Black Hole by Mark Steiner & His Problems

Trauma. Addiction. Heartache. Depression. Recovery. Sobriety. Make no bones about it. Mark Steiner sure doesn’t. The fact that this once decadent Norwegian-American ruffian has been clean and sober since April 2021 has, almost ironically, resulted in the successful development of this new album, “BLACK HOLE.”

Recorded during the pandemic summer of 2021, this collection of songs marks the first official full-length release by Mark Steiner & His Problems since the LP "Saudade" was first launched in late 2014. Their latest single, “Hang On! (Twin Flames)” was released on Friday 27. October 2023, supplemented with a now critically-acclaimed music video by filmmaker Jean De Oliveira which has been listed as one of top 12 music videos of 2023 by the highly respected Norwegian national publication Ballade...

And now, after years in development, the “BLACK HOLE” LP has finally been launched as a digital album, and is now also available in physical format as a limited edition compact disc.!

Perhaps more dirty and swampy than everything Steiner has released since his days with his former NYC band Piker Ryan's Folly prior to his post-9/11 departure, this new album features a new gang of ex-pats living in Oslo. American drummer Ted Parsons, (known best for his work with Prong, Swans, Godflesh, Jesu, Metallic Taste of Blood, Keith Levene and Killing Joke,) certainly packs his rhythmic punches, while British-Italian Leon Muraglia (Orange & Blue, Radio 9, Salvatore, OMD) lends some sultry bass riffs and London guitarist Romek Paluch-Edwards adds definitive counter-point to Steiner's Fender baritone. Norwegian chanteuse Ingunn Holmen debuts as Steiner’s latest problem, rendering a new balance with her beautiful, resonant vocals. And like a ghost from some past life, special guest Line Saus adds her own haunting voice from her home in Tromsø, while returning veteran problems Czech violinist Pavel Cingl and Danish wingman Thomas Borge contribute sounds from their decadent stomping grounds in Copenhagen and Prague respectively.
“BLACK HOLE”, both as a song and as an album title, is a brutally honest, dark and personal - yet universally relatable - journey where intersecting tortured souls slowly clamber up from the abyss of post- modern human struggle.

Mark Steiner is a well-known figure in Oslo’s music underworld, and he’s been around in Norway for so long that many assume that he is Norwegian. He is not. This ex-New Yorker is a wandering scoundrel who one might find hanging out in the shadowy corners of a pub at closing time. A international musical vagrant who might walk the streets with Stuart Staples, Nick Cave, and Rowland S. Howard...

marksteinermusic.com