The Ache Rock Band Official Website, Denmark

Welcome to The Ache Rock Band Official Website, Denmark.

Introduction

In May 2003, after a break of 20 years, the Danish rock band ACHE re-united, having committed themselves to creating a new song in support of the world-famous, however still politician-threatened alternative city "CHRISTIANIA" - or "Freetown" - in the heart of Copenhagen, the capital in Denmark.
Finally, in mid-April 2004, ACHE's Christiania song "De skæve drømme" was released on CD-single in Denmark (English trsl.: "The Alternative Dreams").
Lyrics by Steen Toft Andersen. Music by Peter Mellin.
Produced by Finn Olafsson at Olafssongs Studios.

We'd like, with this website, to tell about ACHE - before and now ... the comprehensive Danish version was launched on the Internet on April 4, 2004.
More sections of www.achesite.dk are being planned for presentation in English, too - in the near future.

On this page:

• ACHE-related News
• The legendary Danish progressive rock group ACHE - featured
  in the music magazine "World Pop News", July/August 1970
• ACHE's hit-song "Shadow of a Gipsy"
• ACHE's - & other prominent Danish prog-rock bands' - albums for sale on the Internet
• Editors' and webmaster's notes
• PDF files - Download Adobe Acrobat Reader

ACHE-related News

June 2010:

Finn Olafsson el. & ac. guitarist on new prog-rock CD

ACHE-guitarist Finn Olafsson is featured on 5 out of 7 tracks on the Taylor's Universe 2009 album "Artificial Joy" (MOBCD 020). Read more about the CD here:
www.progressor.net/robin-taylor

May 2010:

Live video with ACHE anno 1969

A rare concert video from Dagmar Cinema in Autumn '69 - here 4 U on YouTube:
ACHE: 'Acheron' - Midnight Session in Dagmar Cinema, Copenhagen

December 2008:

Download ACHE music from the Internet

Ache's two legendary rock albums "De Homine Urbano" and "Green Man" are now available for download at TDC Online:
De Homine Urbano / Green Man TDC Online download link

October 2007: Check out this formidable Danish prog-rock site: Progplanet!
There you'll also find a review of ACHE's first two albums:
www.progplanet.com

Here, just a short quotation from the review:

" Brothers Olafsson (guitars, bass and vocals) Peter Mellin (keyboards) Glenn Fisher (drums and percussion) really had the upper hand, being the only Danish band at that time, that really were progressive in the true sense of the word! Just listen to the fabulous and imaginary themes from: “De Homine Urbano” - great stuff and superb delivery from all involved. Finn Olafsson´s guitars are superb!! As are Mellin´s keyboards, really great music!
You need to own this fine piece of Danish music history! "

January 2007: Danish-Swedish symphonic-folk-speed-prog-metal & rock'n'roll band WUTHERING HEIGHTS has recorded their own, version unique version of ACHE's 1970's hit "Shadow of a Gipsy"!
The song is included as bonus-track on the Japanese version of the band's 4th album, "The Shadow Cabinet", released in Japan in early October 2006.
Only 3 weeks after the release the album had already sold more than 3.300 copies. Read more here:
www.wuthering-heights.dk

August 2006: Much too many people seem to have forgotten all about the fantastic lightshows which accompanied - and illuminated - the prog-rock concerts during the late 60's and early 70's.
Here you can now read the fascinating story about the most awesome of all Danish psychedelic light groups ever -
TEZCATLIPOCA LIGHTS!:
The Tezcatlipoca Light Show of Denmark

July 2006: Scandinavian symphonic-folk-speed-prog-metal & rock'n'roll band WUTHERING HEIGHTS have recorded their own, unique arrangement of ACHE's 1970's hit "Shadow of a Gipsy"!
The song is included as bonus track on the Japanese version of the band's
4th album, "The Shadow Cabinet", to be released in October 2006.
Read much more at:
www.wuthering-heights.dk & www.intromental.com

June 2006: Finn Olafsson has opened his own, personal homepage: www.finnolafsson.com.
There you can now hear music clips from his two solo CDs "Acoustic Guitar" and "Acoustic Guitar 2", as well as most of his recordings
with Anders Roland.
Link to the site: www.finnolafsson.com.

March 2006: Karma Music has released the DVD "Going Underground Volume 1: 1969-1976". ACHE is here represented with a TV-recording of their mid-70's track "Kilometerstenen".
Read more at: www.karmamusic.dk.

