The drums are finally all recorded, and Micke has done an excellent job of it. The Testament album is pretty much finished as a concept now and only recording and some arrangement is left. But due to some extensive redecorating work at home - also involving my home studio - I will need to postpone the recordings a bit. A finished master is now scheduled for the new year.

I'm exited about re-doing my home studio, though. This time it will be built with acoustics in mind and will have acoustic treatment applied to it  - I'll post some pictures here of it when it's done.

1st of May, Labour day - is day off in Norway - nice opportunity to do some blogging. You can also now follow me on Twitter and see what I am doing at the moment.

I am currently waiting for the East West Quantum Edition Symphonic Orchestra - which I have ended up with instead of getting real instruments to play on the classical parts I have. With some regrets, granted, but I am very excited about getting it and starting to work on what is to become the final album. The quality of the production will likely be better than mixing down X number of single instruments.

I can now also reveal that Mikael Wikman will be playing drums on Testament. He is an experienced drummer with his own studio and he has been doing progressive rock before. We will mainly collaborate through internet.

Until next time, Cheers - Finn Arild.

My next album - a progressive rock concept album now renamed to Testament - is in the recording phase now. Currently I am working on assembling the classical parts and also preparing for the drum parts to be recorded. I am also planning how everything should flow together and working on melody and lyric details. It is really coming together well and I think the end result is gonna be pretty cool. I am also working on this website - actually splitting it up in a Finn Arild Music and then a Finn Arilds Serendipity (which is what I plan to be the "band name" for my music projects) site - as well as a small site just for the Testament album - since there is a lot of stuff to append to the album concept than what will fit into the CD artwork.

Back to cold, old Norway again and Christmas. A lot of stuff has happened this year. We started off by promoting Bonden's album Traktorspor and getting him almost to the top of the charts in Norway. A new video for Bonden was also recorded. I also did did some orchestration and vocals for "Alvin og Trollet".

In between I have been writing music and putting together the concept for my next album, which is going to be a concept album about life, the universe and everything. Currently I am working on finishing the lyrics and getting a demo ready. I think it is going to be a great album!

I wish all friends and business partners a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

A quick note, before I am off to the Canary Islands for some sun and warmth. Norway has none of it at this time of year. There's an interview with me on Songstuff site now, you might want to check out - it's all about my next album. Also - check out my classical project titled Cycles.

Well - I'm off now - back in a week.

I have worked for a couple of years, on and off, with this classical project and the idea of recording it with an online collaboration project. I have set up the project page now, so go have a look at it. The finished piece will of course be available online, as well as being an important part of my coming concept album about - well - life, the universe and everything. You know: 42.

The rest of my album is coming along fine - working with lyrics mostly now. I have some vague plans to set up recording webcasts for when I start the serious demo work. Drop me a note if you would be interested in attending them.

That's all for now - remember: if you know of anyone playing the instruments listed here, drop me a note!

Another, year - another summer. Too short here up in the north and now comes the dark and cold days. It being cold and dark outside gives me a lot of time making music, though - that's a good thing. I have started on the next album, which will be more progressive and less mainstream than Serendipity. Also I have decided for some name changes - but I will keep those secret a while longer.

The theme of the album is nothing less than our existence - from the creation of the universe to the development of life, and it's consequences: pain, death, love, sex, curiosity, music, art and so on. Currently I am finishing off the two big instrumental parts making up the start of the album together with a middle song with the first finished lyrics of the album. My plan is to connect the whole album without silence between the tracks and to this end I have gotten hold of this neat recording device (see picture) for getting some original ambient sounds to use in-between. This will also give me the opportunity to do recording blog/podcasts.

I have tried out this machine, and I must say it's great fun - having a range of configurations of it's 4 condenser microphones and being able to record in 4 channels at once. To edit samples, I downloaded Audacity - which has all the functionality I really need before I move it into Cubase/Halion.

Another part of my album is a classical piece called "Cycles" - I plan to record this in a special way - finding musicians from all over the world on the different orchestral instruments, get them to record the parts and send me the audio which I mix together. If you or someone you know plays one of the orchestral instruments (i.e. Violin, Viola, Chello, Double Bass, Oboe, Basoon, Bass Clarinet, Trombone, Flute, Horns ....) - please contact me. I will soon provide more information about this.

