Shining

Three years after Shining’s breakthrough moment, the genre-defining album Blackjazz, the innovative Norwegian jazz-metal band is back with another immaculate opus. Shining’s Jørgen Munkeby comments: “This time around, the focus was on writing fun songs that are fun to listen to and fun to play. These are our new Blackjazz hits, one hit after the other.” Where Blackjazz sounded as if the electronics in your sound system were about to melt, One One One sounds more like shaking the bag of your favorite rock riffs, all unmistakably molded into the form of their very own patented Blackjazz.

The album’s first single, I Won’t Forget, has already been listed on the biggest Norwegian radio station NRK P3, we can conclude that the album is already a hit in it’s home country. If you think the term “Blackjazz hits” is an oxymoron, you better think again. “When writing the songs for One One One, I aimed at getting each and every song to sound their absolute best, and to be strong enough to stand alone. A series of ones, which is also where the album title comes from”, says Munkeby while adding: “But as a huge fan of the longer forms of music, where the whole album or symphony is just as important as the bits it is made from, we never strayed away from focusing on the totality of the album. I really feel we’ve managed to successfully combine these two aspects.”

One One One is Shining’s seventh album release, and the third in the Blackjazz trilogy: Blackjazz (2010), Live Blackjazz (2011) and One One One (2013). When Shining released Blackjazz, they took the whole world by surprise. They had stumbled across a new black gold that no one prior knew existed: Free jazz and metal was combined into a completely new industrial alloy. As a result, Blackjazz was hailed by all sides of the music scene, from The New York Times through Metal Hammer, to Pitchfork. In 2011, the genre Blackjazz was further solidified by their high octane live DVD aptly named Live Blackjazz. With One One One, Shining’s very own Frankenstein’s monster has now thoroughly been brought to life, and Blackjazz is established as a whole new genre for generations to come.

One One One was written by the father of Blackjazz, saxophone superman Jørgen Munkeby, in studios in Los Angeles and in his own studio in Oslo over the course of twelve months. The album was mixed and co-produced by Sean Beavan (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Slayer, No Doubt, 8mm), who also co-produced the album, and Tom Baker did the mastering. Both gentlemen also worked on Blackjazz and Live Blackjazz, and they brought with them the band’s signature sound. One One One marks a new and more colorful era for Shining. Dark grey has been switched out with a brighter orange, all the while keeping the original black gold at the core: Their very own invention known as Blackjazz.