Rainy Day

Today it rained all day, off and on. Here's a few pictures from my balcony, in succession, several minutes after each other. You can see the rain coming in the first, then it obscures the view (but I still have some sunshine), then it passes by and the next cloud comes into view. It was really windy too, so sometimes the rain would go sideways.
I'm continuing to prepare for Matt's arrival - doing some cleaning, sorting, and organizing. Warren has a lot of papers to go through when he gets back. I need to find a place to store the tools and finish up a couple of small tasks around the place.
I also went shopping in preparation for the weekend. I'm beginning to use Norwegian a bit more as I shop and interact with people, and I can understand more and more.
I also helped Ove set up his Myspace so we could get some songs up in a public place for people to listen to. We listened to some mixes on his surround sound system, and they sound pretty good. I have to send out an email to all my friends letting them know they can listen to them: www.myspace.com/ovedanielsen
The rest of this week is going to be pretty busy. Tomorrow I'm recording some Hammond B3 organ (with a Leslie amp), then Thursday Matt comes, and Friday I travel to Tønsberg for the weekend, where I'm playing for a youth event. Hopefully I can get Matt settled before I leave. Warren missed his flight from Frankfurt, so we're praying he arrives safely today and is able to make it to Bergen for his dentist appointment. Crazy things.
Oh, I met an Afghani on the bus on my way home from Odda. We spoke some Dari together, though he is actually Pashtun, a language which I don't know, unfortunately. My language was a bit confused, what with all the Norwegian I've been trying to learn, but I was able to communicate pretty effectively. That was really cool. I couldn't quite catch whether he was here for a long time, or just temporarily working a job before he returns to Oslo. Hopefully I'll meet him again.

A Bad Night's Sleep

Last night I went to bed around 11:30pm. Which is normal, given that the sun doesn't really go down until 1am. What isn't normal, though, is that I lay in bed until 5:30 am before I finally fell asleep. I don't know if I was just thinking a lot (sometimes my mind just spins incessantly, but maybe I was trying to process all the norwegian I had just learned) or I had eaten the wrong kind of food just before bed (spaghetti and hamburger meat in sauce), or it was just so warm (even though I had opened all the windows), or it was too noisy outside (cars revving their engines outside the apartment at 3am and kids yelling, not to mention the birds that started up a racket at about 4am when the sun rose), or what. Kind of strange.
Needless to say, I didn't feel all that well-rested when I got up at 10:30. I then went in to Odda to record some saxophone with Ove. That was fun, but tiring. Jazz sax - a little gospel feel for the one song, and then more pop-oriented for the other. It's been great to work with Ove as a co-producer, to give suggestions and help steer the ship, as it were. Perhaps not as much creative control, but after all, it's more his vision than mine. I think we got some great tracks today - now we only have three more that Ove wants other instruments on. We have the rest of this week to record, and then the schedule calls for mixing from then on. It's good to have deadlines sometimes.

Shopping Day

Today was a shopping day. I went in to Odda in the early afternoon, brought my computer along. I returned some books to the library (2 of the 3 language courses) and did a few other things - bought some more minutes for my cell phone on the pay as you go plan. I discovered that all the language courses teach the same dialect of Norwegian, which happens to be the dialect around Oslo. So if I listen to the CDs that come along with the books, I sound very different than the people around here. But at least the language is written the same in both places, so I can learn vocab through the books.
I spent some time at the Filadelfia on their internet, checking email and trying to make contact with people to plan out some concerts for the later summer, early fall. Somewhat unfruitful, but maybe that's what happens when you leave the country for a few months.
I then went to meet with Knut Dale to study some more Norwegian. He was very helpful with the short wordlist I had compiled, and was able to give insight on some things I had noticed: the word 'lære' means both 'teach' and 'learn', depending on the context - also the dialect here differs from Oslo with a lot of the common question words, saying 'kå' instead of 'hva' (means 'what'). He also really helped me with pronunciation of Nynorsk as we read from Proverbs. I tend to have trouble with the 'u' and 'o' sounds, with making the vowel sounds right in multi-syllabic words (I want to keep the same mouth shape and just move my tongue), and also with putting emphasis on the wrong syllable (emphasizing the first syllable is generally the rule in Norwegian). To name a few issues.

