Hans Stenøien
AWAINTING IN DOG HEAVEN

Hans Stenøien’s First self titled album.

release: February 26 2021. 

Øra is very proud to present Hans Stenøien, a hitherto somewhat hidden artist and songwriter in Norway. Hans is best known for his work as a biologist and professor at NTNU in Trondheim, but has now realized his first solo album. An incredibly strong and rich album that is thematically about time and its transience. Together with producer Kyrre Laastad, he has made an album that we believe will stand strong in both the present and the future!

“The music has been with me for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a small mountain village, far away from people, school corps and cultural schools. My old aunt had an acoustic Hagström guitar hanging on the wall, probably from around the 1950s. She was kind and understood how much I would appreciate it, so she gave it to me when I was 9 years old. On my own, as I had to, I learned to play. The strings were attached all too high, and the box was too small, so it took surprisingly strong strokes, and great finger strength, to get sound in it. I learned to relate to the melodies I liked best, mostly from the school songbook, with a significant underlying energy, almost raw. Ever since that's how I've been relating to music. " - Hans

Hans Stenøien has previously released albums with local bands such as Sugarfoot and Epinastic Movements, but "Awaiting In Dog Heaven" is his first in his own name. Thematically, the album is about time and that it does not last forever. This realization is a challenge, sometimes, but often also an opportunity, for the people who speak in the songs on the album.

Hans and producer Kyrre have purposefully and painstakingly worked out a comprehensive album where the musical expression is honest and simple, but with considerable work put into comprehensive arrangements. The music lies in the tension between the melodic and the challenging, perfect and oversimplified. It is pop harmony with resistance. The music is clearly inspired by various singers / songwriters from the last decades such as Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, but also more melodic pop such as Knutsen and Ludvigsen with their recognizable, melodic guitar-based music.

Musicians:
Hans Stenøien: vocals, guitars, bass, synths, zither
Kyrre Laastad: drums, percussion, synths, piano, guitars, bass
Viktor Wilhelmsen: guitars (tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 10)
Stina Stjern: vocals (track 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
Anja Lauvdal: piano, synths (track 3)
Kristoffer Lo: horns (track 3)
Odd Johansen: harmonica (track 5)
Hogne Galåen: vocals (track 9)
Øyvind Holm: vocals (track 9)
Egil Kalman: modular synth (track 10)

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PRODUCTION // OF 173
All compositions and lyrics by Hans Stenøien
Arranged by Hans Stenøien and Kyrre Laastad
Produced, recorded & mixed by Kyrre Laastad
Mastering by Karl Klaseie in Øra Mastering
Photo and cover design by Kristoffer Hylland Skogheim