And suddenly it had happened. Oslo, and Norway, had its first neofolk club – Café Grössenwahn.
As is usual with an opening night, most natural laws were replaced by Murphy’s law. It’s hard to work a volcanic eruption into your plans, and we are eternally grateful to Solblot for stepping in at the last minute to replace Duo Noir.
Solblot gave an electric performance in front of about 70 immaculately attired members of the Norwegian Society for Megalomania (which also contains Austrian, Swedish, Danish, French and Polish members), and Lord Bassington-Bassington seems to recall spontaneous outbreaks of folk dancing fuelled by absinthe and Weissbier. An inauguration ritual and performed by a merry assortment of practicising magicians and burlesque models (and set to music specially composed by ambient masters K100) also added a touch of the extraordinary to the evening.
We're also very proud of our logo, created by dynamic design duo Trine og Kim.
All things considered, we dare call it a success. And we’re already looking forward to the sequel on June 12th, which will be a tribute to neofolk film The Wicker Man featuring Italian band The Green Man.
Here are some pictures from the opening night. Thanks to Lady Mju for providing them. If some of the pictures are a bit blurry, we suspect it has something to do with the fact that this club night quite possibly set some Norwegian record for the sale of absinthe - at least on this side of the 1890s.
Congratulations!!!
ReplyDeleteThe "café" looks great, unfortunatly Oslo is to far for me...
Yes the logo is very nice to.
_
oO
Monsieur: Thank you for your comments. Yes, Oslo is a bit away from Lutetia, but it's surprisingly cheap to travel these days!
ReplyDeleteA tad presumptuous to claim The Wicker Man for neofolk, isn't it? It pre-dates the genre tag by a decade!
ReplyDeleteMr. Velky: Perhaps so, I meant it in the sense of "film that has had a huge impact on neofolk".
ReplyDeleteIn that case I withdraw my objection.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I'm trying to use this blog for is to learn to write quickly. That means that some texts published here can be sort of messy and not quite thought through.
ReplyDeleteI disapprove of haste where writing is concerned. But I suppose it's a practical exercise. I wonder what 'neofolk films' there might be, though - i.e. films informed by / inspired by neofolk? The influence of The Wicker Man seems pervasive and in danger of being thoroughly diluted. I only wish there were more of its kind, as intriguing and influential.
ReplyDeleteHaste is a nasty thing, but I can't spend too much time on this blog.
ReplyDeleteI've also wondered about neofolk films, and actually had an idea to do a post about that. I guess films inspired by neofolk would probably be zero-budget productions, which can be enjoyable (we have Lovecraft film festivals here at Bassington Manor, you can guess about the quality of those films...) but ultimately not very interesting. I haven't seen the Boyd Rice film, for example. But The Doctor featuring Douglas P is something I'm planning to see some day.
As for films who have inspired neofolk, I suppose The Night Porter would top the list...
Never seen it. Looks... interesting. Certainly seems like it might have influenced Spiritual Front!
ReplyDeleteI can only say that it was a great evening, and as one of the participants in the spontaneous outbursts of folk dancing I was indeed in a good mood!
ReplyDeleteAs for the ongoing discussion on neofolk film. Pearls Before Swine with Boyd Rice (and bit-part by Douglas P.) is definitely an interesting watch. I can bring the DVD around the manor one day.
My dear Mullah; yes, please bring it by!
ReplyDeleteThat fellow in the fez sure know how to dress!
ReplyDeleteViktor: He sure does! But when will you see you at the Café?
ReplyDeleteLooks like a splendid evening.
ReplyDeleteNär blir nästa datum? Hade varit kul och kunnat bevista er någon gång.
ReplyDeleteDet blir på lørdag. Grossenwahn.no.
ReplyDelete