Behind the times

So I guess I'm a bit behind on my blogging, so I'll give a quick overview, though no pictures, unfortunately. Sunday I hung out at home - listened to a sermon by John Piper, did some mixing. I wrote a couple songs as well, which was pretty cool! I'll unveil them at some point, but you guys have to be patient.
Monday and today I've been doing more of the same, as well as doing some fixing up of apartments and chasing down electric companies. I met with Ove a couple times to do some overdubbing and continued to work on mixes. I'm also re-ordering my apartment to get ready for Matt's coming - just a week or so away, pretty crazy. Time is flying.

Smelteverk

The Smelteverk used to be the largest employer in Odda and the area. At one point it had between 500 and 800 workers. Don't quote me on that. =) But there were a lot of people working there. I think this was around the turn of the century. It was the largest Calcium Carbide factory in the world, according to my Uncle. The following story is also according to my uncle:
There were two American brothers who owned the second largest calcium carbide factory in the world, at the time, based in Germany. Through various means they bought the Smelteverk and ran it into the ground. Their purpose was to drive up the price of calcium carbide by limiting the supply (they must have read Mr. Smith's book on economics), and they succeeded. In the process they decimated the local economy and the government here in Norway didn't do anything to stop them. Eventually they just left, the factory mostly in ruins and the ground contaminated, and most of the workers left as well. The land now belongs to the government by default.
If you go around Odda, most of the old buildings are somehow connected to the Smelteverk - many of them built by the original owners of the factory to house workers or provide places of entertainment, shops, a library, etc.. There is actually still a performance hall located on the premises of the factory that gets regular use. It seats about 500 people and is usually full for a performance. But most of the land and the buildings are in disrepair.

Recording with Ove 5

Busy day today. Met with Ove and we did some recording on the folk tune - his friend came and recorded vocals. We also recorded some drum parts - brushes on the snare and cymbals, and a conga drum to give some bass/tom sounds. I'm going to try to mix it to sound like a jazz trap kit. Should be interesting!
Then Ove played some music down at the Old People's Home. Someone just donated a new electric piano to them, and he was invited to be the first to play it. It's a pretty sweet Roland with some nice sounding samples, and the mayor of Odda and some of the residents were there. Lots of cake and coffee.
Afterwards we went back and did a bit more recording of percussion and then went up to Ove's girlfriend Lena's house for dinner - out on the balcony in the sun with a great view and a good meal (pizza eaten with knife and fork as good Europeans). Hanging out and chatting with them was great, and then we walked up the hill, through the woods, over the bridge and to a home meeting with some other believers. Here's a picture or two of the sweet bridge over troubled waters. Or is that living water? Rushing down the hill, at any rate.
It was a rather warm day, but is cooling down now that I'm home. But how I know it is really spring turning into summer: I walked out to get my clothes off the line and surprised a hedgehog nosing around in the grass for beetles. Do hedgehogs hibernate? I think they do. It must be warm enough now for them to forage. Pretty cool, i think - and I've always thought hedgehogs are neat animals.

Recording with Ove 4

Today Ove and I had another recording session. We ended up spending most of the time re-working a song he wrote called 'Kom Til Meg'. I think we managed to do a decent job with it. I also gave him a rough mixed CD for him to listen to of the ten songs we already recorded, so we'll see what he thinks after he plays it on a few different systems.
That's always the trouble with mixes, as you may know - they sound one way in the headphones and another way on whatever other stereo you play it on. Something about not having the right mixing environment maybe. Hopefully I can get to know these headphones well enough that I can figure out how to mix in them so it sounds right on other systems.
We're starting to think of other musicians/instruments we can add. We recorded the rough sketch of an Australian folk tune that has been translated into Norwegian (Syng Meg Heim), and Ove's friend is coming in to record the female vocals tomorrow. This is one that Ove is hoping to get permission from the translator to put on his CD. We also want to get some Hardanger fiddle (special instrument of this area) and saxophone.
Another session planned for tomorrow around 11 am, and I (perhaps foolishly) agreed to play settlers of Catan with some friends (seafarers, rather). So I didn't get home until late. Ach, vel.

