite, a labour of love that had taken the two gents three years to finish.

The single “My Argentine Rose” included the instrumental bonus track ”Pantomime Bloodline”.

JUST A FEELING

JUST A FEELING

MARTIN HALL
CD SINGLE
MARCH 1999
DOWNBEAT/EMI-MEDLEY (724349007628)

“Just a Feeling” was the second single from Martin Hall’s Adapter album from 1999. The release featured an edit of the song as well as a new instrumental track, “Buffer”. Furthermore the cd contained a digital press kit for PC and Mac as well as a video made for “Burning Sugar”, the prior single of the album.

1. Just a Feeling (Single Edit) (3:52)
2. Buffer (2:12)
3. Just a Feeling (Album Version) (4:47)

JUST A FEELING

Silver lining inside me
You’re adapting my every word
Such an eloquent silence
Feeling hurt?
Still you’re moving so lightly
Like you’re hanging within the air
Seems it’s your way of saying
Couldn’t care

It’s just a feeling
Another feeling on the sky
It’s just a feeling
Another feeling coming down
The silver lining
You’ll see it run into the air
For just a moment
Another line that disappears

Guess it’s all second chances
Getting used to the sights and sounds
With the greatest indifference
Running down
All aesthetic behaviour
Still I’m watching your every move
Give and take of the daylight
For the view

Anna Gwozdz: Violin
Henrik Brendstrup: Cello
Henrik Marstal: Harmony vocals
Johannes Søe Hansen: Violin
Lotte Wallevik: Viola
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, keyboards, bass, violin, guitar, samples
Ole Hansen: Piano, non-midi keyboards
Thomas Li: Sonic work

Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Robin Skjoldborg

Adapter was Martin Hall’s first studio album since Random Hold from 1996, an eagerly anticipated release that was received as his perhaps most solid work so far by both the press and a larger audience. Once again Hall worked with co-producer Thomas Li.

BURNING SUGAR

BURNING SUGAR

MARTIN HALL
CD EP
FEBRUARY 1999
DOWNBEAT/EMI-MEDLEY (724388656429)

The first single from Martin Hall’s Adapter album from 1999 was “Burning Sugar”, a title released as an ep featuring six different versions of the song.

“Burning Sugar” became the most played song on P3 of the National Danish Radio in the week of its release and the single peaked at #5 at the official Danish airplay chart, thereby becoming Hall’s biggest hit so far as a solo artist.

1. Single Edit (3:22)
2. Chopper’s High-As-A-Kite Mix (3:16)
3. BEQ Version (3:30)
4. The Element Remix (4:35)
5. 2:30 Mix (2:56)
6. Piano Version (Session Take) (4:14)

BURNING SUGAR

The memory lines that run down the sky
Running like streams of reason
The story is told in silver and gold
Words never tell the tale

I believe in all that I see
In all that I know
In all that I feel inside me
I know that dreams will come true
If they’re burning

Burning sugar
Burns inside me
Burning sugar
Burning so sweet

The things that I’ve seen
The places I’ve been
Secrets that stay unbroken
The look in your eyes
It’s high as a kite
Cooling my every need

Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Robin Skjoldborg

HOPE

HOPE

VARIOUS ARTISTS
CD
SEPTEMBER 1998
AUDIO RESEARCH EDITIONS (ARECD101)

Hope is a limited edition cd consisting of pieces made by international sound artists and experimental composers such as Martin Hall, Robert Kennedy, Scanner and Keith Rowe among many others. Each artist has produced an original recording with the duration of approximately one minute for the project.

Hope was released in relation to the 9^th International Symposium of Electronic Art at John Moores University in Liverpool taking place during September and October 1998.

1. September Song (Martin Hall) (0:45)

Martin Hall, Robert Kennedy, Scanner and Keith Rowe among many others. You can find a list featuring all participants on the release here.

Design: Colin Fallows

Hope was produced and released in relation to the 9^th International Symposium of Electronic Art at John Moores University in Liverpool taking place during September and October 1998. The artists on the release range from well-known figures in the art and music world to individuals and groups making their debut on this occasion.

