Ane Brun "Rarities" (2013)

Rarities

release date: Oct. 2013

format: digital (20 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]

producer: Ane Brun et al

label: Balloon Ranger Recordings - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "All My Tears" - 2. "Halo" - 4. "From Me to You" - 5. "Tragedy" - 6. "Ain't No Cure for Love" - 7. "Orphan Girl" - 10. "It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back)" - 11. "Oh Love (piano version)" - 12. "The Opening" - 13. "Jóga (live at the Polar Music Prize 2010) - 15. "Virvelvind" - 16. "Fly on the Windscreen" - 17. "Humming One of Your Songs 2013" - 20. "She Belongs to Me"

2nd compilation album in 2013 - like with Songs 2003-2013 (Jun. 2013) in celebration of her first decade as an active musician, and this time with 20 'rare' recordings, i.e. songs that are not found on any of her previous studio releases, or have been scattered out on various singles and / or other compilations. On Brun's bandcamp site the album is described with the following: "According to BRUN, “RARITIES is a compilation of songs and recordings that have either not been released, or have been released on other compilations or as singles. This is a way to empty our cupboards of recordings that have been lying around, and another way to mark my ten year anniversary as an artist.” The collection includes covers of Björk and The Beatles, Elvis and Eurythmics, as well as new versions of fan favourites and, of course, previously unreleased songs, contributing further to an already impressive back catalogue. Many of the recordings are here described more fully with Brun's own words.

In a year with two major compilations from Ane Brun, it's more than hard to choose between the two, and then you don't have to, because with Songs 2003-2013 she has made a great collection of familiar key songs from that period and with this, she shows us more of the full palette - and 'palette', I think, nicely describes this artist's way with her music: she sort of utilises a painters approach with music, words, tones, arrangements, and choise of instrumentation are colours on the canvas, and Brun sure understands how to make use of the whole palette. Also, she has made a vast number of original compositions but she's also a remarkable interpretor, which makes her covers so powerful. She doesn't have to copy the original to make it swing. This is a wonderful collection of highly varied originals.

Highly recommendable.

Ane Brun "Songs 2003-2013" (2013)

Songs 2003-2013

release date: Jun 3, 2013

format: digital (32 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]

producer: Ane Brun, various

label: Balloon Ranger Recordings - nationality: Norway

First compilation album by Ane Brun, released to celebrate her first decade in music. The album was exclusively issued in Europe in 2-disc cd format, and eventually as digital download album via her bandcamp profile. The album contains songs from all of her studio albums, live recordings as well as various covers, international hit songs as well as obscure covers all of which includes "The Dancer" by PJ Harvey, "True Colors" by Tom Kelly & Billy Steinberg, "Big in Japan" by Alphaville, "Lift Me" by Norwegian band Madrugada, "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel, "Alfonsina y el mar" by Argentinian composer Ariel Ramirez, "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" by Arcade Fire, and "Feel Good" by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. These are scattered all over the album but really, it doesn't change much that the songs are covers 'cause what's so special about Ane Brun and her way of covering other artists is her ability to make songs her own. In that respect, she reminds me a bit of Cat Power, who is perhaps more notoriously a cover's artist but who doesn't possess a vocal instrument that equals the qualities of Ane Brun's impressiveness.

Songs 2003-2013 is strong collection of songs, and a nice way to celebrate her time in the limelight. Later this year, she would go on and release another fine 2-disc album of 20 songs titled Rarities containing more obscure recordings of nearly only cover versions, or: 'only' cause those that are not actual covers are Brun covering herself.

Recommended.

