Susanna And The Magical Orchestra — Melody Mountain

The first release by this duo from Norway struck me like lightning. List Of Lights And Buoys was a fascinating play between a distant coolness and an intimate warmth, as vague as that may sound. It’s still an amazing record that continues to move me and fascinate me.

For their second release an interesting choice was made by playing only covers. Although the first album already had a couple an exclusive ‘coveralbum’ seemed odd. Also the choice of songs didn’t have me jumping up and down from enthusiasm. Either I didn’t know it, or I knew it but didn’t like it or it had been done so many times already it didn't seem very adventurous. I trusted the Prince song and the Scott Walker tune would work out fine. Enjoy The Silence has been done by a couple of gothmetal bands and that wasn’t too pleasing to my ears. A song by AC/DC seemed weird but interesting, the song by Kiss seemed weird too, but also worrisome. I can’t stand the original and The Moog Cookbook couldn’t save it either. When the first peek into Melody Mountain was given in the form of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, a song I don’t care for in the original version and which also has been played by many, it proved Susanna Wallumrød and Morten Qvenild were up for the job.

The album opens with Hallelujah, a Leonard Cohen song which I enjoyed quite a bit in Jeff Buckley’s version. The fragile and minimal approach of Susanna And The Magical Orchestra sound logical. The following It’s A Long Way To The Top is a more daring choice and it works out great. The organ and autoharp (I think, sounds like a harpsichord, but that isn’t listed) provide a sturdy march and the rock ‘n’ roll lyrics seem out of place in an interesting sort of way. Condition Of The Heart, by its creator adorned with lush piano-tricklings and other extravaganza gets totally stripped down. Prince is great enough a songwriter to have this work out perfectly. A requirement from the listener is to forget about the canned version that may have gotten all too fixed in the mind and to open oneself to the new face of your familiar.

Lately I’ve grown quite fond of the pedalsteel, not in the least by seeing Stian Carstensen playing it live with his band Farmers Market. Surprise surprise to see him popping up on Scott Walker’s It’s Raining Today, which gets a dreamy treatment in which the pedalsteel adds to the soothing qualities. Crazy Crazy Nights... well... even that turd turned into gold in the hands of these two. Again the lyrics sound a bit weird coming from Susanna, but of course it’s much better than to hear them from Paul Stanley. Another unsuspected highlight is the Bob Dylan song Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right. To put it mildly: I’m not a fan of Bob, but he apparently has qualities and writing a song is one of them. Another folksong that ends up being a highlight is Fotheringay by Sandy Denny, which concludes this beautiful album.

The use of churchorgan, cembalo and other great acoustic instruments seems to have forced Morten Qvenild to lay low on the electronics. I can imagine him sitting in front of his computer wondering what the hell he could do to improve these majestic sounds and then deciding to leave them be. The overall impression is not as severe as their debut was, but I guess that’s only natural with a followup. Everything’s still well in the realms of ‘stellar’.