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Today, celebrated Norwegian singer and composer Susanna releases an arresting new single “Elephant Song,” from her new album, Meditations on Love, out August 23rd via her own label SusannaSonata. Following lead single/video, “Everyone Knows,” “Elephant Song” opens with a snaking alto saxophone and piano line that invokes the indelible spirit of vintage Ethiopian soul. With a bridge that sends Susanna’s performance into the stratosphere, her gossamer voice makes for a cathartic release that’s utterly breathtaking.
Of the song, Susanna comments: “‘Elephant Song’ is an ode to being in process; to struggle, to stumble, being in doubt, feeling vulnerable, but to keep on going. All we have is here and now. Inspired by the Ethiopian pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, it is the first song I made on my new piano, a Steinway from the 1960s.”
Across a career spanning two decades, Susanna has been a creator of bold, original and enrapturing music, capable of building worlds to lose yourself in. She has collaborated with an astonishing array of musicians such as Jenny Hval and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. Her rapturous, honeyed voice has thrived in a variety of contexts, whether accompanied by her own piano playing or a full orchestra. In many of these cases, Susanna entered each recording situation with elaborate arrangements intact and an ensemble fully rehearsed. The studio always served its purpose to get those sounds on tape. But with Meditations on Love, the studio became a crucial tool of exploration.
For the album, Susanna turned to Juhani Silvola, a Finnish-Norwegian producer and musician who moves easily between pop music, experimental sounds, and folk traditions. Susanna and Silvola gathered hours of material created spontaneously in the studio, assembling new arrangements as if putting a giant jigsaw puzzle together. Susanna’s mastery of balladry is well documented, but on Meditations on Love, she introduces a rhythmic presence new to her work. No Susanna recording has offered such rich variety and the result is one of Susanna’s strongest and most dynamic recordings of her career.
