We try to cover artists / musicians who are established, as well as those that don't get anywhere near as much attention, and in Norwegian songwriter / musician Ole Anders Walseth, we've found an artist who appears to be in the early stages of his musical career, but with an ability to write a wide variety of styles.
It was his track 'Autumn Leaves' which captured our attention, but this led to us coming across a 'Demo Album' (his words), which he released last year, and whilst they might cover that range of genres, there is one common theme - Ole Anders Walseth has an ability to write natural sounding melodic tracks, with an eye for a tune, and some pretty convincing lyrics too.
This is not a full album review as such, and it's true to say that some of the tracks probably lack some of the production budgets that other more established releases get. But we recommend 3 tracks in particular for your latest playlists, and I hope you'll all give the full album (which you can find on Spotify and Itunes) a try too. Opening track 'Sachenring Trabent' has more traditional indie rock intentions, but the album soon opens up with a series of more subtle and gentler tune filled songs - 'Ocean Liners' is probably the best example, with a catchy and almost anthemic chorus, with the verse allowing a focus on the lyrics. I like the intention of 'Beautiful' with a lovely sounding piano accompaniment, with some really nice musical touches at the end of the song in particular.
Tracks such as 'Autumn Leaves' gives us a chance to see how Ole Anders Walseth is influenced by singer songwriters from across the decades, it has this lovely timeless quality to it, developing with strings and flowing instrumentation. But then the album takes a turn, and in an impressive direction too - 'Borodino 1812' is a belting song, where 'Ole Anders Walseth' (in a track co-written by Erland Naalsund) launches into a darker melodic indie rock vein, with a sound which at first reminds me of New Model Army at its best, before a quite brilliant instrumental development some 3 and 1/2 minutes in, and a big musical climax, where all that's missing is a symphony orchestra. It would have been one of my tracks of 2017 if only I'd have come across it in 2017. 'Steel Sky' (also co-written by Erland Naalsund) continues in the same spirit, and again it's the melody which is central to the success of the song - and this is definitely the style of music which I think works best for both his vocals and his songwriting.
Anyway this is 'Borodino 1812':
This is a seriously good song, which even Deputy Editor Nick will like, and I really hope that Ole Anders Walseth is able to continue to develop his songwriting, and maybe even get the support of a good indie label to release some more music.
Take a listen to 'Borodino 1812' here: This is a seriously good track, and we really hope that Ole Anders
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