Photographer: Gøran Bohlin

Espen Lind creeps lower under his jacket collar. He looks like he is dreaming about another collaboration with Beyonce. Instead he is sitting in a crowded tour bus, which has been stopped by the bad weather in a snow storm on Hardangervidda, where the world is very, very white.

For the first time the three guitar buddies, Espen Lind, Alejandro Fuentes and Askil Holm had visited their D’Artagnan, Kurt Nilsen at his cottage in Eidfjord.

The trip over the mountains to Geilo is not for the feint hearted.

Well not in the middle of winter.

Instead there is a journey of many miles on very icy roads – with catching ferries, back to Voss. Sleeping compartments all the way to Oslo; to arrive at six thirty the next morning.

"Raw, it’s fresh out here!"

Six hours earlier. Kurt Nilsen is knocking off the new snow from his boots on the stone floor of his cottage. Soon he will be reunited with the sounds of the opening chords of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”, through the small entrance hall.

It is probably this song that has allowed him to pay for his almost eight million kroner cottage. The cottage’s architectural interior is a perfect copy of an acoustic guitar.

If you go to the right on entering through the foyer – or the guitar neck, you will come to the tuning keys. This, of course, is where Kurt’s studio is; with an intercom system to the living area and a portrait of Willie Nelson over the mixer. “When I need, my inspirational source,” says Nilsen about Nelson.

Back through the guitar neck hallway, past the sauna with an open view out over the whole of Eidefjord. Up to the left is the staircase leading to the love-nest, Kurt and his wife’s bedroom. Under the stone and glass lit floor, lie Kurt’s three Spellemann prizes.

Inside the box of the guitar - which is a combination living area and kitchen, dominated by a huge fireplace in the middle of the room – is the manager, Jan Fredrik Karlsen, pacing back and forth, thumbs in the air?

Now they all know everything is ready. “It’s just the right room for this song!” declares the producer, Jørn Dahl, who is standing under a giant stuffed stag’s head, after walking up and down the guitar string hallway between the lounge and the studio.

This end of the lounge has the microphones set up ready for the recording. The next hours will be set aside to recording the song chosen in Geilo. U2’s “With or Without You”. This will be the engine to “Hallelujah Live vol2”’s train, just like “Hallelujah” was on the first album.

“Hell,what a great song!” Kurt Nilsen shakes his head. Drags his hands restlessly through his hair and is never still. Askil Holm closes his eyes and goes over the notes he will sing. Alejandro Fuentes tips his hat backwards and tucks his hands into his trouser pockets. Espen Lind’s falsetto is equal to that of a choirboy.

It is very noticeable how four very strong personalities can manage without arguing. “I’m always relaxed with these guys; you don’t need to always be on top form because you know you can depend on each other,” says Kurt Nilsen. “We are restless. We respect each others song choices and each has a place here. In fact there is very little disagreement,” he believes.

Kurt is correct. The atmosphere is hectic, but intense. And the whole time calm, in spite of the ever present Jan Fredrik Karlsen. The gang just routinely gets on with it, with lots of smiles and grins. “I have always been driven by my gut feeling. Right now it’s telling me to do what is fun, and this is fun – no great plans,” says Espen Lind.

He admits that he would probably not have gone out on a well-reviewed return tour last autumn if it hadn’t been for the success of 2006. His own tour was completed with Espen Lind being awarded the Spellemann of the Year prize.

“Yes, that was a very important tour with the three for me; and a great deal of fun. I have been at both ends of the scale, and believe me – to have fun is what I much prefer….”

Yes, and it was fun the night before on the way over here, in spite of the bad weather. With a closed mountain road the hallelujah-friends made the most of their stay at Vestlia Spa in Geilo; with a hired chef and the necessary supplies.

Not the most secretive way, but a fun way to start chapter two of “Hallelujah Live”, when the guys used their combined energy to give an impromptu concert in the hotel’s nightclub at around midnight.

AC/DC and Henning Kvitnes. The guys performed for around 30 people. It is late, but the sound from the all voices and just some was never out of tone. Mobile cameras flashed and left messages, tipping off others.

The day after, the weekly magazines’ helicopters were seen circling Kurt Nilsen’s guitar cottage. But his three string playing friends had already left the place.

After dinner, the bus driver, Tom Ottosen was given a signal from the snow clearing crew that the road back to Geilo was open. The driving colony could leave at 19:00 precisely. Time was short.

The guys said goodbye to Kurt, who was staying comfortably round his own fireside. The whining of the north wind could be heard all around as they made their way on snow scooters down into the valley. Trooped into the tour bus, drove a few kilometers and waited. And waited. In stillness, and very tired.

“It was very quiet,” says Alejandro Fuentes. He’s talking about what it was like to leave the hullaballoo after the tour of 2006. He, Espen, Askil and Kurt should just have done a one night only Christmas dinner. But the night playing friends became the new guitar buddies and in the end the everlasting buddies and now the manager Jan Fredrik Karlsen has said farewell to all the other parties and is overseeing the record release and booking and tour himself. “It was really nice afterwards, but also a little sad. It was a cool summer job, even though I was exhausted afterwards,” says Alejandro. It didn’t stay quiet after that though, when later Alejandro crashed his newly bought boat into the quayside in Kristiansand. Embarrassed and with his tail between his legs, he set himself firmly on dry land and wrote some songs.

Alejandro’s thought processes come to an end about half an hour later, when the colony starts again. Two private cars and three snow ploughs move through the snowdrifts. Ten minutes later we stop again. The hallelujah atmosphere has come to a halt in the tour bus. Everyone is starring silently at the rotating lights on the snow plough.

“Ah, Tronderstorm,” says Askil Holm – not very convincingly.

Askil, who was probably the least known during the Hallelujah fever three years ago – but Askil is no Ringo. After the undisputed leader of the four, Espen Lind, Askil has the most experience. “I have never had any doubts about doing another round. I am probably the one who has looked forward to it most, because I have been with Jan Fredrik since day one. We have made a lot together,” he says.

The snowflakes continue to fall down like little rockets from the sky. It’s full stop on the wrong side of the mountain. Road 7 is closed again. The outburst at the back of the bus has no age limits. The guys must turn back. They can forget Geilo.

Kurt Nilsen is luckily already at home in Eidfjord and warm by the fire. He lets out a loud sigh after the day’s intensive work. “How often am I at my cottage?” Kurt looks frankly surprised that we want to talk about what the guitar cottage means to him – quality of life more than money. “Ask me how often I am at home at the moment…”