Martin Hall contributes with the track “September Song”. Other artists on the cd feature names such as Robert Kennedy, Scanner and Keith Rowe. You can find a list featuring all participants on the release here.

Audio Research Editions’ description of the project goes like this:

“Hope is a limited edition cd collection of one-minute soundworks by international sound artists, experimental composers, noise makers and other audio creators. Contributors were invited to create an original recording of one-minute duration for the CD on the theme of hope – whether personal or universal; directly, obliquely, humorously, ironically, romantically, musically, noisily, lyrically or in their title.”

Founded by Colin Fallows in 1998, Audio Research Editions is a limited edition imprint for artists’ soundworks. The label has published over 150 works by artists from over 20 countries. Publications include Trace which was released in relation to the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art 1999, a double-cd to which Martin Hall also contributes.

EXTENDED PLAY

EXTENDED PLAY

MARTIN HALL
CD EP
MARCH 1996
VIRGIN RECORDS (8416162)

Extended Play features the second single from Martin Hall’s 1996 album Random Hold, the track “Another Heart Laid Bare”. The release also features several session recordings left out from the final track list of the album.

1. Another Heart Laid Bare (4:34)
2. Pleasurama (3:43)
3. Catching the Dust (5:46)
4. Layers in Between (4:05)
5. Another Heart in Transit (0:58)

ANOTHER HEART LAID BARE

Another heart laid bare on the doorstep to my exile
Another pantomime to disbelieve
I see your bended head, always humble in the daylight
Playing the servant’s role to never see

Of all the images that you left for my keeping
The one I like the most is the world outside
I never thought I would but the distance seems so perfect
I can’t deny the fact that I’m pleasantly surprised

Another victim cries, pointing fingers at the heavens
Declaring me the crime of centuries
The traces on my skin, they keep shining in the nighttime
A fingerprint on every memory

PLEASURAMA

The sweetest words
They always fall from lovers’ lips
Make you believe everything that you’ve heard
The whole wide world
It seems like it’s hanging from the sky
Still you turn your blindest eye

See you robbing every mirror
For the images you see

I thought you knew my pleasurama
I thought you knew my everything
Nocturnal moods
The melodramas
Pulling all your cheap nostalgia
Out of anything you see

A frame of mind
Can turn the world all upside down
Make you believe everything that you’ve heard
Of all of my heart
I wish I could wish you all the best
But my tolerance’s too sore

Got a little something for you
It’s a good and better bye/buy

CATCHING THE DUST

The eyes on the ceiling
The eyes on the walls
There’s always a riddle unsolved
A question to store

Candles burning in the night to remind you
That no matter where you’re hiding
It will find you
Get inside of you

All of this time
Watching the lines
Slowly run out into the blue
Catching the dust
Staying untouched
Hiding the world within your hand

All of this time
Just catching the dust
Hiding the world

The longest of stories
The thinnest of air
The something you always wanted
Untouchable near

THE LAYERS IN BETWEEN

At the end of your finger
Everything turns to gold
Take a piece of forever
Make it all that you know

Second nature getting clearer
Turning flesh and blood
Tearing pages out of nowhere
All the things you can’t get rid of

The layers in between
The keep away the feeling
The world is turning everything
Turning the blue skies golden

Keep away any shadow
With the palm of your hand
Turning air into distance
Turning days into chance

Second nature getting clearer
Turning flesh and blood
In between the lines
Running out of empty answers
It’s the solitude you feed on

The layers in between
The keep away the feeling
The world is turning everything
Turning the blue skies golden

So the feeling comes
And the feeling goes
Underneath the open sky
Tell the story once
Tell the story twice
But you can’t remember why

Henrik Marstal: Cello
Iben Teilmann: Viola
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, bass, guitar, tape material
Ole Hansen: Keyboards, piano, trumpet, french horn
Sara Wallevik: Violin
Signe Kjærsgaard: Bass
Thomas Li: Networks, treatments, logic, percussion

Design: Birgitte Wester/Camilla Søfeldt
Photo: Robin Skjoldborg

The track “Pleasurama” entered The Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s P3 airplay chart (Danish National Radio) during the first week of March while the video made for “Another Heart Laid Bare” premiered at ZTV, a new Danish music televison programme at the time.

