De Press -

De Press was a Norwegian post-punk band that released the 1981/82 albums Block to Block and Product on Siberia Music. Amid lineup changes, the band later relocated to Poland and released twelve albums between 1994 and 2016. In 2024, they returned with Europa Płonie on Olifant Records.

Members: Andrej Nebb (vocals, bass), Jørn Christensen (guitar, 1980-83), Anders Sevaldson (keyboards, 1980-83), Ola Snortheim (drums, 1980-83), Maciej Mąka (guitar, 1989-?), Dariusz Budkiewicz (bass guitar, 1989-present), Łukasz Gocal (drums, 1989-?), Sebastian Kret (guitar, ?-present), Seweryn Piętka (percussion, ?-present)

Background

De Press assembled in 1980 when Polish émigré Andrzej Paweł Dziubek (b. June 14, 1954, Jabłonka, Lesser Poland) converged in Oslo with two Norwegian musicians: guitarist Jørn Reidar Christensen (b. December 29, 1959, Fredrikstad) and drummer Ola Snortheim (b. December 3, 1954, Harpefoss).

Dziubek traveled a long road to that formation. As a teenager in communist Poland, he played in the folk ensemble Małe Podhale and founded a high school band called Lotony before crossing illegally into Austria through Czechoslovakia. He settled in Norway, enrolled at The National Academy of Craft and Art Industry, and legally changed his surname to Nebb. During those years he founded Pull Out, a punk group, and later studied at The National Academy of Fine Arts. He would go on to exhibit painting in Oslo, Germany, and Poland alongside his music work.

Christensen grew up in Fredrikstad and took up guitar after hearing Deep Purple. Snortheim was the son of folk musician Olav Snortheim. De Press marked an early prominent step for both.

Nebb adopted the Anglicized form of his surname for the band, and De Press took shape around his Polish-inflected English lyrics, the cold-riff guitar work of Christensen, and the tight, minimal drumming of Snortheim.

De Press (EP)

In December 1980, De Press debuted with a self-titled EP on Torpedo Plater.

The four tracks established the band’s stripped framework: Nebb’s frontal bass and vocals; Christensen’s tight, deliberate guitar lines; Snortheim’s spare, pressurized rhythmic pulsations.

A1. “Østavind” (0:40)
A2. “To Sibir” (1:51)

B1. “Pond” (1:41)
B2. “Product” (3:05)

De Press co-produced the EP in October 1980 in a basement at Lambertseter, Oslo, with Ole Medbø, who oversaw Torpedo Plater singles by Blaupunkt, 1984, and Pacific Ocean. Some copies came with a lyric insert.

“Lars Hertervig” (EP)

In early 1981, De Press released “Lars Hertervig,” a 12″ maxi-single with two miniature b-sides on Siberia Music (SMMS 1).

A. “Lars Hertervig” (3:36)

B1. “Fiskepudding” (1:21)
B2. “Chicken” (1:17)

De Press produced the A-side and “Fiskepudding” with Rolf Kjernet as engineer. The recorded “Chicken”with English soundman John Leckie, a veteran of Seventies new wave classics by Be-Bop Deluxe (Drastic Plastic), Doctors of Madness (Figments of Emancipation), Magazine (Real Life), Simple Minds (Real to Real Cacophony), and XTC (Go-2).

Bengt Olsson designed the cover, which reproduces Old Pine Trees (1865), a painting by Norwegian Romantic Lars Hertervig (1830–1902).

Block to Block

De Press released their debut album, Block to Block, in June 1981 on Siberia Music (SM 1).

The album contains fourteen group-written originals. Nebb’s bass holds the low end while his voice sits at an unsettled pitch between declaration and exhaustion. Christensen’s guitar stays dry and angular, each figure built on tight repetition and minimal ornamentation. Snortheim drives the arrangements with a pressurized economy. The lyrics move between Polish, English, and phonetic variants of both, and the subject matter — displacement, cold geography, systems of control — comes through in tone and text.

