Susanna Wallumrød is unfraid to stand exposed and almost alone, throat bared with song. Jazz, rock, or Nordic folk, it’s all about execution, and it is always exquisite. In 2006, she wrought delicate covers together with her “magical orchestra”, consisting solely of Morten Qvenlid of Jaga Jazzist on piano, harpsichord, autoharp, vibraphone, “church organ” and sundry other keys. And while it was hardly surprising to find tracks penned by kindred spirits like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Scott Walker, and Sandy Denny on Melody Moutain, the remarkable fact is that numbers by Kiss, AC/DC and Prince folded into the mix so seamlessly. Her rendition turned a celebratory headbanger like ‘It’s a Long Way to Go’ (you know, if you want to rock’n’roll) into an introspective cogitation over the rootless life of the travelling musician, a “Pilgrim´s Progress” undertaken on modern, eight-lane highways. The performance of each song made them seem as though they had been handed down from generation to generation.
In pairing up with baroque harpist Giovanna Pessi, upon whose initiative this project was launched, Wallumrød further assays timelessness by combining pieces from the songbook of modern troubadours with anthems of sorrow and joy by 17th-century English composer Henry Purcell, and two songs of her own. Pessi invited Jane Achtman to play viola da gamba and Marco Ambrosini nyckelharpa and the album sounds round and woody. The modern and ancient dovetail perfectly, epochs are obscured.
‘Who By Fire’ is Leonard Cohen’s most ominously Jewish moment, insofar as the text is based on an eleventh-century liturgical poem written for Yom Kippur, on which day God inscribes who will live and who will die in the Book of Life. At the same time, its theme of mortality is universally appealing. Conversely, Nick Drake’s ‘Which Will’ sounds utterly otherwordly. Pessi’s Mediterranean warmth and Wallumrød’s Norwegian coolth merge into heavy but never dark emotional weather.
“Music for a while”, wrote the poet John Dryden for Purcell, “shall all your cares beguile”. Purcell our contemporary, tragically dead at only thirty-six, is lovingly resurrected by Pessi and Wallumrød on this stunning treat.
Stephen Fruitman
