gnom

Biography

gnom was a Norwegian folk group. It was founded in Bryne, Rogaland, Norway by childhood friends Janove Ottesen and Geir Zahl in 1996 following a brief transitional period after the dissolution of their previous band, Blod, snått & juling. The primary line-up consisted of Ottesen and Zahl, both on lead vocals and guitar; Rune Solheim on drums, Helge Risa on pump organ and piano, and Rolf Prestø on double bass. Jon Sjøen replaced Prestø following his departure from the group in 1999. Songs for th...

gnom was a Norwegian folk group. It was founded in Bryne, Rogaland, Norway by childhood friends Janove Ottesen and Geir Zahl in 1996 following a brief transitional period after the dissolution of their previous band, Blod, snått & juling. The primary line-up consisted of Ottesen and Zahl, both on lead vocals and guitar; Rune Solheim on drums, Helge Risa on pump organ and piano, and Rolf Prestø on double bass. Jon Sjøen replaced Prestø following his departure from the group in 1999.

Songs for the project were primarily written during the space of time between the dissolution of Blod, snått & juling and the founding of gnom. Ottesen and Zahl recorded an acoustic demo in 1997, featuring both original compositions for the project and new versions of songs they had written for Blod, snått & juling, as well as some songs which Ottesen had recorded for his own solo project demo. In 1998, they released their only studio album, Mys, on Shimmer Recordings. Largely ignored both critically and commercially, the album sold less than 600 of its original print run of 1,500 copies in the first full year of its release.

Subsequently, gnom held sporadic performances on the smallest of small venues in Norway. On the setlist was the song "Hemmelig Beskjed", which the band themselves described as "ompa" music. The song featured unusual percussion in the form of oil barrels; as a whole, the song elicited a more positive response from concert attendees than the rest of their material. Using "Hemmelig Beskjed" as a starting point, Ottesen then composed "Bastard", an unusual song boasting bizarre storytelling lyrics heavily inspired by Tom Waits, as well as an instrumental section performed on oil barrels. Despite plans for another album, Prestø's eventual departure from the group, poor album sales and concert attendance, and the financial troubles caused by these left the band disheartened, deeming the project unsalvageable in its current form.

Using "Bastard" as a musical and stylistic point of reference, Ottesen and Zahl rechristened gnom as Kaizers Orchestra, retaining all of the band members and eventually adding a sixth member. Officially founded on 1 January 2000, Kaizers Orchestra went on to become a commercial and critical success both in Norway and internationally. A studio recording of "Bastard" was eventually released on Kaizers Orchestra's self-titled first EP, colloquially known as the Gul EP. In 2003, after a long legal struggle to purchase the rights to the material from Shimmer Recordings, Ottesen and Zahl released a remastered edition of Mys with an altered tracklist, notably featuring the studio recording of "Bastard" from the Gul EP. Ottesen and Zahl have sporadically performed gnom material on special occasions, most recently during the promotional tour for Kaizers Orchestra's autobiography Kontroll på kontinentet. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.