Ole Børud
We live in a time where the soulful, funky side of the west coast pop of the past decade (think Steely Dan, Michael McDonald and the Doobie Brothers) has had a violent renaissance among hipsters and other trend-conscious young music fans, in an ironic packaging under the banner "yacht rock". But curiously, few of these seem to have registered that one of the world's leading contemporary performers of this form of music is Norwegian. Perhaps it is because irony is a completely foreign concept when describing the music of Ole Børud. And thank God for that! Do not misunderstand. Ole Børud is far from a hidden treasure, or an ignored musician. Not among those who care about such things, anyway.
The sky-high level of the musical achievements becomes more understandable if you look at Ole Børud's background. As a second-generation member of the Børud family, a musical institution in itself, he has been a professional musician since he was 16, but in practice has been on stage full-time since he could stand on two legs. First in the family's own band (the gospel project Arnold B. Family is perhaps particularly relevant in this setting). As a guitarist and arranger, he belongs to the elite of the country's live and session musicians, with collaborations with artists such as Torun Eriksen, Sofian and the Oslo Gospel Choir, not to mention his contribution to "Fly Away" (2009) - an international tribute album to David Foster , where Børud stood "shoulder to shoulder" with contributors such as Bill Champlin and Mike Landau
As a live artist, he has shared the stage with Andrae Crouch, warmed up for Kirk Franklin in the Globe, played at the Cotton Club in Tokyo and was a guest with Santa Fe And The City Horns in Las Vegas.
Børud's last couple of albums have sold over ten thousand physical copies in Scandinavia and Japan - respectable figures to say the least in today's digital reality.
En español:
We live in a time where the soulful, funky side of bygone decades of westcoastpop (like Steely Dan, Michael McDonald and Doobie Brothers) has been getting a tremendous renaissance amongst hipsters and other trend-conscious young music fans, often in an ironic packaging under the banner "yacht rock." But funnily enough, only a few of them seem to have noticed that one of the foremost practitioners of this form of music in contemporary times, is Norwegian. Maybe it's because irony is a completely foreign concept if we are to describe the music of Ole Børud. Ole Børud is father from a hidden treasure, nor ignored musician.
As a live artist, he has shared the stage with Andrae Crouch, warmed up for Kirk Franklin in Globen, played at the Cotton Club in Tokyo and been a guest with Santa Fe and The City Horns in Las Vegas. The last couple of albums Børud has sold around ten thousand copies in Scandinavia and Japan – to say the least, very respectable numbers in today's digital reality.
