Mnemosyne News

This feed will no longer be updated because Mnemosyne have their own feed. Find it here.

Andy Winter (Winds, Age of Silence, Sculptured) and Starofash (aka Heidi Solberg Tveitan) recently completed a collaboration project creating website music for Cage XXI Enterprises, a Florida-based video production company specializing in music videos, narratives and experimental film production. Cage XXI has filmed projects for the American Cancer Society, Lennar Homes, the Sarasota Film Society, and most recently a music video and DVD for the Chicago-based metal band Novembers Doom. The Cage XXI website is designed by Salt Lake City-based design firm Gesture Studio, and can be found at this location, where the soundscape created by Winter and Tveitan can also be heard: www.cagexxi.com Andy Winter is a long time THE END RECORDS artist having released numerous albums with Winds, Age of Silence and Sculptured throughout his career. Aside from working periodically on new material and recordings with his main bands, he is also currently writing and recording a solo album. Heidi Solberg Tveitan and Mnemosyne Productions have recently released 300 hand-numbered special edition CDs with the soundtrack by Starofash for the Irish film Ulterior. THE END RECORDS will distribute the album for North America, and it is now available for sale through the web store. Links: www.winds.ws www.ageofsilence.com www.andywinter.net www.twitter.com/_AndyWinter_ www.starofash.com www.mnemosyne.no

Pre-order now at The End Records.

Mnemosyne Productions are releasing 300 hand-numbered special edition CD's with the soundtrack by Heidi Solberg Tveitan/Starofash for the Irish film Ulterior. The high-end minimalist design is done by many times over award winning designer Ritxi Ostáriz. To ensure top quality every step of the way, we have used two different printers in two different countries (Spain and Germany). This is a pilot project for us at Mnemosyne, as this will be the first release printed by us. The overall soundtrack is a musical extension of the film's minimalist visual style, measured pace and dark irony and together they explore themes of disclosure, solitude and sanity. The album is set for release in May. The End Records will distribute the album for North America, and have already set up a pre-order in their web store. For Europe, long time partner, PHD, will take care of our distribution.

We at Mnemosyne Productions have created our own space at Youtube, with the fitting name The Mnemosyne Channel The first "broadcasts" from us are: 'SCARAB' - IHSAHN live at Rockefeller, Oslo 09. From the first ever Ihsahn live show, we would now like to share the song "Scarab" from angL with you. Ihsahn is using a young and very talented band, Leprous, from our hometown as backingband. This is footage taken with our own camera. It was placed on top of a box behind the sound area, a box that did not particularly like the sound waves of the bass drum, so that is why it is a bit "shaky" at times. Apart from that it turned out okay. 'SOPHIE'S THEME' – Starofash music video from the Irish movie Ulterior. Starofash would like to share the music video for Ulterior with you. This is the main theme, and appropriately named "Sophie's theme". Sophie is the main character in the movie, played by actress Marlene Marleaux, and it is her journey we follow throughout the film. This is no music video in the traditional sense, as director Jason Mehlhorn has used footage from the movie to illustrate the song. "When writing this particular song, I just grabbed the first and best microphone in the studio to do the test vocals. While watching the movie on a laptop, I just found the vocal lines and words, recorded them and thought at the time that I would record them with the proper equipment later in the process. However, something odd happened when I started the recording process for the vocals, and that was simply that I did not at all manage to convey the same feeling as in the test vocals. So the test vocals stayed, despite being recorded with a rather cheap Sure SM58 mic (which is more of a live microphone). Nothing fancy, but it is genuine, and it works", Heidi says. Welcome to The Mnemosyne Channel on Youtube!

