Saturday, August 06, 2011

Sort Sol (and Lydia Lunch)

Sort Sol (early on: "Sods") was (and is) a Danish band which was huge amongst a central core of rock lovers for Denmark in many years (late eighties til early naughties), though of course that didn't exactly make them rich.

[If you prefer the more melodious stuff, try Elia Rising, near the bottom of this post.]

(The first one sounds a lot better in Hi-fi and loud, but you get the idea. It might be recorded off a TV.)


The one below is old. A bit special.





... Good Lord, they're playing again! Kewl. (Danish.)



Hey, this one I didn't even know, but I like it. (I was otherwise a bit estranged from them after the mid-nineties, where they changed style.)


Interesting tidbit from wikipedia:

Sort sol is a nature phenomenon in the marshlands in southwestern Jutland, Denmark, in particular the marsh near Tønder and Ribe. Very large numbers of migrational starlings gather there in spring and autumn when they move between their winter grounds in southern Europe and their summer breeding grounds in Scandinavia and other countries near the Baltic Sea.
Sort sol takes place in the hours just after sunset. The birds gather in large flocks and form huge formations in the sky just before they decide for a location to roost for the night. The movements of the formations have been likened to kind of a dance or ballet and the birds are so numerous that they seem to obliterate the sunset, hence the term "sort sol" (Danish for "black sun"). Sort sol in the marsh near Tønder can occasionally comprise a formation with up to one million birds. Usually flocks break up when the number of individuals exceed about half a million birds due to excessive internal disturbances in the flock.

One million birds! I'd like to see that. I wonder if the band had heard of this phrase? I always thought they simply took the name from their second LP "Under En Sort Sol" (Under A Black Sun). Earlier they were named Sods, but they no longer played punk and didn't find the name fitting anymore.

Update:
It seems I missed out when I never bought the album "Snake Charmer". Here's a sample. The female vocal is awesome.


Update:
TCGirl found this Interview/music video (Danish). I don't know how, cause I had used search for interviews, didn't find that one.


I have a friend by the way (hej Zadis!) who used to play with Peter Peter, who played guitar for many years in Sort Sol. Brilliant hard guitarist. But in a bit of a state, it seems from this interview (Danish). He says that all the years he played with them were completely wasted time, but that he has managed to almost was away all memories of it in drink! The interviewer points out that for the grateful audience/listeners it was hardly wasted, but PP says that he don't know about that, for he doesn't hang around and socialize, so he only has his own experience to judge from, and from that it has been *waste*. Geez. What a pity, such an ultra-limited viewpoint.

4 comments:

Scott said...

starlings on Otmoor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH-groCeKbE

TC [Girl] said...

I like that little electric bango or whatever the heck that thing is in this; and...Steen's voice. :-)

Anna said...

Is "sort sol" Danish or English?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Danish.

Yes, I suspect Sten's voice and the way they use guitars may be the primary characteristics of Sort Sort over their various changes.