Popol Ace - Stolen From Time (Reissue) (1975/2003)

In the 70's, the weekly magazine The New had a regular weekly column called Het Samleserien. Here, an artist, film star or television celebrity was often featured on two sides, one side of which was a picture that could be pulled out and hanging on the wall. Often there were international stars like David Bowie, Slade, Suzi Quatro and Marc Bolan, but at the beginning of 1976, the magazine presented a Norwegian rock band on the verge of breaking through internationally.
In 1976, it was not quite fun with Norwegian bands and artists who played rock. Most of them can be placed in the dance band genre, with some kindness, perhaps as pop groups and cover bands. The soloists mostly focused on making their versions of famous foreign artists. There was also a large viewing environment, or maybe singer / songwriters that you could possibly call them today. But so, bands that played rock, they could count on one hand. Aunt Mary and Saft were already dissolved and Prudence was about to give up. But there was a Norwegian group that had not given up, and that focused on international success. The band formerly called Arman Sumpe D.e., also known as Popol Vuh, and eventually launched as Popol Ace because of a name song with a German prog band, was about to release "Stolen from Tine".
That they recorded parts of the album in the French plate studio Honky Chateau, where Elton John just kept house to record legendary "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" just two years earlier, did not make expectations worse. Media began to write about a band on its way to international breakthrough, and for a while there were serious negotiations about launch in the UK, USA, Germany, France and Japan. But somewhere on the road broke the negotiations together. The international part of the record company Polydor focused on another band, and Popol Ace was never known outside the country's borders. They had a small fan in France, but it was with it.
In 1976, Jahn Teigen said thankfully and went to a successful solo career, and when the rest of the band released the "Curly Sounds" album in 1978, there were not many who cared, not once in Norway. But for a while in 1975, Popol Ace was Norway's great music export, and almost world stars for a short period of time. And after all, even though the competition was not remarkably hard, they were Norway's best and toughest rock band. I remember being very impressed with the "Stolen from Time" album, and perhaps just as much impressed with the cover that did not look like other Norwegian releases at all. It then carried out tough and provoking.
Popol Ace also played in the beginning of 1975, which became Norway's first music video. "Queen of all Queens" was filmed by Team Film, the company behind, among others, the Olsenbanden films.(google)