The experimental Norwegian singer and composer Susanna Wallumrød’s LP is a releases a striking, eccentric, beautifully bewitching collection about relationships, concentrating not on the giddy joy of falling in love, nor breakups, but the oddness in between. It examines the work required by a healthy relationship and contemplating the conditions that turn love into something toxic. Her partnership with Dag Erik Knedal, a drummer with the jazz ensemble Cortex and experimental percussionist Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen of Pinquins and Ensemble NeonWith gives the music a distinctive otherworldliness, with various keyboards and rippling woodwind. On Big Dreams, for example, pizzicato strings, arranged and played by Sarah-Hane Summers, flit and flutter, while. jazz sax and bass clarinet from Harald Lassen and Morten Barrikmo add a distinct texture and dissonance to this release, all supporting Susanna’s voice, which has a certain seriousness and definite presence. There’s a direct simplicity to the lyrics, such as on opener Everyone Knows: “Everyone knows / The secret is out / I am gone by now/ I flew out the door”, or the pithy but melodramatic I Took Care Of Myself: “I got up and left - weeh-wai weeh-wai” with galloping, clattering music. Elephant song is sparse with piano and sax - “I struggle with my breathing / Exhaling exceeding in melody and texture vibrating exhaustion.” Battles meanwhile evokes the sound of a dark, winter forest and closer I Was Never Here is sparse, strange but rather beautiful like a bleak lake scene. Alluringly different, bewitching, evocative and in many ways, quite extraordinary. Out on her label SusannaSonata.
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