Lava started in Årdal in 1977. Drummer Per Hillestad and guitarist Svein Dag Hauge were joined by Kjell Hestetun on bass and Stein Eriksen on keys and, voila, the biggest AOR and west coast success in Norwegian history was a fact.
Their big breakthrough in Norway came after the band’s appearance at Vossajazz in 1978. This was at a time when the whole world was playing jazzy pop music, except here on the mountain. In 1983 Randy Crawford was introduced to Lava for the first time. She was one of the great soul stars of the late 70s and into the eighties. This was the start of a long-standing collaboration. Lava made her album debut in 1980 with the album Lava and has in parallel with her own career, competed, played on and produced an impressive number of records with everyone from Tom Mathisen, Trond Granlund, Marius Müller, Olav Stedje, Gudny Aspaas, Anita Skorgan, Trond Viggo, Dollie, Prima Vera, Alex, Stein Ove Berg, Ketil Stokkan and Jannicke – just to name a few. They were nominated for Spellemann for the album Prime Time in 1982, before finally (deservedly) winning with the album Fire in 1984. Lava has housed a number of fantastic musicians and they have lasted for an impressive 45 years – in one form or another. Young Johnny Sjo fills Rolf Graf’s enormous bass shoes and Sigurd Køhn has been replaced by Kåre Kolve. Marius Müller was also around for many years, as an associate member. Interest in the band just keeps growing and growing and their records sell five figures abroad. Now their entire career will be collected in a beautiful box, designed by Trine + Kim Design Studio.
The liner notes are written by Europe’s biggest Lava enthusiast and connoisseur, Swedish Mikael Engström.
The box contains the following CDs:
CD1 Lava 1980
CD2 Cruisin 1981
CD3 Prime Time 1982
CD4 Fire 1984
CD5 The Rhythm of Love 1990
CD6 Polarity 2003
CD7 Alibi 2005
CD8 Symphonic Journey 2009
CD9 Water 2019
CD10 X 2023
CD11 Bonus Disc (live, alternative recordings, remixes, unreleased songs and songs from compilation albums).