Yup, I take all the changes I can get to talk about Magnet, but it’s rare to find lengthy articles about him in English. Luckily, MIC.no provides us plebeians who only know English an accurate look into his popularity and his fans plus some information about his new album, “The Tourniquet”, which isn’t coming out in this part of the world until autumn. But it’s out in Norway, so I don’t feel bad about putting up a song:

Magnet – Duracellia [removed]

I LOVE this song. Love love love, worthy of listening to a gazillion times in a row. It’s beautiful, like all of Magnet’s songs. I don’t know what the title means though.

Back to the article, here’s the part that stuck around in my rather empty head (emphasis mine) that you won’t care about but I’ll ramble anyway:

In this way Magnet exemplifies a presence in international music and media that is quiet and purely artistic, and not at all focused on, or conditioned by the person. His music is so dreamlike, haunting and quietly arresting that it is irresistible, while at the same time making irrelevant the person behind it. In accordance with his personal preferences this allows for a fairly anonymous life for the artist who lives with his family on a small farm outside Bergen.

This is not to say, however, that he is unknown or without committed fans. On the contrary, his fans are many, spread across the world and dedicated -in a way much more so than is the case regarding the exposed stars of pop, because Magnet’s fans are fans of the artist and not the person. For these reasons many of his fans are artists themselves, including some of the big names in music who are warm admirers and eager to say so.

I liked this article for its ability to put into words things I have thought but…not in words. I guess they were just feelings. I emphasized the parts that I found particularly true. I’ve probably mentioned this before but one of the strange things about Even Johansen in my experience with being “obsessed” with music that sets him apart from other artists is that I’m not really obsessed with him as much as…wait, that came out wrong. It’s exemplified in my handwritten journals of years past, in which I wrote extensively about loving Beck and Thom Yorke (hating high school was the main topic though) in similar teenage girl gushing ways (it was quite bad, but can you blame me?) but didn’t write anything quite as embarassing about Even. Phew. I was genuinely surprised when I came across something I wrote after first listening to a song from Even’s first album, in which I couldn’t find the right words to describe the song (wow, look at how I haven’t changed at all in the past 4 years) but I wrote about it anyway. For some reason I’ve found it easier to differentiate between the artist, Magnet, and the person, Even, than other artists, Beck in particular. I’d write more if I had any clear idea of what I was talking about, which I don’t.

Thank god I don’t write for a living. I’d probably have to pay someone to let me do that.

So…Royksopp. I listened to some new songs and they sound good but I like Melody AM more at the moment. I think the singing is throwing me off–no Erlend Øye, [sniffle]. On that note, here’s a song:

Royksopp – Only This Moment [removed]

Oh boy, another Nowegian artist-centered post.