Montasje "Presence!" (1982)

Presence! [debut]
release date: 1982
format: vinyl (MAI 8201) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Helge Gaarder; Erik Aasheim (assistant)
label: Plateselskapet Mai - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: A) 1. "Nykter" (TV performance) - 2. "Reisning" - 3. "Presence!" - - B) 1. "Glass" (4 / 5) - 2. "Tundra" - 4. "Europa" - 5. "... Etter regnet"

Studio debut and only album by Norwegian new wave, post-punk and art pop quintet Montasje, who also featured with one song on a sampler album (Zink Zamler, '82) as an act called Modul 5. The whole project only existed from late 1981 to '82, and the album was recorded from Dec. '81 to Jan. '82, and the band here consists of vocalist and keyboardist Helge Gaarder, Erik Aasheim on guitar, bass and percussion, Jøran Rudi on guitar, Per (Kristian) Tro on bass, and Danish drummer Michael Rasmussen [who should later join the Danish band The Sandmen]. The album comes with an alias, as it says in the few notes on the cover: "Presence! et Montasje produkt - Modul 1".
Musically, it's quite a unique sound they have put together. There are some influences from early New Order - Movement-period ever-present but it's more than just a Scandinavian replica of that. What makes it much more its own blend is the presence of something ethereal - it's not ambient, nor jazz fusion but there's a layer of open landscape meandering throughout the album, which makes me think of Norwegian free jazz artist Jan Garbarek. The unique sound also helps building a sensation of timelessness to the project.
Recommended.

[ collectors' item ]

Ane Brun "It All Starts with One" (2011)

It All Starts with One

release date: Sep. 6, 2011

format: 2 cd (Deluxe)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]

producer: Tobias Fröberg

label: Balloon Ranger Recordings - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: CD 1) 1. "These Days" (4 / 5) - 2. "Words" (4 / 5) - 4. "Do You Remember" (4,5 / 5) (live at KCRW) - 6. "Lifeline" - 7. "One" - 9. "Oh Love" - 10. "Undertow"

CD 2) 2. "Take It Slow" - 5. "Du gråter så store tåra (English Version)" - 7. "Another World"

5th studio album by Ane Brun following the release of Sketches (Sep. 2008), which presents her acoustic demo versions of her most recent studio album Changing of the Seasons (Mar. 2008). This new album is often mentioned as her sixth studio album - but that's only when adding the demo version album to the list, which I find misleading. She has thus been on a 3½ years hiatus, which also produced the live album Live at Stockholm Concert Hall (2009), and this period was also shadowed by some time off due to reoccurring physical illness. The album was released as a standard CD issue of ten songs and as a 2 CD Deluxe edition with a bonus cd of eight tracks, which includes three covers.

With It All Starts with One Ane Brun continues to impress, both as a songwriter, as musical composer, and as a sublime vocalist. This new album is her third to top the albums chart in Norway, which it replicated in Sweden - a first accomplishment for a Norwegian artist. All in all, It All Starts with One is another fine album from one of the most original voices in all of Scandinavia. She never just seems satisfied as an artist but always comes up with new stylistic variations, and here she both proves her skills with emotional ballads and uptempo art pop but really no matter what style she excels in there's always a width, an amplitude and an enormous depth, making it all the more likeable.

This is one of her best albums and naturally a highly recommended listen.

[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, 👍Mojo, The Independent 4 / 5, 👎PopMatters 2,5 / 5 stars ]

Ane Brun "Sketches" (2008)

Sketches

release date: Sep. 2008

format: digital (15 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]

producer: Ane Brun

label: Balloon Ranger Recordings - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "The Treehouse Song (Sketches Version)" - 2. "The Fall (Sketches Version)" - 3. "The Puzzle (Sketches Version)" - 4. "My Star (Sketches Version)" - 6. "Changing of the Seasons (Sketches Version)" - 11. "Gillian (Sketches Version)" - 12. "Don't Leave (Sketches Version)"

Album by Ane Brun is the collection of her demos for her most recent album Changing of the Seasons (Mar. 2008). Some music sites file the album as Brun's fifth studio album but since all songs here have all been released previously in full studio arrangements, it should rightfully be regarded as a supplement alongside remix and live albums.

Sketches is a fine collection - especially if you enjoy stripped-down alternate versions. Imo, Brun has one of the finest singing voices in contemporary pop but I still prefer her more fully versions. That said, the album really underlines what a great instrument her voice is, and in this regard it appears to be something that she's fully aware of - in regard to her releases as well as her musical focus when comparing to her first two albums as more classic folk releases.

