Anneli Drecker
Tundra

From 1987 to 1996, an impeccable and immaculate artistic journey without a single fall from grace, crowned by two extraordinary peaks like "Birds Of Passage" and "Magic Box". Then suddenly, the magic was broken: whether it was the pressures from the record label, wrong choices, or simply a lack of inspiration, the fact remains that "Rush" from 1998, the fifth album by Bel Canto, turned out to be a burning and almost complete failure. Weak, mannered, boring and lacking in grip, at times a very faded shadow of its very successful predecessor, more often adrift in an electronic neither fish nor fowl, hybrid and antiseptic; except for the extravagant "The Dinosaur-Slipper-Man" and some early synth-pop approaches, particularly in "Images," "Rush" is a fundamentally wrong album and absolutely negligible. Anneli is the first to react to this disappointment, gathering the pieces two years after the fact and turning the page by proposing herself as a solo artist in all her charming splendor, thus giving a meaning to this sudden blackout situation.

So, how to rise from the rubble of a tired and mediocre album? Obvious: by seeking new momentum and vitality; Anneli succeeds by experimenting, testing, and trying her hand at various styles and genres, and the final result is an authentic sound laboratory, eclectic, lively, a bit eccentric and very ambitious, full of new ideas and insights that would be partially resumed in "Dorothy's Victory," the swan song of BC and later, in a more codified and "mainstream" form, in her second album, "Frolic". "Tundra" opens with "All I Know", a mid-tempo, jazzy-synth piece luxuriously orchestrated with an elegant, full, quite pleasant and inspired sound, which seems to reflect on the difficulties of the just-ended period, "Walking here all by myself, wondering what went wrong, that I couldn't know or didn't see, all those dreams now fulfilled, why did they stop to glow?", a reflection where Anneli seems to "accuse" her adventure companion Nils Johansen but at the same time recognizes her own part of responsibility; however one chooses to read it, it is clear that what happened is in the past, she bears no grudge and has moved on. A new page that Anneli fills with jazzy sketches like the soft and sly "Fire Alarm", electro-lounge nonchalance and a singing style with multiple nuances, sensual and buttery yet confidential and cheeky enough, and "Still Waters", a piano and voice improvisation of Mitchell-style that allows for a great exotic final, lively and orchestrated in perfect Bel Canto style, culminating with the extravagant and delightful "Trinitron", half spoken and half sung, or rather whistled, which with an abundant dose of surrealism makes fun of TV addiction and other extravagances of modern lifestyle, seasoning everything with an eccentric and pleasantly lobotomizing melody, most fitting given the topic.

In the colorful sound mosaic of "Tundra," there is also room for the synth-pop already blandly explored in "Rush," here taken up with far more convincing results in the brilliant upbeat of "Sexy Love" and in the fine semi-ballad "It's All Here", singles of excellent manufacture (and hit-parade potential) and demonstrations of perfect confidence with a more strictly pop compositional style, which with the tech-ethno crossover sung in Sami of "Tundra (Mànaiga)" expresses itself in an unconventional dancefloor dimension, more visionary and "belcantian" sui generis. There are also moments that more closely recall the work with the "mother house," with "Woebegone" and "Song Of The Sky Loom", a revision of a Native American poem, returning even to the spectral atmospheres of "White-Out Conditions," including powerful and shamanic singing. "Who On Earth", electric piano and sparkling orchestral quirks, evokes a more fairy-tale and colorful imagery, and "Rainstorm", a refined ballad characterized by a very intense and cinematic finale, are examples of an immediate and emotional folk-orchestral sound that bands like Of Monsters And Men try to reproduce, most times without even approaching these levels.

"Tundra" represents the great comeback of Anneli Dreacker, a total revenge since the girl from Tromso is credited as the only author of all the songs, thus supporting the hypothesis of Nils Johansen being more "suspect" for the flop of "Rush": in any case, here we find an artist in full health, proceeding by trial but managing to best combine all the elements, giving life to a very heterogeneous but flowing and pleasant album, which runs with great naturalness. The winning card of "Tundra" definitely lies in a new and convincing pop sensitivity, and Anneli masters it with confidence and great personality, seeking alternative and personal ways as in the title track or in "Trinitron". Add to that a usual versatile and charismatic vocality and the final product can only be excellent, and it is truly a pity that Anneli didn't continue this solo journey after proving in an unequivocal manner, both with "Tundra" and with the subsequent "Frolic", the ability to build a second artistic life only with her strengths; what can I say, let's hope she reconsiders and returns to play the game.