SUSANNA & THE BROTHERHOOD OF OUR LADY

A song cycle based on the strangest of all medieval art.

Susanna Wallumrød is well known for her decelerated and rather unlikely cover versions, from AC/DC’s It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll), to Joy Division’s Wilderness, which she recorded for 2018’s Go Dig My Grave. Her signature songwriting style is similarly pared down and Garden Of Earthly Delights delves into the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. The 16th century Dutch artist employed an unprecedented lexicon of fantastical and grotesque imagery in depicting scenes ranging from the fecund paradise of Eden to the endlessly imaginative torments of hell.

It’s a concept so prog that one can only imagine the extravagant way some bands would tackle it, but crucially, Bosch’s visually astonishing style was allegorical and symbolic in a way that ordinary people could understand, and this is Susanna’s inroad as she explores the still universal themes behind the images. She is accompanied by a small ensemble of backing vocals, guitar, electronics, synth and accordion.

Over her tolling piano chords on the title track she relates what she sees when peering into the titular garden, while the arrangement of The Wayfarer is as much about timbre as melody, a character journeying along dangerous roads through clouds of electronics and spectral backing vocals.

Although Susanna favours sparse and slow, she is a world away from the lisping ‘girlie’ intonations that some female singers use as a shorthand for emotion. Her voice always fully inhabits the songs with a poise and an understated power that can fill a room, and she sings with animation and freedom over the sampled exhalations, synthetic currents and Ida

Løvli Hidle’s deep accordion notes of Ecstasy, which ends with her sending an “amen” out through churchy space.

Death And The Miser finds an old man desperately clutching onto his wealth even as he is tricked by the duplicitous spectre of death, who enters his room promising ‘Show me the money and I’ll give you more time.’

On the succinct and melodic Ship Of Fools, Susanna seems to harbour some sympathy for the self-absorbed passengers as the craft sails slowly to oblivion. They are all fools after all. Similarly on River To Hell, rather than lean too heavily on the subject matter, she utilises accordion to create an atmosphere between folk and cabaret, which chimes with Bosch’s depiction of people bound up in solipsistic enjoyment, unaware of the horror that lies at their journey’s end. The chilling Gathering Of Birds sees the assembling flocks as portents of a great flood, closing this brilliant and compelling collection on an ominous note.

POISE AND UNDERSTATED POWER THAT CAN

FILL A ROOM.