Odd Norstoga with a shiny award Spellemannsprisen is Norway’s version of the Grammy awards but more interesting (to me at least) since I haven’t heard of most of the artists. MIC Norway has info about the winners in English so I decided to check some out, primarily Odd Norstoga (pictured, from dagbladet) since he won “Spellemann of the year”…which sounds major. [via it’s a trap!] I wish there were full mp3s on his site but there are craploads of clips and I’ve listened to enough of them to decide that I like his music, and I want it, and gimme, and so on…

Oh, I didn’t even describe the music. Damn, I’m bad at that stuff. It sounds folksy and acoustic. And the songs are in Norwegian. Thank god I’m not a music reviewer.

The National Bank won for “Best Pop Group” and just a few days ago Petter gave me an mp3 of theirs so I shall pass the mp3-ness onto you:

The National Bank – I Hear the Sparrow Sing

It took me a while to get used to (not sure what to think of Thomas Dybdahl’s voice and for whatever reason I’m really picky with singing voices) but I like it. I wouldn’t know how else to categorize it besides “pop” so there’s your description. “Pop”. (You didn’t think I could get much worse, and look, I just did.)

Lastly, I checked out the winner in the electronic/contemporary category, Lars Horntveth (leader of Jaga Jazzist, whom I’ve never listened to for some reason…well, I’m doing that now). If you scroll down a bit you can open the “Pooka” minisite by clicking on the album cover and download an mp3. I’ve listened to this before but I’m giving it another go; it’s cool but I’d want to hear more songs. Grr, gimme more! The downloadable song “Tics” sounds more orchestral than electronic but is a good mix of the two….things. Yeah. It reminds me of Kim Hiorthøy (who’s on the same label), an artist I like but haven’t gotten very into.

Oo, the Jaga Jazzist mp3s are pretty neat.