Showing posts with label Solveig Slettahjell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Solveig Slettahjell. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Solveig Slettahjell - Come in from the Rain

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:11
Size: 99,4 MB
Art: Front

(4:07) 1. Come in from the Rain
(3:44) 2. On the Street Where You Live
(2:48) 3. You're Driving Me Crazy
(4:04) 4. Since I Fell for You
(4:40) 5. So I Borrow Your Smile
(4:51) 6. How Deep Is the Ocean
(3:13) 7. Now or Never
(4:19) 8. I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City
(4:34) 9. Johnsburg, Illinois
(6:46) 10. 'Round Midnight

Norwegian singer Solveig Slettahjell has been on the scene for almost 20 years since she debuted with her band Slow Motion Orchestra. Since then, she’s garnered an impressive discography and most recently, she’s recorded Come in From the Rain with a new group of musicians.

The songs chosen for this album make an interesting collection. There are songs with quirky arrangements like the opening Come in From the Rain (originally written by Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager in 1975 and covered by Captain and Tennille) that holds way more weight and depth to it than the earlier versions both in arrangement and in her vocal delivery. It’s a bold way to start an album but it sucks the listener in on a journey that has only just begun. The following arrangement is even more twisted – the My Fair Lady song On the Street Where You Live is a fairly uninspired Broadway staple, but here, it’s turned on its head with an percussive uneasiness to it. Andreas Ulvo’s piano solo is short but develops the theme enough to actually bring back some of the traditional joyfulness into the song and by the end, it feels like this is how the song was originally written.

Since I Fell For You and I Lost My Sugar in Salt Lake City show off some impressive blues chops and you can really hear the smokiness in Slettahjell’s voice. It’s earthy and sweet sounding and she knows how to use it. The Billie Holiday classic Now or Never, is given a 60’s sort of mod-pop shuffle feel and the attitude seeps out of Slettahjell, especially during her scat solo.In Slettahjell’s original song So I Borrow Your Smile, there is a tinge of sadness but the message is positive, like a prayer for anyone who needs it. She is a master at conveying message and meaning. The same goes for the Tom Waits song, the unbearably simple Johnsburg, Illinois here has such a beautiful intensity that it quickly becomes a favourite. By the end of the album it is clear that this thread of intensity is driven by the trio; as though Slettahjell’s voice is food for their well-oiled machine. Pål Hausken on drums using different techniques interplaying with Trygve Waldem ar Fiske on bass, as they draw out the interesting aspects of each song and complement everything so perfectly. If this is an indication of what this new band can accomplish, let’s hope this is only the beginning of their collaboration.~ Lavender Sutton https://londonjazznews.com/2020/08/24/solveig-slettahjell-come-in-from-the-rain/

Come in from the Rain

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Solveig Slettahjell - Live At Victoria

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2018
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 47:03
Size: 108,1 MB
Art: Front

(3:23)  1. 12th Of Never
(5:18)  2. How Long Has This Been Going On
(3:25)  3. Visit
(5:29)  4. Be Steady
(5:57)  5. Take It With Me
(3:01)  6. Outlet
(5:33)  7. Is My Living In Vain
(6:37)  8. Come Healing
(4:48)  9. I Don t Feel No Ways Tired
(3:28) 10. A Day

A singer, alone, at a piano is not an unusual sight. But when that singer is Solveig Slettahjell, the rarity of the moment becomes vivid, and the expectation of what this moment could deliver is amplified. And, on a September night in 2017, at Nasjonal Jazzscene in Victoria, Oslo, Solveig gave such a performance. "Magical moments guaranteed" ran the tagline, and for once it was not advertising hyperbole. Guests joined for some songs: Pål Hausken provided percussive accompaniment on some tracks, while the choir Safari appeared to provide a whole new ambience to proceedings. However, their sparing use adds colour and drama at just the right moments, never resorting to mere chorus build-up and repetition. Featuring a set made of standards, original material, and settings of poems by Emily Dickinson, Solveig's performance is a masterful blend of emotional honesty and technical brilliance. Her delivery of classics by the likes of Gershwin, or more recent creations by Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen is bold and forthright, and her interpretations retain the spirits of the originals while marking them clearly with her own stylistic thumbprint. Her Emily Dickinson interpretations are much more than mere exercises they are charged with the energy of the original poetry, and often viewed through unexpected lenses, such as on "Visit" (where Solveig leaves the piano and is accompanied by Pål Hausken) which becomes a blues-washed chaingang song; "Outlet" again takes a view of the lyrics through a blues filter; and "A Day" presents an arrangement that Tom Waits at his Asylum Years best would be proud of.  This Solveig's second release through Jazzland Recordings, the previous being "Tarpan Seasons" (2009), a studio album that introduced a number of the tracks in this live recordings, perhaps most notably her interpretations of Emily Dickinson "A Day" and "Visit".

