Susanna- Triangle (2016)

Susanna- Triangle (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

Norway, far in the North of Europe, is highly regarded as the most advanced countries in the world, but musically speaking they lag a little behind their two powerhouse neighbors the British and the Swedish, nevertheless, Norwegians have been pushing hard recently their musical industry, giving us really interesting acts in present days, especially women (Jenny Hval, Hanne Kolsto), who seem to be taking notes from their fellow northern Iceland neighbor Bjork in order to occupy also an important place in the world music industry.

Susanna Wallumtod is a Norwegian singer whose previous records were full of amazing reinventions of already know hits, while not fully committed to the world of jazz, and very open to experimentation, it has been a complete riot to listen to renditions of songs from Kiss, Depeche Mode, Joy Division and AC/DC with delicate, almost ethereal arrangements, and Susanna's texture rich voice, previously accompanied by the self-dubbed Magical Orquestra, this time, Susanna arrives alone into the studio, fully embracing classical and electronic companion for this new adventure, one that although amusing, give us signs that Susanna is trying to embrace so much sonic territory, perhaps more than the one she should, taking enormous risk and loosing focus at times, and that is perhaps one of the little mistakes happening in this record.

Triangle is the name of this low key recording featuring the ravishing voice of Susanna, opener Holy/Sacred immediately set things in motion declaring "nothing is holy/nothing is sacred", along a minimal droning accompaniment, a short entrance to the atmospheric world of this Norwegian singer, whose colorful and flexible voice is put on display on the baroque darkness of We Don't Belong, where Susanna dares to introduce abrasive and dissonant elements to fight against, while on Texture Within she simply accompanies herself with spare piano lines, later having a more intense interplay with her piano on the playful Fear and Terror that sounds just like the ghost of the great Joni Mitchell, the problem with Triangle happens next, when Susanna tries to embrace an apparently electronic environment she is not too familiar with, the arrangements are not strong enough and the weight gets all over the singer powerful but confounded sounding voice.

Even when Susanna goes really serious in electronica on Hole, a really brave movement for the singer, coming out from his dark and bare songs and getting a more accessible accompaniment, is an experiment that doesn't work so well, prompting her to quickly return to more ethereal and almost a Capella nature of Shepherd, or to the powerful epics of Under Water.

In the end, the big problem with Triangle is that is a vague record, a very long vague record, and the focus and strength of her previous recordings are vaguely felt during the whole album, it is an ambitious one, but perhaps it wasn’t the right moment, perhaps Susanna first must make up her mind and decide which rout she is willing to take and abandon herself to it, she has a voice even capable of making disaster like this enjoyable.