[Thor Joachim Haga]

Yes, I remember hearing about that store. There were obviously some other great ones around the world, like Amoeba in LA, Footlights in NY, a couple in the UK and a few in Japan. Japan is still holding strong, by the way, as far as physical media is concerned, but they’re somewhat unique, and the prices are hefty. In Norway, we had Akers Mic. in Oslo, which is probably the greatest record store in Norwegian history, which closed shop permanently in 2004. We had a mail order vendor too, called Compacthuset, based out of Haugesund in the west and with a telephone book-sized catalogue (at their height, the largest selection in the Nordic countries), that I used a lot in high school. They closed in 1998 already.

I realize those times won’t come back, but I have this faint and naïve hope that somewhere out there – on the large internet – a vendor exists that is less concerned about making tons of money, and more concerned about moving product. There is only one chain left in Norway, Platekompaniet, and that is extremely expensive. There are some used record stores left, but they’re expensive too. The only way to get properly cheap CDs is if you bump into some thrift store or flea market, but then you have to wade through millions of crappy “Absolute Music 35”-type CDs to find a gem or two. Rarely good sountracks, and CERTAINLY not any titles on my want list.