Recording with Ove 3

Today I slept in until 9, having gone to bed around 2am. So I guess that's not really sleeping in. I did kind of laze around though. The light is lasting longer at night and arriving earlier in the day, so I'm going to have to adjust my sleep schedule accordingly, i think. Or just get heavier curtains.
I recorded with Ove in the afternoon, and we got a few more songs done. I'm mixing them at home and really they're mostly done by the time I get there. Simplicity is wonderful.
We also tried (on my recommendation) recording drums, vocals and keyboard live (only working with two inputs here), and it turned out pretty well. I wanted to try recording the electric organ that's sitting in the church and hasn't been played in year. Ove wasn't too sure about the idea, but was pleasantly surprised with how it sounded in the mix. I think he's hooked.

Recording with Ove 2

Yesterday afternoon I spent with Ove again, working on recording more songs. We were able to record foundational tracks on four more songs, so we have a total of seven songs after just two sessions - with piano and vocal tracks that we'll probably keep. Since the focus is on Ove's singing and playing, we probably won't add much more than that. There are a few other instruments/sounds that we'd like to add (perhaps a choir in a few places) and we're going to try to get a few more songs on Sunday afternoon.
It's cool to think that (after Sunday) with only about 20 hours of work we're almost done with his album - and it sounds pretty dang good, let me tell you. I think there's something about simplicity that works so well, as long as the songs are good. Makes me wonder why I'm spending so much time on my album with all the different parts... but I guess just because I can. There's no string quartet around here, or we'd get it on Ove's album, and we're kind of crunched by time for various reasons. But with what we have we're doing a lot.
Today I slept in til 9 (got home last night around midnight) and then got up and went down to my uncle's apartments down the hill (Salthellervegen) to make sure that one of them was ready for viewing. A guy who's coming to work with the Salvation Army came around 11 with his two boys to take a look at it and take pictures. Hopefully he'll move in when he comes to work in August.
This afternoon I've been recording some guitar on a couple of Ove's tracks. A friend of Dave Henrickson had this sweet classical guitar sitting in her house when we went to visit her the other day (after the trip to the water factory), and after I played it a bit she said I could borrow it while I'm here. It's an Ibanez made in Japan - 30 years old, so it's got a sweet tone with the wood mellowed nicely. That's what I'm playing in this picture. It's nice to have a second sweet sounding guitar for recording.

Recording with Ove

This is Ove Danielsen. He is quite a talented local musician - singer and songwriter, piano based. In this picture he is listening back to a rough mix of one of the songs we recorded. Yesterday we spent the afternoon (after I and Tommy ate at China House) working on some of his songs for his first album. He is very well prepared and we were able to get a lot done.
Ove has written a couple songs in English, one of which I was able to help him with lyrically. The other two songs we got foundational tracks for yesterday are Norwegian songs that he wrote. I can understand some of the words, but can't really comment on the songwriting, so my understanding of the song is mostly musical and I am able to offer production input. I think we are working well together as producer/engineer and musician. Ove is very humble but at the same time knows what kind of sounds he wants, which is a great combination.
Over the next couple weeks we will get foundational tracks for most of the songs that he wants on the album, and begin working on fleshing them out - not too much instrumentation, but pulling from the best local musicians that Ove knows. He has been playing music here in and around Odda for the last 10-15 years and knows most of the musicians and technicians in the area. From what he says, the quality of recorded sound that I get with the equipment I have is better than most here in Hardanger.
There is a small music store in town and a company that does live sound, and that's pretty much it. Any recording is usually done at live concerts, and often subcontracted to people from Bergen or another larger town (Haugesund, Oslo). Although the live sound company based in Odda is quite good - contracts out to large concerts in Haugesund and elsewhere, and they have some great mics for instruments and vocals. Ove of course is allowed to borrow their equipment if we need it - score!
We are recording in the sanctuary of the Bedehus, a local church/community center where Ove leads worship. The room is large and paneled with wood (unvarnished), which makes it rather live. Pretty good for vocals and perhaps piano/organ/strings, but perhaps not quite as good for guitar and other kinds of instruments. We'll find out, I guess. I'm checking into using a few other spaces to record in. Ideally, we'd like to record the concert grand piano in the Formanshus, but it hasn't been tuned recently, so we've made do with electric piano. It is also on the main road, so we'd probably have to record at night.

