Diverse artister - 40 years' credibility

Coverfront    Digibooklet
 

Beat    Spotify    Wimp

Norwegian profiled label celebrates 40 years with a compilation of highlights:

“40 Years’ Credibility”

Norway’s oldest and most influential independent label, KKV (Kirkelig Kulturverksted) celebrates in 2014 its 40 years’ anniversary by releasing a compilation of highlights from its more than 5000 tracks of original recorded songs and compositions. This new “physical playlist” is called “40 years’ Credibility” and consists of 4 CD’s with 12 tracks from each decade.

KKV started as a typical product of the 70ties, with alternative strategies, a political approach to most of its activities and lots of experimental ideas.

It holds Norway’s most interesting back-catalog. The new collection contains interesting recordings from the earliest albums of artists who made their debut as recording artists on KKV; such as Bjørn Eidsvåg, Kari Bremnes, Sigvart Dagsland, Kenneth Sivertsen, Sondre Bratland, the choir SKRUK, Iver Kleive, Knut Reiersrud and others. In this anniversary edition we meet them together with Ketil Bjørnstad, Randi Stene, Ole Paus, Kata Cardenal (Nicaragua), Silvio Rodriguez (Cuba), Rim Banna (Palestine), Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat (Iran), Anita Skorgan,  Povl Dissing (Denmark) and Carola (Sweden).

Through the last decade KKVs catalogue has been supplied by many international releases, many of them from the Middle East. The label made a turn in its profile after the release of Lullabis from the Axis of Evil (2004).  The percentage of international sales increases currently. Every day many people from all over the world visit KKVs webshop (www.kkv.no)

The most positive change the label has seen through its history is the increasing access to audiences all over the planet, and the way a hunger and a curiosity for new musical ideas have risen in many parts of the world. The ability of music and other artistic messages to reach from heart to heart across long distances in tradition and geography is greater than ever.

KKV’s musical journey started in the Norwegian traditions of hymns and folksongs and followed the lines of poets out into the cities of modernity, to hidden treasures from troubled corners of the world and back into the depth of history. In the new compilation, the journey stops at the origins of Christianity with the Lord’s Prayer performed in the mother tongue of Jesus. 

KKV has since its start also worked with bringing architects and people working in the fine arts together to create sacred rooms, such as churches, chapels and “rooms of silence”. One of the most interesting changes in the story of KKV itself is the establishment of the venue Kulturkirken Jakob (The Jakob Church of Culture) in Oslo, which was accomplished in 2000. All the photos you will see in the compilation album are from this church, where the label also has its office. The motives are seen through the eyes of an artistic photographer. 
 

Aftenposten, Fredag 14. mars 2014: "Hva har vi egentlig fått ut av 40 år med Kirkelig Kulturverksted?"