Bjørn Berge
Biography Bjørn Berge
Bjørn Berge
has for a number of years proven himself as a unique guitarist, an acoustic genius and a formidable live performer. With his acoustic guitars, he moves mountains and blows the listeners away with hard-hitting arrangements. Berge's fierce and dynamic guitar playing on the acoustic guitar travels between blues, rock, funk and ballads. The guitarist from Norway has previously released 12 studio albums and one live album. In 2001 and 2002 he received a Norwegian Grammy in the Blues category, and the Notodden Blues Festival Blues Award in 2001.
The long-awaited 13th studio album from Berge is out today - there he still shows his virtuoso abilities as a guitarist. With cover versions like T-Rex's "Get It On" from 1971 and Deep Purple´s "Black Night" from 1972, Berge takes rock classics into a dark, acoustic blues-landscape. He´s a great storyteller, with a deep and characteristic voice and with impressively fast fingers made of steel. He is living up to the title: "Introducing SteelFinger Slim". Berge says: I choose covers from song I already love and I always test every song I want to cover on a live audience. It´s important that the song hasn´t been covered too much already, and that the songs have characteristics that are easy to recognise. Then I have the freedom to play around with the arrangments, and without the song loosing it´s identity.
A song that has become for many one of the first and greatest glam rock/boogie rock songs, was "Get it On" which also works excellently in Berge's one-man orchestra. His powerful voice takes the song into a rougher, more naked musical landscape.
- I've always liked T. Rex and Marc Bolan. Heard the song on the radio one day, sat down and started thinking of a way to do something with it. Tuned the guitar down to a low A, which worked well and I got a somewhat heavier sound than the original, I think, says Bjørn Berge.
The arrangements are created spontaneously both backstage and at the concert, but the final arrangements are nevertheless set by testing in front of a live audience. Which is natural, as during his career Bjørn Berge has built up a solid live reputation as a world-class guitarist, which means that he regularly visits major jazz, blues and rock festivals and clubs around Europe and North America.
