Våkenett
Bridges- Fakkeltog
- The Leap
- Soft Rains of April
- Waterworks
- All the Planes that Come in on the Quiet
- Asleep
- Superior
- Faceless City
- Need No Doctor
- Wildfire
There is an interesting story behind bridges and their second album ‘Våkenatt’. They were a Norweigan psychedelic-rock band touring, recording and building a fanbase between 1978-1981 that featured what would become two of the most successful pop stars in the world... a-ha’s Paul Waaktaar-Savoy and Magne Furuholmen.
During the short-lived life of the band, that also featured Viggo Bondi and Øystein Jevanord, they released the album ‘Fakkeltog’ in 1980, and recorded the now almost mythical follow up ‘Våkenatt’. The sophomore album didn’t get a proper release apart from a limited run of a few hundred on green vinyl in 2018.
The truth is, not many people, hardcore a-ha fans included, knew much about bridges, it could be argued they still don’t. They were Magne Furuholmen, Paul Waaktaar-Savoy alongside Viggo Bondi (Bass Guitar) Erik Hagelien (Drums) then replaced by Øystein Jevanord (Drums)). They formed during their school days in Oslo. Constantly playing live in 1978 and 1979 (in which time Morten Harket coincidentally caught one of their performances) Waaktaar and Furuholmen planned to continue their musical careers in London after 1981, but Bondi and Jevanord declined, and so bridges split up and ‘Våkenatt’ was never released… until now.
To backtrack, the band released their first album ‘Fakkeltog’ in 1980, it was a low key release for a new band, nothing unusual, but the record went on to receive more attention after the band’s demise and a-ha turned into global pop icons. It became an expensive must-have record for the a-ha completist. There was always rumour and talk of an unreleased second album for the band, but nothing ever came to light… until an a-ha fan convention in Oslo at the end of April 2016.
Bondi and Jevanord were two of the guest speakers, talking the a-ha hungry crowd through their time in the band and the recording process of the first album. But as the presentation went on the two gentlemen started to talk about the rumoured second album ‘Våkenatt’, confirming for the first time that this was an actual thing, and not only that, Bondi had the tracks on his phone giving the audience snippets of some of the songs. It was a revelation!
As a result, Pål’s sister, Tonje, who was also among the speakers at the 2016 Convention, helped to convince her brother of the desire for this second album to be brought to public attention. As a result, Pål along with Chuck Zwicky, mixed the album nearly 38 years after the initial sessions bringing a happy ending to second album rumours.