''Maskineri'' (

Machine A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromol ...

ry) is the fourth studio album by Norwegian

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band Kaizers Orchestra, released on 18 February 2008. Recorded and mixed during November and December 2007, the album was released on the independent label Petroleum Records in Norway on 18 February 2008 and on

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

in international territories on a later date. On 17 December 2007 the first single, "Enden av november", was released on radio, their

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and

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. The same day, the first in a series of videos documenting the making of ''Maskineri'' was uploaded to

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Background

Early on, the band stated that with ''Maskineri'' they wanted to go in a new direction, not only with the songs, but also with how the album was to be made and whom to make it with. The band had recorded their three previous studio albums at Duper Studios in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

with the help of producer Jørgen Træen, whom they stated was the "best producer in the world." However, when they were approached by sound engineer and producer Mark Howard through

, they came to an agreement, and Howard was hired as the producer for the new album. Howard had earlier mixed the audio for

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

and

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on society's underworld and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He began in the American folk music, fo ...

Critical reception

The album was received well by the three biggest newspapers in Norway, ''

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

'', '' VG'' and ''

Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...

'', which all gave the album a 5/6 score. Most music magazines and websites also followed up with good scores. However, Danish

music magazine A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and culture in music cognition, music culture. Such magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, record reviews, concert reviews and occasionally have a covermount with ...

Gaffa ''Gaffa'' (stylized as ''GAFFA'') is a free Nordic music magazine with local editions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''Gaffa'' is Denmark's largest and oldest music magazine. It has been published since 1983 and has 320,000 print readers and 75 ...

'' gave the album 3/6, saying that the band "has lost their interest and belief in their own abilities".

Commercial performance

Since it was released on a Monday, ''Maskineri'' didn't enter the Norwegian Topp 40 Album charts until next week. The album made its debut on the charts in the coveted number-one spot. On 20 June 2008, the album was confirmed to have reached the platinum mark, 30,000 sales. The band received a commemorative framed platinum disc at the Topp 20 Supershow in Oslo on the very same day.

Track listing

Lyrics and music by Janove Ottesen, unless otherwise noted.

Personnel

Kaizers Orchestra

* Janove Ottesen -

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Geir Zahl -

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s *

Terje Winterstø Røthing Terje Winterstø Røthing (born Terje Vinterstø in 1977) is a Norwegian musician, playing guitar in the rock bands Kaizers Orchestra and Skambankt. Røthing joined the band Kaizers Orchestra soon after the band started in 2000. He had partici ...

– guitars * Øyvind Storesund -

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

* Helge Risa -

keys Key, Keys, The Key or The Keys may refer to: Common uses * Key (cryptography), a piece of information needed to encode or decode a message * Key (instrument), a component of a musical instrument * Key (lock), a device used to operate a lock * ...

, marimba * Rune Solheim -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Additional musicians

*Ragnhild Winterstø Røthing - vocals on track 3 *Gal Bar-Adon - Trombone *Mathieu Pé - Trumpet, flugelhorn *Florent Mannant - Tenor, Baritone saxophone *Andreas Pfaff - Strings

Technical

*Mark Howard - producer, recording, mixing *Janove Ottesen – producer *Matt Serrechio – mixing assistant *Gavin Lurssen – mastering

Background

Critical reception

Commercial performance

Track listing

Personnel

Kaizers Orchestra

Additional musicians

Technical

Artwork

Charts

Weekly charts

References