Since last time we have had lots of cold and rainy weather here in Norway, but now, at last, summer has arrived. I have spent a lot of time outdoors in the sun with a beer in my hand, but in-between I have been working on the following projects:

Children's record "Alvin & Trollet"
I did some background vocals and orchestration for this book-with-music and it is due to be released one of these days. I can't wait to get my copy, since this is one of the first times I have delivered a small part to a project and not followed it through to the end.

Website "Hans Petter's Orkester"
A band that has been around for all my life and then some. Coming from the place I grew up and having worked with my producer, they asked if I could set up a new website for them. Of course I could.

Video "Coconut Banana" with Bonden
We filmed this totally on bluescreen, since I had an idea on placing the characters inside children's paintings. The producers' children was put to work and later I have been putting it all together. Soon finished now, I'll post a link when it's done.

Also, at my day-job we have been busy moving our portal over to a cluster hosted by another company - a lot of work it was!

Finally: Check out my new guitar:

... until next time ...

Some time since I wrote a blog entry now - I've been very busy both at work and doing music projects, so the blog has suffered I'm afraid.

Most recently, CDBaby and MySpace has made a deal so I now sell my CD through MySpace's webshop Snowcap. I have set up a shop right here on my frontpage and there is also (of course) one on my MySpace page.

Bonden's CD Traktorspor has been released and did quite well, considering he's a debut artist. He'll be doing some shows during the summer - if you're interested it will be up on his frontpage.

I have gotten many comments around why I publish Bonden in that our music styles differ so much. Truth is, even though my core is in progressive rock, I make music in all styles; classical, progressive, heavy, electronica, pop and folk (only thing I haven't done yet is rap - not for wanting, but it's so hard to do good). Many people are so concerned about the genre they like so they miss out on so much great music and I think that is sad.

Currently I'm working on orchestrating, arranging and doing vocals on a childrens record/book - I'll set up some more information about this later.

So this year is soon over - a year in which I finally got Serendipity released and in the shops in Norway and a year with lots of work with the album we're releasing in January. I promised you views of the cover and the new web: go to http://www.bonden.net and check it out. A preview of the first new video is available on YouTube - funny stuff (especially if you understand Norwegian).

From my wife I got a neat new drum-toy for Christmas - I've been drumming a lot :)

So - to my plans for the next year - in short:

• Release Bonden's "Traktorspor" and promote it well.
• Get a band together for "Serendipity" and my new progressive material
• Finish writing and recording my next album for release in 2008
• Get my wife's webpages up and webpages for the family.
  

That's the plan, now it's all up to me and 2007

Happy New Year everybody!!!

First of all - I'll be featured on the top 20 of Jubal's Wardrobe on Progressive Soundscapes Radio today (Monday 11. Dec) at 19:00 EST (US Eastern Standard Time). There's a chat feature there too (for IRC users it's irc.starchat.net channel #progressivesoundscapes) where I'll be online for a chat.

They will also be giving away a free Live Yes DVD to one of the chat attendees!

So - last week was all about Bonden - getting the cover art all done and in the weekend editing video for 20 odd hours. I also got started on his webpages, so I've been effective :) ...

Now I need to find some time to make this year's christmas song :) ...

So - there was a bit of trouble with the DNS (Domain Name Server - the stuff that makes www.finnarild.com go to this machine) but now it looks like my webpages are up. Last week was spent fixing up this site (including wondering why it didn't show up soon) and the cover for Bonden - I'll post images of it soon.

This week I will start editing Bonden's video and see about getting the CD to the printers. Maybe I'll get to fixing up his webpages too. Until next week, then ...

Finn Arild :) ...

The last weeks I've been working hard on several things - this site, Bonden's record and coverart and transferring the other sites I handle to this new system: Plone.

At the same time I've been continuing to do what I can about promoting Serendipity and the next plan is a push connected to online radio stations.

Hey, hey ... images. Some of me, some of my guitars and some of my animals. More will follow.