     

Spring 2005: ACHE bassist Steen Toft Andersen releases his 2. solo album on the Olafssongs label:
"Travellers' Tales - Featuring the Ukulele".
Four ACHE musicians are contributing eminently: Guitarist Finn Olafsson, drummer Gert Smedegård, bassist Torsten Olafsson & Steen Toft Andersen, the Ukulele Maestro himself!
Don't be mistaken: The Ukulele in Steen's hands emits the fullest sounds like those of both the harp, the mandolin og the Spanish guitar - and every now and then the backing reminds one of the heaviest, classical prog-rock!

Read more about the CD at: www.olafssongs.dk
Read about the musicians via this link (PDF): Steen Toft Andersen's band


     

October 25, 2004: Renowned ACHE guitarist Finn Olafsson releases two solo CDs featuring phenomenal music for acoustic fingerpicked steel-string guitars:
"Acoustic Guitar" & "Acoustic Guitar 2".

Read more about the two albums on this site: www.olafssongs.dk

The legendary Danish progressive rock group ACHE
- featured in the music magazine "World Pop News", July/August 1970

DANISH ROCK BALLET "DE HOMINE URBANO"
SPECTACULAR COMBINATION OF POP AND BALLET

With the introduction of beat music into those areas traditionally reserved for classical music i.e. the theatre and ballet, the door has been opened to a larger audience. The largest audience, the beat generation.
This has been shown by the Who's contribution to opera music with their version of "Tommy", and now ACHE, the Danish beat scene's most interesting and forthcoming group.

ACHE, 1970: Glenn Fischer (drums), Torsten Olafsson (bass & vocal),
Finn Olafsson (guitars), Peter Mellin (hammond organ & piano)

Standing ovations and gushing reviews saluted the rockballet "De Homine Urbano", and the enthusiasm was referring to the electric made music - the first of its kind to be heard in the famous Royal Theatre in Copenhagen.
The music constitutes half of the LP and the originators of the new art-form, ACHE, who for more than a year has been considered as one of the most original and productive rockgroups in Scandinavia, hereby got a decisive breakthrough and also had a tempest certification on the carrying capacity of their talent.

The music was created in an intimate cooperation with the dancer Peter Schaufuss from The Royal Danish Ballet Company. In a remote house in the country they established a hardworking collective unity in the winter of 1969 and succeeded in getting the music and choreographical tradition together.
Just before that happened, ACHE set the Danish rock-scene on fire by doing a lot of solid gigs all over the country. They also appeared on TV with their fantastic act.

IN PERSON
The organist PETER MELLIN - one of the most talented in Europe to-day - has been educated in classical music at the Danish Academy of Music but his playing sticks more to modern inspiration than to dusty tradition.
The brothers FINN and TORSTEN OLAFSSON on respectively leadguitar and electric bass often sit by the piano in the enormous house of their parents. Some of the best tunes result from the free sessions in this place and the unconscious power takes the lead in the in the compositions of the group. GLENN FISCHER, a former collaborator at a record company and the drummer in ACHE, won unfading honour when he stripped to the waist during a concert in open air last summer.

ACHE has all it takes to make a good group, and even more, Dancer Peter Schaufuss says:
"In the past few years, there has been a cultural explosion of the popular arts. Young artists, and aged ones for that matter, have found the traditional forms arbitrary, and experimentation even at the risk of artistic anarchy, have revolutionized i.e.: Pop music (as it was then called) art and to a lesser extent the theatre. This in turn has found its life form in our society. But mainly through beat music are we able to feel the extent of its impact.

That beat music seems to have synthesized most of the intellectual and artistic movements of our time, cross fertilizing them rapidly toward fruition, is well known, but this doesn't account for its truly fantastic popularity with the public.
The reason, we feel, is largely due to its attitude towards the audience-artist relationship and the ways and means employed in breaking down the stereotyped idea of what constitutes the "proper" artistic stance and audience response.
Wishing to introduce the art of ballet to a wider audience we knew, that to capture this audience, we had to incorporate their language, their medium into the art form. Only with these goals in sight would it be possible for us and audience to find a rapport, fusing in a continuum of light, sound and movement we started this project: A beat ballet.

It has been a great challenge, to put ballet and beat music together, and we can only hope we have achieved our aims.
The four musicians, who together make up the group ACHE, wrote and performed a beautiful piece of music, and we feel that ballet will not only be grateful for having its doors opened to a wider audience, but also for its having had a serious contribution to its art form."

In the summer of '69 Annemarie Dybdal and Peter Schaufuss, both from The Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, performed part of the ballet "De Homine Urbano" at the famous Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia.

LITTLE THINGS
is the title of the B-side of the LP.
This piece of music deals with the little things around us. It all started in January '68, but much has been changed since then. Many times new ideas were added. Many times some old tunes were left out. In this way - little by little - the idea has grown and grown. One of the last ideas before the actual recording of this album literally sprang out from a mood of pure tranquillity. Musically it is contained in the very last quiet minutes of the whole thing, i.e. the coda.

