•
Rating: An interesting listening opportunity is offered to us by the second album of Bel Canto, released in 1989. The Norwegian trio - Anneli Drecker on vocals plus Nils Johansen and Geir Jenssen - presents with "Birds of Passage" a lively and curious work, although destined to remain in the hearts of only a few enthusiasts. How many bands from cold Norway do you know?
A well-crafted mixture of new wave, electronic, dream pop, and a few splashes of ethnic music come together across the album's 11 tracks. It certainly doesn't belong to the mainstream, that's clear, but neither does it reside in a catacombal underground. Let's say that sometimes a techno influence might remind one of Depeche Mode, while on other occasions the thought might go to Dead Can Dance (e.g., the intro of "Dewy Fields").
The protagonist is always the voice of Anneli Drecker, a soft vocalist who knows how to take on more aggressive tones when she wants. The two sidekicks share the work on instruments and programming (Johansen is also on vocals in "Time Without End"), along with six guest artists on acoustic instruments like strings, clarinet, trumpet, and flugelhorn.
Electronics dominate, but the album never becomes monotonous or confined to an unchangeable stylistic dimension. It is precisely the variety of this "Birds of Passage", perhaps suggested by the title itself, that proves successful. There are no lack of spirited interludes such as "The Glassmaker", a track where Drecker breaks into a Middle Eastern vocalization, intoning not lyrics but syllables without meaning (a bit like Elizabeth Fraser or Lisa Gerrard), or like "Continuum", a danceable techno track sung in... Spanish.
An album thus to be savored in moments when seeking a not too demanding, yet not banal listen. The story of Bel Canto will continue beyond "Birds of Passage" despite recording the departure, right after this work, of Geir Jenssen, whom we will soon encounter again under the moniker Biosphere: a name well known to lovers of ambient.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Look 3 (04:34)
No kindness
when there's lack of dignity
politeness
has to join simplicity
no caution
without pure sincerity
compliance
has to join with bravery
No mildness
without some solidity
no power
without simple honesty
no courage
without justice joined within
good nature
and discretion makes a team
02 Dewy Fields (04:03)
Go
Go to seek and find
What you're hoping for
Come
The treasure is yours
You're running out of time
When morning comes
Your dreams are real
In dewy fields
Your trace is left behind (behind)
So very little time
So very little hope
You're longing for someone
While the rain is falling down
Looking, seeking, you are searching for someone
You're crossing the dewy fields
You're walking in the woods
There's someone catching up
They're someone watching over you
Keeping secret your precious thing
Your treasure is
Your enemy
03 Continuum (04:35)
embrujo, bajo el sol cuando llueve y sube el calor mojando la piel bewitchment under the sun when it rains and the heat goes up [1] getting the skin wet ven aqui, junto a mi mueve el aire y empuja el aqua apaga ese rumor move the air and push the water come here, beside me end that rumour [2] alli no te detienes giras y siempre te mueves una maldicion? y te obliga a bailar ay ay y no puedes parar es un ritmo oculto, magico continuum there you don't stop you spin and always move a curse? and it forces you to dance Oh!, Oh!, and you can't stop it's a hidden, magic rhythm continually embrujo, bajo el sol cuando lleuve y aprieta el calor mojando mi piel bewitchment under the sun when it rains and the heat tightens getting my skin wet ven aqui, junto a mi mueve el aire y empuja el agua apaga ese rumor come here, beside me move the air and push the water end that rumour alli no te detienes corres i siempre te mueves una maldicion? mama, ma, mama, mama ay, ay, y no puedes parar en un ritmo oculto, magico continuum si... there you don't stop you run and never stop a curse? mama, ma, mama, mama oh, and you can't stop it's a hidden, magic rhythm continually yes... Translation by Juan Montoya, <fausto@iec.csic.es> [1] I.e, it gets hotter. [2] Literally, "turn that rumour off". In spanish "rumor" can also be the distant sound of a river or rain water.
10 A Shoulder to the Wheel (04:17)
You're conquered and your blood is pounding
In your ears
But you're doing fine
Find the broken pieces and then start anew
You make yourself believe that you did
Something right
You're denying your only wish
By forgetting your promises
Once and for all
And for ever more
If you finally reach your aim
You will never be able to
Gain back the time you lost between
You're trying hard to reconstruct your image
And you're doing right
But I think that you will always stay like this
When you put your idle shoulder to the wheel
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By Danny The Kid
A perfect fusion of electronic, world music, folk, and operatic pop, poetry, and spiritual elevation.
So beautiful, pure, and uncontaminated that it doesn’t even seem of this world.
