1/2/2010

Blood From a Stone

Hanne Hukkelberg
Propeller Recordings

Music review by Amy Scott-Samuel

Originating in Kongsberg, Norway, Hanne Hukkelberg has been making music and testing out her vocal capabilities from the ripe age of three. Performing with an ever-expanding cast of friends and accomplished musicians, Blood From a Stone is Hanne’s third release under her guise as solo artist and composer.

When listening to Blood From a Stone, one can certainly detect Hanne’s punk/noise roots and her assimilation into a scene that championed DIY noise and experimentation over musical pomp and uniformity. Like the songs of the Cocteau Twins, Joanna Newsom or Coco Rosie, Hanne’s music has a distinctly ethereal quality, which both captivates and entices; transporting the listener through a series of dark, foreboding and enchanted spaces.

Unlike the onerous drones of Funeral - the doom metal band with which Hukkelberg once performed - the singer’s third album positively lends itself to the majesty and grace of Hanne’s voice. If the world is a stone, Hanne is the crimson blood that spills forth from it, unapologetic, whimsical; brimming with emotion and depth. Hanne’s music creates a cathartic diversion from the hum drum of the everyday; it allows a space to engage in fantasy, and a medium for ecstatic, unadulterated feeling. Drawing inspiration from bands as varied as Einstürzende Neubauten and Sonic Youth, Hanne utilizes all manner of found objects, from kitchen utensils, to clacking type writers, flag poles, seagull cries and cat purrs, and weaves a unique and poignant miasma of textured, layered and ambient sounds.

www.myspace.com/hannehukkelberg

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