| Alexander von Mehren is a 26 years old student/musician from Kristiansund/Bergen, Norway. He started playing the piano at the age of four, and when he turned seven he started having classical lessons. During his ten years of classical training he had gradually developed an interest in alternative pop/rock, post-rock and jazz-influenced music and started composing within these genres. Three years as orchestra leader at a local theatre and the discovery of The High Llamas and Stereolab during this period, inspired von Mehren to focus especially on arrangements and harmonization in his compositions. As his interest in music increased, von Mehren also developed an interest in production, and 2004/2005 he attended a year-long course in Digital Sound and Music Production at the Noroff Institute in Bergen. von Mehren has his own project studio, The Guestroom, where he writes and records music, and over the last couple of years he has also developed skills on bass, drums and vibraphone. For his solo project von Mehren uses guitarists Fredrik Drønen and Erlend Alm Lerstad and other guest musicians, mostly strings and brass performers. In 2003, von Mehren started working with Espen Horne and his two projects, Bobby Hughes Combination and Kinny & Horne, after a gig with jazz-pop duo Van Boffe, one of von Mehrens musical projects, consisting of himself and guitarist Chris Holm. von Mehren first appeared on a Bobby Hughes remix of the theme from 70s film classic Get Carter, for the 2004 release of Roy Budd's soundtrack collection, Vigilante!. After a couple of live appearances, including one in Singapore, with Bobby Hughes Combination, von Mehren also appeared playing the piano on Horne's new album, Forgetting to Remember, released May 2005 under the name of Kinny & Horne. Early 2004 von Mehren started playing with instrumental rockers The Sheriff and gradually became a permanent live and studio member of the band. The band is currently recording their first LP. von Mehren appeared with his version of Hillbilly Motobike on The Politics Of Photosynthesis - A Tribute To Stereolab, digitally released on iTunes Store, Amazon and CDBaby February, 2007. Furthermore, von Mehren appears on William Hut's album, Nightfall (2006), and on French band Orwell's album, Le Génie Humain (2007). von Mehren appears playing vibraphone on the two latest Chris Joss albums, Sticks (2009) and Monomaniacs Volume 1 (2010), both released on ESL Music. von Mehren also appears as strings arranger and vibraphonist on forthcoming releases from Orwell, Le Futur Pompiste and Hypertext. As well as being a student at the University of Bergen, von Mehren is currently finishing his first solo album. |
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