Ida Duelund — Sibo

Muted trumpets, finger picked acoustic guitars, strings and other lush orchestration accompany Ida's heavily reverberated voice, which takes on a monastic choral quality as it is layered and overdubbed.  The whole thing sounds like it could have been recorded in a church, such is the vast atmospheric soundspace.  The sweeping ethereal drama found here would be well suited to cinematic scenes in which a massive underwater city is discovered.  I might compare it to Lisa Gerrard's 1995 solo effort The Mirror Pool, her darkest work and the most traditionally classical of all Dead Can Dance related music.

 

The second piece "Misi Miamo" is initially totally different than the dark fantasy feeling of the first piece, an acoustic guitar ballad sung in Spanish, but as the track progresses, moody minor key strings swell behind the guitar and we return to a similar melancholy space.  The third piece shows further influence from ancient European choral music and folk traditions, with a kind of cascading round in which various overdubs of Duelund's voice creating intersecting scalar harmonies that pan around the stereo field.

 

There are no drums for the most part, and although there is emotional drama and many changes throughout the compositions, it generally occurs at a relatively subdued dynamic.  It is an album for rainy day introspection.  The album is split evenly between songs that seem to be written as singer/songwriter music for acoustic guitar (and later orchestrated), and more complex music written explicitly for a larger group, without the unpinning of a strummed chord progression.

 

Each time Duelund sings it seems to be in a different language, as "S├ªna" is clearly not in Spanish, though I don't recognize the language.  Even on tracks like this, which feel closer to many indie singer/songwriters, the lush orchestration sets this album apart, bringing an emotional weight and tension to the more repetitive progressions with full, expressive chords.  This middle of the album begins to feel more heavily influenced by 90's art rock with catchy, anthemic vocals lines that could come from Lush, Stereolab or My Bloody Valentine, particularly on "Kio", perhaps my favorite song here.  The melodies are always intelligent and poignant.  I feel at times as I'm listening to the sound of rock compositions as played by an orchestra, as riffs in the spirit of rock history are played by string bass, piano or trumpet.

 

All in all this is an absolutely lovely album, expressive in many memorable ways, with not a single wasted moment.  Recommended for fans of albums like Lisa Gerrard's Mirror Pool or Slowdive's Pygmalion, groups like Sigur Ros, or anyone looking for a thoughtful rainy day soundtrack, or an album that moves smoothly between orchestral influences and pop songwriting. For more