Early Years [Import]

Fra Lippo Lippi, The Early Years | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 3, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Rune Arkiv Norway
• ASIN: B000A6QWTW
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,302 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Rune Arkiv is a Rune Grammofon sub-label. The Norwegian duo Fra Lippo Lippi was formed by Rune Kristoffersen in 1980. The name is taken from a poem by Robert Browning, dedicated to the Italian renaissance painter Filippo Lippi. A year later their debut album is released by the Norwegian indie label Uniton. In Silence shows a strong influence by groups such as Joy Divison and The Cure. For their next album Small Mercies (1983) they get Per Oystein Sorensen to join as the new singer. The music shows a considerable development towards a more personal style, with the piano as the central instrument. The Early Years includes both In Silence and Small Mercies and 2 instrumental b-sides, all on one CD.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Norwegian Contingent, January 23, 2006

By 

Mark Champion "autumnfair" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Early Years (Audio CD)

This Norwegian duo-into-a-trio started out as Joy Division/The Cure wannabees on their debut. 1981's IN SILENCE (see? told ya), from the morbid cover to the atmospheric set-pieces inside, has all the hallmarks of slavish imitation, but is certainly an enjoyable record for all that. 'Quiet', with its insistent and repetitive ascending bass-and-drum riff and mellow flute, is arguably its best track but none of it is awful by any means and there's no reason to resent Fra Lippo Lippi's tribute to their favorite bands. By their second album, 1983's SMALL MERCIES (there they go again!) the duo had acquired a putatively better singer and morphed into a more polished outfit that still maintained a fairly Factory Records ambience. So what's this CD? Well, it's a compilation of those two albums in their entirety along with two brief Enoesque piano instrumentals. There are a few odd things about the formatting, though. To begin with, the cover - - while certainly not shoddy in and of itself - - not only does no justice to the originals, it completely ignores them. Gone are the leering corpses of IN SILENCE (maybe just as well); gone the beautiful waterway photography of SMALL MERCIES (scandalous). Instead you get a stark black-and-white abstract that looks more like something from a comtemporary Wire album. There's probably a good reason for this, but it's still disappointing. As for the CD itself - - for whatever reason, the tracks from SMALL MERCIES actually precede those of IN SILENCE, with the two instrumentals tacked on to the end. These two tracks were the B-side to the original version of 'Now And Forever', which does not appear here at all and which actually was released as a single in 1982 as a stopgap between the two albums. The CD clocks in at a hefty 78-plus minutes and the trio re-recorded the song for SMALL MERCIES so the exclusion is understandable. The time constraint also precludes the inclusion of the two live B-sides from the twelve-inch single 'The Treasure' and the follow-up single 'Say Something'/Out To Sea'. An early compilation track, 'Fabric Wardrobe' and the 1980 four-song instrumental 7-inch, TAP DANCE FOR SCIENTISTS, are also absent. So . . . not quite a comprehensive collection, but heck - - at least this stuff is available again. As a document of obscure early-80s post-punk it's invaluable. But you really should try acquiring the original covers. Mock-disturbing on the one hand and quasi-lovely on the other . . . kinda like the music.