Midnight Choir - Olsen's lot (1996)

Norwegian alternative rock / Americana band founded in summer 1992 by Paal Flaata and the two brothers Atle Bystrøm and Ron Olsen. Their original name was Hashbrowns, but when Lasse Hafreager discovered the band in 1993, he urged them to change the name. They landed on the name Midnight Choir, taken from the Leonard Cohen song "Bird On The Wire".
They recorded their first selftitled album in Texas 1994, heavily influenced by american roots music. In 1996 they met The Walkabout's front man Chris Eckman. And they managed to get him to produce their following albums. Eckman wanted to develop the band into more darker and orchestrated sound, something he managed to do. The band never got serious attention until 'Amsterdam Stranded' was released in 1998, their most selling album in their career. However as the band got further recognition in Norway and Europe, they parted ways in the beginning of 2004 after two more albums to pursue other projects. They released five albums and one Best-of cd during their lifetime.
In March, 2016 they reunited for a sold out Rockefeller in Oslo that followed with a new tour.