Send "Susanna And The Magical Orchestra " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Drownedinsound |
 “What fresh hell is this?” Dorothy Parker would declare when someone was unwise enough to interrupt her day with something as trivial as a telephone call. Susanna Wallumrød and Morten Qvenild - the only full-time member of the Magical Orchestra - are fans of Parker’s, having set her poetry to music on ‘Distance Blues and Theory’, off their debut List of Lights and Buoys back in 2004. They have barely deigned to trouble us with anything since, trivial or otherwise, releasing only Melody Mountain, a collection of covers, in 2006. It is clear that the intervening period has not been primarily spent mulling over the naming of their third collaboration. There is no Parker this time, but there is a beguiling if inconsistent selection of original material, informed by Susanna’s two solo records, as well as a pair of the now almost obligatory covers. List of Lights and Buoys saw them strip back ‘Jolene’ while ‘Melody Mountain’ garnered widespread acclaim for their glacial reimaginings of the likes of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and ‘Don't Think Twice, It's Alright’. Here they turn their attention to Roy Harper’s ‘Another Day’ and Rush’s ‘Subdivisions’ with somewhat mixed results. The gem of the two, indeed the zenith of the whole album, is ‘Another Day’. Susanna comes over like Nico wanting “to score”, but the story the words can only sketch is really told by the ache in her voice. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush once dueted on a version of this, and the influence of both seems somehow equally present here....full text |
| Independent |
| Karen Carpenter meetsJoy Division in gothicsynth-pop heaven. Thecult Norwegian duo'sthird album more thanupholds their excellentstandards while offeringa further twist to the tale:a full conversion tobeyond-the-pale 1980skeyboard sounds. Notall the 10 songs hereare equally good but atits best – "Recall","Someday", "Palpatine'sDream", a beautifulcover of Roy Harper's"Another Day" – thisis truly awe-inspiringmusic, provoking deepthoughts and sublimefeelings....full text |
| Blogcritics. |
| What do you think of, Northern Europe pop music? Do you think of it at all? Although I know that, like everywhere else, the Scandinavian countries have diverse musical tastes and bands that run the gamut from death metal to electrobeat/house music with stops in the middle for frothy pop music, I can't rid myself of the image of rather severe looking individuals standing at keyboards playing very grim, but intellectual, atmospheric electronic compositions. Part of the problem is that we know so little about the popular music scene in countries like Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland. I mean aside from Abba and Bjork can you name off the top of your head any pop music groups from that part of the world? As an example it has only been in the last year or so that I've learned anything of the music scene in Norway. Did you know that in 1967 one of the stops on the Stax Records' tour of Europe was in Oslo, the capital city of Norway? Or that this year's Notodden Blues Festival in Norway featured acts like Buddy Guy and the Homemade Jamz Blues Band, and it is one of the biggest blues festivals in the world? However it wasn't until I reviewed Money Will Ruin Everything: The Second Edition, a two disc compilation release from the Norwegian label Rune Grammofon that I began to get some idea of just how much music was being generated by home grown musicians. As in any compilation release there was some music that I couldn't tolerate, some that was interesting enough, and some that was sufficiently intriguing to merit further investigation....full text |
Susanna And The Magical Orchestra lyrics
|
| |||||||
