Beautiful, classic pop music. Lano Places was never a part of any established music scenes in Norway when they appeared with their debut album "everyone likes to be lonely" in 2001. The album took everyone by surprise, received great reviews, and is still counted as one of the best albums of the year in Norway
Lano Places combined the compositional strength of pop music with the sincerity of rock’n roll. Their chord progression and tonality was compared with newer British bands such as Travis and Coldplay. But reviewers have also recognized a more profound will: an attempt to reach the storytelling qualities of Belle and Sebastian and the inter-textual depth of John Lennon.
Anyway. “Everyone Likes To Be Lonely” is, if nothing else, a strong collection of songs. Recorded at home on an 8-track recorder. Lano Places have played together since 1997. And yes: They were the students who wanted to form a band. Some of them had written songs for a long time, though, so this was not a sudden artistic awakening. The band played their songs for those who wanted to listen. They recorded some demos and the radio stations showed interest. Shopping around the demo to the major labels didn’t give any results, but the local label CCAP fell in love with the demo immediately and released the album.
Even though the marketing budget was close to zero, and both the band and the label was new to the game, the album & the band was given a great deal of attention, and within a year three radio singles, a short Norwegian tour and playing at festivals ensured the band national attention and a nomination at the Norwegian Alarm Awards
The single “Isolation Street” was one of the most played tunes on Norwegian Radio Petre in 2001, and the song have also been included on two compilation albums. Other radio hits off the album includes "New Years Eve In Acapulco", "Is Itv You" and Crazy Man"
After the success of their debut album Lano Places was given more space & time in a proper studio for the recording of their second album.
On the first album the songwriting skills takes the attention away from the lo-fi production, this time the band had the time to both write a new bouquet of beautiful pop-songs, while at the same time enjoying the luxury of adding extra details to their production in the studio.
The result is an album that is less immediate and slightly darker then their debut, but it’s an absolutely marvelous pop-album if you give the songs time to grow on you.
This album has also given us three radio-singles so far: “Metallic Mazda”, “Combat” and “Silent Song”
