a-ha’s ‘Summer Solstice’: Hear ‘Take On Me’ as Part of a Live Project

A single clip can make an acoustic reinterpretation look like an isolated moment. a-ha’s 2017 Giske Take On Me belongs to a larger undertaking: the band developed a live acoustic project, recorded two performances in Norway and later took the arrangements on tour. That framework offers a different way to hear a familiar excerpt.

Instead of asking only what changed from the well-known pop recording, consider what the song is doing within an ensemble’s shared performance language. How does a particular interpretation fit alongside other material prepared for the same project? The comparison is about programming, partnership and contrast across songs.

One selection from the Giske project

▶Play performance video

A prepared framework, not simply a reduced volume

The band’s official project history describes working with arranger and producer Lars Horntveth to reconsider its songs for the June 2017 concerts. It also records a subsequent acoustic tour in winter 2018. The video’s 2017 identity and the later tour therefore belong to different parts of the project’s development.

That preparation matters to the listening frame. Acoustic does not define one fixed scale of expression. A performance can create contrast through the number of active parts, the spacing of phrases or a change in who carries a musical idea. Its range of intensity need not depend on reproducing the same sounds as an earlier record.

Make a map of intensity, not a loudness score

Choose three points within the main song: an early passage, a return of familiar material and the approach to the ending. Use your own listening to describe how much musical activity each contains. What remains steady, and what changes?

Distinguish intensity from volume. A relatively exposed phrase may command attention because little surrounds it. A larger texture may create movement through the relationship of its parts. Neither description requires claiming a particular sound level or diagnosing the recording equipment.

Your map can use simple terms such as exposed, overlapping, sustained or moving. The useful result is a sequence of relationships, not a ladder on which every later section has to be bigger. This leaves room to hear a performance that gains direction through contrast or resolves by reducing activity.

Bring in the second song before deciding what defines the project

The Sun Always Shines on TV adds a guest partnership. The band identifies Ingrid Helene Håvik as a collaborator in the Giske performances. Her presence gives the comparison a specific variable: the featured vocal relationship changes while the broader project remains the context.

After watching, compare one transition in each song. What announces a new part: a vocal change, an instrumental entrance, a pause or a continuing pattern? Do the two interpretations use similar means for different purposes? That question is more useful than expecting every acoustic arrangement to share one mood.

▶Play performance video

Use ‘Hunting High and Low’ as a third reference

The final selection returns to another song from Giske. Keep the same descriptive vocabulary, but allow the answers to differ. A shared project can have a coherent identity without treating every composition as a version of its most famous track.

Now compare the distribution of attention across the three pieces. Which part tends to guide you, and when does another take over? You are examining the ensemble’s working language across a small sample, rather than reducing its identity to a single instrument or a label on a video.

▶Play performance video

Finally, return to Take On Me after hearing its companions. Does it now seem like a departure from the catalogue or one possible member of a broader acoustic program? The documented concert-and-tour framework makes that a concrete question. A familiar clip can be a complete performance and also an entry into a more extensive collaborative project.