Full Belly

Today was another special occasion. Remember the karaoke contest I won? Well, today was the day that I had set up with Tommy (the second place finisher) to go and collect our prize - a full meal at China House. We had 800 crowns to spend, and I was pretty determined to spend as much of it as possible. Well, not really. Just enough to fill my stomach. Some of you know I have a hollow leg. Or just a high metabolism.
So I ordered what I would order in the states, not having to worry that it was four times as expensive. An egg roll to start, a plate of Chinese spare ribs (I was hoping the sauce would be special, but no such luck), a plate of fried rice with eggs and shrimp (the waiter asked me if i was sure - he informed me that the rice was a dinner plate - turned out to be the same size you'd get here in the US), an order of french fries (raised eyebrows from the waiter, but he let it pass) and water to drink. I have to say it was a good meal. Tommy had a Norwegian dinner - steak in béarnaise sauce with broccoli and a baked potato. We topped it with fried bananas and ice cream, and coffee for me with a chocolate at the end. I think the waiters were a bit impressed that I polished it all off, but of course they couldn't show it.
Here's a picture of me and Tommy at the restaurant, having just finished our meal and waiting for our dessert. None the worse for wear. And our bill for a meal at the chinese restaurant? 685 kroner (191 dollars) - well under our limit.
Afterwards I got a sim card in a local shop, so people here in norway can get ahold of me easier, and did some recording with Ove Danielsen - but more about that later.

Gratulerer Med Dagen

Today, the 17th of May, is Norway's independence day - the day they declared independence from Sweden. It was quite a busy day. We started off with a parade in Tyssedal from the town center, up the hill and around to the pavilion at the school. People were greeting each other with 'gratulerer med dagen', which roughly translated means 'congratulations on the day'. It's also what you say on a birthday or any other special day.
Everyone wore their best clothes, which means the national dress if you can afford it - the 'bunard' that is different depending on which region of Norway you are from. Pretty dang spiffy if you ask me. If I spoke Norwegian better I'd probably save up for one just so I could sport it on holidays. I guess I have a soft spot for cultural expression - you should see me in my african clothes or central asian garb. I think I look better in them than western clothes sometimes.
At the pavilion, the Tyssedal choir sang. They are apparently famous throughout Hardanger and pack out the house whenever they sing anywhere. I wonder if they need any recording done... They sounded pretty good, though it was a bit hard to hear because of all the kids running around and talking and yelling. I think if the kids did the same sort of thing in the US they'd be smacked, but here in Norway they are tolerated. Something about them needing 'freedom to express themselves' according to popular opinion. Not in my house. Bring up a child in the way they should go, and when old they will not stray, as Proverbs says.
After lunch we went in to Odda, where another parade was going on. Much bigger than the one on May 1st, and much bigger than the one in Tyssedal that morning. All the local believers had made a banner and were going to march together, so I went to join them. It was quite a good experience. At the end we gathered at an open-air grass amphitheater, and there was some singing and the mayor spoke. Dave Henrickson kindly translated for me.
Finally, with the day over, around 6pm I went to the Filadelfia pentecostal church for a meal and a message. I played a song after the message by Roman (from Russia) in Norwegian, which Samuel from the Congo translated into English for me. It's crazy how many languages there are floating around here. We filled up on sandwiches and coffee and topped it off with many different kinds of cakes and ice-cream, all in celebration of freedom. Now this is the kind of freedom I like to enjoy!
Only one downside: no fireworks. But we did have cannon salutes - almost as good. =)

Glass and Food

Today I ventured out on my own to town for the first time since my uncle left (he left on Monday). I had to go get some work tools and materials at the local building supply store. To get there, I caught the 8:30 bus from Tyssedal, through Odda to Eiterheim on the other side of the fjord (I probably could have gotten there quicker by boat if i had one). A place called Montèr, which supplies most of the local contractors. I got a few things, but apparently they don't supply cut glass, just the whole windows, so I had to go somewhere else. They also don't have plumbing equipment. For a building supply store they sure didn't have a great selection - I had to walk down the road to find a 3-in-1 combination painter's tool at a smaller supply store, and learned that one of the glass cutter/supplier companies had an accident earlier in the week with broken glass and so none of them were at work. So I walked the rest of the way into Odda and ordered glass from the only other glass supplier in town.

