Midnight Choir was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 indie/alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band active from 1992 to 2004. Its members were Al DeLoner (Atle Byström), Paal Flaata, and Ron Olsen. They played a kind of Americana music

Americana (music)

Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...

.

The band was named after the opening of Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

's song "Bird on a Wire

Bird on the Wire

"Bird on the Wire" is one of Leonard Cohen's signature songs. It was recorded 26 September 1968 in Nashville and included on his 1969 album Songs from a Room. A May 1968 recording produced by David Crosby, entitled "Like a Bird", was added to the 2007 remastered CD...

": "Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir."

Midnight Choir won the Norwegian award Spellemannprisen in 1998 for best rock album, Amsterdam Stranded.

Discography (albums)

• 1994: Midnight Choir
• 1996: Olsen's Lot
• 1998: Amsterdam Stranded
• 2000: Unsung Heroine
• 2002: Selected Songs (compilation)
• 2003: Waiting for the Bricks to Fall
• 2005: All Tomorrows Tears: The Best of Midnight Choir (compilation)

From Olsen's Lot and onward produced by Chris Eckman (of The Walkabouts

The Walkabouts

The Walkabouts is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1984. The core members are vocalist Carla Torgerson and vocalist and songwriter Chris Eckman...

).

On the album Unsung Heroine, Chris Eckman is part of the band. There is also an appearance by Nils Petter Molvær

Nils Petter Molvær

Nils Petter Molvær also known as NPM is a Norwegian jazz trumpeter, composer, and producer. Molvær is considered a pioneer in fusing jazz and electronic music, showcased on his best-selling album Khmer, released by the German record label ECM in October 1997 in Europe and early 1998 in North...

on trumpet.

Discography (DVD)

• 2008: In the Shadow of the Circus Live recording Rockefeller Oslo mars 2003