“Kalhoz” opens on a locked, marching tempo with a guitar figure that accumulates rather than resolves. “Block to Block” cuts to two and a half minutes of contained motion, and “Kic Me Rusia” and “Dobl Steyshen” sustain the same clipped pace. “Kejk” extends the sequence to three and a half minutes, the longest track on Side A, and “Velvet Walz” strips the texture near-skeletal before “Peyshens” closes the side in a taut, repetitive frame.

Side B opens with “Bo Jo Cie Kochom,” the album’s most direct turn toward Nebb’s Polish background. “Forcd” and “Moniuments” sustain the album’s controlled tension through the mid-sequence, and “Conveyor Belt” closes the record.

A1. “Kalhoz” (2:45)
A2. “Block to Block” (2:21)
A3. “Kic Me Rusia” (1:52)
A4. “Dobl Steyshen” (2:34)
A5. “Kejk” (3:30)
A6. “Velvet Walz” (1:30)
A7. “Peyshens” (2:00)

B1. “Bo Jo Cie Kochom” (2:42)
B2. “Forcd” (2:21)
B3. “Moniuments” (2:20)
B4. “On Top” (3:04)
B5. “Tavarish” (1:58)
B6. “Transparant Tlf.” (2:50)
B7. “Conveyor Belt” (2:00)

John Leckie produced Block to Block in sequence with 1981 albums by The Atrix, Bill Nelson, Creation Rebel, Cuban Heels, New Order, The Tapes, and Norwegian countrymen The Cut.

Block to Block presents a faux newspaper headline, designed by Andrej Nebb, Harald Medbøe, and Torkill Haugland, with photography by Medbøe and De Press.

The album won the Spellemannprisen prize in the New Rock category in 1981. De Press contributed “Moniuments” to Blodige Strenger (Puls, PULSLP01), a 1981 Norwegian compilation assembled by the music newspaper Puls covering the emerging rock, pop, and new wave scene. The track appears as B7, alongside bands including Kjøtt, Jonas Fjeld, and Saturday Cowboys.

Product

De Press released their second album, Product, in 1982 on Siberia Music (SM 2).

Product runs ten tracks in a more developed arrangement mode, with English-language texts credited to I. Harris across most titles and Nebb responsible for the music throughout. Tracks run longer on average than those on the debut, most between three and four minutes. Christensen’s guitar lines stay dry and purposeful, and Nebb’s bass carries the central melodic motion.

“The Fatal Day” opens on a deliberate tempo with a controlled guitar figure. “In a Position to Know” and “Passages” follow in the same measured frame, and “In a Crowded Room” tightens the rhythm with a guitar line that circles without resolution. Side B carries “Product,” a track first recorded for the 1980 EP, in full-band form. “Swienty Pokoj” closes the album — a Polish-language setting of text by 19th-century poet Cyprian Norwid, with Nebb as composer and the band credited with the arrangement.

A1. “The Fatal Day” (3:33) — lyrics: I. Harris; music: A. Nebb
A2. “In a Position to Know” (3:47) — lyrics: I. Harris; music: A. Nebb
A3. “Passages” (3:00) — lyrics: I. Harris; music: A. Nebb
A4. “In a Crowded Room” (3:23) — lyrics: I. Harris; music: A. Nebb
A5. “Signals” (3:21) — lyrics: I. Harris; music: A. Nebb

B1. “Product” (3:42) — A. Nebb
B2. “Another Man’s Sin” (3:47) — lyrics: I. Harris; music: A. Nebb
B3. “Heaven” (3:16) — A. Nebb
B4. “Total Corruption” (3:33) — A. Nebb
B5. “Swienty Pokoj” (3:53) — lyrics: C. Norwid; music: A. Nebb

De Press recorded Product with John Leckie and engineer Rolf Kjernet. Leckie worked in squence with Scottish band The Wake on their 1982 Factory release Harmony.

Siberia lifted “In a Crowded Room” as a single (SMS2), backed with “Passages,” with photography by Tom Sandberg.

Discography: