Based
in Norway, and recording under the Amethystium name, Oystein Ramfjord has
released two superb and highly successful albums, and a third much-anticipated
record is on its way. Odonata (Neurodisc Records), Oystein's debut album, was a huge hit reaching #5 on the Billboard New Age charts. Odonata also did extremely well on MP3.com, with music from the Amethystium page having over one million plays/downloads! Oystein's last record, Aphelion, carried on from his debut release, garnering a number of impressive achievements. Besides spending seven weeks in the #7 position on the Billboard New Age charts, Aphelion was chosen by Echoes listeners as the seventh best release of 2003 and picked by Amazon.com editors as one of the top ten New Age albums of 2003. And last but certainly not least, Aphelion was New Age Reporter's #1 radio album of 2003. Wow!
What makes this all the more impressive is that as the twenty-three year old Oystein says in our conversation: "I consider myself still in a starting phase, still learning new things and developing my skills." Humble and talented -- my favourite combination! The fact that Oystein has remained as a person open and unaffected, even after all of his considerable success, has only solidified my belief that this is an artist we will be listening to for years to come.
