Hanne Hukkelberg
Little Things

THE REVIEW

Have you ever found yourself getting lost while listening to an album? 

Have you ever experienced being at the center of time travel, simply by enjoying the songs? 

No? Then this is the album for you: there's very little out there that can engage as much as the songs of this wonderful singer-songwriter from Oslo. It could be her blue eyes, it could be her childlike voice, but this album has captivated me strongly: there is beauty, soul, blood, muscles in this album. From the very first track, that brief and ghostly musical fragment ("Hoist Anchor") you realize you're facing something different: folk, jazz, indie, ambient. Flashes of Kate Bush, Bjork, Broadcast, Everything But The Girl without forgetting the jazzy voices of Dani Siciliano and Rosin Murphy, but it's just inspiration: this is the album of Hanne Hukkelberg, a simple girl who likes to write and compose music, naïve music that simply comes from intuition, that doesn't follow a logic, a goal: nothing is predetermined, it's all so free and surreal and that’s why you love it.

The more you advance with the songs, track after track, the more you get lost in the eye of a cyclone: the pieces seem to be placed in ascending order. "Cast Anchor" and "Do Not As I Do" are masterpieces of alternative chanson music of this period: killing guitar, barely perceptible electronics, chilling ancestral choirs. "Balloon" is still astonishing, perhaps more so: warp-like electronics, jazz flashes, voice captured by the rhythm, victimized by the sounds. It is pure poetry.

The Norwegian landscapes appear before your eyes: ghost towns, Scandinavian forests where transparent ghosts cry out their pain. The strings hurt, they seem to perform a macabre, yet very sweet dance. It feels like hearing a mother sing a funeral lullaby to her little one: somber, yet sweet and warm.

"Displaced" is a curious and quirky jazz cameo: strings interrupted by vintage radios caress Hukkelberg's splendid voice in a spiral of dreams and nightmares that intertwine.

"Ease" is a cross between Billie Holiday and Emiliana Torrini: the voice makes love with the instruments, they are in complete symbiosis, incredibly complementary to one another. But after a fleeting and ghostly "Confusion", comes a diamond of maximal beauty: a splendid "True Love", not a love song, but a splendid interpretation that initially doesn't seem too far from a less aggressive Pj Harvey, but then opens up into fans of strings that kiss the blues piano and the ever-enviable voice of the singer. "Music is playing for me/I've never hear it before/Tell me this is true love/Tell Me This is true love". How could you disagree? This song is love at first sight! Stuttering bass, intruding guitar, timid drums, crystal-clear voice. Spectacle!

"Words And A Piece Of Paper" perfectly captures the song of the sirens and is not displeasing at all, instead, it's another demonstration of an enduring talent that culminates in "Boble", which begins with a surreal opening of skewed, electronic, and spatial jazz. Bagpipes, drums, voice.

You are lost in the forest. I can no longer find my direction and even when the album ends, I am lost.
No way, no escape route.

This album is so beautiful that it's deadly.
Handle with care.