The last couple of days I have been listening to an album which arrived on Monday called Dedicated To The Bird We Love by an obscure group from Norway called Oriental Sunshine. As you know, I like discovering music of merit that most people have never heard of. I was talking recently to a muso friend of mine about psychedelic folk bands of the past, and he said I should check out Oriental Sunshine. I looked for them on eBay and found a copy of their one and only album which was released in Norway in 1970. The Bird in the title refers to The Beatles Blackbird. It only sold a few copies, and sadly the band broke up that same year. I think even in their own country most people have never heard of them.
I was pleased to see that this reissue from 2006 is on the Sunbeam label. This is a UK record label that specialises in reissuing long forgotten music from the past that they feel deserves to be discovered by a new audience. I have bought CDs previously on Sunbeam including the likes of Linda Perhacs and Blossom Toes and never been disappointed. Oriental Sunshine began in the city of Bergen when singer and guitarist Nina Johansen met guitar and sitar player Rune Walle. They were later joined by an Indian musician called Satnam Singh who played bamboo flute, and tablas. He didn’t speak Norwegian, so they spoke and sang in English. The album also features organ, bass, and drums.
The band entered a TV show competition called Talent 69 and to their surprise they won it. This led to the album being recorded in Oslo the following year. Shortly after its release tragedy stuck when Nina’s father died suddenly. She was so upset by this event she couldn’t sing anymore, and the group disbanded. This one little gem of an album is their only legacy. The opening track Across Your Life features Nina’s distinctive voice. (I can see that she was influenced by Joni Mitchell). accompanied by sitar and flute. The production and engineering are excellent on the album. The sound of the ocean has been mixed into the song to great effect.
Mother Nature was issued as a single and you can see them perform it on the talent show in a video on youtube, but I don’t think it is as good as on the album which just has flute accompaniment, not like the orchestral TV version. The next track Look At Me reminded me of an Irish folk duo of that era called Tir An Nog who I like and have written about previously. Unless again features the guitar and vocals of Nina who also wrote most of the songs. Land Of Wisdom is steeped in eastern mysticism which was obviously a big influence on this group. Let It Be My Birth features Rune on vocals. Nina sings Can Anybody Tell which has a long instrumental section with sitar and organ to the fore. Visions is an atmospheric languid dreamy song, again featuring Nina, and My Way To Be Hurt has some nice acoustic guitar. Where You Went (Tum Kahan Gaye) features Satnam on vocals singing in Indian. The final track I’m Going is a very short song again featuring the ethereal voice of Nina.
After the group disbanded Nina became a teacher, Satnam moved to Denmark and disappeared. Rune has had a long career in music. He was for a while in an American band you may have heard of called The Ozark Mountain Daredevils. It seems a shame that this promising group disbanded so quickly, who knows what they might have achieved. These days this type of music has had a resurgence of interest with such people as Devendra Banhart, Vashti Bunyan and others becoming popular. If you like such music as Ravi Shankar, George Harrison, Incredible String Band, early Fairport Convention, Quintessence, Joni Mitchell, Moody Blues etc, all of whom came into my head while listening to this album, then I think you might enjoy Oriental Sunshine. It would be nice if they got a belated appreciation. I am glad they were recommended to me. You can find them on youtube if interested. Cheers.
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