AM & The UV

A short-lived artist venture & project collaboration between Norwegian vocalist Anne Marie Almedal (AM), Nicholas Sillitoe and Ken Theodorsen under their artist/production moniker “Ultraviolet”.

Between 2002 and 2004, Anne Marie Almedal took time out from fronting her band “Velvet Belly”, and teamed up with Nicholas Sillitoe and Ken Theodorsen, who had already been producing music together under the name “Ultraviolet”. Over this period, AM & The UV released two EPs — Tomorrow Is All Like Flowers and Silently The Birds Fly Through Us — and the album Candy Thunder on +47.

“Everybody’s Girlfriend”, the grandiose opening track on their debut EP Tomorrow Is All Like Flowers caused quite a stir when first unleashed on the Norwegian music scene. The unexpected combination of Anne Marie Almedal’s glacial dream-pop vocal delivery with Ultraviolet’s space-echo beats, swirling synths and nifty glockenspiel hook seemed to hit the spot. 

“Everybody’s Girlfriend” soon found its way onto the opening track of the “who’s who of Norwegian electronica” compilation Way Out North. This well-curated CD was distributed for free around the world via Music Export Norway (a state-funded organisation set up for the international export and promotion of Norwegian music) and also as a giveaway via the British music magazine Jockey Slut. Anne Marie Almedal also appeared on the compilation as featured vocalist on another track, “Where Are You”, a Norwegian radio hit from the electronica act “Moonflowers”.

On the back of the Way Out North campaign, AM & The UV occasionally took their studio-based project out live. Performing with additional guest session musicians to fill out the sound, the band played at various venues and electronic music festivals in and around Norway in 2003 and 2004. These select events included gigs at major Oslo venues like Rockefeller Music Hall, Blå, and Chateau Neuf, as well as festivals including By:Larm (Trondheim), Insomnia (Tromsø), and the Quart Festival (Kristiansand).

Initially released on +47, Nicholas Sillitoe later struck a collaborative deal with Beatservice Records, an electronic music label based in Tromsø, which to this day still handles worldwide distribution of the AM & The UV catalogue. More info here.

In autumn 2004, the one and only AM & The UV album Candy Thunder was released on CD, with the single “In This Kiss” made available for promo use only. Despite being a fairly short-lived project, AM & The UV managed to create some effortlessly timeless, blissful moments of what can only be described as “arctic dream-pop electronica”.

Over the years, several songs from the AM & The UV /+47 catalogue have been licensed to a number of different compilations, and their music continues to this day to be synced to commercials, film, and TV soundtracks around the world.

For all intents and purposes, the AM & The UV project primarily paved the way for Anne Marie Almedal’s eventual solo career, as well a being a formative step for Nicholas Sillitoe’s future work as a film and TV composer.

The essential AM & The UV catalogue is currently available for streaming and thankfully lives on in the digital age.

Physical CDs are also still available via Bandcamp.

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Photo: Sebastian Ludvigsen.