Bel Canto. Wonderful, wonderful music. Anneli Drecker, the vocalist, is a genius. Nils Johansen, the "other person" in the band, is also great, especially when he takes up his electrical violin. Their music is very varied. Lots of straight pop-songs, mixed with more serious and dark melodic songs, along with weird things that you never know if you like or not. A bit like Björk (but less accessible and stylish), a bit like Morcheeba (but colder and more interesting). Uses influences from around the world, especially the cold, arctic north and sometimes India. Anneli is often used as a guest-vocalist on other's albums... Röyksopp and A-ha have used her. Their albums are:
- White-Out Conditions
Bel Canto hail from Tromsø, one of the northernmost cities in the world. It's cold and dark there, and this music shows it. Weird and experimental, using 4-5 different languages (including made-up ones), and haunting. A sort of pop/ambient-hybrid with strange instruments, dark beats and Anneli's fantastic (but undeveloped... she was only 16 or so on this record) voice. "Baltic Ice-Breaker" might be the most depressing song ever, but you also have infectious gems like the title-cut and the beautiful "Upland" to contrast with. Some of the songs are very out there, though...
- Birds Of Passage
Possibly the best album ever in the history of music. Still a bit dark, but not as depressing as the first one. Some of the songs are just mindblowing. "Dewy Fields" is a majestic, powerful melodious masterpiece. Anneli's voice has improved a lot by now! "Birds Of Passage" is great too here... the live-version, which is sadly not on this record, is a rush without equal. Other great songs are "A Shoulder To The Wheel" and the whimsical "Oyster". Overall, though, this is pretty flawless, and a must for anyone who likes melodious, emotional, "magical" music with a great female vocalist.
- Shimmering, Warm & Bright
Ties with BOP for best album ever
Seriously... this is what you'd get if you took the Zelda-games, the Lord Of The Rings-books, Leonardo da Vinci's religious paintings and an assortment of dinosaurs and mythical beasts, put them all together into a blender and poured the result out as music. The production is vastly improved over the first two albums, and so, again, is Anneli's voice. It has a very distinct sound... warm and enchanting, unlike the coldness of the previous two. All of the songs deserve to be highlighted, but my personal favourites are probably these:
- "Unicorn". A sweeping wonderland of a song that makes you want to go out on an adventure, sword in hand, and save the world.
- "Summer". A beautiful, catchy pop-song. Really nice melody.
- "Die Geschichte Einer Mutter". A long, orchestrated, incredible song-adaption of a sad fairytale. Sung in German. A bit strange in comparison with the other songs, but it might be the most beautiful of them all.
- "Waking Will". The lyrics don't really mean much, but the melody is superb. This was my favourite song for several years.
"Sleep In Deep". Another great melody... very, very sad, though. Says a lot with very little about war and what it does to children.
- Magic Box
Bel Canto's resources were obviously much larger by the time they made this, and the soundscape is far more varied than before. Many say this album is a bit over-produced, and all-over-the-place, though, but I still think it's one of their best. "Bombay" is just great... a heavy, fun song with a mesmerizing beat about orang-utans, Indian rope-climbers and other assorted strange things. Then there's "Paradise", which is a throwback to the incredibly beautiful/sad songs from albums two and three, but this time with a nice drum-machine rhythm. "In Zenith" is great too... the eastern/Indian influences are quite prevalent in this album, and they fit well with the more poppy, upbeat melodies. An altogether more happy album than before, but it has lost some of the magic they used to make.
- Rush (Images in NA)
Bel Canto's experiments with technology in Magic Box really pays off here, with lots of interesting rhythms and sounds. A bit more organic, a bit more dirty than before. "Idly I De-Ice" is the token sad/beautiful song this time, and it's just magnificent when played on a really good system. My favourite bit in this album is the short, moody "Nornagest" followed by the utterly amazing "Rush", though. It gets the pulse pumping like nothing else... first a sinister, minimalist intro, then a pulsating monster of a song that just keeps on building. "Rush" is one of the best live-songs ever, and that's a fact. The rest of the album is a nice mix of everything... levitating frogs, death-penalty, superheroes and crazy people with dinosaur-slippers.
- Dorothy's Victory
Their last album so far, and the only one I can't really say much about. I've listened to it quite a bit, but it doesn't stick. It's more anonymous than their previous efforts, yet still has a kind of irresistible quality in some of the songs. A nice mix of straight pop, experimental ambient songs and flat-out weird things, but it does sound a little half-assed compared to what they're usually able to do.
So... Birds Of Passage and Shimmering, Warm & Bright are the must-haves. Try them if you like great melodies, great female voices and a bit of experimentation to liven up things.
