Juni Habel

★★★ All Ears KOKE PLATE. DL/LP

Nordic singer-songwriter’s debut long-player is a mood piece.

All Ears sounds as if it was recorded in an ancient woodland; as if embodying the slow but inexorable encroachment of dense undergrowth. Fittingly, Norway’s Juni Habel is based in the rural hinterland surrounding capital city Oslo and her first album is more about atmosphere than dynamics. She’s pointed to Vashti Bunyan and Jessica Pratt as inspirations but Play, the fourth track, has a Karen Dalton edge. Habel sets up circular acoustic guitar figures over which her direct, warm voice delivers reflections on the intangible aspects of relationships. Strings weave in and out, a pedal steel see-saws and body is brought by doubletracking her singing and the fleeting use of a second, male, voice on My Love (Is A Crazy One). Crescendos arrive on Demons and Eyes Shake, but overall, All Ears is a linear experience. Ultimately, there is one path through this forest.