Center Of The Universe aka Dj Sissyfus is a Norwegian electronic music producer who recently turned his output into a mixture of unique ethno disco & warm synthpop. Live, he presents us with enchanting lyrics, catchy melodies, pinches of acid and clarinette playing. He has been releasing close to 15 albums, performing in numerous live bands and has been running his own label Metronomicon Audio since 2000. 

Center of the Universe has been active in the Norwegian underground music scene since 1998 and has in addition to participating in several other projects, found the time to release a whole host of solo albums, including a trilogy where the theme was space and time. It is difficult to give a clear definition of the band’s musical impression, as this tends to change from release to release, but it would not be wrong to say that melody is always at the center. What apparently may begin as a pop song entice you into a world where nothing is as it seems and musical expectations are seldom met. For the Center of the Universe no surna is too high and no bass too deep. He has always walked off the beaten path next to the road less travelled and keeps trudging on in a landscape where the sun shines, vulcanoes erupt and it’s raining guitars, sitars and just plain’ol tars.

Metronomicon Audio is a small record label based in Oslo, Norway. Strictly speaking, it is not really a label, but rather a community with some 20 active members and a wide range of affiliates which together aim to promote new and interesting music. Metronomicon Audio has chosen to focus on individual members’ freedom to make music they like, and the community has a flat structure where the artists themselves have full artistic control. This also applies to the highest degree of Metronomicon Audio’s inhouse designers Yokoland which in collaboration with the artists is responsible for the visual profile. This includes everything from record covers to the stage effects, posters, flyers and website.

In addition to producing music Metronomicon Audio has for years held several concerts and events. Each year we also arrange By;alarm, a festival and awards ceremony which purpose is to focus on the absurdity of competing in music. Every tenth Metronomicon Audio release is a compilation. On these compilation other artists from around the world are invited to contribute in order to showcase other people talents and to cross genre and nation boundaries. Metronomicon artists have worked with both French, British, Japanese and Swedish musicians.

Metronomicon Audio started in 2001. However the first CDR was released a year before by the artist Center of the Universe. There is hardly a coincidence that this particular CDR was released first when considering that the man behind, Jørgen Sissyfus Skjulstad, was also the record company’s driving force. With the poignant title “Previously Unreleased” he set the standard for what was to become a long series of releases by various bands that all exhibited a life-affirming humor and ingenuity, reflected in both community’s visual and musical profile.

As of today the community has produced 46 releases. Among these we find in addition to a lot of CDR and CD, even more obscure formats such as 12″ vinyl and USB sticks.

For more than ten years Now We’ve got Members have been churning out their particular no-brand of progressive, off-beat weirdness. Having drawn upon such disparate influences as balkan folk, 70s prog, indie pop and improvisation, the band never quite found their place in the ruler-straight music scene of Oslo. So they made their own scene. Now We’ve got Members laid down fundament for the label and music collective Metronomicon Audio, which has been releasing innovative pop music for almost ten years.

Delwing into the music of Now We’ve got Members is a varied and rewarding experience. Every tune usually contains enough elements for other bands to make an entire album. Allthough the traditional verse/chorus/verse/chorus progressions are usually put to work, space is also left for numerous excursions into time and space, and the tunes may just as well end in five minute instrumental improvisations containing wah-wah saxophone freak-outs, uneven time signatures and minimal riffs and patterns endlessly repeating going slightly in and out of phase. Their take on music is a non-discriminating one. The music of eastern Europe or Ethiopia is just as relevant as western indie rock, and Terry Riley sits nicely alongside James Brown.

Spiritual advisor and frontman of Now We’ve got Members, Jørgen Skjulstad, once vowed that Now We’ve got Members will spend a long time getting slightly renowned, for then to remain slightly renowned for a long time. It seems fitting for such an idiosyncratic group: Too weird to be championed, too good to be forgotten.

Pilemil comes from Oslo, Norway. They have released two albums and one EP on Metronomicon Audio.

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