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Kaizers Orchestra

Kaizers Orchestra is a Norwegian alternative rock group formed on January 1, 2000. The two leading members, vocalist Janove Ottesen and guitarist Geir Zahl, had known each other for years, and first played together in a band called Blod, Snått & Juling in 1989.

Kaizers Orchestra are notable for being among the first Norwegian bands or artists singing in their native language to become popular in non-Scandinavian Europe. To other Norwegians, the band is instantly recognizable both because of their unique, unpredictable style, and because of vocalist Ottesen's marked Bryne dialect, shared by four of the other band members.

Biography

In 1995, childhood friends Janove Ottesen and Geir Zahl released their only album by their band gnom called Mys. Of its 1000 copies, only 500 or so were sold the first year, and they were pretty much ignored. However, they were known well in the Stavanger area of Norway, having played as the local band Blod, Snått & Juling, and one of the songs they wrote after Mys called "Bastard" got good crowd response. A line from "Bastard" ("A certain Mr. Kaizer took me in/He is the proud owner of the world's heaviest siamese cat") and the song's overall crowd response became a source of inspiration for Ottesen, and after gnom dissolved after disappointing record sales, he formed Kaizers Orchestra.

In 2000, Kaizers Orchestra recorded the Kaizers Orchestra EP, an EP containing four songs: "Bastard", "Bøn fra Helvete", "Katastrofen" and "Dekk Bord". During , a Norwegian festival focusing on up-and-coming artists, the band's songs were played frequently on the radio. Kaizers Orchestra's special sound and creative use of instruments was noticed by the small, Scandinavian label Broilerfarm. Their first album, Ompa til du dør, was released on this label in September 2001. It was critically acclaimed and became a success, first in Norway, later in Denmark and the Netherlands. The album won a Spellemannpris (Norwegian Grammy) for "best rock album", as well as two Alarm-awards (underground version of Spellemannprisen). Ompa til du dør also made Kaizers Orchestra the highest-selling rock debut to be released in the Norwegian language. The second album, Evig pint, was released in February 2003. The third album, Maestro was released on August 15, 2005 in Norway and Europe. In connection with the release of Maestro, Kaizers Orchestra signed an international record deal with Universal Germany, taking them from one of the smallest labels to one of the biggest. They are currently signed with Sony BMG. They have made seven music videos so far, for the songs "Kontroll På Kontinentet", "Mann mot mann", "Evig pint", "Maestro", "Knekker deg til sist", "Blitzregn Baby (Live)", "9mm (Live)" and "Enden av november".

Their October 5th and 6th, 2005 performances at Vega, in Copenhagen, Denmark, were recorded for a live DVD, titled Viva La Vega, and double CD, Live at Vega. A book, written in nynorsk by Geir Zahl's older brother Jan, called "Kontroll på Kontinentet" was released October 18, 2004. It is close to 300 pages long and include almost 150 pictures. At the book signing in Oslo to promote it's release over 400 copies of the 3000 first edition of the book had been sold. The book was also sold during their 2006 "Grand Finale Tour", a tour which included the bassist, Øyvind, painting a picture through out the concerts and selling it at the end. In 2007, the members of Kaizers Orchestra took a break from playing live. All members (bar Helge) are involved in some sort of side-project, and they concentrated on these in their break time. They only played three shows in 2007; one in Hungary, at the Sziget Festival, one in Norway, at Cementen, and finally at the German art expo Documenta.

On September 4, 2006, the band released information about their upcoming fourth album. The album was recorded in Berlin, Germany, assisted by producer/engineer Mark Howard. The audio mixing for the album was done in Los Angeles, California. The album title was revealed to be Maskineri in December 2007, and around the same time, the first single, "Enden av november" was released. The album was released on February 18, 2008.

On December 11, 2007, Kaizers Orchestra received "Bragdprisen" (Achievement Award) from the county of Rogaland, due to their efforts to promote their native Bryne dialect. Helge Risa was the only one available to show up at the award ceremony, as the rest of the band were busy doing the album mixing.

Style and lyrical themes

Musically, Kaizers Orchestra have explored many different genres of music, the most prominent being fast-paced gypsy rock and "Balkan brass". They are regarded as one of Europe's best live acts, with their 2002 Performance at Roskilde earning them several "Concert of the Year" awards, as well as "Concert of Roskilde 2002".

For the most part, lyrics and music is written by Janove Ottesen, although Geir Zahl has also contributed many compositions. Geir also performs vocals on his compositions at live shows (an exception being "Papa har lov" from Maestro, which Janove sings). The lyrics often contain dark themes like mental illness, war and the Mafia. Many of the songs' storylines are intertwined, with recurring characters being explored during the course of several songs.