1.Where Do You Run To
2.Another Day
3.Don't Look Back
4.Colour Lullabye
5.Flawless (the muse)
6.We were Indians
7.Do Lord
8.My Oh My
9.Good Rain
10.The Moon
11.P.S. I Love You.

Solveig Slettahjell - vocals
Sjur Miljeteig – trumpet
Morten Qvenild - piano, keyboards
Mats Eilertsen – bass
Per Oddvar Johansen – drums

This fourth release by Norwegian vocalist Solveig Slettahjell and the Slow Motion Quintet offers another magical experience. On Good Rain, these creative and busy musicians expand the musical language that they began to explore on their previous release, Pixiedust (Curling Legs, 2005). In addition to Slettahjell, the group includes trumpeter Sjur Miljeteig, formerly of the jazz-pop-electronica outfit Jaga Jazzist and one of the leaders of the art-rock group Friko; keyboardist Morten Qvenild, who leads In The Country and Susanna and the Magical Orchestra; bassist Mats Eilertsen; and drummer Per Oddvar Johansen. The quintet flirts with pop and art-rock and even trip-hop, aiming to position the jazz vocalist as an artist again within a popular form, but avoiding banalities and without giving up its intelligent elitist aroma.

Slettahjell is faithful to her "slow motion" concept, conscious of every detail and nuance of each phrase, and her natural, leisurely alto shines throughout the eleven songs. The sonic palette of the ensemble is much more varied, enveloping Slettahjell's warm vocals with sounds that recall productions by such art-rock sonic explorers as David Sylvian or Talk Talk. The sensitive playing of all players adds vibrant layers that caress and reinforce the massages of the poetic songs.

All the songs revolve around the theme of belief, often an abstract and secular one—in Slettahjell, empowering herself after a failed relationship, or in nature—and they offer some consolation, quite often sounding melancholic. The goal? "To be lonely in a good way," as she sings in Qvenild's "Another Day." Slettahjell's innocent and modest narration of life happiness, despair, fate and hope succeeds in creating a peaceful intimacy capable of touching and melting even the greatest cynic.

Slettahjell seeks some calmness and reconciliation in "Where Do You Run To," faith in her lone self in "Another Day." She trusts fate in "Don't Look Back," draws hope from dreams in "Colour Lullabye," and strongly convinces about the joys of lovemaking on "We Were Indians." Her beautiful a cappella version of V.O. Fossett's gospel song "Do Lord" serves as an introduction to the dark, anguished, modern gospelish "My Oh My," penned by Miljeteig. On the Peder Kjellsby-penned "Good Rain" she refers to "the rain washing the stains of / Another broken day."

As on Pixiedust, Slettahjell beautifully interperts another poem by Emily Dickinson, "The Moon." The playful, minimalist version of Johnny Mercer's "P.S. I Love You," the last song on this release, offers some hopeful closure. ---Eyal Hareuveni, allaboutjazz.com

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01 precise content 04:20
02 the ballad of jimmi crawler 02:45
03 your river 06:00
04 how they shine 05:46
05 right as rain 03:59
06 december song 04:54
07 three hearts in a bowl 04:28
08 into the night 04:17
09 visit 02:57
10 you go i go 00:59
11 be steady 05:13
12 a day 02:40

Personnel: 
Solveig Slettahjell: vocals; 
Sjur Miljeteig: trumpet, alto and barytone horns, electronics, vocals; 
Even Hermansen: guitar, vocals; 
Morten Qvenild: grand piano, synthesizers, harps, marxophone, programming, vocals; 
Andreas Ulvo: organ, vocals; 
Jo Berger Myhre: bass, baritone guitar, vocals; 
Per Oddvar Johansen: drums, percussion, electronics, musical saw, vocals.

From a simple idea, great things can sometimes come. When Solveig Slettahjell formed Slow Motion Orchestra for a 2001 performance that became the 15-piece group's eponymous first recording on Norway's Curling Legs, the premise was simple: take a collection of songs from the Great American Songbook, and slow them down. Way down. But over the course of three albums and an eye-opening performance at Kristiansand's 2007 Punkt Festival, the Norwegian singer and her trimmed-down quintet proved that slow, powerful and dramatic need not be mutually exclusive terms.

