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.


Three One G is in a sense, a family owned business…and basically a family in itself. I started the label in hopes to better the quality and creativity of things  that I was part of, as well as the music culture that I am part of. Three One G quickly developed into a family of artists who were all intertwined, or on the same page as one another. For me, it is the truest definition of family; people who are of the same breed and people who are from the same way of life. In the beginning, I started off by releasing music by Swing Kids and Unbroken, both of which shared a member, and were part of a musical community that I was submerged in. It was something that I was really a part of and more so, something that was obtainable, tangible, and real. Over the years, Three One G has loosely been related to a band that I’m part of, and better known for, The Locust. The relevance that The Locust had to Three One G brought amazing artists into the picture, either through meeting them on tour, musical collaborations, or other various things that The Locust was doing. This really helped to diversify the label and the sounds that it encompasses up to this day. To me, having bands under the Three One G umbrella like Cattle Decapitation, Arab on Radar, Quintron, Zs, Black Dice, Orthrelm, and so on, all makes sense, regardless of how different any artist's approach to music or their sound may be. We could all conceivably tour together, even sometimes collaborate and share members. To me, this is interesting, bringing so many new avenues of creativity, which are things that the music industry in general has since forgotten. 
The family members who currently make the wheels spin for Three One G, aside from the actual bands and artists are; Sal Gallegos (who also played in Some Girls, which were comprised of members of other label mates such as The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, and Unbroken), as well as myself. Over the years we have expanded, not only musically, but geographically as well. Even though Three One G is below the radar of the who’s who of labels, the bands manage to grow and reach out beyond the label’s grasp, giving a glimpse into the all too interesting underbelly of an unrefined culture. The bands manage to amaze, challenge, inspire, and essentially blow minds. The labor of love here shows sincerity, as well as integrity. The family here is solid, legitimate, and is here to stay.
 
- Justin Pearson

TheAtlantic.com's technology channel, brought to you by Alexis C. Madrigal, Megan Garber, and Rebecca J. Rosen

Fysisk Format is a record label, run from the basement of Tiger Records in Oslo, Norway. The record store has been going since -96 and the label since 2008. Our purpose is to make the best underground music heard!

Next Life is a Norwegian synth/prog/thrashmetal band using the C64 & other vintage computers in their music. Born in 1999.

Hai Nguyen Dinh - guitars & programming & video & lights

Patric Catani aka Candie Hank
Music Producer, Video Game Music & Soundtrack Work in different fields.  I made the Alien Hominid Invasion OST and contributed to BattleBlock Theater and Pit People by The Behemoth.
Contact: booking@catani-music.de
Licensing: Fredrik{at}Freibank.com

Spotify Patric Catani : https://play.spotify.com/artist/5TVfuZVGf8ALAdPhiskKnN?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

Spotify Candie Hank: https://play.spotify.com/artist/1sXZC6XB6z9V4tV4Lk8Ut2?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

During the years I worked under different monikers and bandnames such as Candie Hank, Patric C, Driver&Driver (with Chris Imler), EC8OR, A*Class, Flex Busterman, E de Cologne, Ricardo Prosetti (Puppetmastaz) and more. 

You also might know a lot of the songs that I made for the Puppetmastaz and other productions such as Xberg Dhirty6Cru - http://dhirty6.de.

Since 1999 I´m touring under the name Candie Hank which gives me the freedom to play all my different styles in a live+video performance. 

I released my Candie Hank Lps and Eps on the labels Shitkatapult, Gagarin Records, Wwilko, Sonig, Solnze Records from Russia, and also made remixes for people like Kap Bambino,  Mouse on Mars, Soom-T, Jean Jacques Perrey and many others..  

I also do music for art film, video games, theater, art installations.

Be in touch about interesting concepts and ideas! 

Biography and information: 
http://catani-music.de/about

Description of the different projects and work: 
http://catani-music.de/about/works

Swedish SID power violence duo Soldier One, exploring the vast sonic possibilities of combining 21st century power violence with oldschool 8-bit audio hardware; the sound most of us remember from the early home computer Commodore 64 with the not as well known epileptic energic outbursts of power violence, a subgenre of hardcore punk.

The trio plays a crazy combination of rock and dance music with elements of pop hits and electronica. 
The band's cornerstone is the joy of playing music and the energy behind it.

«Shut up and dance»

Petter Kraft - Electric guitar
Oscar Grönberg - Keyboards, synths
Tomas Järmyr - Drums
Stop-motion music video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keN_HEPQhP8
Contact : petteroscartomas@gmail.com
                Kraft.petter@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/TheMaXx/481695415301753

MINDBLAST RECORDS is following