We at Mnemosyne Productions seem to love Spanish artists, and this time we have been working with the very talented illustrator and architect, Maria Picassó. She has designed a limited edition version of Starofash shirts, for both adults and kids. All shirts are printed on organic cotton, and with toxic free print. Mnemosyne Productions will donate all revenue from these tees to WWF. You can see more of Maria's lovely work at Maria Picassó

We would like to share with you all some photos taken at Ihsahn's debut show, as support act for Opeth, Rockefeller Oslo 10th of March. The show was sold out weeks in advance. "I felt well prepared for the show, and luckily all technical aspects worked out to our advantage, so that the overall experience for me and my band was extremely positive. The feedback from the audience was amazing, and many thought that the songs gained an extra dimension by being performed in a live setting. We are all now looking forward to play Oslo Live in front of Akershus Festning 3rd of July", Ihsahn says. Mnemosyne Productions will later share with you some live footage from the show. All photos by Bjørn Tore Moen

Ihsahn is performing his first ever concert as a solo artist on March 10th, supporting Opeth at Rockefeller, Oslo. This show was soon sold out, and we know that many fans and friends were not able to get tickets. Mnemosyne Productions are therefore especially happy to announce that there is another opportunity to see Ihsahn live this year: On July 3rd, you can catch him at Oslo Live festival. This will be one of extremely few and selected appearances of Ihsahn this year. We will be back with more detailed information closer to the event.

Mnemosyne Productions are happy to announce that Heidi Solberg Tveitan/Starofash has just finalized the soundtrack to the Irish film "Ulterior" by writer/director Jason Mehlhorn. "With this being my first soundtrack, I was faced with quite a few challenges when adapting to the format. However, after working my way through the more technical aspects, I was pleasantly surprised to find it very natural to just follow the pace and content of the movie when writing the actual music. Jason has been a very open minded and constructive director, which has made my job all the more easy. Strangly, I have never been so honest in my music as with this soundtrack; this is music straight from the heart", says Heidi. Ulterior could probably be best described as a psychological thriller in a similar vein to Vertigo, Caché, Repulsion and La Femme Infidèle. It utilises a minimalist visual style, measured pace, sparse dialogue and often dark irony to explore themes of disclosure, isolation, empowerment, obsession and sanity within the film's 'open' plot. These characteristics were imbued into the film's original soundtrack which was provided by Starofash. Ulterior is a low-budget debut feature film from Irish writer/director Jason Mehlhorn. It was shot in just 12 days in Dublin with a skeleton crew of 5 people in August 2008. It is nearing the end of post-production and upon completion will hopefully start it's life by entering film festivals in various countries. The film was shot digitally in HDV and has a running time of approximately 73 minutes. For more information, please join us at: myspace.com/ulteriorfilm

A previous announcement confirmed that Ihsahn would support Opeth for the majority of shows on their forthcoming Norwegian Tour in March. However, more detailed production planning has revealed technical and practical difficulties at many of the smaller venues, and it has proven near impossible to run the necessary production. This means that Ihsahn will only be performing at Rockefeller/Oslo on March 10th. Ihsahn comments: "The situation is unfortunate as I have really been looking forward to this tour and put a lot of effort in preparations. Still, the practical difficulties at many of the venues would only compromise the conditions for both bands and audience so one needs to be realistic. The Oslo gig is still on though, and fans will no doubt get their monies worth at the remaining Opeth shows"

Mnemosyne Productions are happy to announce that IHSAHN will support OPETH on their upcoming Norwegian live performances arranged by Rikskonsertene/Statnett. Ihsahn had this to say about the live dates. "I've been getting quite a few live-offers for my solo stuff, but haven't found time to prioritize this until now. I feel this is an opportunity to try out the material live on my home-ground and to travel with a great band like Opeth while doing it." Tuesday 10th of March - Oslo, Rockefeller
 Wednesday 11th of March - Trondheim, Samfundet
 Thursday 12th of March - Volda, Rokken
 Friday 13th of March - Sogndal, Meieriet
 Saturday 14th of March - Bergen, USF Verftet
 Sunday 15th of March - Stavanger, Folken
 Wednesday 18th March – Drammen, Union Scene

