Meditations On Love. Susanna

With the single 'Everyone Knows' Norwegian singer-songwriter Susanna (Wallumrød) surprised me no little. I ended my review as follows: "It is so nice when an artist is able to surprise in such an unexpected yet very welcome way". With her new album Susanna just continued where she left off at the end 'Everyone Knows'.

This song is also the opening track of Meditations On Love. Its mysterious, somewhat jazzy atmosphere returns regularly on the album. The intriguing sounds suck me into the album and keep me there with ease. Meditations On Love is an album that begs listening to and deserves just that. Musically the mood is subdued, allowing all the instruments to be listened to. 'Everyone Knows' sets the tone, mood and theme of the album. Musically, the song is very elementary, although it contains one of widest arrangements on the album and thus far more instruments. From love's beginning and development, to love turned sour, unrequited and broken, and everything in between is the theme of the album, on which Susanna shares her reflections with us. All in a soft and distanced way, almost from the outside looking in.

The bare instrumental accompaniment puts the spotlight on Susanna's voice. She meanders over the music subtly demanding the listener to serious listen to her new work. Far more than on her recent piano based albums. It is a true delight to do so. In fact, as it were Meditations On Love would not exist if you do not pay attention. It will be over without someone realising it was played or remembering the stereo was put on at all. Unless played extremely loud of course, killing the album most likely. Meditations On Love is intimate, with a few musical surprises here and there preventing the listener from dropping away, keeping him/her close to the songs.

Promo photo

Another thought that crept up on me is, the music being played at a witches' convent.  Don't ask me why, the thought just put itself in my mind. This is a blog on music, so let me suffice with two points. 1) We do not live in a Terry Pratchett 'Discworld' novel and, 2) in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel 'The Scarlet Letter' the Salem witch hunt stops right after the village's headman or mayor is accused of being a witch. For the rest I point to the rows of books written on the topic so you can make up your mind on witches should you wish to do so.

Overall, the feeling is of music being played in a late, late night bar where musicians are playing to themselves and the last remaining denizens of the night. Exploring a musical theme to see how far it will take them and honing it so it will work on record.

Reality appears a bit more mundane. Together with producer Juhani Silvola, she worked in the studio on her compositions that she had been writing since 2018. Only when needed other musicians were let in to add percussion and mostly softly played instruments. All together Meditations On Love's songs are spell-binding. Musically, Susanna has struck the motherload and the album's impact on me is far beyond my expectations. Simply a top album.

Wout de Natris - van den Borght

You can listen to and order Meditations on Love here:

https://susannamagical.bandcamp.com/album/meditations-on-love