Lars Pedersen was born in 1961; his father, Tor Pedersen, was a Norwegian musical composer. At an early age, Lars performed with his father, brother and two older sisters, being often compared to The Partridge Family. Lars made his first apperance on a record when he was 11 years old, and met Chuck Berry and other stars.
In the late 1970's Lars played in the first Norwegian punk band Hærverk, and would later – as the 80's came – go on to form the band The Last James. The Last James explored The Beatles/Beach Boys sound, releasing three albums, Grape, The Last James and Kindergarten. During the 1980's and early 90's, Pedersen was also a member of the seminal industrial/new wave group Holy Toy, fronted by Andrej D. Nebb. Holy Toy put out severeal stand-out albums such as Panzer and Rabbitz, Why Not in Choir? and Pakt of Fakt.
Over the years Lars has also composed music for several productions by the Norwegian avant-garde ensemble The Theatre of Cruelty, firmly rooted in the visions of the French surrealist poet Antonin Artaud.
In 1983 Pedersen launched the one-man project Hospital Blimp, which would later become When. The debut album Drowning but Learning was released in 1987, with When's trademark cut-up/collage technique already apparent.
In 1988 When released Death in the Blue Lake, inspired by Norwegian author André Bjerke's psychological horror novel of the same name. The album had a strong atmosphere of fear and mourning, and was quite popular in Norwegian black metal circles. People like the late Euronymous (Mayhem) as well as his murderer Varg Vikernes (Burzum) often referenced When in the early nineties. Satyricon even used an excerpt from the album's A-side as intro to their Dark Medieval Times album. The B-side of the album is an amalgamation of ethnic music, blues harmonica, coughing, psychedelic pop and glissandi effects. Today it is almost impossibl....... więcej