Mnemosyne Productions is a Norwegian production company that specializes in experimental and obscure music, from soundtracks to black metal. [read more]
Our trusted associate Maria has set up official Ihsahn and Starofash profiles on Facebook. It will be streamed directly from our “newsbank”, so these pages will be always be up to date. We would like to invite all new and old fans to join us at:
On the topic of communication tools, our new Mnemosyne Channel on Youtube is well up and running, and is getting a lot of views and nice feedback. Many thanks to you all! Please feel to to visit us at Mnemosyne Channel.
We would like to share the first studio report from Ihsahn’s forthcoming album After. This footage features mainly the initial guitar recordings, and gives a hint or two of the musical direction of the album.
WARNING: This episode features absolutely no excitement, enthusiasm or action of any kind. Welcome to the world of the solo artist!
Mnemosyne Productions would like to welcome you to our new blog!
These pages contain general information, visuals and audio samples and will be regularly updated with news.
This blog is made and run by Maria Picassó and the artwork is done by Ritxi Ostáriz. Please feel free to visit their pages for more of their lovely work.
Andy Winter (Winds, Age of Silence, Sculptured) and Starofash (aka Heidi Solberg Tveitan) recently completed a collaboration project creating website music for Cage XXI Enterprises, a Florida-based video production company specializing in music videos, narratives and experimental film production.
Cage XXI has filmed projects for the American Cancer Society, Lennar Homes, the Sarasota Film Society, and most recently a music video and DVD for the Chicago-based metal band Novembers Doom.
The Cage XXI website is designed by Salt Lake City-based design firm Gesture Studio,and can be found at this location, where the soundscape created by Winter and Tveitan can also be heard: www.cagexxi.com
Andy Winter is a long time THE END RECORDS artist having released numerous albums with Winds, Age of Silence and Sculptured throughout his career. Aside from working periodically on new material and recordings with his main bands, he is also currently writing and recording a solo album.
Heidi Solberg Tveitan and Mnemosyne Productions have recently released 300 hand-numbered special edition CDs with the soundtrack by Starofash for the Irish film Ulterior. THE END RECORDS will distribute the album for North America, and it is now available for sale through the web store.
Mnemosyne Productions are releasing 300 hand-numbered special edition CD’s with the soundtrack by Heidi Solberg Tveitan/Starofash for the Irish film Ulterior. The high-end minimalist design is done by many times over award winning designer Ritxi Ostáriz. To ensure top quality every step of the way, we have used two different printers in two different countries (Spain and Germany). This is a pilot project for us at Mnemosyne, as this will be the first release printed by us.
The overall soundtrack is a musical extension of the film’s minimalist visual style, measured pace and dark irony and together they explore themes of disclosure, solitude and sanity.
The album is set for release in May. The End Records will distribute the album for North America, and have already set up a pre-order in their web store. For Europe, long time partner, PHD, will take care of our distribution.
We at Mnemosyne Productions have created our own space at Youtube, with the fitting name The Mnemosyne Channel The first “broadcasts” from us are:
‘SCARAB’ – IHSAHN live at Rockefeller, Oslo 09.
From the first ever Ihsahn live show, we would now like to share the song “Scarab” from angL with you. Ihsahn is using a young and very talented band, Leprous, from our hometown as backingband.
This is footage taken with our own camera. It was placed on top of a box behind the sound area, a box that did not particularly like the sound waves of the bass drum, so that is why it is a bit “shaky” at times. Apart from that it turned out okay.
‘SOPHIE’S THEME’ – Starofash music video from the Irish movie Ulterior.
Starofash would like to share the music video for Ulterior with you. This is the main theme, and appropriately named “Sophie’s theme”. Sophie is the main character in the movie, played by actress Marlene Marleaux, and it is her journey we follow throughout the film. This is no music video in the traditional sense, as director Jason Mehlhorn has used footage from the movie to illustrate the song.
“When writing this particular song, I just grabbed the first and best microphone in the studio to do the test vocals. While watching the movie on a laptop, I just found the vocal lines and words, recorded them and thought at the time that I would record them with the proper equipment later in the process. However, something odd happened when I started the recording process for the vocals, and that was simply that I did not at all manage to convey the same feeling as in the test vocals. So the test vocals stayed, despite being recorded with a rather cheap Sure SM58 mic (which is more of a live microphone). Nothing fancy, but it is genuine, and it works”, Heidi says.
We at Mnemosyne Productions seem to love Spanish artists, and this time we have been working with the very talented illustrator and architect, Maria Picassó. She has designed a limited edition version of Starofash shirts, for both adults and kids. All shirts are printed on organic cotton, and with toxic free print. Mnemosyne Productions will donate all revenue from these tees to WWF.
You can see more of Maria’s lovely work at Maria Picassó
We would like to share with you all some photos taken at Ihsahn’s debut show, as support act for Opeth, Rockefeller Oslo 10th of March. The show was sold out weeks in advance.
“I felt well prepared for the show, and luckily all technical aspects worked out to our advantage, so that the overall experience for me and my band was extremely positive. The feedback from the audience was amazing, and many thought that the songs gained an extra dimension by being performed in a live setting. We are all now looking forward to play Oslo Live in front of Akershus Festning 3rd of July”, Ihsahn says.
Mnemosyne Productions will later share with you some live footage from the show.
Ihsahn is performing his first ever concert as a solo artist on March 10th, supporting Opeth at Rockefeller, Oslo. This show was soon sold out, and we know that many fans and friends were not able to get tickets. Mnemosyne Productions are therefore especially happy to announce that there is another opportunity to see Ihsahn live this year:
On July 3rd, you can catch him at Oslo Live festival.
This will be one of extremely few and selected appearances of Ihsahn this year. We will be back with more detailed information closer to the event.
Mnemosyne Productions are happy to announce that Heidi Solberg Tveitan/Starofash has just finalized the soundtrack to the Irish film “Ulterior” by writer/director Jason Mehlhorn.
“With this being my first soundtrack, I was faced with quite a few challenges when adapting to the format. However, after working my way through the more technical aspects, I was pleasantly surprised to find it very natural to just follow the pace and content of the movie when writing the actual music. Jason has been a very open minded and constructive director, which has made my job all the more easy.
Strangly, I have never been so honest in my music as with this soundtrack; this is music straight from the heart”, says Heidi.
Ulterior could probably be best described as a psychological thriller in a similar vein to Vertigo, Caché, Repulsion and La Femme Infidèle. It utilises a minimalist visual style, measured pace, sparse dialogue and often dark irony to explore themes of disclosure, isolation, empowerment, obsession and sanity within the film’s ‘open’ plot. These characteristics were imbued into the film’s original soundtrack which was provided by Starofash.
Ulterior is a low-budget debut feature film from Irish writer/director Jason Mehlhorn. It was shot in just 12 days in Dublin with a skeleton crew of 5 people in August 2008. It is nearing the end of post-production and upon completion will hopefully start it’s life by entering film festivals in various countries. The film was shot digitally in HDV and has a running time of approximately 73 minutes.