After several years working with IBANEZ GUITARS, IHSAHN is now the proud owner of a LA custom built IBANEZ RG EIGHT STRING. With a black mahogany body, rosewood fretboard, EMGs and custom mother of pearl inlays, this guitar really is a beautiful instrument with extreme range. "A special thanks to Mike Taft at Ibanez for making this happen. This is certainly the gem of my guitar collection, and I am confident that it will inspire some heavy riffing for many years to come ", says IHSAHN. You can check it out in the photo section. To hold up that beauty of a guitar, IHSAHN is using handmade quality leather straps provided by INDAR PRODUCTION from Spain. Their work comes highly recommended. Please feel free to visit their website at www.myspace.com/indarproductions

An interview with IHSAHN has been posted on the highly respected guitar website sevenstring.org, where he has answered questions from their readers. So if you're into both metal and guitars, you can check it out at sevenstring.org

IHSAHN has for the last six months been one of Guitar Worlds guest columnists, a task he has been honored to do. The lessons are featured as a series with the fitting title "Left hand path". Themes that are covered so far are Prelude – Attitude – Execution – Undercurrent – The evil twin part 1 and 2, and there are still more to come. IHSAHN has received a lot of positive feedback from Guitar World readers, and would hereby like to thank everyone for their encouraging words.

In the event of the angL release, Brad Angle and Jimmy Hubbard of Guitarworld took the long journey to Telmark, Norway for an in depth interview with Ihsahn. The feature is now available in the August issue of Guitarworld (www.guitarworld.com). A video interview and studio tour of Symphonique studio is also available on their blog pages; www.metalkult.com.

Mnemosyne Productions / Candlelight Records are happy to announce that the second solo album from Ihsahn is now available in stores and iTunes. The album features nine new songs all written and performed by the highly respected musician. The album features guest performances by drummer Asgeir Mickelson, bassist Lars Koppang Norberg (both of the band Spiral Architect) and Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth). Recorded and mixed by Ihsahn at Symphonique Studios in Notodden, Norway (the studio owned by Ihsahn and partner Heidi Tveitan), additional work was completed by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Amon Amarth) at Fascination Street Studios and Borge Finnstad (Mayhem, Borknagar) at Toproom Studios. Commenting about the record's musical collaborations, "Asgeir (Mickelson) did such a great job on my last album (The Adversary, Candlelight 2006), that while in preproduction for angL I programmed a much more generic drum track to leave more creative license for him. It was on Asgeir's recommendation that Lars (Koppang Norberg) contribute to the album. They both recorded at Asgeir's studio (Multimono Studios) and it came together nicely." Working with Mikael (Akerfeldt), "Mikael and I go back as friends since the early nineties. We met up when Emperor headlined Wacken in 2006 and had a great time watching bands together. We talked then about doing something together at some point and in spite of busy schedules on both sides this luckily came to happen. Rough mixes of "Unhealer" with lyrics were sent to Mikael with the idea for both clean and growl vocals. He worked on it during his off-time recording the new Opeth album. I could not be any happier with the results." Writing for angL began early in 2007 and picked up momentum after the Emperor US performances early last summer. "I knew to a greater extent where I wanted to go with this album, though I feel all albums are a kind of struggle to overcome. Regardless of how many you make, it never gets any easier." An aggressive schedule to complete the album, in addition to recording projects for Hardingrock (in which Ihsahn also contributes) and Starofash (released February 26), Ihsahn completed album tracking in early December. The album was mixed and mastering completed early this year

Friend and designer, Ritxi Ostáriz (iikki.com), is featured in the March issue of Computer Arts Projects magazine, UK. Again the artwork for the StarofAsh album is present in a design magazine. You can see the article here: Report.pdf. We are really proud on our designer's behalf. Congratulations again Ritxi!

Mnemosyne Productions are pleased to announce that the new official StarofAsh website is now online. These pages contain general information, visuals and audio samples. We will do our best to update it regularly with news. This site is based around the artwork of the new StarofAsh album, The Thread. The album will be available in stores through Candlelight Records/PHD from 25th of March 2008. Artwork and design by Ritxi Ostáriz. For more of his great work, please visit at iikki.com Welcome to StarofAsh.com. ☺

Our long time friend and designer, Ritxi (iikki.com) was featured in the February issue of IdN magazine. Based in Hong Kong, this is one of the most important design magazines in the world. The artwork for the forthcoming StarofAsh album is also present in this article. You can check out for yourselves here: http://www.iikki.com/blog/images/xtra/080227idn.pdf. Congratulations Ritxi!

Mnemosyne Productions are pleased to report that Opeth mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt has performed lead vocals for the song Unhealer from the upcoming Ihsahn album, angL. "We´ve been talking about doing something for a while and I´m really happy it finally came together. Needless to say, Mikael´s performance is nothing short of amazing!" says Ihsahn. Asgeir Mickelson once again handles drums for the album. Ihsahn has also handed over bass duties to Asgeirs colleague from Spiral Architect, Lars Norberg. "Asgeir and Lars have delivered a rock-solid foundation for the whole album. Pounding blast-beats to slow fretless passages are all performed with great precision," Ihsahn continues.

Mnemosyne Productions is pleased to announce that the first digital single from the artist StarofAsh is now available on iTunes. The track titled The world spins for you is taken from her forthcoming album The Thread. Please visit at iTunes.com.

We at Mnemosyne Productions are currently very busy with our own musical endeavours, and are therefore not signing up any new acts. We wish to follow up any band/act we sign to the best of our ability, and feel that we do not have such capacities at the moment. We would like to take the opportunity to thank those of you who have sent us demo material either through post, e-mail or via myspace. We have tried our best to reply personally to most of you, but due to the amount of material received, we have not been able to respond to all.

Mnemosyne Productions / Candlelight Records are happy to announce that a second Ihsahn album is set for release this spring. The album is titled angL. "I'm currently doing the final mixes for this album, and hope to have everything ready for mastering within a couple of weeks", says Ihsahn. "Musically this album can be seen as a natural progression from 'The Adversary', but with a somewhat heavier touch", he continues. The actual release date is yet to be announced. Stay with us for more information on this later.

The new Starofash album by artist Heidi Solberg Tveitan (Peccatum, Hardingrock), titled The Thread, is confirmed for release in Europe 24th of March 2008 on Mnemosyne Productions (NOR)/Candlelight Records (UK). The day after it will be available in North America through Candlelight Records USA. Owned/operated by partners Ihsahn and Heidi since 2003, Mnemosyne Productions was established as an outlet for the duo's musical collaborations. "The Thread is a continuation of my earlier work, but with more focus on the compelling melody over a changeable sonic landscape and with more experimental instrumentation," says Heidi. On this album, Heidi's collaborators include the German musician and composer Markus Reuter and the Japanese cyber-punk writer Kenji Siratori. Design by Ritxi Ostáriz at iikki.com.

MetalKult.com has posted a new video interview with Ihsahn in which the Norwegian black metal singer/guitarist talks about a range of topics. The video was filmed in New York City on June 1, 2007, while EMPEROR was in the city for one of only three U.S. tour dates. Also on MetalKult.com is live footage of "Cursed You All Men!" from that show. To see these videos, visit www.metalkult.com More footage will be available on the CDR in the upcoming issue of Guitar World. Ihsahn and Samoth were filmed at the Guitar World offices in New York City going through some of the classic Emperor material. The issue will also feature an in-depth interview.

MNEMOSYNE PRODUCTIONS are pleased to announce that the new official HARDINGROCK site on MySpace.com is now available. The pages contain general information and two audio tracks from the album "Grimen", set for release in Norway 11th of June 2007. We will do our best to keep these pages regularly updated with news. Please visit us at: www.myspace.com/hardingrock www.myspace.com/mnemosynemusic www.myspace.com/starofashmusic www.myspace.com/ihsahnmusic

MNEMOSYNE PRODUCTIONS are happy to announce a brand new musical collaboration between Starofash, Ihsahn and one of Norway's most well known folk musicians, Knut Buen. The project is called HARDINGROCK and the album is titled "Grimen". "It has been a great experience to work with such a fine musician as Knut Buen", says Heidi S. Tveitan, the name behind Starofash. "The process has been challenging in terms of us having to work within the tonality of Norwegian Folk music, and to make non-rhythmic music into 'rock'n roll rhythms'", she continues. "Even though the elements the three of us brought to the table were very contrasting, I think we're all very pleased with how it came together", says Ihsahn. "The material provided to us by Knut is a huge part of Norway's cultural treasure, and I think the album definitely is a worthy development that rocks!" This album is set for release 11th of June 2007, and is distributed by musikkoperatorene.no

StarofAsh.com has been voted one of the three best sites of the week at Graphic Orgasm Ultimate Webportal, gouw.nu. This is a well known site for webdesign and photography.