The trimmed-down Slow Motion Quintet has since released four additional albums, most recently Domestic Songs (ACT, 2007), where SMQ continued a fundamental shift away from the cover material of its first three discs with greater emphasis on original songs by Slettahjell, keyboardist Morten Qvenild (In the Country, Susanna and The Magical Orchestra) and engineer/occasional co- producer Peder Kjellsby. Tarpan Seasons renames SMQ back into Slow Motion Orchestra, and for good reason. The quintet—intact since inception, with the exception of Jo Berger Myhre (Splashgirl) taking over the bass chair from Mats Eilertsen (Tord Gustavsen, Jacob Young)—is now a septet featuring newcomers Andreas Ulvo (Eple Trio, Mathias Eick Quartet) and Even Hermansen (Bushman's Revenge).

The addition of organ and guitar in no way affects Tarpan Seasons' appealing blend of the ethereal and the grounded. SMO still avoids anything resembling a fast clip, but it does thunder along more mightily in spots. Drummer Per Oddvar Johansen (The Source, Christian Wallumrød Ensemble) pushes the pulsing second half of "Your River" with some tribal toms, driving the first half of the same song with a gentle, balladic backbeat. Elsewhere he plays it soft and straight on the slightly off-kilter David Lynch-ian waltz of "December Song."

A key contributor to SMO's overall sound, hornist Sjur Miljeteig (Crimetime Orchestra, Hilde Marie Kjersem) is less plainly dominant in an expanded line-up that, other than Slettahjell's definitive voice, is more about collective sound rather than individuality. His layered horns create, along with Ulvo, Hermansen and and Qvenild, a lush backdrop for Slettahjell's velvety voice. As the primary songwriter, what gives her music its weight is a dynamic ebb and flow that, in lesser hands, would be handled with unnecessary bravado and melisma. Instead, Slettahjell impresses as much by what she doesn't sing as what she does. And on the brief, layered vocal feature of "You Go I Go," she proves as understated in the depth of her prose as she is her nuanced, ever- soulful delivery.

Departing from its jazzier roots into a kind of dreamy, subtly skewed pop music, Tarpan Seasons continues to work a concept that could be shtick, but in the hands of Slettahjell and Slow Motion Orchestra, has already proven its lasting value. With trace elements ranging from American roots music, singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Tom Waits, and progressive pop fare like Sigur Rós—all refracted through a selfless Nordic prism—the warmly inviting but quirkily intriguing Tarpan Seasons is Slettahjell's most personal and fully realized album to date. ---John Kelman, allaboujazz.com

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1 	Borrowed Time 	4:40
2 	Grandma's Hands 	4:18
3 	Mercy Street 	5:32
4 	Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child 	3:44
5 	Come Healing 	5:02
6 	Is My Living In Vain 	5:51
7 	Holy Joe 	4:18
8 	Trouble In My Mind 	3:12
9 	His Eye Is On The Sparrow 	4:30
10 	I Don't Feel Noways Tired 	3:21
11 	Soul Of A Man 	5:02

Bass – Roger Arntzen
Drums, Percussion – Pål Hausken
Guitar, Harmonica – Knut Reiersrud
Piano, Synth – Morten Qvenild
Vocals – Solveig Slettahjell

Vocalist Solveig Slettahjell and blues guitarist/harmonica player Knut Reiersrud record together for the first time on Trail Of Souls. They're joined by another three Norwegian musicians—pianist Morten Qvenlid, bassist Roger Arntzen and drummer Pål Hausken, known collectively as In The Country—on a programme of songs drawn from early blues, spirituals and classic rock songwriters.

The performances are uniformly high quality—Qvenild's synth and piano parts are subtle, Sletahjell's vocals are heartfelt and understated, Reiersrud's acoustic guitar is lyrical and flowing. However, the decision to take every song at a very slow pace, coupled with the songs' tales of sadness and failure, results in an overall effect that's more depressing than elating. Although Shakespeare's suggestion that "If music be the food of love, play on" is quoted on the album sleeve, there's little love in these lyrics—most of these songs paint a picture of a far from loving world.

"Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" combines Slettahjell's vocal with Qvenild's slow, stately, piano in a way that successfully emphasises the despair of the tale. "Borrowed Time" and "Is My Living In Vain," both gracefully performed, project similar pessimistic emotions. Even when Slettahjell sings—on "Trouble In Mind"—that "The sun's gonna shine in my back door someday" she sounds as if she doesn't really believe it'll happen.

The closest Trail Of Souls gets to a feel good song is Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands." But even here, the grandparent comes across as someone to be respected, even feared, rather than loved. So, Trail Of Souls proves to be a musically successful meeting of spiritual and bluesy Americana with a Nordic jazz sensibility—as was intended—but one that veers too much towards a downbeat, even depressing, worldview. ---Bruce Lindsay, allaboutjazz.com

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