Gaffa.no - Per Henrik Arnesen
Producer Gisle Østrem, CECILIE ANNA and Mastering Engineer Alex Wharton in Abbey Road Studios
If you don’t know Cecilie Anna from Stord, you should put some time aside and get to know her.
CECILIE ANNA is unknown for most people, so far. She’s previously released an album together with her band, Familieforetaket, but this week she releases her solo debut I’m Here, which according to the artist is about her father, is a rare gem appearing from nowhere. An album which with large probability could have passed below the musical radar. We were luckily able to pick up on it and put it in the nearest music player.
Short between the highlights
From the first note of the beautiful «Morning Star» a warm and satisfying calmness spreads in your soul. You close your eyes and let yourself sink down in a calm and relaxing trance. The world is chasing by outside, but in this musical landscape only peacefulness and your own thoughts come through.
The quiet horns sneak to the front before CECILIE ANNA’s voice enters the musical landscape while the rain pours in the background. Thoughts go to Low, at the same time it’s something Tom Waits-ish over the horn arrangements.
“Horses II” is one of many highlights on the album. The piano works itself to the front, and at times you can feel something of a tempo. Again, the horns make out a solid ground for the song. The tribute to Leonard Cohen, Smallest Bird could might as well be delivered by Mimi Parker from Low. If you don’t know what comes out of the speakers, you could easily be fooled.
It’s almost wrong to point out songs on this album, but “Summer Storm”, “Old Love” and the title track “I’m Here”, is all pearls which deserves to be discovered.
Pure pleasure
The songs on the album is all low key, with minimalistic arrangements where piano is the main musical drive. The initiatives from horns along the way does not disturb the atmosphere created from song to song. Still, it’s CECILIE ANNA’s warm, almost sacral vocal, that carries the album, suiting the darkness of the songs.
The album has eleven tracks, all well written with deeply reflective poetry, melancholic, raw and beautiful. The album is a pure pleasure to explore and it’s lovely to be drawn into the landscape of its small stories.
Rebecca Almås, Åge Østrem and Torstein Overweg plays horns and give the soundscape a perfect foundation, while band colleague Vidar Vedå’s voice occasionally can be heard in the background.
I’m Here is definitely a «slow record». An album in need of a listener who takes time to really listen. Its songs turn away from much of today’s fast and noisy music. This is the medicine needed to get back to the calmness and stillness around us.