ADDVIBE
The Addvibe history...
At the age of nine, dj addvibe was exposed to musical flavours like Creole, reggae and afro by his new “father”, as his mother married a man from Cape Verde. A few years later the young rebel found his salvation in the early days of hip hop, both as a dancer and a dj. Rescued from the streets of Oslo/Norway by a Jamaican, dj Dennis, and discovered this young talent and took him under his wings. Off the streets, dj addvibe spent his days behind the turntables, practicing his mixing skills. After one year of practice, from 86 to 87, he won the Norwegian DMC mixing title, making him the Norwegian representative in the world finals in London, where he impressed with a sixth place.
Never stopped dj’ing, dj addvibe then started to produce and release funk, disco and jazz inspired house music under various aliases, first on his own Thang records. Thang records was meant to be a label for producers in dj addvibe's inner circle and new talents. The first time "addvibe" was used as a moniker was in 1996 on a vinyl release called Thang Vol 1. Thang Records released four 12 inches on vinyl and one CD. The label got distribution by legendary peppermint jam in 1996. Later he signed deals with a variety of different labels like Beatservice, DFR, Defender and Ten pin.
The Dusty and Dirty Thangz CD from 1998 embodied the dream that dj addvibe had for the label. Here a number of friends showcases their productions. Jan Marius Dahle aka Kango started his career on Thang, and had several releases on various labels after this appearance. Raymond Hansen, aka KYD, was 16 or 17 years at the time of the release and proved to have a great talent. Torgeir Skeie aka Juz-T, just like KYD, got sample material from dj addvibe's vast vinyl collection and started playing around with it. The last producer except addvibe on the CD was Tage Slettemoen, also known as dj White Shadow of Norway. He contributed on the CD as 109th Connection. Between the two there was a deep and long friendship, both personal and musically. Tage has a number of hip hop and house productions behind him and is still active. The vocalist Easton Davis was a chance meeting. He worked as a traveling musician, playing piano and singing. dj addvibe met him at a local pub. The meeting ended up with Easton recording vocals for the track Da Ground. Thang Records was one of the major contributors to the birth of the US house inspired music production in Norway.
The musical project "addvibe" was conceived by Pål Sørli in 1996, and a major change in this project was that Pål started to blend both sampled based tracks and live musicians. First to play on addvibe's tracks was the saxophone player Dag Stiberg on "Mo'juice". Later the album "luv and happiness" came together after dj addvibe heard a mean keyboardist, Tor Egil Braseth, at a concert. He contacted Tor Egil, and Tor Egil suggested to bring along his friend on guitar Tom Christer Johansen. The week after they met and a musical friendship blossomed and the journey towards the album release begun. Once again Easton Davis contributed with vocals for Brothers and Feels So Good. Pascal from France contributed with spoken words on Latin Spirit. Tor Egil's brother Jan Erik Braseth deliverd an ace flute solo to Brothers. There is also another side of this story worth to mention. Tom Crister Johansen joined a little bit to late to join Tor Egil and me on the first two tracks for the first 12", the "Groove with U" and the track and album title "Luv&Happiness". Those tracks was in fact the tracks that gave us the record deal in the first place. So who is playing that fantastic guitar on "Luv&Happiness"? It was actually a another guitarist from Tromsø, Trond Nedberg, and he deserves props for making "Luv&Happiness" as dusty&dirty as it is!
The album “addvibe - luv and happiness”, brought rave reviews from both international music press and wide range of DJs and producers like Harvey, Tom Middleton, Lars Behrenroth, Monte la Rue, Laurent Garnier, Rainer Truby and Mark Gorbulew. The track “Brothers” was remixed by the masters of NY house Mateo & Matos. The release party for the album “Luv&hapiness” was held at the famous club Cargo in London.
Times flies, and after the break up of the inner circle for the "Luv&Happiness album, consisting of Tor Egil Braseth, Tom Christer Johansen and Pål Sørli, the founder and driving force behind the concept, Pål Sørli, kept on producing house towards 2002, but then his focus changed to his family and martial art training. However, addvibe was from the very start back in 1996 meant to be a floating concept, taking on new inspiration and new contributors along the way. So now that the "tides" are changing, it is time to once again gather some strong forces and make Norwegian house music history all over again! And this time, with solid contributors, fresh inspiration and deeper knowledge, the new addvibe project promise to present the finest grooves, for both the dancefloors and the lounge area.