Strange and strikingly beautiful, the sixth album by the Norwegian singer-songwriter is a mix of classic 70s piano-pop and alternative folk, with echoes everything from Karen Carpenter to Rufus Wainwright. Opener orð vǫlu is a quiet, talking philosophical musing on the nature of the body, spirit and black holes, ashera’s song is warm-up, but the album really comes into its own on the third, and title track, taken from an Old Norse word, meaning to bloom, it’s a gorgeous slow number, with gentle background that have a gospel feel. The next, rūnā, is a swooning, ethereal beauty with lovely vocal harmonies that builds and swells, fare thee well swings and soars like classic Carpenter with a sax climax, leikara ljóð is folkier with gospel handclaps, aloyosha is bookended by birdsong then bees, Ṣānnu Yārru Lī meanwhile has a folk-ish Tom Waits quality with oddball percussion, flutes and a spoken German vocal. Returning the core style, Náttsǫngr is particularly Rufus Wainwright, with gentle piano and long, lingering vocal notes on that outstanding voice, and closing track, like the first, is less a song, more a mix of ambient sounds, chimes, gongs, birds twittering, leaves rustling and fading resonance until final ruminations about the heart. Dedicated the album to her family, particularly to her daughter and her grandfather, theologian and linguist Kjell Aartun, pictured on the cover, it’s a fascinating, alternative album, all about love but in a truly different way, full of moments to wonder about, and swoon over. Out on Bella Union.
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