Norwegian singer and composer Susanna announces her new album, Meditations on Love, out August 23rd via her own label SusannaSonata, and shares its lead single/video, “Everyone Knows.”
The albumʼs opening track, “Everyone Knows”, is accompanied by a self-directed video, filmed and edited by Jonas Mailand, that explores the idea of feeling alone while being together. It features choreography by Sulekha Ali Omar.
Susanna explains of the song: “I tried to capture the very vulnerable feeling of leaving a relationship and the shame that often comes with being betrayed. Your world is suddenly turned upside down and you are left with the aching feeling, ‘how can I go on without my love?’ And the ʻlove’ is not just that specific person, but all the things you identify with the relationship, and very often how you identify yourself, who you are.”
Stream it here: https://ffm.to/susannaeveryoneknows
Susanna has spent five years writing material for Meditations on Love which reflects the complexities and difficulties of maintaining love. So many songs celebrate the giddy joy of a new connection or lick the wounds from a break-up, but Meditations on Love explores what happens in between, examining the work required by a healthy relationship and contemplating the conditions that turn love into something toxic.
“With Meditations on Love, I wanted to bring my songs and music into a new landscape. And I knew I had to find someone new to work with on the production to do that, so that I could be pushed in other directions,” says Susanna. She turned to Juhani Silvola, a Finnish-Norwegian producer and musician who moves easily between pop music, experimental sounds, and folk traditions. Juhani is also Sarah-Jane Summers’s partner, and their work as a duo has been featured widely on KLOF Mag. The Smoky Smirr o Rain is a personal favourite if you’re new to their music.
For this new release, Susanna and Silvola gathered hours of material created spontaneously in the studio, assembling new arrangements as if putting a giant jigsaw puzzle together. At times the songs summon the sound of American maverick composer Harry Partch as channeled by Tom Waits. Other times the album pays homage to Angelo Badalamentiʼs iconic Twin Peaks or invokes the indelible spirit of vintage Ethiopian soul.