Meadows & io is a Norwegian progressive rock band with a love for the sonically obscure.
A four-piece maximalistic noisy yet dynamic band, with a passion for expressions that last longer than your usual four-minute-pop-song. Their music is highly melodic at its core, words and harmonies encased in massive synthesizers, ear-piercing guitars, gritty bass and punchy drums.
Meadows & io considers themselves an art project more than just a band.
Those familiar with M&io know that this is a band on a relentless quest for metaphysical experiences grounded in their musical and visual experiments. In their live shows they synchronize their music to the otherworldly video art of C.A.Breda-Gulbrandsen, creating a highly concentrated and intense experience where their epic sounds and visual ecstasy bombard the audience.
Currently Meadows & io is working on their second album, recorded at Studio Paradiso by Jørgen Smådal Larsen and mixed by the legendary Bård Ingebrigtsen. The album features music from their live show “ORION”.
Members:
Claus A. Breda-Gulbrandsen: synthesizers, vocals and visuals
Vegard Eggum: guitars, vocals, synths
Julian Bugge Moe: bass guitar
Svein Olav Eriksen: drums
”...a cosmic journey into varied and exciting soundscapes, sometimes harsh and noisy, but also dynamic and lyrical. The vivid images on the screen and the music merged into a higher unity, and the time of the performance seemed to pass in a flash. The audience were panegyric in their excitement afterwards, and it greatly pleased a cinema director's heart to experience how the cinema room fit like a glove for this type of event.” - Even Thunes Jensen - Cinema Director Kongsberg Kino / board member Kongsberg Jazzfestival
Early days:
The history of Meadows & io starts in 1999 in the small culturally detached town of Kongsberg, Norway. The current members and composer Julian Skar formed the instrumental band Uramuse out of the remnants of the lofi-noise-pop band Osbie Feel. They went on for a few years before they transformed themselves into Revolting Tones Revue and later into When does the music Start?, introducing V.E on vocals. From this point on the creative collaboration of C.A.B.G and V.E was at the core of their songwriting. In 2007 Meadows & io was born with the line-up consisting of the current members in addition to Pål-Henrik Hagen from Sky is a roof and Kvelden og Natta and Christian Børke from Sightseers. In 2009 they released their debut album “Fieldwork”, a progressive alternative indie mash-up of a record, highly acclaimed by a lucky few. In 2011 the members of the band started to focus on other projects. C.A.B.G worked on his expressive video art and travels to remote places and V.E concentrated on As the tired trains cross Europe and Sightseers. Julian and Svein Olav spent their time working with the dusty old blues-chief Ulf Myrvold and was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy Awards for their album Old Memories, featuring V.E on guitars.
Fast forward to 2021… after a 10 year hiatus they finally started up their collaboration yet again. Now working together to implement a long overdue vision of combing film and music. The re-found relationship opened up an endless source of music and art. While indulging themselves in melody, textures and wide structures, the live show ORION appeared.