User:Mannevonahnoberg

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Life is of course a journey.

But you never seem to anticipate the stops you are going to make. Neither the detours nor the crossroads you will face. In the producer Manne von Ahn-Öberg's life there has been many detours and crossroads, arguably the most interesting and artistically rewarding when he created the atrium label and the reissue of the label Sonets catalogue of folk and jazz music. He had prior to that embarked on a successful but slightly unorthodox career which led him through some of the musical Meccas in the world. In London at GreenAppleStudio he worked his way up as an assistant, later in Germany he joined the "school" of Decca and he was only 21 when he received the prestigious "Tonmeister Diploma" with a noted talent for recording classical music. However, that wasn't enough for the young and ambitious producer. He was also later working with the GRP label in US, recording countless sessions of "musician's music", founding the JazzBeat label and btrium (later sold to BMG Publishing) as well as working with FreeNote Records (UK). His career was truly alive and kicking when something happened that changed his life.

The urge for something deeper and more sincere grew as a result of an almost burnt out relation to the music industry. He needed a time out to consider and perhaps reconsider the values of life. The road he chose was one leading away from the musical highway. That decision made all the difference.

Manne von Ahn-Öberg, being a sámi, searched the roots of his past and found the source that gave him the strength to pursue the musical idea that created the internationally acclaimed atrium, JazzBeat, BeatFear and later also PublishMent label.

"The original inspiration for atrium was to create the atrium for the musicians that I saw, especially in the north, that were doing great music and had no venue to go to to get their music out. There was absolutely no label that took care of the northern culture, sound, design and frankly, their exclusivity in the world. I am a sámi , so this is the world I come from" The particularly strong concept Manne presented to the music world, that of combining the individual's feelings and need for roots and origin and the music of minorities was inevitably successful. We are in fact all part of a minority, in one way or another. What atrium does is to communicate this through the music of minorities. That is also the reason why the Scandinavian sounds of atrium is so much appreciated in other parts of the world. Timeless, borderless. It is really a story of oneself.

The vision of what he wants to achieve with his productions has rendered him a reputation of being a perfectionist. "A good thing with my being so familiar or "fluent" with the technical aspects of recording music is that I can fully concentrate on the "feelings" of the musical expression. If I am a perfectionist it is rather in this aspect. The right feeling and atmosphere just have to evolve during the sessions in the studio".

Manne's intuition and his ability to see and to bring forward the "atrium-feel" in the musicians he is working with has resulted in the strong idiom that characterizes the label. But beside the world,jazz and folk music he also have created artists like Stina Nordenstam, Nicolai Dunger Lesli, and Saboonchi (the new Brian Eno). And by now PublishMent is on its way.

"When I produce musicians, of course I try to guide them into the atrium vision. When I hear an artist and sign them to atrium or whatever, I hear something specific, and I want to pull that out of them, I try to bring them into the atrium sound. In some cases what was presented to me I hated, but there was something in the artist that was right there, on the mark, they just needed to be channelled in the right direction. When I first hear an artist, I don't pay much attention to what the person has done, it's something in the tone of their musicÉin themselves - my intuition reacts, my heart is moved, it "bleeds". That's it. It's really very simple.

Manne's journey has led him back to his past, to feelings of affinity and to a clarity of vision. It is most likely necessary for a person to understand his past before being successful in the exploration of his future. Atrium and the other labels is without doubt a great step forward, but it is also a new beginning.

And Manne von Ahn Öberg, he travels on.