sun 06/10/2024

CD: Ane Brun – It All Starts With One | reviews, news & interviews

CD: Ane Brun – It All Starts With One

CD: Ane Brun – It All Starts With One

Nordic singer-songwriter reaches new levels of intensity

Ane Brun's 'It All Starts With One': red-blooded

Although Norwegian, Ane Brun’s biggest impact has been in Sweden, where she lives. Since her last studio album, she’s toured and recorded with Peter Gabriel. Her new album again finds her diving off the expected path, throwing herself forcefully onto new musical ground.

Her voice is still recognisable. Crystalline, tremulous and keening, it’s meant to bear emotion. But the aptly titled It All Starts With One might as well be a debut album. Always a stellar songwriter, Brun chose to get her material across in a familiar, largely folk-styled way. It could be the Gabriel experience that's pushed her, it could be the fact that this is the first album for Balloon Ranger, her own independent label. Or it might be the influence of percussionist Per Eklund, who was integral to Lykke Li’s similarly direct Wounded Rhymes. Whatever it is, this is a new red-blooded, invigorated Ane Brun.

Sexualised too. “Do you remember the late morning, when we went back to bed, when we found our first position?” she sings on the album's first single, the tribal “Do You Remember”. The frankness, a rawness, courses through It All Starts With One. Opening cut “These Days” is hymnal, punctuated with rippling, echoing percussion and is suffused with this passion, capturing the conflict between recognising an awareness of the effect of love and the need to blind yourself to it to preserve a balance. Sometimes, though, it’s best not to retreat. It’s powerful. Arrangements are sparse, open and alive. After exposure to It All Starts With One, it’s clear Ane Brun is brimful of life.

Visit Kieron Tyler’s blog

Watch the video for “Do You Remember”


Comments

I'm sure she's a lovely singer and everything, but I'm getting so sick of seeing this cold, vacant expression and one eyed, all seeing, illuminati, 'eye of horus' symbolism. I notice that a well known fashion label (which I won't mention) have even got their child models doing it now. Not cool.

I feel the editing could have been better. They seem to use the right cuts at the wrong places and long shots when close ups would do. A bit awkward clip..

She is a classic case of an artist who is quite famous and popular in her country, but completely unknown everywhere else. Definitely worth discovering. Her previous releases are equally interesting.

Thank you for this review (I immediately linked to it on my blog)! Ane Brun’s new album “It All Starts With One” shows the singer-songwriter’s darker side. Accompanied by accentuated drumming and minimalist arrangements, her fragile voice carries you through the melancholic songs with lightness and grace. You need to get the deluxe version, the second disk is amazing. Read a full review of the 18 songs of "It all starts with one" here: http://wp.me/p1ZpT1-kV Hope you enjoy it!

Add comment

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters