Norwegian artist Susanna gathered a new team of musicians called the Brotherhood of Our Lady for her upcoming record. The artists work their magic together on new single "Ecstasy X", which is taken from new LP 'Garden of Earthly Delights', set for release Feb 22nd via SusannaSonata. 

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"Ecstasy X" features church bells on a cassette, squeaky accordion and heavy processed voices that claim ecstasy is only achievable if we follow the goddess of darkness; conjuring up feelings of the witching hour. Highly inspired by the surreal in Hieronymus Bosch’s art; Norwegian artist Susanna has made a cycle of songs which underline the strange and experimental alongside the beautiful for her upcoming album ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’.

The incredible, ahead-of-its-time art of medieval Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch bears strong comparison with the music of Susanna. Visionary, disturbing, spiritual; vivid images of darkness and light, good and evil, heaven and hell and the folly of mankind. Like her songs, Bosch’s iconic images range from the panoramic to the intimate, and express bliss, torment and tortuous inner conflicts.

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On 'Garden of Earthly Delights', her 13th album, Susanna takes a selection of Bosch’s paintings as starting points for a fervent, poetic rosary of fantastical songs and stories. Tracks like "Gluttony and Lust", "Death and the Miser" and "Ship of Fools", reflect Bosch’s depictions of sin and human weakness, while "Wayfarer", "Ecstasy" and "Beautiful Life" suggest the transcendent search for spiritual rewards.

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Susanna has always been a purposeful wayfarer through music. Like the nomadic figure in the painting by Bosch of around the year 1500, she brings minimal baggage, makes thoughtful choices, and ignores temptations and distractions on her path, in order to stay focused on life’s journey. She felt a magnetic affinity to Bosch’s Wayfarer painting and its symbolic landscape: 

"That man feels so alive, like someone I just met", she says.

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"While this is not a soundtrack to his paintings," she says, "I feel a resemblance between the absurdity in his pictures and today’s existence. Humanity has never been more enlightened and competent to make sustainable solutions for everyone, but we still close our eyes to poverty, environmental issues and lack of equality."

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The classically trained Norwegian vocalist, pianist and composer formed duo Susanna and the Magical Orchestra in 2000 for exquisite, minimalistic interpretations of pop songs, from mainstream and leftfield. Since 2007 her own songwriting has diversified in multiple directions, from her 'Meshes of Voice' duo with transgressive Norwegian singer Jenny Hval, to the settings of Norwegian poet Gunvor Hofmo, and the collaboration with new music group Ensemble neoN on 'The Forester'(2013). 'Go Dig My Grave' (2018) is the latest in her string of recent solo albums, "a wondrous, haunting bunch of covers" (Uncut) with deep roots through centuries of US and European heritage, released on her own label SusannaSonata.

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Originally a commissioned work for the Vossajazz Festival 2017, 'Garden of Earthly Delights' ranges from soul searching balladry to sonorous electronic expanses. Some listeners might catch echoes of the melodic range of Joni Mitchell, the confessional darkness of Nina Simone and the traumatised intensity of Diamanda Galas, filtered through a medieval folk and modern experimental sensibility. But there’s no mistaking the powerful, questing clarity of Susanna’s distinctive voice, and the core of symbolic imagery she draws on from ancient mythology via medieval mysticism to present-day consumer society.

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Accompanying her own wanderings on vocals, piano and electronics, Susanna assembled The Brotherhood of Our Lady, a new group (named after the religious organisation that sponsored Bosch) drawn from Norway’s current dynamic, young and open minded music scene, with members of bands like Skadedyr, Stina Stjern, Listen to Girl and Propan. The album was recorded in the extraordinary Ocean Sound Studio on the Northwest coast of Norway, a fully equipped wooden hut that sits on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the sea. All programming and production was done by Susanna and regular partner Helge Sten (Supersilent, Deathprod), with mixing by Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Lana Del Rey, First Aid Kit, etc). The team and the wild location extract some of Susanna’s spookiest and richest sonic performances to date, with a vivid range of colours to match Bosch’s extravagant imagery.

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Like Bosch’s paintings, 'Garden of Earthly Delights' is relevant to today’s world, marking the pathway between salvation and damnation.

 

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 "This album is about exclusion in various senses, wandering and seeking something else within or outside yourself, the beauty of life, overconsumption, capitalism tied together with religious mythical and occult images and symbols." 

 

Susanna’s visions offer a signpost in the righteous direction. 'Garden of Earthly Delights' is 42 minutes of paradise.

LIVE DATES: 
10.01.19 Susanna & David Wallumrød Energimølla (Kongsberg) Norway
11.01.19 Susanna & David Wallumrød Bø Jazzklubb (Bø) Norway
13.01.19 Susanna & David Wallumrød Kampenjazz (Oslo) Norway
01.02.19 Susanna & David Wallumrød Sekkefabrikken (Røyken) Norway
09.02.19 Susanna Hadeland jazzforum (Hadeland) Norway
10.02.19 Susanna Kampenjazz (Oslo) Norway
13.02.19 Susanna (solo) Non figurativ (Tønsberg) Norway
24.03.19 Susanna & the Brotherhood of Our Lady Kampenjazz (Oslo) RELEASE CONCERT Norway
26.03.19 Susanna & the Brotherhood of Our Lady Inkonst (Malmö) RELEASE CONCERT Sweden
26.05.19 Susanna ‘Go Dig My Grave’ Nattjazz (Bergen) Norway
30.05.19 Joni Mitchell Tribute Nattjazz (Bergen) Norway
25.06.19 Susanna (solo) Risør Kammermusikkfestival (Risør) Norway

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