2006 - 22 April - Ane Brun

[NormanD]

Seq Artist Song Title Album Country Label

1 - Kevin Johansen + The Nada - La Falla de San Andres - City Zen - Argentina/USA - Wrasse Records

2 - Free Hole Negro - Vendemos todo hasta memorias - Superfinos Negros - Cuba - Rapem

3 - Lo'jo - Tu Viens Richesse - Bazar Savant - France - Emma

4 - Gotan Project - Arrabal - Lunatico - France/Argentina - Ya Basta/XL

5 - Elizabeth Johnson - Sobbin' Woman Blues - American Primitive 2 - USA - Revenant

6 - Saida Karoli - Omukaile Kilinjwi - Rough Guide to the Music of Tanzania - Tanzania - World Music Network

7 - Ane Brun - Song No. 6 - Live in session - Norway - (V2)

8 - Chris Barber Band featuring Monty Sunshine - Petite Fleur - The Essential Chris Barber - UK - BMG/Kaz

9 - Natacha Atlas - Hayati Inta - Mish Maoul - UK - Mantra

10 - Kekele - Tubela - Kinavana - Congo - Stern's Africa

11 - Camille - Ta Douleur - Le Fil - France - Virgin France

12 - Ntoumos - Grego - Air Brasil - Belgium - promo

13 - Son of Dave - Life Is So Easy Now - CD Single - Canada - Kartel

14 - Mlimani Park Orchestra - Rehema - Rough Guide to the Music of Tanzania - Tanzania - World Music Network

15 - Ane Brun - The Fight Song - Live in session - Norway - (V2)

16 - Zainidin Imanaliev - Küidüm chok (I Burn, I Smoulder like Charcoal) - Tengir-Too: Mountain Music of Kyrgystan - Kyrgystan - Smithsonian

17 - Suitable Case for Treatment - Will the Circle Be Unbroken? - Of Motets and Misdirection - UK - Thin Man Records

18 - Orlando 'Cachaito' Lopez - Redencion - Cachaito - Cuba - World Circuit

19 - Mahala Rai Banda - Iest Sexy - Mahala Rai Banda - Romania - Crammed Discs

20 - Janis Ian - Crocodile Song - Folk is the New Black - USA - Rude Girl Records

21 - Mahmoud Ahmed - Ere Mela Mela - Ethiopiques 7: Erè Mèla Mèla - Ethiopia - Buda

22 - Gal Costa - Voyeur - Hoje - Brazil - Trama

23 - Orlando 'Cachaito' Lopez feat Hugh Masekela - Tumbanga - Cachaito - Cuba - World Circuit

[Charlie]

There are people who just want to be famous, for whom music happens to be their chosen route. And then there are people who want to make music, and who seem quite surprised if they become even slightly famous. At a guess, Ane Brun is in the second category. She doesn’t dress up or walk in the room expecting everybody to notice her. She sits down with her guitar, and with quiet concentration sings and plays her own songs that seem as if they have grown from seeds or planted long ago, perhaps in the 1960s. It’s not that they are derivative or old fashioned, just that they have a classic quality. In Scandinavia, her second album A Temporary Dive has already sold 130,000 but I had never heard of her until it arrived in the post the other day, released in the UK on V2 Records.

The songs are all in English, with a wry humour that I’ve never run across in her British equivalents. ‘My friend, I left you in the end, I can’t believe I’m writing a song where friend rhymes with end.’ She didn’t sing that one for us, but chose ‘Song No 6’ (which features Ron Sexsmith on the recorded version) and my favourite, ‘The Fight Song.’ Usually I give encouraging smiles to singers who come to sit four feet in front of me but I found myself hypnotised by the volume meters, rather than look Ane in the eye as she sang: ‘and I will mount you, press my knees on both sides and you will let me, let me ride and if you don’t then I won’t leave you galloping in my national park.’ Nor did I ask, after the song was over, where her national park was, exactly.

It was fun to watch the reaction of a guest who had no idea of what kind of programme she had been invited to take part in. But Ane was entirely unfazed, taking everything in and writing down details of both the new album from Natacha Atlas and Le Fil by last year’s discovery, Camille (who will be our ping pong guest next week, ahead of her Jazz Café date on May 3rd).

Among the albums offered as prizes was the Rough Guide to the music of Tanzania, a well chosen selection by Werner Graebner, surely the world expert in the region’s music. I had not heard most of the tracks before, and the album is a succession of revelations, notably the haunting vocal of Saida Karoli. My only grumble is that rap group X-Plastaz come too soon at track 2. Their song would have worked much better as a sort of bonus track at the end, to be skipped by those of us who find the heavy beat at odds with the flowing feel of everything else on the album. But maybe the new mode is to dump everything on your iPod and listen in random order, so track sequencing doesn’t matter like it used to. Or maybe not. For me, sequencing is still an art that is often underestimated by companies and magazines who rush out their compilations and cover mounts. And I don’t intend to acquire an iPod. I like walking the streets with the sounds of the city around me, not cocooned in headphones.

Last Sunday’s Observer included a report on a forthcoming series of eight programmes hosted by Bob Dylan, of which the first is an hour dedicated to songs about Weather. A man after my own heart. And one who takes his sequencing very seriously. Nobody would accidentally juxtapose Judy Garland and Jimi Hendrix, and make it work. If you are curious to see the whole running order of a show that will only be heard by North Americans who have bought satellite radios capable of receiving XM100, the details are posted below, under the topic Sound of the World Forum.

CG