music
May 2, 2024

Ane Brun: Dark star from Norway

Is it due to the Nordic lack of light that the saddest lyrics and most melancholic melodies come from Scandinavia? Anyway, Ane Brun, who comes from the Norwegian province, masters the keyboard of hopelessness perfectly ... On the cover of her latest album "Changing of the Seasons", Ane Brun looks into the camera like a frightened deer in the headlights of an approaching truck. The songs are wonderfully dark poems, sung in a soft, bright voice - Time magazine called them a mix of "Bjork's Unpredictability and Joni Mitchell's Directness."

Ane Brun is a musical late bloomer. At the age of 21, she discovered her parents' acoustic guitar and took her to Oslo. What was initially limited to re-enacting their favorite songs soon became their own songwriting: "It was like being searched for and found! I could not stop it: all the while I sat there trying to figure out how my favorite songs work on the guitar. " She never got lessons, but she imitated the picking techniques of her role models Ani DiFranco and Nick Drake. At some point she dared to perform in front of friends. Later, she traded as a street musician through San Sebastian and Barcelona.

Ane Brun writes about loneliness and the search for happiness

Brun's pieces are of simple poetry and disarming emotional honesty. "I write texts to explain to myself certain situations, relationships or feelings." The songs are always minimalistically instrumented: the guitar is always the center of attention, only a few strings can be heard in the background. "That's my goal when I make a new play - that I want to be able to play it alone, that I do not need another instrument, no other musician or a band for it."

Self-determination is also important to Ane Brun in business terms. So in 2002 she founded her own label DetErMine-.Records: "I did not want to wait for someone to release my first album, so I thought I could use my energy to release it myself."

Her influences are mainly American, but also Scandinavian melodies, which she has "in herself since childhood." In 2006, she made a whole album of duets, singing with, among others, the Norwegian indie rockers Madrugada, the exceptional songwriter Teitur and the Canadian singer-songwriter legend Ron Sexsmith. After the releases, Ane decided to tour the world with her songs.

Do not be afraid of the dark side of life: Ane Brun

"Changing of the seasons" is her third studio album and was produced by Valgeir Sigurdsson, who has also worked with Björk and Sigur Ros.

In the single "The Treehouse Song" Brun tells of the hope of a beginning relationship in which the new love lets forget all the old disappointments. The tree house as a dream concept. In some places, her voice even seems to slip slightly into the yodelling with rudeness. In the gloomy "The Puzzle" melancholic strings predominate and Brun sings in a wavering voice of the destructive power of love. "Changing of the seasons" was previously released only in Norway and Sweden, where it is already ranked # 1 and # 2 on the album charts. In Germany, it is currently available as an import or can be downloaded from the website www.klicktrack.com.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com users can listen exclusively to the two singles.