Ane Brun "Changing of the Seasons" (2008)

Changing of the Seasons

release date: Mar. 12, 2008

format: digital (16 x File, MP3, France)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,74]

producer: Valgeir Sigurðsson

label: DetErMine Records - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "The Treehouse Song" (4 / 5) - 2. "The Fall" - 3. "The Puzzle" - 4. "My Star" - 6. "Changing of the Seasons" - 7. "Lullaby for Grown-Ups" - 9. "Armour" (live) - 10. "Round Table Conference" - 12. "Don't Leave" - *14. "True Colors" (live)

*Bonus track

4th studio album by Ane Brun released three years after A Temporary Dive (Feb. 2005). Brun has however most recently released Duets (Nov. 2005) but that album isn't a traditional studio album, nor does it contain Brun's own songs.

Stylistically, it's the continuation of the more introspective songs, and sonically there is a movement towards more orchestrated compositions with the use of strings and more traditional backing such as bass and percussion, which previously wasn't how she would typically arrange her songs. In this way, the album places itself more clearly in a traditional singer / songwriter / folk music tradition lending from country, but you will also note a move towards more experimental music with synths or piano with a touch of art pop. Some songs are cut in a traditional style, some point in the direction of the minimalist style of A Temporary Dive, and then there are songs that probably carry some of the qualities from Brun's collaborations of her Duets album. Still, it's far from another collection of songs pointing in all possible directions, as Brun makes sure to keep a clear course - and especially: a melancholic mood that lays like a duvet over another nice outing with a new inspiring touch.

The album has been issued in various editions. The standard Scandinavian and European versions come with thirteen tracks and a total playing length of approx. 46 minutes. An edition for the UK market has an additional two covers as bonus tracks, an American version comes with a single bonus track, and the French CD edition was released with three bonus tracks extending the total running time to 56 minutes.

Changing of the Seasons is another beautiful album from one of Norway's most exciting artists. Brun sings with great finesse and with an even clearer character. Where her singing voice previously had an unmistakable Joni Mitchell touch, she is now completely full flown on her own with small, insignificant lendings that makes me think of Dolly Parton and Kate Bush. My only tiny 'complaint' is its strong dark melancholy, which ultimately comes to characterise the overall experience of a otherwise beautifully cut album.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, PopMatters 3,5 / 5, Slant 3 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, Spin, Uncut 4 / 5 stars ]

a-ha "Foot of the Mountain" (2009)

Foot of the Mountain
release date: Jun. 19, 2009
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,36]

Track highlights: 1. "The Bandstand" - 4. "Foot of The Mountain" - 6. "Shadowside"

10th studio album release by a-ha. I came across it by chance, and despite the fact that I never really liked the band, this isn't bad. Actually, I think this is clearly their best album ever. Here, they show how technically good musicians they are. The style is still synth-pop but not at all like their releases in the 80s. It's a contemporary multi-layered sound, and it's less blue-eyed pop.

Highasakite "Camp Echo" (2016)

Camp Echo
release date: May 16, 2016
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]
producer: Kåre Chr. Vestrheim
label: Propeller Recordings - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "My Name Is Liar" - 4. "My Mind Is a Bad Neighborhood" - 7. "Golden Ticket" - 8. "Deep Sea Diver"

3rd studio album by Norwegian quintet Highasakite following the successful 2004 album Silent Treatment.
Musically, the indie pop and synth pop band has made a further step into electropop on this, and the album was like the predecessor met by positive reviews from the Norwegian press - where the national radio channel, NRK P3 handed the album 6 out of 6 stars. The album also became the band's second consecutive release to sit safely on #1 on the national album charts.
Camp Echo is nicely produced and with much focus on harmonies and a tight electropop sound. I only wish they would dare incorporate a bit more aggressiveness and originality, 'cause it does tend to sound a wee bit anonymously and dare I say: a taste of Eurovision song contest, which I didn't hear on the predecessor, and which, imho, makes this a bit redundant.