Personnel:  Solveig Slettahjell: Vocals, Piano;  Pål Hausken: Drums, Vocals; Safari (Eirik Kaasa, Åshild Kristin Stensrud Kaasa, Martha Sofie Eide, Malin Byberg, Åshild Sandvik, Nora Nesbakken, Tone Ravndal, Christoffer Holten Gidske and Johan Helland): choir;  Daniel Mikael Wold: live sound and recording.

Live At Victoria

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Solveig Slettahjell, Knut Reiersrud - Trail Of Souls

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:35
Size: 115.8 MB
Styles: Blues, Roots, Jazz
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[4:36] 1. Borrowed Time
[4:57] 2. Grandma's Hands
[5:26] 3. Mercy Street
[3:38] 4. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
[5:01] 5. Come Healing
[5:45] 6. Is My Living In Vain
[4:14] 7. Holy Joe
[3:08] 8. Trouble In Mind
[4:25] 9. His Eye Is On The Sparrow
[3:19] 10. I Don't Feel Noways Tired
[6:01] 11. Soul Of A Man

Solveig Slettahjell: vocals; Knut Reiersrud: guitar, harmonica; Morten Qvenild: piano, synth; Roger Arntzen: bass; Pål Hausken: drums, percussion.

Vocalist Solveig Slettahjell and blues guitarist/harmonica player Knut Reiersrud record together for the first time on Trail Of Souls. They're joined by another three Norwegian musicians—pianist Morten Qvenlid, bassist Roger Arntzen and drummer Pål Hausken, known collectively as In The Country—on a programme of songs drawn from early blues, spirituals and classic rock songwriters. The performances are uniformly high quality—Qvenild's synth and piano parts are subtle, Sletahjell's vocals are heartfelt and understated, Reiersrud's acoustic guitar is lyrical and flowing. However, the decision to take every song at a very slow pace, coupled with the songs' tales of sadness and failure, results in an overall effect that's more depressing than elating. Although Shakespeare's suggestion that "If music be the food of love, play on" is quoted on the album sleeve, there's little love in these lyrics—most of these songs paint a picture of a far from loving world.

"Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" combines Slettahjell's vocal with Qvenild's slow, stately, piano in a way that successfully emphasises the despair of the tale. "Borrowed Time" and "Is My Living In Vain," both gracefully performed, project similar pessimistic emotions. Even when Slettahjell sings—on "Trouble In Mind"—that "The sun's gonna shine in my back door someday" she sounds as if she doesn't really believe it'll happen. The closest Trail Of Souls gets to a feel good song is Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands." But even here, the grandparent comes across as someone to be respected, even feared, rather than loved. So, Trail Of Souls proves to be a musically successful meeting of spiritual and bluesy Americana with a Nordic jazz sensibility—as was intended—but one that veers too much towards a downbeat, even depressing, worldview. ~Bruce Lindsay

Trail Of Souls

Friday, May 13, 2016

Solveig Slettahjell - Slow Motion Orchestra

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 52:32
Size: 120.3 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2001
Art: Front

[4:30] 1. All The Way
[5:41] 2. Comes Love
[5:14] 3. Blame It On My Youth
[6:46] 4. My Heart Belongs To Daddy
[3:06] 5. What A Little Moonlight Can Do
[4:17] 6. Little Girl Blue
[4:32] 7. I've Got A Crush On You
[5:34] 8. I Remember Clifford
[3:05] 9. Reaching For The Moon
[6:45] 10. Beatiful Love
[2:59] 11. Wild Is The Wind

Solveig Slettahjell: vocals; Sjur Miljeteig: trumpet, alto and barytone horns, electronics, vocals; Even Hermansen: guitar, vocals; Morten Qvenild: grand piano, synthesizers, harps, marxophone, programming, vocals; Andreas Ulvo: organ, vocals; Jo Berger Myhre: bass, baritone guitar, vocals; Per Oddvar Johansen: drums, percussion, electronics, musical saw, vocals.

