WHEN MARY
Multi-layered Norwegian musical project put the vocals first.
Amid A plethorA of extraordinary female prog voices – think Judy Dyble, Anneke van Giersbergen and Sonja Kristina just for starters – it takes real talent to stand out. Trude Eidtang, the driving force behind When Mary, manages this and more. She’s the chief songwriter and part-time glockenspiel wrangler in When Mary, but it’s her voice that first catches your attention. Not only is it clear and shining, but it’s also notable for the strange harmonies that she weaves within her songs.
“If there’s anything that’s genuinely me, that defines me as a performer, it’s my love of harmony,” explains Eidtang, speaking to Prog on a cold Norwegian night from her home 30 miles outside of Oslo.“I’ve been singing since before I could speak. Growing up, in my choir I sang alto and always got the difficult lines. Harmony just comes naturally.”
Indeed, her harmonic gifts are impressive: they give her music that special sprinkling of fairie dust also found in the work of Kate Bush and Björk.
Eidtang’s extensive experience in the music business also adds to her creative skill.“I’ve worked as a musical actress, I used to be a dancer years ago,” she says. However, it was only after a stint singing vox for art rock band White Willow that Eidtang decided to strike out musically on her own.
“I’d been writing songs for years, but I was nervous about sharing them with someone,” she says. It was when she met guitarist and programmer Christian Paulsen that it all came together.“He’s really into hard, industrial music, thrash metal. But we really clicked: we have a common musical intuition.”
It’s this symbiosis that has led to When Mary’s fascinating combination of sounds.“I took my influences from the 90s, the 80s and the 70s,” Eidtang explains, and the effect is dizzying: part art rock, part symphonic prog, part vocal-programming and dance beats.
When Mary’s new album Tainted, which follows on from the band’s 2013 debut 7Summers7Winters, is among the first releases on Summer’s End maestros Stephen Lambe and Huw Lloyd-Jones’ new Sonicbond label. She became friends with Lambe after singing at Summer’s End with White Willow. When Tainted was under way, she asked Lambe if he was interested. “He just went, ‘boom!’” Eidtang laughs.“He’s very idealistic – he just wants to put the music out there!”
Unlike 7Summers7Winters, Tainted draws less on the
Laurie Anderson school of Art Performance, and shows Eidtang finding a more complex sound. Based on the
Faust myth, it features quotes from Franz Schubert, strange doomy bells, and moments of transporting beauty. Like many performance artists, Eidtang is unafraid to do some field work to get authentic sounds. The clanging chimes at the beginning of Tainted were, she reveals, “recorded by me in a small south German village that had this cathedral with huge bells”.
Eidtang is both thoughtful and funny. At one point, she unexpectedly says, “I’m a sociologist more than an artist,” and that the Faust story “has something to say to us about greed and shallowness and vulnerability”. She’s equally happy talking about Mia, Paulsen’s Jack Russell terrier, who, as a reward for patience while the album was being made, makes the credits of Tainted. She’s also amused when it’s suggested she’s one of the few artists to feature glockenspiel in her work.“I’m still nervous when I play it live,” she admits. “But as an ex-dancer, I like its percussive possibilities.”
But overall, it’s all about the vocals. Eidtang believes that most songs are written by people using keyboards or guitars: “My songs are written by a vocalist,” she says, likening the experience to weaving a carpet – and a beautiful one it is, too. rm