Ane Brun "Live in Scandinavia" (2007)

Live in Scandinavia (live)

release date: Feb. 7, 2007

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]

producer: Ane Brun

label: DetErMine Records / V2 - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 2. "To Let Myself Go" - 6. "A Temporary Dive" - 8. "So You Did It Again" - 9. "The Dancer" - 10. "Changing of the Seasons / Fight Song" - 12. "So Real"

Live album by Ane Brun with 17 tracks from a series of concerts in Norway and Sweden recorded from Sep. 10 to 20, 2006. Although, the album quite nicely draws attention to the whole of Scandinavia (where she rightly toured) the songs are taken from eight performances, of which nine are from Norway and eight from Sweden. And of these eight Swedish concerts, seven are from one and the same show on 20/9 in Södra Teatern in Stockholm, while the last one is from the night before at Katalin in Uppsala. The concert recordings in Norway, on the other hand, stem from six different locations. The album has a total running time of 75 minutes.

The songs are mainly from her two studio albums, Spending Time with Morgan from 2003 and A Temporary Dive from 2005, in addition there has been room for three covers by PJ Harvey, Jeff Buckley, and Henry Purcell, with the latter's song also featuring on her 2005 studio album.

It's not the big traditional backing band that Brun brings with her for these concerts. When she doesn't play alone on guitar or piano, she's often accompanied by either the string quartet The DMF String Quartet, by guitarist Staffan Johansson, by pianist Nina Kinert, and / or by percussionist Erik Arvinder. And whether playing with minimal instrumentation or as a soloist, she has said, "There is something about the focus in playing by myself that fascinates me", she says. "There’s nothing to hide behind when I'm alone on stage and it becomes almost meditative for me when I play."

Live in Scandinavia is a fine rendering of Ane Brun on a stage where you can almost sense her natural abilities as a great and present live artist, something which her early career as a street musician may have had a positive effect upon.

a-ha "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" (1990)

East of the Sun, West of the Moon
release date: Oct. 22, 1990
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,58]
producer: Christopher Neil, Ian Stanley
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: Norway

4th studio album by a-ha is another pop / rock album with stress on pop. To me, it's much the same output as Danish band Michael Learns to Rock - another band I never really understood. It's music loaded with piano, keyboards, saxophones and vocal harmonies, and music without any distinction, I think. It bores me, and I'm on the verge to delete this album from my collection, 'cause why on earth do I keep it?
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

Ane Brun "Duets" (2005)

Duets

release date: Dec. 21, 2005

format: digital

[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,92]

producer: diverse

label: DetErMine Records / V2 - nationality: Norway

3rd studio album by Ane Brun released just ten months after her fine A Temporary Dive (Feb. 2005) is not a new collection of songs written and composed by Brun, but according to herself, it's a series of songs made in collaboration with various artists that she admires. The majority of these ten songs are written and composed by the participating artists and Brun is as such the actual 'featuring artist' on seven cuts, with herself listed as main artist with another artist on three songs, and she has herself written and composed only two songs. The same pattern applies to producer credits where the participating artists alone or sometimes with Ane Brun are credited this role.

All of this is evident here when listening to this highly varied album. The songs are not significantly tied together, thus solely stemming from Brun's fascination for the individual artist, and this is where it (unfortunately) becomes very much on the terms of the participating artists. It simply works the best when Brun is both composer, main artist and co-producer, for example on "Rubber & Soul" from her most recent album, but here with Teitur as contributing vocalist. The same applies (somewhat) to "Song No. 6" with Ron Sexsmith, which is, however, a completely identical recording of the version from the album.

This is probably not where you would want to start if you're not familiar with the music by Ane Brun. Duets probably works fine from a completely personal point of view, but if the desire is to listen to a coherent album that should convince you of Brun's great skills as a songwriter, composer, instrumentalist, and vocalist, you'd better look elsewhere.

Not recommended.

