What do you think of, Northern Europe pop music? Do you think of it at all? Although I know that, like everywhere else, the Scandinavian countries have diverse musical tastes and bands that run the gamut from death metal to electrobeat/house music with stops in the middle for frothy pop music, I can't rid myself of the image of rather severe looking individuals standing at keyboards playing very grim, but intellectual, atmospheric electronic compositions. Part of the problem is that we know so little about the popular music scene in countries like Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland. I mean aside from Abba and Bjork can you name off the top of your head any pop music groups from that part of the world?
As an example it has only been in the last year or so that I've learned anything of the music scene in Norway. Did you know that in 1967 one of the stops on the Stax Records' tour of Europe was in Oslo, the capital city of Norway? Or that this year's Notodden Blues Festival in Norway featured acts like Buddy Guy and the Homemade Jamz Blues Band, and it is one of the biggest blues festivals in the world? However it wasn't until I reviewed Money Will Ruin Everything: The Second Edition, a two disc compilation release from the Norwegian label Rune Grammofon that I began to get some idea of just how much music was being generated by home grown musicians. As in any compilation release there was some music that I couldn't tolerate, some that was interesting enough, and some that was sufficiently intriguing to merit further investigation.
One of those bands was Susanna And The Magical Orchestra, (SATMO) whose newest release 3 will be released on August 24th and distributed in North America by the good folk at Forced Exposure. Susanna And The Magical Orchestra are in actual fact only two people; Susanna Karolina Wallumrod, vocals and Morten Qvenild on keyboards. While they are joined by friends for a couple of songs to help pad out the sound with additional vocals, guitar, or drums, for the majority of the tracks on this release it's just the two of them. Of the ten songs on 3 each of them have written four tracks with the other two being covers of Roy Harper's "Another Day" and Canadian power trio Rush's "Subdivisions".
If that seems like a strange mix of genres and styles - 1970s British folk rock (Harper) and overblown pretentious hard rock (Rush) - well, apparently SATMO seem to be one of the few groups out there who can genuinely say they're musically colour blind. If they like a song and can find something in it that appeals to them, than why shouldn't the play it? Considering that previous releases have included covers of Dolly Parton ("Jolene"), Leonard Bernstein ("Who Am I"), and Joy Division ("Love Will Tear Us Apart"), this will come as no surprise to those familiar with the band. However the rest of us are just going to have to get used to a band who has the capacity to appreciate a piece of music for what it says, not how it was performed originally.
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