..Twisted Into Form was formed by long time friends Kaj Gornitzka (guitar, ex-Spiral Architect) and Erik Aadland (bass) in Oslo, Norway in 2000. From the onset, it was agreed that the band's mission was to create music that fused the intensity of jazz/fusion and technical metal while conjuring extraordinary emotions through each musician's contribution. There were to be no boundaries, no limits — only music.
Shortly after Extol drummer David Husvik joined in. Rehearsals were few and far apart (in fact, rarely more than once a week at best), but since there was no hurry and no pressure other than our own curiosity as to where this might lead us, the years slipped slowly by while we laid down the pieces of our puzzle.
By 2003 we had the basic structures of maybe five songs, but to complete them we had no choice but to intensify our efforts tenfold. A deadline had already been set (I was to move to Portugal by the end of May 2004), and all of a sudden hours were spent in the rehearsal room, developing the songs we already had, testing new ideas, writing vocal lines...
Who would actually be singing theses lines? Now, that was still something of a mystery to us, but for some reasons my thoughts in situations like these always comes back to the same: Leif Knashaug. Twice before he has come to the rescue (first with Anesthesia, years later with Spiral Architect), and we were hopeful that in this particular case, three would be the charm. He graciously agreed to give it a shot.
Rather than shopping around for a deal at this point, we opted for a full length, self-produced album, hoping to get an appropriate label to release it upon completion. By way of a gentlemen's agreement we agreed to record the album at MultiMono Studio in Oslo, Asgeir Mickelson's (Borknagar and Spiral Architect) newly constructed studio. In fact, the studio was so new that it was not nearly finished when we entered it around February 2004, and we were the first band to really work there. By then, drums were already recorded with Børge Finstad at Toproom Studio (Mayhem, Borknagar, Extol, Arcturus etc). Having full access to the MultiMono's facilities, we continued to develop the songs all through the recording phase.
The deadline came and went (no surprise there), and so the summer was spent fine-tuning the songs on separate sides of the European continent, with Erik, David and Leif still in Norway and me in Lisbon. By August I was back in Oslo to finish what we had started — or so we thought...
Once the recordings were done, several labels were considered and approached. Strangely enough, most of them did not know what to do with the music, and although the overall tone was positive, they simply did not know how to present this kind of material to the masses. Not so with Ken Golden and his Laser's Edge/Sensory labels, and we gladly chose to collaborate with Sensory (Spiral Architect, Gordian Knot, Zero Hour, et al) for the release of the album. But there was, as so often is the case, a catch: Mr. Golden wanted more...
Yet again we threw ourselves into the creative process, once more in separate countries, sending sound files back and forth between us to work out the songs and the structures. And yet again we met up at MultiMono Studio to record the last two songs of the album, only now it had become September 2005.
With everything finally ready, Sensory and the band agreed that noted producer Neil Kernon (Nevermore, Queensrÿche, Spiral Architect, Flotsam and Jetsam, Red Harvest, Nile etc) would be the ideal person to do the final mix, as he had shown a keen interest in the project and was completely in tune with our desire to grant the material the unique representation it craved.
The finished effort, release in September/October 2006, is titled "Then Comes Affliction to Awaken the Dreamer". We hope you will enjoy the journey as much as we have — and still do.
August 2006, Lisbon, Portugal
Kaj Gornitzka
