Take South By Southwest, subtract 80 degrees Fahrenheit, add a few feet of snow, take away the English system of measurement, add several degrees in longitude, (if you get to the North Pole you have gone to far), subtract a thousand or so bands, and if you are still with me, you are at the by:Larm music festival in Oslo, Norway. The festival started in 1998 in Trondheim, and has moved around Norway each year since. Two hundred bands, culled from more than a thousand entries, have come from all of the Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Finland and Iceland – to perform and promote themselves at the second by:Larm in Oslo – Norway’s capital and largest city.

The name by:Larm comes from the Norwegian, “by” meaning city, and “larm” meaning noise. And from Thursday, February 19th through Sunday the 22nd, music venues, bars, and squares in city of a half a million will be brimming with sounds from up and coming bands, established Scandinavian acts, and international music industry suits prowling for fresh talent.

I will do my best to navigate the festival and recommend artists for you, dear reader. I have sampled a smidge of almost all of the bands in attendance, and have planned my weekend according to my tastes. This rules out death metal – an incredibly popular format in these parts – and most house music. For those interested, I will list bands to check out if you are interested in these genres later in the blog.

www.bylarm.no

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