Live At Tralfamadore draws on material from the four full-length Platinum selling studio albums Madrugada have recorded over the last seven years and confirms their status as one of Europe’s premier rock bands, as popular in Germany or Greece as they are in their native Norway. Highlights include the opening track Hard To Come Back, the arresting Majesty, a radio favourite throughout Europe a couple of years back in its studio version, the triumphant The Kids Are On High Street and a wonderful cover of Mother Of Earth, a song written by the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce for The Gun Club, and featuring Kid Congo Powers, himself a former member of the early eighties seminal American band (as well as The Cramps and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) on slide guitar. “It’s a very dirty, rocking version of one of our favourite songs, really cool,” says Madrugada guitarist Robert . “Kid Congo is the nicest, kindest, coolest human being, a fantastic character and person. He was on tour in Europe so he just flew into Oslo for the Spektrum gig. He came to the soundcheck and, on the night, he made his guitar sound like wind and fire. That’s his trademark,” he enthuses whose own twangy, bluesy guitar style owes a debt to players like Link Wray, Bo Diddley and Keith Richards.

Teaming up with Kid Congo Powers, however briefly, was a logical step for singer Sivert Høyem, bassist Frode Jacobsen and who first got together in 1995. Named after the hour before sunrise in Spanish – somehow fitting for a group from the far reaches of the Nordland area of Norway – Madrugada took their first tentative steps playing Rolling Stones and Stooges covers and were also heavily influenced by The Gun Club, The Cramps, Joy Division, Suicide and The Velvet Underground. Signing to Virgin Records Norway in 1998, Madrugada didn’t expect their debut album, Industrial Silence, to be released internationally. Back then, most Norwegian bands were lucky if they made it as far as neighbouring Sweden or Denmark (and A-ha were no exception to the rule since they were signed to Warners in the US).

Still, in 2000, Madrugada’s panoramic, cinematic, melancholic sound in general, and the broody, moody track Strange Colour Blue in particular, caught the imagination of alternative rock fans throughout continental Europe. Now, a tour de force concert recording of Strange Colour Blue from L’Ancienne Belgique is included on Live At Tralfamadore, much to the delight of vocalist Sivert Høyem. “It’s a really magical version, totally different from the original, kind of slow burning and full of suppressed energy,” says the enigmatic frontman who croons like a cross between Nick Cave and Jim Morrison and still has a soft spot for “Strange Colour Blue, the song with the feeling of a road movie.”

Indeed, over the last five years, Madrugada have spent a lot of time on the road and made great strides internationally. They promoted second album The Nightly Disease throughout Europe in 2001 and recorded Grit – and the mighty Majesty – in Berlin with PJ Harvey producer Head in 2002. Majesty became the group’s signature song, received considerable airplay across Europe throughout 2003, and was even featured on BBC stations Radio One and 6 Music in the UK. “There’s a very special version from the Oya festival on Live At Tralfamadore,” says Sivert Høyem. “We were very happy when we heard it. That’s when I decided the live album was a very good idea. There’s loads of great moments on it, a fantastic version of The Kids Are On High Street. And Hard To Come Back makes a great opening track. We’d stopped playing that song for a while but we did it at the Oslo Spektrum and it was really, really good that night. We finally nailed it.”

In 2004, Madrugada worked at Sound City in Los Angeles with famed producer George Drakoulias (Tom Petty, The Jayhawks, Primal Scream) and mixer/engineer David Bianco (Teenage Fanclub, Mick Jagger) on The Deep End, their fourth album which came out last year and also featured collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti, cult director David Lynch’s composer of choice, on the ominously beautiful Hold On To You.

Ten years on from their inception, Madrugada are still broadening their musical palette. They recorded Lift Me featuring Norwegian singer Ane Brun (a number 1 single) and recruited the Bodo Sinfonietta orchestra to enhance Black Mambo and Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child on Live At Tralfamadore. “We really enjoy creating those dark, atmospheric, uneasy moods,” explains Sivert Høyem. “Being Scandinavian has something to do with it. We can be stiff and introverted. Norway is very dark in the winter so it makes sense to me. You see the dark and gloom in Munch’s pictures. It must have something to do with the music we make but it’s not a gimmick.”

For guitarist Robert , releasing a live album was “a logical step. We have made big strides and we have become a really, really seriously good live band,” he states accurately and without any false modesty. “We’ve also managed to create a mood, an atmosphere with the track sequencing. I was reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut while we were on tour. I just love that book and I thought this imaginary planet –Tralfamadore – would fit, since the album is not live at one place. In the book, Vonnegut explains his emotional relationship with his daughter and this disconnection that he sometimes feels. It’s kind of what it’s like sometimes, when you’re on the road. You’re just moving on and on. That’s your world, what you create there, at that very moment. It’s just us and the audience. That’s Tralfamadore . . .”

(source: www.madrugada.net)