Helene Hørlyck - A Nordic Room
1 rating since posting on Wednesday, February 11, 2009
|
website
(submitted by
Morpheus Music
)
|
Overall Rating based on 1 rating |
|
|
Advertisement
|
|||
|
STYLE A Nordic Room is an album of effulgent female vocals and chilled soundscapes. Helene Hørlyck has a beautifully clear voice that seems effortlessly to capture the dramatic, heavenly highs and bold crescendos of operatic soaring, the touching wistfulness of atmospheric ballads and the confident intimacy of ambient pop all with equal aplomb. Somehow she manages to sound faultlessly pitch perfect and masterfully disciplined whilst at the same time revealing spine-tingling glimpses of fragility and delicacy. Frequently choral layers support the main songs - these being performed by Helene herself and incredibly all recorded on the built-in mic on her laptop computer! The songs on the album are quite varied - on some every word is as clear as crystal, on others the vocalising is wordless, bathed in ethereal effects or even whispered. There are doleful strings, solo piano accompaniments, smooth electronic arrangements with blissfully chilled beats and some pieces with a more traditional drum sound and energetic basslines, although semi classical touches and flourishes are never too far away. ARTWORK A Nordic Room comes in a glossy digipack of soft muted colours and gentle ethereal light. The front cover image is of the singer against a distant hazy landscape, luminous sky aglow behind the fair tones of Helene's form. The rear cover presents a tracklist with times, once more set out against a misty, far off scene, the third outer panel holds two smaller casual portrait shots - these are continued within on the leftmost panel. Centrally, behind the CD a photograph of a single house on the coast set among empty fields. Rightmost is an explanation of the project with notes on the origins and recording of the music. Here too are relevant credits, thanks and website details. OVERALL This is the first solo album from the highly acclaimed classical crossover vocalist Helene Hørlyck. Visitors here might well have encountered Helene's incredible talents through her work with Jens Gad and the project Achillea - the album The Nine Worlds was co-written by Helene and Enigma member Jens to enormous international success. In addition collaborations with such artists as Paul Oakenfold, Basement Jaxx, Alessandroni, Jimmy Cliff, Valgeir Sigurdsson and Apollo 440 along with work for television and live performance mean that Helene Hørlyck is becoming a well established artist. This solo work will go a long way to cementing that foundation - revealing not just a singer with a stunning range and immaculate control, but a vocal personality with beguiling depth and hauntingly emotive sensibilities. There are eleven tracks here plus four bonus mp3s that were jointly composed by Helene and John Tonks (who also collaborated on Achillea) - I suspect that these extra pieces will delight Achillea fans since they lean much more in the direction of electronic ambient chill. In fact Water will be immediately recognisable from Othila - The Rune Masters. - Morpheus Music , posted 02/11/09 |
Helene Hørlyck - A Nordic Room was recommended for:
- Tribe: Delerium
- Tribe: Morpheus Music
- Tribe: Falling You
- Tribe: Ethereal Alchemy & Dark Muses
