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17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Blair Bjork Bergman Witch Project, 16 Sep 2004
The CD case gives this one away - the cover features singer Susanna Wallumrod shot in grainy black & white, a scarily blank expression on her face, while the back is a similarly grainy image of two vague figures in a forest, both images hinting at the disturbing, other-worldly music contained within.For this glacial Danish electro-balladry has few parallels in contemporary music - Bjork's "Vespertine" perhaps (though "Lists..." is far, far weirder), or maybe Juana Molina's bizarre electronic folk experiments; probably the most kindred spirit is fellow Scandinavian Stina Nordenstam, whose terrifying "Dynamite" album has a similar air of devastated resignation. The combination of minimalist electronica and wistful female vocal is almost becoming a cliche but Wallumrod and her Magical Orchestra (in reality studio boffin Morten Qvenild) have raised the bar a few notches here; Qvenild is capable of swift, shocking mood changes, switching from barely audible bleeps and strings to cascading arpeggios, while Wallumrod's vocals, though occasionally a tad prosaic, are equally capable of shifting from robotic Nico-esque intonation to the breathy folkiness of Beth Orton or the slightly sinister sneer of the aforementioned Stina Nordenstam. It's by no means easy listening, with even more conventional numbers such as "Turn the Pages" or "Believer" being so despairing they could easily soundtrack an Ingmar Bergman film, and with the album's warmest, most romantic track bearing the coldly scientific title "Distance Blues and Theory". The two covers which open the album are equally bizarre. Leonard Bernstein's "Who Am I" is totally deconstructed and is so minimalist and light that it's barely existent, while Dolly Parton's "Jolene", originally the defiant plea of a woman desperate not to lose her man, is transformed into a such tearful murmur of desolation that it's hardly recognisable. No barrel of laughs then, but in the right context, say if you're stuck in a log cabin in the middle of a forest with only a bottle of vodka, a bottomless well of despair and some unnamed horror creeping around in the snow outside for company, an essential listen...
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