Jan Garbarek "Visible World" (1996)

Visible World
release date: Mar. 26, 1996
format: cd (ECM 1585)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: Manfred Eicher
label: ECM Records - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "Red Wind" - 2. "The Creek" (4 / 5) - 3. "The Survivor" - 9. "Giulietta" - 12. "The Quest"

Studio album by Jan Garbarek released as a solo release, although, it features more or less the same musicians who are part of Jan Garbarek Group and who released Twelve Moons (1993) and comprises Rainer Brüninghaus on keyboards, Eberhard Weber on bass, Manu Katché on drums, and Marilyn Mazur on percussion. Also, the music is very much like that specific release. The style is more on the fusion side than on the traditional folk, which is the downside of the album. Imho, the fusion and free jazz elements do not suit his playing style nor reflect his originality the best. There are enough artists and releases from the '70s who have experimented with jazz fusion with large orchestral compositions, and I'm not a big fan of that. This release closes in on the smooth jazz and jazz fusion of Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Al Jarreau, Al Di Meola, Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, and many more that I just don't appreciate. Yes, they are undoubtedly great instrumentalists, and they have huge crowds lauding their music - I'm just not one of them. However, this is also a turning point in Garbarek's music. At this point he has returned to his earliest releases of more free jazz but he has expanded it with percussion-based fusion jazz and moved away from the ambient style and traditional folk, and that's an area he dwells in and explores in the following many releases that I find are less interesting compared to his music of the 1980s and earliest 1990s.
Garbarek is not just one of Norway's or Scandinavia's - he's one of the world's finest contemporary jazz musicians, and despite not being one of my favourites by his hands, the album still offers fine music.

Röyksopp "Melody A.M." (2001)

Melody A.M. [debut]
release date: Oct. 2001
format: 2 cd (LTD.)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Röyksopp
label: Wall of Sound - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "So Easy" - 2. "Eple" - 4. "In Space" - 5. "Poor Leno" - 8. "Remind Me"

Studio album debut by Norwegian duo Röyksopp consisting of Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland is electronic downbeat with a certain ambient touch. It bears traces from a big mix of various influences where one will find reverberations from 1960s pop / rock and 1980s synthpop all fusioned with techno and dance pop of the 90s. Artists like Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Art of Noise, Aphex Twin, AIR, Fatboy Slim and Moby sound like obvious inspirational sources.
A few of the ten tracks have a more electropop-founded style, which have brought them wider recognition with various remixes, and this is not all bad. The album went straight to #1 on the national albums chart list, and the single "Eple" reached number #16 in the UK. What seems more vital to the band's popularity is the fact that many of the songs from the album have ended up in various commercial outings - e.g. computer and video games as well as television adds. The album is also enlisted in "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die."
It's an interesting albeit somewhat big scoped soundscape and a debut pointing in truly many directions. The track "Eple" was used as background or signature music in a vast number of tv productions of the early 2000s.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, NME, Blender, Q Magazine, The Guardian 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

a-ha "Stay on These Roads" (1988)

Stay on These Roads
release date: May 3, 1988
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,28]
producer: Alan Tarney
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "Stay on These Roads" - 2. "The Blood That Moves the Body" - 6. "The Living Daylights"

3rd studio album release by a-ha released nearly two years after Scoundrel Days is exclusively produced by Alan Tarney.
Stylistically, the trio sticks to the soft side of pop / rock, and with this the production side has improved considerably.
The result is imho an album that's better than I thought back then. Here you'll find some fine songwriting and well-played instrumentation. a-ha always represented nicely composed music and they are instrumentally skilled musicians. The music is not really my style and taste but this is not bad, I just can't listen to it for that long but both the title track for the 007-film, "The Living Daylights" and the first track are truly fine songs. Without rising high in my ratings, I think, this album is easily their so far best.

Jan Garbarek Group "Twelve Moons" (1993)

Twelve Moons
release date: 1993
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Track highlight: 1. "Twelve Moons - Pt.1: Winter - Summer; Pt.2: Summer - Winter" - 3. "Brother Wind March" - 10. "Witchi-Tai-To"

Released as 'Jan Garbarek Group' (Jan Garbarek - saxophones, Rainer Brüninghaus - keyboards, Eberhard Weber - bass, Manu Katché - drums, Marilyn Mazur - percussion, Agnes Buen Garnås - vocal, Mari Boine - vocal). This album is from his best period, from early 1980s to late 1990s, I think. It's beautiful modern jazz, jazz fusion and free jazz. Often, I don't find jazz fusion that great but that's mostly really when jazz has been fusioned with rock. On this album there's absolutely no rock styles present but it's really difficult to place in a genre because of the stylistic inputs from normally far apart genres like jazz and traditional folk in an ambient universe that sometimes almost becomes new age. On other Garbarek albums this style is too much present but here it only emphasizes the ambient feel.

Ane Brun "A Temporary Dive" (2005)

A Temporary Dive

release date: Feb. 7, 2005

format: cd

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,92]

producer: Katharina Nuttall & Ane Brun

label: DetErMine Records / V2 - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "To Let Myself Go" - 2. "Rubber & Soul" - 3. "Balloon Ranger" (Remix version) - 4. "My Lover Will Go" (4 / 5) - 5. "A Temporary Dive" (5 / 5) - 6. "Laid in Earth" - 8. "Where Friend Rhymes with End" - 9. "The Fight Song"

2nd studio album by Ane Brun released nearly two years after her fine debut Spending Time with Morgan from Feb. 2003, is once again a collection of songs solely written and composed by Brun herself, albeit with a single cover, "Lady in Earth" by Henry Purcell.

With this album, Brun fulfills her great potential and gives us an even stronger personal collection of songs that are not only based on an American singer / songwriter tradition but is shaped by Nordic folk traditions and first and foremost Brun's very own expression. Stylewise, it's a huge conglomerate borrowing from older European folk traditions rooted in the Middle Ages and in Nordic ballads and then it's condensed through folk rock and baroque pop, and in this mix, something new arises - something that should later be labelled as neo folk. The string arrangements are generally more gently applied, and they're only present on a few tracks, while several songs are arranged with accompanying acoustic guitar only. The title track isn't the only exceptional composition here - in fact, it's hard to point to songs that shouldn't be highlighted as featured songs. It's both an enormously varied and coherent album at the same time. The variation comes in the dosage of an almost locked in emotional expression where Brun sings painfully and sincerely, and then on the other hand, the individual songs also take form as light-hearted humorous comments. The song "Balloon Ranger" would later this year also become a lasting name of a record label founded by Ane Brun. The overall impression is a very strict whole as the instrumentation is nevertheless narrow and seemingly hand-picked or the songs have been cut down to a minimum of accompanying instruments - it's always the acoustic that carries the tracks with Ane Brun's characteristic vibrato and the strumming of her guitar, and which ties it all together ever so nicely.

A Temporary Dive is an outstanding Nordic release with an international sound and then it's also an album that places Norway at the artistic top, not just in Scandinavia, but in modern popular music.

This is naturally highly recommended.

[ Pitchfork 7,7 / 10, Slant 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Jan Garbarek "Star" (1991)

Star
release date: Jan. 1991
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Tracklist: 1. "Star" (5 / 5) - 2. "Jumper" - 3. "Lamenting" - 4. "Anthem" (4 / 5) - 5. "Roses for You" (4 / 5) - 6. "Clouds in the Mountain" (4 / 5) - 7. "Snowman" (3 / 5) - 8. "The Music of My People" (3 / 5)

Released as 'Jan Garbarek - Miroslav Vitous - Peter Erskine' (Vitous: bass, Erskine: drums). The album is unmistakably Jan Garbarek BUT although I'm quite fond of this release, it's also very different from his most recent releases before, and after this one. The style is still jazz fusion but it's a much more traditional jazz album than his other releases and it has a touch of jazz bop and in that, a stroke of Mingus. Of course this has to do with the fact that the majority of the album's tracks has the signature of the bass player Miroslav Vitous in composer credits. Garbarek "only" takes credit for the title track and the co-writing of "Snowman", and collaborator, and drummer, Erskine takes the credits for "Anthem", "The Music of My People", and co-writer of "Snowman". The style is narrowed down to the more "pure" jazz styles and the usual element of traditional folk is completely absent here. The release also shows how Garbarek is an excellent band player and interpreter.

