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biography / portrait

The Norwegian pop group Minor Majority was formed by Pål Angelskår and Andreas Berczelly as a studio project in the spring of 2000. The first record, Walking Home From Nicole's, was released one year later with significant help from singer/songwrighter Karen Jo Fields. In november 2001 the band saw the addition of guitarist Jon Arild Stieng and the duo went on tour for the first time in the spring of 2002. Berczelly left the band and concentrated full-time on producing, which he has done for the band ever since. The band's next album If I Told You, You Were Beautiful was recorded in Stieng's house in Oslo that same summer, and was released in october. For the up coming tour of spring 2003 keyboardist Harald Sommerstad joined, and the band was now a trio. Prior to the Norwegian Quart-festivalen the same year, the band was extended further by drummer Halvor Høgh Winsnes (Fast Winston Doom of Thulsa Doom) and bassist Henrik Widerøe. The band was complete, and in the late summer "Up For You & I" was recorded at Sommerstad's cabin near Halden in the south of Norway. The album was released in January 2004, and was an immediate success, boasting 24 weeks on the official Norwegian albums chart, a gold record and numerous price award nominations for best Norwegian pop album of the year. After the following tour of more than 100 gigs both nationally and abroad (France, Switzerland and Germany), the band spent the greater part of 2005 in Berczelly's studio, and released their fourth album Reasons To Hang Around in January 2006. For it, they were awarded the Norwegian Grammy equivalent Spellemannsprisen. 2007 saw the release of their fifth album, Candy Store. After the release of the album, the band embarked on a Norwegian tour in September, followed by tours of Germany, France and Switzerland during the first four months of 2008. The band have stated that they intend to have a pause from making music, but that they eventually will make at least one more album. (source: www.wikipedia.org)