AM & The UV

A short-lived artist venture & project collaboration between Norwegian vocalist Anne Marie Almedal (AM), Nicholas Sillitoe and Ken Theordorsen (under their artist/production moniker “Ultraviolet”).

Between 2002-2004, Anne Marie Almedal took time out fronting her band “Velvet Belly”, and hooked up with Nicholas Sillitoe & Ken Theodorsen, who had already been producing music together under the name “Ultraviolet”. Over this period, AM & The UV released two EP’s “Tomorrow Is All Like Flowers”, “Silently The Birds Fly Through Us”, and the album “Candy Thunder” on +47.

“Everybody’s Girlfriend”, the grandiose opening track on their debut EP “Tomorrow Is All Like Flowers” caused quite a stir at the time, when first unleashed to the Norwegian music scene. The unexpected combination of Anne Marie Almedal’s glacial dream-pop vocal delivery, coupled with Ultraviolet’s space echo beats, swirling synths and nifty glockenspiel hook seemed to hit the spot. 

“Everybody’s Girlfriend” soon found it’s way appearing as opening track on the “who’s who of Norwegian electronica” compilation, “Way Out North”. This well curated CD was distributed for free, all around the world via Music Export Norway (a state-funded organization set up for the international export and promotion of Norwegian Music) and also as a giveaway via the British music magazine “Jockey Slut”. Anne Marie Almedal also graced this compilation as featured vocalist on another track, “Where Are You”, a Norwegian radio hit from the Norwegian electronica act “Moonflowers”.

On the back of the “Way Out North” campaign, AM & The UV occasionally took their studio-based project out “live”. Performing with additional guest session musicians to fill out the sound, the band played at various venues and electronic music festivals in and around Norway, in 2003/2004. These select events included gigs at major Oslo venues like Rockefeller Music Hall, Blå, Chateau Neuf and festivals like By-Larm, (Trondheim), Insomnia (Tromsø), and the Quart Festival (Kristiansand).

Initially released on +47, Nicholas Sillitoe proceded to make a collaborative deal with Beatservice Records, an electronic music label based in Tromsø; who, to this day, still take care of the worldwide distribution of the AM & The UV catalogue. More info here.

In the autumn of 2004, the one (and only) AM & The UV album “Candy Thunder” was released on CD, with the single “In This Kiss” also made available for promo use only. Despite being a fairly short-lived project, AM & The UV managed to make some effortlessly timeless, blissful moments of what can only be described as “arctic dream-pop electronica”.

Over the years, several songs from the AM & The UV/+47 catalogue have been licensed onwards to a number of different compilations, and their music continues, to this day, to be synched to commericals, film & tv soundtracks all around the world.

For all intents and purposes, The AM & The UV project primarily paved the way for Anne Marie Almedal’s eventual solo career, as well a being a formative step for Nicholas Sillitoe’s future work as a film & tv composer.

The essential AM & The UV catalogue is currently available for streaming, and thankfully lives on in the digital age.

Physical CD's are also seemingly still available via Bandcamp.

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Photo: Sebastian Ludvigsen.