While Norwegian artist Susanna has explored vast themes, from traditional folk to Joy Division on her 2018 album Go Dig My Grave (reviewed here) and the surreal medieval paintings of Hieronymous Bosch with her 2019 album Garden of Earthly Delights (with her group the Brotherhood of Our Lady). More recently, her fascination with the poetry and persona of the French symbolist Charles Baudelaire has been an especially fruitful one.
It began with Baudelaire and Piano (2020), an intimate set of 10 songs with just Susanna alone at her piano. Last year came Elevation, featuring 11 more Baudelaire jewels. The material blossomed into a collaborative enterprise with Stina Stjern and Delphine Dora, combining tape, spoken word and song.
For Susanna’s new album ‘Baudelaire & Orchestra‘, which is set for release July 28th via SusannaSonata, she scales up her distinctive settings of the French poet/bohemian’s classic texts to the size of an orchestra. She is joined by Oslo’s incredible, forward-thinking KORK orchestra. The radio orchestra of NRK (Norway’s national broadcaster) is known for its progressive approach, diversity and willingness to tackle challenging and contemporary music of all types. Take a listen to this year’s Rymden + KORK as a beautiful example of where such collaborations can lead.
For Baudelaire & Orchestra, the music was arranged by Jarle G. Storløkken, with contributions from innovative composer Jan Martin Smørdal –who was awarded the Nordheim Prize in 2022. Christian Eggen – one of Norway’s top conductors – leads the orchestra, while it was produced and mastered by Deathprod. To coincide with the announcement, Susanna is sharing the first single from the record, “Obsession”.
Pre-save single https://ffm.to/susannaobsession
Great woods, your winds oppress me like the heft
Of great cathedral organs; and our hearts,
Shaken with dying groans, are echo chambers,
Vaults where your De profundis still vibrates.
I hate you, Ocean! All your bounding tumults
I find within: the bitter laughter of
A man defeated, all his sobs and insults,
I hear resounding in the sea’s vast laugh.
How you would please me, Night, without those stars
Whose light speaks in a language that I know!
I only seek what’s empty, black and bare.
But darkness is itself a canvas where
My eyes project a thousand vanished souls
Who look at me with a familiar air.
Like Baudelaire, Susanna’s music probes the edges of desire, and confronts the simultaneous wonder and meaningless of existence. Baudelaire is often considered one of the first modern poets, whose urban observations frequently dipped into fantasy, sensuality, fevered imaginings and eerie horror. Susanna’s selection of texts from his masterwork The Flowers of Evil (translated by Anthony Mortimer) covers the full spectrum of Baudelaire’s conflicted expression.
The result completes a trilogy of Baudelaire-related releases by Susanna. The project is a unique musical conversation spanning centuries and disciplines; a time travelling adventure that moves between creative dimensions, different musical genres, the cosmic and the microscopic. The addition of the orchestra, plus Stina Stjern weaving in extra textures on cassettes and recorders, and vocals by experimental singer Anita Kaasbøll (Bladed, Feathered Friends, Trondheim Voices), bring out the full spectrum of Baudelaire’s strange universe: a lush and sensuous garden where snakes lurk in the undergrowth and poisonous flowers may afflict the unwary.
Baudelaire & Orchestra adds new music for cassette-tapes by Stina Stjern alongside three songs from Elevation and five from Baudelaire & Piano. Susanna was entranced by the multilayered texts, with their “many colours, shades, moods and emotions”. Susanna was also drawn to Baudelaire’s worldview, which addresses questions of religion and morality with a certain force and elegance.
Susanna says: ‘I’ve been wanting to develop this material since the first Baudelaire album. There’s a bit more complexity in the harmonies and the rhythms than you can hear in the bare piano arrangements. I think these songs have become even more accessible in these orchestral versions, and I hope many more people will be able to enjoy the music.’
Baudelaire & Orchestra tracklist:
1. Sarcophagi
2. Obsession
3. The Ghost
4. Burial
5. Heavy Sleep
6. Destruction
7. Rewind
8. Longing for Nothingness,
9. Alchemy of Suffering
10. Elevation
11. The Vampire
Pre-order album here: rchestraOrder
More: https://susannamagical.com/