Haakon Ellingsen

Bio:

Haakon Ellingsen is a Norwegian singer/songwriter, and musician. Psychedelic is one way to characterize his music; baroque pop, chamber pop, progressive or folk may be others.

He was a member of the neo-psychedelic pop group The Last James (1992-1999). After working with Lars Pedersen (WHEN) and Lars Lillo-Stenberg (De Lillos) in The Last James, he has released his music under such varied names as Gramophones, Sir Haakon & The Popular Musicians, Haakon, and now, finally, Haakon Ellingsen.

Discography:
The Last James: "TLJ" (1993)
The Last James: "Kindergarten" (1996)
Gramophones: "Boy"-ep (1996)
Gramophones: "The Last Dreamer" (1997)
Haakon: "Minstrel" (2001)
Sir Haakon & The Popular Musicians: "What Is To Come...?" (2004)
Haakon Ellingsen: "Bounty" (2005)
WHEN: "Trippy Happy" (2007) (partaking, composer: "Butterflies")
Haakon Ellingsen: "The Plum Album" (2008)

"Haakon's dreamy delights have a pleasing habit of staying with you." (Marco Rossi, Shindig! on "The Plum Album")

"Norwegian Haakon Ellingsen clearly loves old psych, acid-folk and baroque pop too. Though some of "The Plum Album" is a tad over-stretched, when it works it astounds, and Ellingsen's arrangements are often mesmerising. "Tonight" brings fellow bearded, heavy-set Scandinavian Ebbott Lundberg to mind and even rips a Soundtrack Of Our Lives' song title off in the process, yet all is forgiven as it's so good." (Jon "Mojo" Mills, Record Collector on "The Plum Album")

"They say that one of the albums by Haakon's ex-band The Last James, is one of the Top5 Norwegian albums of all time. I don't know about the other four, but this one's just got to be one of them!" (Popism on "The Plum Album")

"Haakon Ellingsen's style of pop may hint of classic artists like The Beatles and, perhaps less so, The Beach Boys, but despite tiny similarities his music is quite unique. This is definitely a pop artist to keep an eye on in 2009 and beyond!" (Fense Post "Best Of 2008 Top 33 & 1/3" on "The Plum Album")

"He is one of our most outstanding songwriters with clear references to the late sixties, updated for our own times version of the era. Earlier, he got an outlet for this in The Last James ("Kindergarten" is Norways 5th or maybe even 3rd best pop album of all time). The word melodic becomes empty when to describe Haakon's pop music." (Audun Vinger (Natt Og Dag) on "Bounty")

"Haakon has the uncanny ability to create music which sounds at once both strange and familiar. The range on "The Plum Album" goes from the balladeer of some Cezanne painting, (with the same beautiful brush strokes), to the guy who's music makes you ask: "hmm, wonder how that tea tasted?!" (Not your Fathers tea, either)." (Valis (tripinsidethishouse.blogspot.com) on "The Plum Album")

""Charlie" must be the best soft Lennon ballad not to be written by Lennon himself, ever."
"The Plum is ripe and most nibbles are as juicy and sweet as can be!" (Luna Kafe record review on "The Plum Album")




"Plum Album"-reviews and the roll of the dice...:

Spirit: 5/6 "There's something strangely beautiful about this recording."

Hamar Arbeiderblad: 5/6 "The songs are easy to sing along to, beautiful, melancholic and interesting."

Stavanger Aftenblad: 5/6 " "The Plum Album" is without doubt one of this autumn's finest Norwegian popalbums."

Romerikes Blad: 5/6 " "Bounty", that came in 2005, was a kind of a breakthrough, and this follow-up album is even better."

groove.no: 5/7 "Love for popmusic as a form of art."

Fense Post: "It's uplifting and fun and has all the pop elements a pop fan could want."

Dagens Næringsliv: "King Haakon"... "And to be completely honest, the melodic lines are even more interesting here than on Brian Wilson's latest solo-album."




HAAKON ELLINGSEN'S 4 SOLOALBUMS ON ITUNES


HOW TO BUY...:
"THE PLUM ALBUM": Termo Records, heyday-mo.com, notlame.com, cdbaby.com, platekompaniet.no, marquee.com.jp
WHEN "TRIPPY HAPPY": jester-records.com, platekompaniet.no, Amazon...
"BOUNTY": heyday-mo.com, termorecords.com, bigdipper.no, jazzis.com, platekompaniet.no...
"WHAT IS TO COME...?": jazzis.com, platekompaniet.no, cdbaby.com, or leave a message here on myspace.com/haakonellingsen and we can make an arrangement with use of PayPal...
"MINSTREL": Itunes
GRAMOPHONES: "BOY", "THE LAST DREAMER"...: s2records.com
THE LAST JAMES: "KINDERGARTEN" (LP): heyday-mo.com


Some words about "The Plum Album"; Luna Kafe

(bio and set-up: Gerhard Humle)

Members:

Haakon Ellingsen: vocals, guitars, ukulele, banjo, keyboards, mandolin.
Ketil Einarsen (Jaga Jazzist, Okasa): flutes, keyboards, vocals, saxy.
Brynjar Dambo (White Willow, Okasa): keyboards, guitar, engineering.
Gaute Storsve (Ignore): guitars, lapsteel, charango, keyboards.
Henning Sandsdalen (Hanne Hukkelberg): bass, acoustic bass, lapsteel.
Øystein Hvamen Rasmussen (Oslo Inn): drums, percussion.
Sigrun Eng (Slagr, Tirill): cello.
Erik Johannessen (Jaga Jazzist): trombone, French horn.
Leif Ovesen (Pussycats, March Brown): vibraphone.
Lars Pedersen (Holy Toy, The Last James, WHEN): background vocals.
The songs are produced by Brynjar Dambo, Haakon Ellingsen and Ketil Einarsen.
"Jenny Kiss'd Me"/"Peace Comes To Town is produced by Kyrre Fritzner and H.E, "Rainfalls" is produced by Morten Pettersen and H.E, "Butterflies" is produced by Lars Pedersen.


PURCHASE "BOUNTY" AND "THE PLUM ALBUM" FROM HEYDAY MAILORDER, UK

Photos: Eivind Finsrud. Coverart/photos of ukuleleman: Morten Tornes. Drawings: H.E... ..

Sounds Like:

If you buy Haakon Ellingsen: "Bounty" from Termo Records you will hopefully find out that: "There is a certain sombre, cerebral playful something about those songs, so beautiful it hurts! They have a gentle aftertaste only matched by Brian Wilson at his creative peak around PET SOUNDS and SMILE. The songs don't seem to be particularly American or British inspired, or inspired by music from any other country for that matter, apart from the lyrics. They're out of time and out of geography. They are the perfect ballads Jeff Lynne (Idle Race, Electric Light Orchestra, Travelling Wilburys and...The Beatles...) has been striving at for the past 40 years." (Luna Kafe record review)

Baroque Pop Radio/Sean Foudy has posted this nice video!!!: "I'd Stay In This Mood All My Life If I Could" ("The Plum Album"- Termocd002)...: