I have very little information on this album. It was released on PolyGram Records a long time ago I think. The sound and musicstyle reminds me of the mid eightees. Four people are involved in this project called THOWSEN. First there is Thowsen himself who played most of the instruments I guess. All the vocals were done by a guy called Tor Endresen. Producer Svein Dag Hauge wrote almost all the songs together with Ivar Dyrhaug. There are 8 tracks in total on the CD.

The album opens with the titletrack "Call me stranger" which brings us back to a long-forgotten style of the 80s which is Powerpop or hi-tech AOR. The song reminds me of the debut albums of JOHN PARR, ROBERT TEPPER, JIMMY MARTIN, RICK SPRINGFIELD (his 'Rock of life'/'Tao'/'Living in Oz' albums) and BOBBY BARTH. The guitar/keyboard combination and the drumcomputer make this song a winner in this genre. It's a great song that is a bit more AOR based than the mentioned comparisons. But if you like the debut album of ROBERT TEPPER, you must really love this song.

The following two songs ("Young American" =DAVID BOWIE cover and "Black rain" = soft hi-tech calmer AOR ballad like BOBBY BARTH) are not really impressive. Happily track four "Man on the run" takes us back into the uptempo FM/AOR rock style like JOHN PARR did on his debut album. Then follows the best track of the whole CD. This is the song "Running on fire". A wonderful pure 80s uptempo classic AOR Rocker that has a great rhythm and the keyboard/guitarsound really sounds fantastic here. "Running on fire" is reminding me a lot of the 1987 album of STAN BUSH AND BARRAGE.

Unfortunately the last three tracks are much poppier and not really interesting for the AOR fan. Only "Tonight" is worth mentioning, because this laid-back AOR ballad reminds me of a cross between DAVID ROBERTS, DAVID FOSTER, FRANKE AND THE KNOCKOUTS and ALLIANCE.

It's very hard to get a copy of this CD, but if you contact Robert Pancur from TARGET RECORDS at the following e-mail address: Pancur@pfaffenwinkel.de , I think he can help you getting a copy on CD probably.
 

(Points: 7.5 out of 10)