I figured while I was there I should do some grocery shopping, and I'd brought my list - I managed to find everything. Mayonnaise is pretty expensive, I learned (what isn't), and comes in a squeeze container as if it were toothpaste. Probably the packaging is what is so expensive - although peanut butter comes in a jar but is still expensive. A small amount of either (the smallest jar in the US) costs $3-4. Wow! So if you come to Norway, expect to spend twice as much on food. I figured I'd include a picture so you can see. Notice the rice cooker (a must-have) and the cutting board, which comes standard in all Norwegian homes - it jut pulls out from underneath the counter, quite handy in my opinion. I haven't seen that in the US.

Learning Norwegian 2

I've started compiling a list of Norwegian words to learn, and I'm finding that the biggest issue is pronunciation, whether you speak Nynorsk or Bukmol. But knowing English has helped - there are a lot of words which are similar sounding to English, if you use a bit of imagination.
For example: lære (learn/teach), sofa (couch), bror (brother), mann (man), fot (foot), far (father), ting (thing), gjest (guest). What you have to keep in mind is pronunciation - the word 'gås' looks like 'gas', except for the fact that you pronounce the character 'å' like the short vowel in the English word 'mall'. When you pronounce it correctly, it sounds more like the first syllable in the English word 'gosling' (baby goose), which is closer to what it means - gås (goose).
Of course, then there are words that are completely unrelated to English words in appearance and sound. Words like: bonde (farmer), ås (hill), stong (rod), barn (child) - I think even more difficult than those, however, are the words (like barn) which look and sound like English words (or at least American english) but mean something totally different.
Fortunately the characters are pretty much phonetic. Unlike English, where the sound of the words sometimes seems independent of spelling, in Norwegian each character has a specific sound. So once you learn the sound for each character you can simply sound out the word. And then you might be able to recognize it. Of course some dialects leave off part of the word or pronounce it differently... but most of them are consistent in where and how they do it.

Laundry

Today was a bit of a long day as well. Up early and on the road by 11 - we had some breakfast and then drove to Haugesund, where I caught the bus to Odda. I got to Odda around 4:30 and was able to check email and get the Norwegian language course from the library before coming to Tyssedal. I'll be spending some time with it over the next few weeks to get more of a handle on the sound and basic vocabulary.
I'm still reading the Psalms and Proverbs in English and NyNorsk, thanks to the bible that Knut gave me. Håkon's dad also gave me a dual English-Norwegian NT that I'll probably dip into. Since the grammar is so similar to English, it's relatively easy to figure out what the words mean - some even sound like English words. There's still a tension between Bukmal and NyNorsk that I'm trying to figure out. I'll probably end up learning both.
Well, back at home now and trying to do laundry. There's no washing machine in my flat, so I'm using one in the flat next door. Had to send an extension cord through the window to my flat, since the apartment the washing machine is in doesn't have the electricity turned on yet. It seems to be taking a very long time, though, so maybe that machine is broken. I hope not, but if so we'll figure out what to do. Dinner of trout and rice - officially the first meal in the flat. Quite tasty if I do say so myself...

Sing for your Supper

EDIT. For some reason this post didn't post properly.
Today I went into Odda and won a karaoke contest. Pretty cool. Turns out the prize was dinner for two at a local restaurant - China House - to the tune of 800 kroner ($150). I think they serve Chinese food. Shows you how expensive eating out can be here, and I'm told that's common.
Understandable, when a hotdog goes for $8. The hotdog that you get at the gas station, that is. And a hamburger is $10 - without the bun. Pretty crazy. So sometime in the next week or two or three I'll have dinner with my friend Tommy, who was the runner-up in the contest. Works out pretty well.
What songs did I sing, you ask? Stand By Me - Ben E. King, and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2.

First of May

Today being the first day of May, it was a holiday here in Norway, so none of the buses were running. Warren and I walked the 5 km to Odda to check email and watch the parade. This is a worker's holiday - somehow associated with the communist party, so none of the workers worked today. It was also a bit rainy, so even those who work today in their gardens in protest of the holiday and the communist party were not out.

