Susanna - Flower Of Evil

Susanna Karolina Wallumrød: vocals, piano Helge Sten: guitars Pål Hausken: drums, vocals Bonnie ”Prince” Billy: vocals on Jailbreak and Without You. ”Flower of Evil” is the second solo album from Susanna Wallumrød (28), mostly known from two fine albums and a number of quietly powerful concerts with Susanna and the Magical Orchestra. Susanna has already proved herself as an original songwriter, ”Believer” from  Susanna and the Magical Orchestra´s debut album from 2004 being named by Mojo as ”one of the greatest break-up songs ever”. And on her first solo album ”Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos” (2007) all twelve songs were her own. But Susanna is also known as an extraordinary interpreter of songs, ”Love Will Tear Us Apart” and ”Hallelujah” from Susanna and the Magical Orchestra´s album ”Melody Mountain” (2006) being two examples of her ability to renew ”difficult” songs. ”Flower of Evil” is twelve sublime cover versions of mostly well known songs as well as two Susanna originals, all beautifully sung by one of the most exeptional new voices of recent years, lovely accompanied by her trusted band members Helge Sten (Deathprod, Supersilent) and Pål Hausken (In The Country) and with Bonnie ”Prince” Billy guesting on two songs. Whether it´s Thin Lizzy or Sandy Denny, Black Sabbath or Nico, Lou Reed or Abba, all are given the very personal Susanna treatment. ”Flower of Evil” was recorded in Atlantis Studio in Stockholm, a studio full of vintage, analog equipment and a wonderful engineer, Janne Hansson, who knows all there is to know about proper recording. These are also exquisite performances, all done in just three days, in fact nine of the songs were recorded more or less live in one day, including the lead vocals. And it is difficult to say something about this record without mentioning how good it sounds. While many are concerned about illegal downloading and the drop in cd sales, few seem troubled by the lost art of proper recording and the tyranny of compression and squeezing of music to make it sound as loud as possible on radio, mp3 players, cell phones and small pc speakers. ”Flowers of Evil” is an old school recording of musicians playing and singing together with a bare miniumum of compression being applied at the mixing and mastering stage, thus maintaining the natural dynamics of the performance.

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