blómi (Edit)

Album review

After three consecutive chart-topping albums of Nordic synth pop grandeur, Susanne Sundfør scaled back down to her core elements on 2017's Music for People in Trouble. The Norwegian's intimate piano and voice meditations came as a reaction not only to the pressures of her own success, but to the increasingly anxious social climate that enveloped her. In the interim between that release and her seventh album, Blómi, Sundfør gave birth to a daughter, and her personal axis shifted once again. Blómi is a gorgeous album, one with a multitude of interesting layers and complex themes that give it the feel of a spiritual quest. The celestial "Ashera's Song" sings like a prayer, wishing "love and light to all beings" as shimmering electronic tones dance around Sundfør's delicate piano clusters. The mood shifts to jazzy elegance on the title track, which concerns itself with renewal and rebirth; "Blómi" is an Old Norse term meaning "to be in bloom." There is strong adherence to history and mythology throughout the record, and Sundfør's frequent use of this ancient Scandinavian language is another of Blómi's wonderful quirks. An entire track, the snaky and percussive "Ṣānnu Yārru Lī," is based around an erotic Minoan-Creten text translated to Old Norse by her linguist grandfather, Kjell Aartun, featured on the album's cover alongside the artist as a young girl. The surprises continue with "Leikara Ijo​́​ð," an uplifting, gospel-inspired rave-up that incorporates nature sounds, a multi-tracked Sundfør choir, and a soothing Hardanger fiddle coda. The sweeping "Alyosha" serves as a poignant centerpiece, comparing her husband's innate optimism to that of Dostoevsky's central character in The Brothers Karamazov. Bookending the album are a pair of whimsical sound collages featuring dialog from a spiritual healer friend of Sundfør's, further emphasizing the record's cinematic structure. Despite its arcane references and philosophical nature, Blómi remains approachable and is often quite moving. That Sundfør continues to make such consistently challenging music and be justly rewarded for it is its own small miracle, and with Blómi she reaches yet another career high.

© Timothy Monger /TiVo