Blue Mathue
Blue Mathue: A duo with Jan Berg born June 24 1963 Oslo Norway and Pål Kristian Bauge Helmersen February 1965 Mandal Norway.
Info pre history of Blue Mathue: A band from Oslo, started up by Geir Ødegård, Sven Erik Harberg, Pål Helmersen and Jan Berg in 1981. After three months of arguments between Harberg and Ødegård, the latter left the band. The trio Harberg/ Helmersen/ Berg recorded a demo, and in the summer of 1982 played at the Cafe De Stijl club in Oslo. At this time they called themselves Art of JPS, but they changed name to Blue Mathue before their next gig – a warm-up for Thanasis Zlatanos’ band Nekropolis at Club 7 in December. (The name was taken from a French poem they found in a magazine).
Uniton Records’ Tormod Opedal met the band at the Club 7 gig and proposed BM to send him a demo casette. However, within days after the Club 7 concert, Harberg and Helmersen had a large falling out, and Berg and Helmersen continued the band as a duo. Blue Mathue got a full LP and EP contract with Uniton records.
Blue Mathue delivered Uniton 2 demo's, first one as a trio the second one as a duo. It took almost another year before the band released anything, and then they opted for a set of home recordings. The 12” EP ‘Perfect Pictures’ b/w ‘In Our Dream’ and ‘The Vision’. Berg provided lead vocals for “Perfect Pictures” and “The Vision”, while Helmersen sang the lead on “In Our Dream”. Berg wrote the lyrics, while the music was a result of huge rewriting process (two of the tracks began life back in the Art Of JPS days, but were re-written after the split).
The EP got a few reviews in Norway the music press was deriding the vocals or ridiculing the style of music.
While in England the band was looked upon as a fresh breath as a dark mixture of Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode and got only good reviews in NME, Sound and Melody Maker.
The EP hitted the indie chart in NME, along with Depress and Fra Lippo Lippi, top ranking was fourth place and stayed there for 8 weeks.
Tormod Opedal label manager in Uniton Records informed Blue Mathue in week 4 after the release,
the record sales was as following. In Norway barely noticed 150 records sold while 850 records was sold abroad and out of stock within the fourth week. Mostly to England, Benelux and 250 records went over to USA.
Since Blue Mathue got slaughtered by the music press in Norway, the band decided to hold no concerts.
Blue Mathue gave 2 interviews one to a local television network the second interview was given to Nye Takter.
The equipment used on the EP was a classic set of analogue synthesizers & suchlike: Roland SH101 - Prophet One - Roland Vocoder Plus - Roland Tr808 - Roland Promars. The band had used Korg MS 10 and MS 20 on demos, but mostly for harsh, noisy parts, and by the time of the EP, they wanted a fuller, ‘darker’ sound.
In 1984, the band disbanded – loyal to band tradition, the members had a huge argument regarding what was promised from BM in the record contract and decided to call it quits. By this time, Berg had met Tor Dybdahl, and soon the two started Clockwork Orange together with Erik Avnskog. Helmersen’s carreer as a recording artist came to a full stop when, a while after Blue Mathue’s demise, he became a christian believer.
Releases
"Perfect Pictures"; 12", Uniton 1983
"Burning The Midnight Sun", compilation LP, Uniton Records U-020, 1984 (track: "In Our Dream")
Known demos/ Unreleased material
Art Of JPS demo cassette (4-5 tracks, 1981)
Untitled demo cassette (4-5 tracks, 1982, including "Perfect Pictures, "In Our Dream"" and "The Vision" in different versions to the 12")
Live recording, Club 7, 01.12.1982
Untitled demo cassette (1984, Helmersen plays bass guitar)
(all these recordings are thought to be lost)
Related projects
Clockwork Orange
Nekropolis
Jan Berg released a solo cassette in 1992, "Aurora". Instrumental, ambient techno. Possibly promo only.
http://www.last.fm/music/Jan+Berg/Aurora
Pål Helmersen released a solo cassette in 1994, "Gratefully Alive". Christian contemporary, pop.
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