To get to Odda, you drive through the 'Tyssedal Tunnelen', along the side of the mountain, and through another smaller tunnel. Only, we walked. It's a pretty far walk through this tunnel, and it's not really made to be walked through, though occasionally people on bikes go through. It's pretty tight and people go pretty fast, so we had to walk up on the dirt path a few times as cars whizzed by. There is an old road that goes around the side of the mountain, but half of it has been destroyed by rocks and at this time of year the other half is not really safe, especially lately after all the rain.

We quoted Romans 8 to each other from memory - he reciting the chapter first from the King James, and then I from the NRSV. It was good practice, and with his prompting I was able to get right some of the parts that I had misplaced from lack of use. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but I was still able to get some good pictures along the way.

After spending some time checking email, I went out to watch the parade. Here are some pictures of the flag bearers and band as they came up from the harbor past city hall and then down the main road. It was a very colorful display, and a good band too - quite impressive, I thought, for a small town. It's a small town with a lot of history, vim and vigor.

Confirmation

This morning we went in to Odda for a confirmation service. David and Liv-Marit picked us up and we drove to the pentecostal church that they are part of. This is not the state church (Lutheran) or the free church (Free Evangelical), but the Pentecostal, which believes more in the gifts of the spirit. From what I can gather, most of Norway practices a cultural Christianity somewhat like you would find in the US, but far fewer people believe in Jesus as their savior and have a personal relationship with him, also like the US. There are a large number of Congolese Christians that have been attending the pentecostal church recently, having just relocated here.
What is 'confirmation', you ask? Well, in the Lutheran state and free churches, they practice infant baptism, and so just like the Roman Catholic church, they have classes for young adults so that by the time they are 12 or 13 years of age, they should understand the Christian faith. For most people, this is just cultural - some view it as a way of assuring their salvation, others simply as a ceremony, and a few take the opportunity to commit their lives to Christ.
Confirmation, though, is probably the most important ceremony for a young person in Norway - almost like a coming-of-age. This is the time when they are made much of, when they are given expensive gifts like a car or money or clothes. Almost like high school graduation in the US - for some people at least.
It was a multi-ethnic service, and the music reflected it - some Congolese songs, some Norwegian songs, and they even asked me to share some songs. So I borrowed a guitar and sang "There is A God" from Ghana, and a gospel tune I wrote, "Jesus Christ is All I Know" - which I think was my first post ever on this blog. I got everyone to sing and clap along.I think this might be a church I can really plug into - maybe help out in the choir and on Sunday mornings with music. I think it will help me learn Norwegian as well, and interacting with some fellow Africans will be a lot of fun.

Odda

The other day we went in to Odda to get a few groceries and take care of some business of Uncle Warren's. We also went by the library to sign me up for a library card and check out some Norwegian language books for speakers of English. Unfortunately they only had Somali and Russian versions on the shelf, but the librarian was very helpful and said the English version was due in a couple of weeks, so they're going to email me when they come in.
We had lunch at the "3K Cafe" (Kristian Kontakt Kafe), i.e. the 'Philadelphia' and met some cool folks. Roman, from Russia, and Blaise, from Burundi. The cafe is a place where street people can come and get a free meal, and where the more affluent people like myself (starving artist types) can get a good meal for a really good price (by Norwegian standards anyway). Did I mention that Norway is pretty expensive? Welcome to Europe, where the dollar isn't doing that well.

My uncle knows most of the street folks around here, and we said hi to a few as we met them. He's always telling them about Jesus and praying for them, which I'm not sure they appreciate terribly, but you never know what effect it might have...
Here are a few shots of the mountains and the town of Odda:

That last one is looking north towards Tyssedal, which is just on the other side of the mountain to the right.

Bus to Odda

Monday I woke up early and caught the bus to Odda. Helen dropped me off after dropping off Hannah at school, and we had quite a good conversation along the way. The bus driver punched me in and I bought a ticket for the whole journey, he making sure I understood that I had to change at Seljord. (names unfortunately are not in the proper characters - there are sounds that the english characters simply can't represent - i'll try to address that in later blogs)

Here are a few pictures out the bus window along the journey:

As you can see, the terrain was more covered in snow as we went over the high pass (and through a long tunnel) until we finally emerged on the other side near where Odda is, nestled on the end of a long fjord at sea level.