Mnemosyne Productions are pleased to announce a collaboration between the Japanese author Kenji Siratori and the musician Heidi S. Tveitan aka Starofash. Kenji Siratori has provided the lyrics and spoken words that Starofash has turned into music. The first song from this collaboration is eloquently titled Neo Drugismo. "It has been great fun to work with words I can only feel and not understand, Heidi says. This cooperation has been a wonderful experience for me so far, and I'm looking forward to pursue it further. To me Kenji's texts express a mixture of surrealism and mayhem, where underneath the violence lays a core of truth and contemplation". "Starofash turn on the brain universe of the hybrid corpse mechanism gene-dub of a chemical=anthropoid to the abolition world-codemaniacs of the terror fear=cytoplasm that was send back out the technojunkies' era respiration-byte ill-treatment@hunting for the grotesque WEB feeling replicant living body junk of my digital=vamp cold-blooded disease animals to the murder-protocol of the biocapturism nerve cells reptilian=HUB of a clone boy=Starofash joint the ultra=machinery tragedy-ROM creature system that trash sense of drug fetus was debugged to the insanity medium of the hyperreal HIV=scanners DNA=channel of the corpse city murder game." - Kenji Siratori You can hear the result of these two forces combined here: www.starofash.com

StarofAsh.com has been recognized with an award from the design site, MyDesignAward.com. Congratulations to our designer Ritxi! You can see more of his work at rtxcite.com.

Mnemosyne Productions are pleased to announce that Ihsahn is now officially endorsed by Ibanez guitars. He is currently featured on the Ibanez website in the artist section, ibanez.com. Ihsahn remarks: "I bought my first Ibanez in 1999 on a US Tour with Emperor and Peccatum and have always found the slim feel and elegance of these instruments to be perfect for my style of playing" Photo from James Sharrock, burningeye.com.au

Mnemosyne Productions are pleased to announce that the new official StarofAsh website is now online. These pages contain general information, visuals and audio samples and will be regularly updated with news. A taste of the StarofAsh material currently in progress will also be available soon. All artwork is done by the Spanish designer Ritxi. For more of his lovely work, please visit at rtxcite.com Welcome to starofash.com

Ihsahn has just returned from Wacken open air, Germany, where Emperor has been one of the headliners for this year's festival, playing to more than 50 000 people. A couple of weeks prior to this Emperor played four sold out shows at the BB King Blues Club, NY and Keyclub and House of Blues in LA, USA. "It's been a great experience to do these few Emperor shows after so many years, and meet so many dedicated fans from all over the world. It makes a man both humble and proud to stand in front of crowds of more than 50 000 people, where a major part of them know your music by heart. I would like to take the opportunity to express my sincere thanks to everyone involved both in front and behind the stages we've played.", Ihsahn says. Ihsahn would later on like to share some of his personal photos from these performances.

In the first week since its launch, mnemosyne.no, has already been recognized with an award from the prestigious mydesignaward.com

A drawing by Lorenzo Mariani is now added in the Visuals section of ihsahn.com. Lorenzo Mariani is a young artist from Italy currently working for metal bands and the underground music industry as an illustrator and graphic designer. He's known for his work with Darkthrone, Marduk, 1349 and Aborym. To see more of his work, please visit his website at lorenzomariani.it

Mnemosyne Productions are pleased to announce that our new official website is now online. These pages contain general information, visuals and audio samples from our artists and will be regularly updated with news. All artwork is done by the up and coming Spanish designer Ritxi. For more of his excellent work, please visit at rtxcite.com