Susanne Sundfør – blómi – Brilliant Album – 2023

Review for Susanne Sundfør – blómi – Album – 2023

Facts

Artist: Susanne Sundfør
Country of Origin: Norway
Title: blómi
Format: Album, Stream, Download
Genre: Alternative, Indi
Label: Blómi Records (Bella Union/PIAS)
Release Date: April 28th, 2023
10 Tracks • 45m 56s

At qobuz available in Hi-res
24 Bits / 496 kHz – Stereo

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Review

Five years after Susanne Sundfør redefined her career with the folk-inspired, emotional album Music for People In Trouble, the Norwegian musician, artist and producer delves even deeper into her personal mythology on the soulful blómi, releasing her seventh album on the Blómi Records/Bella Union (PIAS) label on April 28, 2023.

Susanne Sundfør may be known from one of the six albums she has released since 2012, but certainly from the hauntingly stunning vocal lines on various albums by her Norwegian compatriots Röyksopp.

Blómi, the title of her new album, means „to bloom“ in Norwegian, and combines unique aspects of Susanne’s life story, such as her grandfather’s academic work specializing in Semitic languages and her own life-changing experiences as a new mother, into a colorful tapestry unlike anything she has released before.

Susanne wrote blómi primarily as a love letter to her young daughter, a message to a precious new life entering an unstable world. In the title track, carried by a lush, driving piano arrangement and tingling saxophones, Susanne Sundfør imparts all her wisdom to her daughter, urging her to take her words with her into life.

Combining her lyrics with echoes of Norse language and mythology, she references Norse cultures that built matrilineal societies and worshipped divine, female deities. These roots, the passing down from mother to child, are at the core of the music on blómi.

While Susanne’s earlier albums like “Ten Love Songs” and “The Brothel” (which topped the Norwegian charts) established her as a unique voice in modern Norwegian music history, blómi is a decidedly bold evolutionary leap.

Susanne about her new album “blómi”: “I want this album to prove to be a cure for the darkness that dominates our culture today. I want to show that there are other ways to look at reality, if you dare to take the mental leap of hoping for a more beautiful world.”

The Bottom Line

“Blómi” is an exceedingly fascinating album, however, this new opus is anything but musical fast food. Somewhere oscillating between the very finest singer/songwriter artistry, wonderful vocal lines, clear references to Nordic culture, light jazz touches, to spoken word passages and avant-garde onomatopoeia with ambient sound collages, “blómi” is an impressively radiant, artfully crafted chalice filled with great musical artistry.

If you manage to engage with the album in peace, Susanne will gift you with a work that will leave you in a tensely curious, sustainably positive state while listening to it.

Maybe you won’t pull the album out of the shelf too often, but each time you do so, this album will enchant you again and again – and a thought will hover in your consciousness that will make you say: “I’ll never give this album away again in my life, it belongs to me, to my life – forever”.

„Blómi“ is recorded 24 bit/96 kHz (hi-res) and sounds Nordic fresh, well-tempered and spacious across the entire frequency spectrum.

Rating

Listen to the Album and Buy it!

My Testequipment:

Studio 1 (High End):

• 2 x System Audio SA Mantra 50 (front)
• 1x System Audio SA Mantra 10 AV (center)
• 2x System Audio SA Legend 5 (Rear)
• 1 x System Audio Saxo 10 (Subwoofer)
• 4 x Onkyo SKH-410 (B) (Dolby Atmos)
• Auralic Altair (Audio Streaming Client mit max. 32 Bit / 384 kHz)
• NVIDIA Shield Pro mit Plex, Kodi (max 192 kHz für  Audio, Tidal (MQA Streaming Client)
• AppleTV 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Amazon Cube 4K (Streaming Client) Dolby Atmos (restricted), HDR, Dolby Vision
• Panasonic DP-UB9004 (4K UHD Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Oppo UDP-203 (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player) Dolby Atmos, HDR, Dolby Vision
• Yamaha CX-A5100 (Preamp) 4K, Dolby Atmos, Hi-res
• Yamaha MX -A5000 (Power Amp)
• Sony KD-55A1 (TV) 4K OLED, HDR, Dolby Vision

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