Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Ann Brun, Balloon Ranger 2021.
Norwegian singer/producer Ann Brun is one of my favourite artists of the electronic music scene.
She is a remarkably gifted singer and songwriter who just happens to use the capabilities of modern recording techniques to produce memorable music.
Synths dominate the sound but the songs never come across as bland and one dimensional because her writing is so good and she understands the importance of space.
Far too many modern composers feel that they must cram every space with sound.
The download I received of Crumbs contained two different remixes of the song; the Small Crowd Radio Edit and The Small Crowd Remix.
The Remix version gives us an extended version of the song which maintains interest throughout.
This is not always the case with extended versions that are more than twice the length of the original and it speaks volumes about the quality of the songwriting.
Ann has been around the international music scene since 2002 and has achieved substantial success over the years.
Her second album, A Temporary Dive (2005), was her breakthrough and it received good reviews from music critics at Time magazine and The Independent resulting in her taking out the Spellemannpris, the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammies.
It was her last two studio albums, the nineth and tenth of her career, that really won me over as a fan.
Actually, three albums if I include her fantastic 2017 album of covers, Leave Me Breathless, which included songs from Radio Head, Foreigner, and Mariah Carey to name a few.
In 2020 Ann Brun released two albums, initially they were meant to be a double album however they were finally issued separately asAfter The Great Storm and How Beauty Holds The Hand Of Sorrow.
Both albums, recorded and produced under COVID-19 restrictions, are absolutely fantastic and say as much about Ann as an artist as they do about the strange times that we’re living through.
Crumbs is a track lifted from After The Great Storm.