Imagine harvesters in a wide waving field, doing their daily task. Tired but happy.
Contended in being in any part of the world, whether it be in South Africa, the U.S., Russia. No matter where your imagination may take you it will still be the same.

An old Chinese poem said that "music is an expression of the harmony in the heart of Man".
This music expresses the sentiments of ACHE. They made it the way they really feel things.
And in case you're looking for a political meaning in the music, be assured that you'll be wasting your time.
(PHILIPS 841906 PY).
In: World Pop News, July/August 1970, page 4

Page Top

ACHE in the Bella Center/Electronica '69 TV-studio
- the first Danish rock band to be broadcasted live - in colour!
- in National Danish Television, August 1969 (ACHE archive photo)
Finn Olafsson - Torsten Olafsson - Glenn Fischer - Peter Mellin

ACHE's hit-song "Shadow of a Gipsy"

Released on the Philips label in August, 1970, the ballad "Shadow of a Gipsy" soon made it to the charts in several European countries.
In 1971 ACHE received a silver record for the sales of more than 50.000 copies, especially sold in France.


There's a shadow of a gipsy
Follows me wherever to I go
Seeking Love when moving to and fro
Why is it so?

There's a place beneath a rainbow
Laughing demons crowding everywhere
Shall they hide forgotten treasures
Sealed in the ground?

I'm the shadow of a gipsy
Love the wind to blow against my face
Love to feel the breath of Freedom
When shall it be?

Took me to a camp of gipsies
Crowds of joyful dancers all around
Did they tell me they'd already found
Joyfulness' sound?

I'm the shadow of a gipsy
Love to feel the rain across my face
Love to be wherever love is pure
When will it be?

I'm the shadow of a gipsy
Love the wind to blow against my face
Love to feel the breath of Freedom
Am I insane?

Lyrics: Torsten Olafsson
Music: Peter Mellin - arr. by ACHE
Released on single on August 12, 1970 (Philips)
Copyright © by DACAPO/Warner/Chappell Music Denmark A/S

"Shadow of a Gipsy" has been published in print with melody line, chords and lyrics in the songbook: "Alle Tiders Sangbog 2" - ISBN 87-90050-03-7 - ISSN 0908 6811
Warner/Chappell Music Denmark A/S, 1994 - WB 09406

In June 1971 ACHE received a silver record for the sales of more than 50.000 copies of their hit-single "Shadow of a Gipsy"
- especially sold in France.

ACHE's - & other prominent Danish prog-rock bands' - albums for sale on the Internet

The Danish prog-rock music company Karma Music has specialized in making available rare recordings with classical Danish Rock bands re-released on CD:
Karma Music, Denmark - Golden Age DK Rock on CD

Those of You who'd like to surf the Internet for second-hand vinyl-versions of the (quite expensive) original ACHE-albums are adviced to use the following keywords:
"De Homine Urbano" "Green Man, "Shadow of a Gipsy", "Pictures from Cyclus 7", and "Blå som altid".
GOOD LUCK!

ACHE reunited after 20 years
- recording for National Danish Television in April 2004
(photo: Mik Schack, DR-2)
Gert Smedegård - Johnnie Gellett - Torsten Olafsson
Steen Toft Andersen - Peter Mellin - Finn Olafsson

Editors' & webmaster's notes

Any comments and possible contributions are most welcome!

Heartful thanks to all the photographers and illustrators, known and unknown, including Peder Bundgaard, Bjarne "Eskild" Eskildsen, Steen Møller Rasmussen, Johannes Mølleskov, Jørgen Nielsen, Finn Olafsson, Torsten Olafsson, Jan Persson, Dan Worbs Petersen, Mik Schack, Mikkel Scharff, Steen Toft Andersen & John Wilhelmsen.
Very special thanks to everybody who took part - contributed and supported the band - over the years, "front-stage" as well as "back-stage"
Have fun!
All the best from ACHE & the website editors who are:

Torsten Olafsson & Mikkel Scharff
Finn Olafsson & Per Wium

"De skæve drømme" - cover front (photo/layout: Torsten Olafsson)

CHRISTIANIA ART:

(photos: Torsten Olafsson)

PDF files - Download Adobe Acrobat Reader

Some documents and illustrations will be presented in PDF-format.
In case you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer (needed to open, view and print PDF-files)
you can download that useful software via this link:

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader:

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THE ACHE ROCK BAND OFFICIAL WEBSITE, DENMARK
c/o Olafssongs, Paarupvej 44, DK-3230 Graested, Denmark
Copyright © 2003-2010 by Ache c/o Olafssongs, Denmark.