You can read more about the Random Hold album and the story behind it here:

Random Hold and related singles (1996)

CRADLEMOON

CRADLEMOON

MARTIN HALL
CD SINGLE
JANUARY 1996
VIRGIN RECORDS (724389333626)

Cradlemoon is the first single released from Martin Hall’s 1996 album Random Hold. The song is widely regarded as Hall’s signature song and has been included on several European indie compilation records.

1. Cradlemoon (Radio Edit) (4:19)
2. Cradlemoon (Full Lengh Version) (5:44)

CRADLEMOON

The fire and the water keep mixing in my blood
The sons and the daughters seemed to give it all up
They got too tired of the waiting
Too tired to believe
In the promises that nobody keeps
I’ve seen a generation coming
I’ve seen a generation go
And the more I see, the less I know

I want to go to sleep
I want to drown in the deep of the cradlemoon
I want to touch the sky
I want to lie down and die
In the cradlemoon of the night

So I followed the shadows by the trail of the waste
And it led me into the heart, to the heart of these days
I never wanted to remember
Never wanted to believe
But you don’t ask why when the thunderheart beats
All I wanted was a reason
What I got was so much more
Couldn’t turn my back on the things that I saw

I want to go to sleep
I want to drown in the deep of the cradlemoon
I want to touch the sky
I want to lie down and die
In the cradlemoon of the night

In a world full of stories
There’s a time in the night
When the sky seems to break by the blink of the eye

Design: Birgitte Wester/Camilla Søfeldt
Photo: Robin Skjoldborg

Assisted by co-producer Thomas Li Random Hold was recorded in an abandoned art school in the countryside in the summer of 1995. To get the full story of the album release, please see the following links:

HIP

HIP … EN HYLDEST TIL STEPPEULVENE

VARIOUS ARTISTS
CD
OCTOBER 1995
EXLIBRIS (EXLCD 30053)

Hip is a tribute cd made in honour of the Danish hippie band Steppeulvene, a band that back in 1967 released the original, now legendary album Hip.

The 1995 version of the record features a line of young Danish bands such as How Do I, Murmur, Rhonda Harris and Souvenirs as well as the 72-year-old performer Irma Victoria with whom Martin Hall had recently recorded the critically acclaimed album Phantasmagoria.

1. 0-0-0 (How Do I) (6:10)
2. Til Nashet (Murmur) (5:20)
3. Itsi-bitsi (Irma Victoria) (4:50)
4. Til Nashet (Swoon) (4:49)
5. Dunhammeraften (Peter Belli) (4:47)
6. Du skal ud, hvor du ikke kan bunde (Rhonda Harris) (3:21)
7. Flip (Double Muffled Dolphin) (5:50)
8. 0-0-0 (Souvenirs) (3:18)
9. Kvinde kom ud (The Arnø Family Combo) (5:17)
10. Jensen (Death Tothe) (6:52)
11. Lykkens pamfil (Soma Hammarlund) (10:37)

How Do I: 0-0-0
Murmur: Til Nashet
Irma Victoria: “Itsi-bitsi”
Swoon: “Til Nashet”
Peter Belli: “Dunhammeraften”
Rhonda Harris: “Du skal ud, hvor du ikke kan bunde”
Double Muffled “Dolphin: Flip”
Souvenirs: “0-0-0”
The Arnø Family Combo: “Kvinde kom ud”
Death Tothe: “Jensen”
Soma Allpass Hammarlund: “Lykkens pamfil”

Design: Jens Kruse
Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen

The Hip tribute cd caused a fair amount of media controversy at the time of its release. Several of the older critics found the new recordings slightly irrelevant, if not outspokenly disrespectful, Irma Victoria’s version of Steppeulvene’s “Itsi-bitsi” in particular.

Although her contribution many places was highlighted as one of the most innovative versions of the original songs on the album, several of the senior reviewers addressed Irma Victoria and Martin Hall’s rendering with great hostility – none more so than Weekendavisen, the Danish equivalent to The Observer, which condemned Hall for his provocative move and the song in general for being “hatefully distorted and foul-mouthed false”.