Morten Abel

Morten Abel ranks among Norway's most cherished and accomplished musicians, a warm pop/rock vocalist and composer who has commanded the country's attention for close to thirty years. His path began as frontman of Mods during the early 1980s, continued through the September When and Peltz across the 1990s, and extended into solo work throughout the 2000s. Born Morten Abel Knutsen in 1962 and raised in the northern city of Bodø, he relocated at fifteen to Stavanger, where he won an audition as singer for the rock outfit Catrix that soon evolved into Mods. During their 1980-1984 existence the band issued two Norwegian albums that reached the Top 20 plus a limited-edition English-language set titled Time Machine. After the group's breakup Knutsen shed his last name, issued a solo single in 1985, then reunited with two ex-Mods colleagues in 1987 to launch the September When. The new ensemble surpassed its predecessor by sending three successive albums to the top of the Norwegian charts in the early 1990s.

Following a role in the 1993 feature Hodet Over Vannet and one album with the trio Peltz that climbed to number two in 1996, Abel launched a solo career whose first effort, 1997's Snowboy, continued his run of Top Five releases. His recordings consistently reached wide audiences without chasing prevailing commercial fashions; at times they folded electronic and dance elements into an understated yet frequently playful pop/rock approach. The next three albums—Here We Go Then, You and I, I'll Come Back and Love You Forever, and Being Everything, Knowing Nothing—each claimed the number-one spot, after which two compilations appeared that included several fresh songs. Abel returned to the screen in the 2004 film Alt For Egil, reentered the charts with 2006's Some of Us Will Make It, and in 2007 wed longtime partner Gry Isabell Sannes; their daughter bears the full name Ella Dorthea Joppeline Navaho Snowflake Abel Sannes Knutsen.