Odd Nordstoga - Heim te mor (full album)

First of all, sorry about neglecting this blog for some time.. I'll do my best to keep up.

Now: Down to the business.
I bought Odd Nordstoga's album the day it was released, my expectations sky-high after great newspaper reviews and overall positive publicity. And he didn't let me down this time either.

The 11 tracks range from traditional American folk to Norwegian folk to pop ballads, all "branded" with Odd's unmistakable personal style. Whereas a lot of reviews tend to focus on his happy, carefree and upbeat songs, I feel the need to look at the singer/songwriter ballad gems that can be found on the album. Such as "Dagane" - written for his wife - where the theme is the genuine and enduring love, and vocally he showcases a soaring falsetto which I personally had never heard before. "Det som varer" and "Vandrevise" are also great ballads that deserve some attention on the album - The up-beat title track is of course undeniably catchy and so is "Femten songar på ei gong", but I think the slower songs display more of his songwriting skills.

As a whole, the album is well worth the money and - you are warned - highly addictive.

Greatest voices of our time #2: Josh Groban

Josh Groban (photo: Alice Quade)

Of course I had to include him, even though I’ve mentioned him a lot already and everyone must know by now that I’m a huge fan - a grobanite. I realised though that I’ve never written any straight to the point- text recommending his music, only the juvenile, giddy "OMG you have to listen to this guy" sort of message on discussion boards.

Better late than never.

Josh has always been said to have a voice that doesn’t match his age, in the sense that people didn’t expect that big a voice to come from the mouth of a barely 6 feet tall, slender, baby faced self proclaimed geek. So it’s suprising when he reveals in interviews that he didn’t start singing seriously until he was 16 - which means that he'd only been singing for 4 years when he was discovered by the famous producer who was to become his mentor, David Foster. With the help from David and another handful of producers, engineers and songwriters, Josh released his self entitled debut album in November 2001. It was, as David Foster mentioned later in an interview with AOL, probably the album that first introduced the new classical crossover genre to the market; many artists has followed in that same direction since. In the 5 years that have passed since the debut, Josh has released 2 live DVDs and one studio album, plus another studio album that will be released worldwide on November 7. His fan club now has close to 20 000 members, he has his own charity foundation that his fans help raise money for by arranging online auctions, he is showered with gifts wherever he gives concerts - everything from intern joke items like toy llamas and pixie sticks, to "chick magnet" t-shirts and football sweaters. The whole grobanite thing may seem intimidating to outside people, so I’ll focus on what started the whole circus in the first place - his voice.

True, it has been critizised by vocal coaches and opera experts and one can analyse it and break it up into pieces and point out flaws, but as a whole, the unique sound in his voice and his ability to communicate emotions through his singing is impressive. He can sing songs in Italian or Spanish or any other language and though most people won’t understand the words, they still believe in the story he’s telling through his voice. Many people have even found that his voice has a healing effect, both psychologically speaking and as pain management therapy.

WHY LISTEN TO JOSH?
As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, he can adapt his voice to fit into several genres, which of course shows his versatility as a vocalist - but to describe his voice in general I would say it’s smooth, has a rich tone and a nice, natural vibrato (which unfortunately becomes a little too rapid when he’s nervous, performing live). I must admit I find it hard to describe it with words since my ears have grown so accustomed to it.

RECOMMENDED TRACKS: The new single You are loved, Gira con me, Per te, Mi mancherai, To where you are

Greatest voices of our time #1: Andreas Scholl

Andreas Scholl. (Photo: Martin Pichl)


I thought I’d create a kind of "greatest voices of our time" series in this blog: Those who know me are aware of my passion for discovering and listening to really great voices, whether it be in pop or classical music…. (or somewhere in between)

Who better to start with, than Andreas Scholl?

You may have heard his voice somewhere and thought it was a woman singing – he’s a countertenor, which means his voice is in the highest vocal pitch for men and pretty much equals a female alto voice in range. Andreas was born in Kiedrich im Rheingau in Germany in 1967, and to say he grew up in a musical family would be an understatement; both his parents are choir singers, his sister Elisabeth is a soprano, his brother Johannes is a doctor but has a singing career on the side, and his late sister Christine was said to be a talented contralto. He joined the local choir at age 7. His voice broke fairly early, at 13, but he kept on singing soprano or alto in the choir. It wasn’t until he was 17 that a vocal coach told him that he could actually have a countertenor voice.

Since he started pursuing his singing career in 1993 he has released a number of albums, played in a couple of operas, like Händels "Giulio Cesare", teached masterclasses at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, written some material of his own (more in the pop genre, but also for ballet and theatre), and of course performed on stage numerous times in oratorio works and solo recitals.

WHY LISTEN TO ANDREAS?
His voice has a smooth, rich tone which immediately grabs your attention. It has only a light vibrato, as one can hear especially on the baroque arias, and he shows off complete control and impressive technique.

RECOMMENDED TRACKS:
Where’er you walk, I will give my love an apple, How sweet the moonlight, Va ’per le vene il sangue