Fenomenon

Fenomenon is a nusoul/electronic duo, formed in Stavanger, Norway in 2000 and consists of Håvard "Hobie" Rosenberg, Kjetil "Kay" Ingebretsen and Ruben Dalen The music of Fenomenon all started on a rainy october evening in Hobie’s basement. The guys had only been friends for a short period of time, introduced to each other through a mutual friend. Kjetil was at that time involved in a soul project called Quadraphonics, and Hobie had been programming music for quite some time. The guys had discussed music on many occasions and talked about where they wanted to take it, and so they took their ideas to the studio. This called for some serious experimentation, where Hobie programmed the beats, and Kjetil doing vocals over them. The result was at first a mainstream chill-out sound. To perfect it, and put their personal signature on it, the guys agreed that the music had to portray some mental images, maybe a quote from a movie they wanted to set music to. Kjetil and Hobie says that music is at it’s best when it tells a story and takes you on a journey. On that rainy evening the guys produced their first track as a beat duo, ”From Inside”. This tune introduced the first vibe of what was to become the sound of Kjetil and Hobie. At this time they needed a name for the project. Since their music was atmospheric and telling stories, they both settled for Fenomenon, as this best described the vibe. The ”F” is not a lack of good gramatics, more a graphic touch to the word, it just looks better with an f, than ph. ”From Inside” was picked up by a norwegian dj called Peer. He included the track on the ”Quart 2000” cd and the ball started rolling from there. This was an incentiv to start shopping for a deal. Kjetil started sending music around to several beat labels out there. After only a few weeks Fenomenon got 2 deal propositions from London label ”Nuphonic”, and Chicago Label ”Guidance”, and Nuphonic seemed like the best choice, not only financially, but also because the label was at that time one of the hotttest labels around, enjoying a great success with their artists. In october 2000 the first Fenomenon 12” ”Pacific Memories EP” was released on Nuphonic putting Fenomenon on the map, and making them the new buzz on the dj scene in Europe. The ep was instantly critically acclaimed, and got fantastic reveiews in magazines like Mix mag, 7even, and Jockey slut. The songs featured on the 12” was; ”Awake, ”Out of control”, ”Pacific memories”, and ”Solara”. These songs were all to be found on numeral compilations across the world, and on every hot dj chart around, and made ”Ep of the month” on Virgin megastore in London. Fenomenon suddenly had their hands full remixing, producing, and on top of this, trying to finish their debut album for Nuphonic. The guys produced and did remixes for Naked Music, producing music for the Eidos computer game ”Beach Life”, and remixing for the dance project ”Cirque Du Soleil”.] There was undoubtly great expectations to the next Fenomenon 12” on Nuponic, called ”Visjon Nord EP” which was set to release in April 2001 featuring 3 new great tracks; ”Romero Avenue”, Can’t they be good” co-written with, and featuring great vocalist, and good friend from New York, Wanda Felicia, and a smoking remix of ”Solara” by good friends Snorre & Oyvind of Butti 49. Sadly the formal release of ”Visjon Nord EP” never happened as Nuphonic at this time was liquidated. Only the test presses were sent out to different dj’s, stores and radio stations. The review of this 12” was also over the top, once again putting Fenomenon in the dancefloor and radio speakers across the world. Kjetil and Hobie was at this time only a minute from finishing their debut album, but was with out a label. The liquidation of Nuphonic seemed to generalize to the entire music industry at this time, and most labels where suffering from large costs, and low income. Wether this had to do with mp3 downloads or not can be discussed somewhere else. Several labels like Quango, and Francois K’s Wave was interested in picking up Fenomenon, but with a year of back and forth, and empty promises nothing happened. During this time the music originally made for the debut album grew old, and represented a style Kjetil and Hobie had by far moved away from. Weary of the whole music industry, Hobie and Kjetil retreated to the studio to make a whole new album showcasing their new broken beat nujazz style, but of course keeping the original Fenomenon touch. During the making of the album, the guys came in contact with norwegian cred label ”Beatservice”, and head director Vidar Hanssen which offered to release the Fenomenon album. As the guys was so tired of corporate bullshit, they thought that going independent was a good idea. It was better to have a small label that was into the music really working hard with the project, than disappering in a sea of other acts, and not being a priority. Vidar and Beatservice encouraged creative freedom, which was very important to Kjetil and Hobie, and in october 2003, Fenomenon signed an exclusive recording agreement with Beatservice records. The Fenomenon debut album, ”hourglass”, was set to release in April 2004, followed by a couple of singles. The title of the album was to describe the time it had taken for the guys to finally release their first full length, and time was to be the concept that the album was built upon. And so it was that the first single from the album, was the 80’s inspired tune ”Time”. A while before this, Kjetil and Hobie was so lucky to be introduced to the great animation talent Tom Idland, who out of pure kindness and interest made the music video for the single, wihich made it to nr.12 on the Mtv up north chart, and stayed on nowegian music video charts for 2 months. Tom had also created the video for ”Lucy Said” released on Hi-Fi terapi in the summer of 2003, which was also critically acclaimed. ”Hourglass” was released according to schedule in April 2004 and has so far received great reviews in Norway and the rest of the world. During the process of making the album, Kjetil and Hobie have had the privilege of meeting some great creative people, which have now become their friends, like the great swedish vocalist and producer Jonatan Backelie aka Ernesto, Martin Gjesdal, Tom Idland, Knut Arne Lindeland, Morten Berentsen, and the list goes on. The story of Fenomenon goes on from here, but hasn't been written yet. Check out their Myspace profile at