Hubbry Logo
search
logo

When (band)

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
When (band)

When is the musical project of Norwegian artist Lars Pedersen.

Lars Pedersen was born in 1961, in Oslo, Norway. His father, Tore Pedersen, was a Norwegian musical composer. At an early age, the younger Pedersen performed with his four older sisters and older brother; they were often compared to the Jackson 5 and The Partridge Family, popular bands of the time. Being in the spotlight at a young age, Pedersen met Chuck Berry and other stars.

In the late 1970s, Pedersen played in Hærverk, one of the first Norwegian punk bands, and later – as the 1980s arrived – went on to form the band The Last James. The Last James explored The Beatles/Beach Boys sound, releasing three albums, Grape, The Last James and Kindergarten. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Pedersen was also a member of the renowned experimental/industrial/new wave group Holy Toy, together with Andrej D. Nebb. The band became active again in 2011.

In 1983, Pedersen launched the one-man project Hospital Blimp, which would later become When. The debut album Drowning but Learning, was released in 1987, with When's trademark collage/cut-up technique already apparent.

In 1988, When released Death in the Blue Lake, inspired by Norwegian author André Bjerke's psychological horror novel of the same name. The album had a strong atmosphere of fear and mourning, and was quite popular in Norwegian black metal circles. An excerpt from the album's A-side was commissioned as an intro to Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times "Walk the path of sorrows". The B-side of the album is an amalgamation of ethnic music, blues harmonica, coughing, psychedelic pop and glissandi effects. Today it is almost impossible to track down a copy of the album.

Black, White & Grey, When's third album, conjured up images of war and urban decay. Chris Cutler (Henry Cow, Art Bears, etc.), who contributed to the album, was also a central inspiration. The album was released on Cutler's RéR Megacorp in 1990.

1992 saw the release of Svartedauen (Norwegian for "The Black Death"), a 38-minute musical description of the ravages of the bubonic plague in Norway around 1349. The album borrows elements from Norwegian folk music, and features a host of disturbing sounds: hearses, moans of the dying, rats, flagellants' whips and a scythe being sharpened, to name but a few.

On 1994's Prefab Wreckage, When slowly started moving from the more abstract soundtracks of the earlier albums and towards a more song-oriented sound. The inner sleeve is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, one of the album's inspirations.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.