From a simple idea, great things can sometimes come. When Solveig Slettahjell formed Slow Motion Orchestra for a 2001 performance that became the 15-piece group's eponymous first recording on Norway's Curling Legs, the premise was simple: take a collection of songs from the Great American Songbook, and slow them down. Way down. But over the course of three albums and an eye-opening performance at Kristiansand's 2007 Punkt Festival, the Norwegian singer and her trimmed-down quintet proved that slow, powerful and dramatic need not be mutually exclusive terms. ~John Kelman

Slow Motion Orchestra                

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Solveig Slettahjell - Good Rain

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2006
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:13
Size: 106,4 MB
Art: Front

(5:27)  1. Where Do You Run To
(5:21)  2. Another Day
(5:28)  3. Don't Look Back
(2:18)  4. Colour Lullabye
(4:18)  5. Flawless
(4:25)  6. We Were Indians
(1:59)  7. Do Lord
(6:34)  8. My Oh My
(4:07)  9. Good Rain
(4:19) 10. Moon
(1:53) 11. PS I Love You

This fourth release by Norwegian vocalist Solveig Slettahjell and the Slow Motion Quintet offers another magical experience. On Good Rain, these creative and busy musicians expand the musical language that they began to explore on their previous release, Pixiedust (Curling Legs, 2005). In addition to Slettahjell, the group includes trumpeter Sjur Miljeteig, formerly of the jazz-pop-electronica outfit Jaga Jazzist and one of the leaders of the art-rock group Friko; keyboardist Morten Qvenild, who leads In The Country and Susanna and the Magical Orchestra; bassist Mats Eilertsen; and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen. The quintet flirts with pop and art-rock and even trip-hop, aiming to position the jazz vocalist as an artist again within a popular form, but avoiding banalities and without giving up its intelligent elitist aroma. Slettahjell is faithful to her "slow motion" concept, conscious of every detail and nuance of each phrase, and her natural, leisurely alto shines throughout the eleven songs. The sonic palette of the ensemble is much more varied, enveloping Slettahjell's warm vocals with sounds that recall productions by such art-rock sonic explorers as David Sylvian or Talk Talk. The sensitive playing of all players adds vibrant layers that caress and reinforce the massages of the poetic songs. 

All the songs revolve around the theme of belief, often an abstract and secular one in Slettahjell, empowering herself after a failed relationship, or in nature and they offer some consolation, quite often sounding melancholic. The goal? "To be lonely in a good way," as she sings in Qvenild's "Another Day." Slettahjell's innocent and modest narration of life happiness, despair, fate and hope succeeds in creating a peaceful intimacy capable of touching and melting even the greatest cynic. Slettahjell seeks some calmness and reconciliation in "Where Do You Run To," faith in her lone self in "Another Day." She trusts fate in "Don't Look Back," draws hope from dreams in "Colour Lullabye," and strongly convinces about the joys of lovemaking on "We Were Indians." Her beautiful a cappella version of V.O. Fossett's gospel song "Do Lord" serves as an introduction to the dark, anguished, modern gospelish "My Oh My," penned by Miljeteig. On the Peder Kjellsby-penned "Good Rain" she refers to "the rain washing the stains of / Another broken day." As on Pixiedust, Slettahjell beautifully interperts another poem by Emily Dickinson, "The Moon." The playful, minimalist version of Johnny Mercer's "P.S. I Love You," the last song on this release, offers some hopeful closure. Beautiful. 
~ Eyal Hareuveni   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/good-rain-solveig-slettahjell-curling-legs-review-by-eyal-hareuveni.php

Personnel: Solveig Slettahjell: vocals;  Sjur Miljeteig: trumpet;  Morten Qvenild: piano, keyboards;  Mats Eilertsen: bass;  Per Oddvar Johansen: drums.

Good Rain

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Solveig Slettahjell - Silver

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 46:20
Size: 106.1 MB
Styles: Jazz vocals
Year: 2004
Art: Front

[4:35] 1. Take It With Me
[5:12] 2. Second Time Around
[5:38] 3. What Is This Thing Called Love
[4:19] 4. D. Parkers Wisdom
[2:28] 5. What If
[6:06] 6. You Won't Forget Me
[3:27] 7. Nobody's Fault But Mine
[1:57] 8. Moon River
[4:14] 9. Time After Time
[2:58] 10. 12th Of Never
[3:42] 11. The More I See You
[1:39] 12. Look For The Silver Lining

Norwegian jazz vocalist Solveig Slettahjell is a musical thinker who in tandem with her group, the Slow Motion Quintet, has developed a highly personal approach to her art. Not only does she open up a song and explore it from within, she is able to invest it with a meaning and gravitas that even the songwriters themselves probably never knew existed. It's a precious gift that only the great singers possess. Certainly this girl can make time stand still - just play 'You Won't Forget Me' or 'Take it With Me' for evidence of her inimitable talent. Riveting. ~Stuart Nicholson

Silver