Brugata by André Borgen

For a few decades Brugata 3a was the real place to be for Oslo's musical underground. As a concert venue it felt natural that academy-educated contemporary composers played new works there, alongside ragged garage bands playing for beer, while the forefront of the Norwegian jazz and club scene played there to put it on their CVs. The premises were large, maybe 250 square meters, divided into several rooms; none of them were the same, all of them were worn out. On the floors were layers of linoleum from the 1930s, and carpets from different decades. On the ceiling were beautiful patches of fine wood, and a multitude of hidden corners and traces of past lives. This had been a fur shop, a shoe store and various other things. The building is from 1860; the previous major renovation had been in 1920. A rotten bathroom offered a shower, washing machine and dishwasher. The wiring was connected as organically and wildly as a primeval forest, and the huge windows from 1920, barely hanging in place in the frames, rattled in the wind. In the winter, it was colder in the large concert room than in the refrigerator. If you opened the fridge door, with its four degrees, it was as if the heat hit you. It was a miracle that the pipes did not freeze, the power did not catch fire, and the window panes did not fall out and down onto the beggars, drug dealers and street musicians on the street below. André Borgen had a studio there for several years, and during this time emerged a melancholy chaos and intense creative activity. Within a larger space where there was always a flurry of other musicians from the noise, techno, rock and avant-garde fields, André found his very own little room, dark, shaky, melancholy and beautiful. Now he invites you in.

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.

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