Beady Belle: CEWBEAGAPPIC
MICs Listen to Norway series continues with Beady Belle: CEWBEAGAPPIC. Trying to make sense of the weird title on Beady Belle’s second album? Since no single word can describe Beady Belle’s music, Beate Slettevoll Lech (previous Folk og Røvere) and her companions had to create a new word.
CEWBEAGAPPIC is a collection of antagonisms: complex/easy, white/black, electronic/acoustic, groovy/ambient, programmed/played, improvised/composed. To make the list even longer, nu jazz is another term frequently used to describe Beady Belle’s music. All the sounds are produced in a soft sound image with a comp consisting of bass, drums, piano, and electronica. Beate Slettvoll Lech’s beautiful voice is dreamy and expressive, flying away as a balloon in the blue sky, “I’m a fluttering helium balloon/I will rise up in the air this afternoon.” Slettvoll Lech has written all the lyrics, while another famous nu jazz name, mr. Jazzland Recordings, Bugge Wesseltoft, has co-mixed the album.
Beady Belle: CEWBEAGAPPIC (Jazzland Recordings)
Headlines:
Himmelkvad
Celebrated vocal ensemble Nordic Voices is currently out on its promo tour for their new outing ‘Himmelkvad’, a critically acclaimed album presenting Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen’s unique vocal universe. MIC Norway takes a closer look at the cutting-edge vocal ensemble and ground-breaking composer.
I was the devil in my younger years
Late Feb sees Enslaved heading out on a month-long European tour. MIC Norway hooked up with Enslaved’s Ivar Peersen to talk about musical cross pollination, inspirational sources, humour and his fascination for singer-songwriter Stein Torleif Bjella.