a-ha "Scoundrel Days" (1986)

Scoundrel Days
release date: Oct. 6, 1986
format: cd
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,68]
producer: Alan Tarney, Mags, Pål Waaktaar

label: Warner Bros. - nationality: Norway

2nd studio album by a-ha released one year after the debut - and this time co-produced by Magnus Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar of the band.
The album contains fine vocal harmonies and well-executed compositions but it doesn't really help me when I find it tedious in the long run. It's hard to tell just what lacks 'cause these guys know how to play their instruments - they are kinda original, aren't they? The "but" part is somewhere in what's not really interesting, "fine fine, yes but... I just don't really find it that good." In the days when they were around I think, I thought of it as "music for girls", mostly. I know that sounds stupid but it must be that it never really appealed to me, so I had to categorise it along with bands like Culture Club and Take That stuff and hearing it some 30 years later doesn't really change my feelings about it - so there you have it.
I can't really recommend this.

Ane Brun "Spending Time with Morgan" (2003)

Spending Time with Morgan [debut]

release date: May 25, 2003

format: cd (DEMCD01)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]

producer: Kim Nelson; Katharina Nuttall & Cecile Grudet

label: DetErMine Records / V2 - nationality: Norway

Track highlights: 1. "Humming One of Your Songs" (4 / 5) (live - live) - 2. "Are They Saying Goodbye?" - 3. "On Off" - 4. "I Shot My Heart" - 7. "One More Time" - 9. "What I Want" - 11. "Wooden Body" (live)

Studio album debut by Norwegian soloist Ane Brun (aka Ane Kvien Brunvoll) released with assistance from V2 on the small independent label DetErMine, founded by the three singer / songwriter friends: Ane Brun, Canadian Wendy McNeill, and Swedish Ellekari Larsson (from the band The Tiny) - the album number reveals this as the first on the label, DEMCD01. From 2009 Brun exclusively releases her albums on her own label Balloon Ranger Recordings, however, these releases still comes with the catalog numbers beginning initiated with 'DEM' + continued numbers, either in respect of her co-founded early label, or simply because she has took over the old label when realising her own label. Ane Brun was born and raised in Molde in Norway, but she has been living in Sweden since 1999.

Spending Time with Morgan is mainly acoustic folk rock in a singer / songwriter format with elements from chamber pop and with strong ties to a predominantly American tradition, which in terms of style and genre has much in common with Danish Marie Frank and Tina Dickow, all of which especially bring to mind the strong legacy of Joni Mitchell. That said, I think that Brun is in a league of her own, both with a stronger international appeal than her Danish colleagues, and for having an apparent original voice of her own.

Both music and lyrics here are Brun's own, and although you may find clear bonds to well-known styles and other artists, the album exudes a self-assured individuality with its quiet, introverted tone, and Brun's vocal suits the simple arrangements ever so fittingly.

A very fine and promising debut.

[ Gaffa.dk 4 / 6 stars ]

Jan Garbarek "I Took Up the Runes" (1990)

I Took Up the Runes
release date: Aug. 1990
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Track highlight: 1. "Gula Gula" (4 / 5) - 2. "Molde Canticle Part 1" (5 / 5) - 3. "Molde Canticle Part 2" - 4. "Molde Canticle Part 3" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "Molde Canticle Part 4" (2,5 / 5) - 6. "Molde Canticle Part 5" (3 / 5) - 7. "His Eyes Were Suns" (4 / 5) - 8. "I Took Up the Runes" (4 / 5) - 9. "Bueno Hora, Buenos Vientos" (3,5 / 5) - 10. "Rahkki Sruvvis"

Studio album by Jan Garbarek, which is stylistically close to Legend of the Seven Dreams (1988) with a little less focus on ambient but still it's modern free jazz with traditional folk elements, also on this what could be Indian sounding fragments. Overall, I like this a bit better.