Wow, this is really something!
I was blown away when I first heard this track from the swedish trio Norma‘s debut ep, out on Novoton now. Their music is a mixture of ambient, kraut, noise, electronica, indie with a strict, repetitive bass/drum pattern and a magnificent, wide and almost hypnotic sound. This is rich, panoramic music with a warmth that I don’t hear often from other bands trying to do something in this genre. I’m also amazed by the composition and the small details that suddenly surfaces and surprises. When the main song on the single is 8:33 minutes long, I guess those surprises are kind of necessary…
I keep getting a whole range of different references in my head when I hear this music, – german kraut is one obvious thing, but also the spacerock of Siritualized and Spacemen3 comes to mind. Newer references may be my fellow norwegians 120 days, Serena Maneesh and the Lionheart Brothers.

The band seem very ambitious and they want the Norma-experience to be more than just the sound. The whole experience is important. Live, they use both video projectors, atmospherical sounds and theatrical elements to accompany their music. As a part of the release of the ep there will be an art-exhibition where artists has been asked to make their on personal interpretations of what they think Norma’s music “looks” like. The exhibtion will be from May 29th to June 5th, and you’ll find more info about it on the band’s/label’s websites. And did I mention that the band has screenprinted the covers for the ep themselves?

Listen to this and please comment if you liked this as much as me or if you totally disagree:
Norma – The Storm