Kongsberg's own Susanna Wallumrød is celebrating her 20th anniversary as a recording artist:
Susanna from A to Z
Text: Sven Ove Bakke // Photo: Thomas Hegna, Kongsberg Jazz Festival 2015
This year it is 20 years since Susanna Wallumrød made her record debut with "List of Lights and Buoys" as Susanna and The Magical Orchestra together with Morten Qvenild.
In this article we deal with the Susanna career alphabetically. The result is a kind of selective biography, told through song titles, albums, sources of inspiration, collaborators and other things.
During this year's Kongsberg Jazz Festival, she performs the latest chapter in her ongoing Baudelaire project, this time together with the Oslo Sinfonietta in Kongsberg Music Theater on Saturday 6 July.
Buy tickets for Susanna: "Baudelaire & Oslo Sinfonietta" here.
A for ABBA
In the rich flora of Susanna's unique interpretations we find ABBA's "Lay All Your Love On Me". It was the closing track on the album "Flower of Evil" from 2008, the album title incidentally the first clear reference to the French poet Charles Baudelaire in the Susanna catalog. The recording took place in Atlantis Studio in Stockholm, which was also ABBA's studio before they built Polar Studio.
B for Baudelaire
The 1800th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire can almost appear as an artistic obsession for Susanna, at least she has spent the last few years digging deep into this poetic heritage. Already in 2008, she borrowed "Flower of Evil" from Baudelaire as the title of an album, while the extensive Baudelaire project that she is now bringing to the Kongsberg Jazz Festival has developed over various formats and constellations since 2017.
Read more about Susanna's relationship with Baudelaire in this article.
C for Cohen
Leonard Cohen songs appear in several places in the Susanna discography: "Hallelujah" opens the cover song-dominated 2006 album "Melody Mountain" with Susanna and The Magical Orchestra. In 2011, she sang "Who By Fire" on an album with Swiss harpist Giovanna Pessi, and re-recorded the song in 2015 on the "Songs Revisited" EP. "Chelsea Hotel #2" is the latest addition, from 2020 in collaboration with cousin David Wallumrød. And isn't there something Cohen-esque and lurking in one of this year's singles, "Everyone Knows"?
D for "Death Hanging"
On the cover, they are smiling in the summer sun backstage at Øyafestival, in front of a container with recording equipment: Susanna flanked by Susannea Sundfør and Siri Nilsen. "Øyacontaineren" was a short-lived release series from the old Norwegian streaming service Wimp (later Tidal), and here Susanna's "Death Hanging" had its premiere. She later re-recorded it on the "Songs Revisited" EP and on the album "Triangle" (2016).
E for "Everyone Knows" and "Elephant Song"
Currently, two additions to the Susanna discography, recorded with Norway-based Finnish musician and producer Juhani Silvola and released in April and June 2024.
F for "Fotheringay"
There are many myths about the English singer and songwriter Sandy Denny, who died aged just 31. Best known for singing with Fairport Convention in their golden age, but also for solo records and the duet with Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's "The Battle Of Evermore". Susanna has done two of Sandy Denny's most famous songs: "Fotheringay" closed the "Melody Mountain" album in 2006, while "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" features on "Flower of Evil" (2008).
G for "Go Dig My Grave"
An old traditional song with roots back to the British Isles in the 1600th century. Folk singer Jean Ritchie recorded it with blind guitarist Doc Watson in 1963. As well as recording it, Susanna also made it the title track of her 2018 album, reuniting in the studio with Swiss harpist Giovanna Pessi, in in addition to instrumental contributions from Valkyrien Allstars' Tuva Syvertsen on fiddle and Ida Løvli Hidle on accordion. They played in Kongsberg church during the jazz festival in 2017.
H for Hofmo
Before Charles Baudelaire, it was Gunvor Hofmo's poem that constituted Susanna's poetic interpretation project. Hofmo was also interested in Baudelaire, a poem from 1948 is actually called "Statue of Baudelaire". (Susanna of course visited this statue the last time she was in Paris, it stands at the Cimetière du Montparnasse.) The album "Jeg vil hjem til the manner" from 2011 takes its title from Hofmo's first collection of poems from 1946. Here Susanna set a selection of Hofmo's poems to music. The recordings were unavailable for a long time due to a rights conflict with the record company Grappa, so in 2021 she released an album with the demo versions of the songs from the record. The original album is now available again via Susanna's own label SusannaSonata.
I for "Intruder"
"Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos" from 2007 was Susanna's first album under her own name, after two records together with Morten Qvenild under the name Susanna and The Magical Orchestra. The solo debut consists exclusively of self-written material, and is preceded by "Intruder". A song was written in collaboration with David Wallumrød ("People Living"), while Øystein Greni is a guest both as songwriter and guitarist on "Better Days". "Intruder" also appeared on the Ensemble neoN collaboration "The Forester" in 2013.
J for Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell is universally admired, and the classic "Blue" is a hit. "It's probably the inevitable favourite", says Susanna herself. In 2019, she took part in a star-studded, traveling tribute to Mitchell together with Frida Ånnevik, Sondre Lerche, Anja Lauvdal and Hanna Paulsberg, among others, which was also performed at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. When she went to work and recorded her first, and so far only, Joni Mitchell cover (together with cousin David on the album "Live" (2021), it was of course a song from "Blue": "This Flight Tonight".
K for Kongsberg
Susanna Wallumrød's hometown. She grew up in the district of Skavanger, in a family characterized by church life, houses of worship and music. This was the gateway into musical life for both Susanna and her siblings.
L for "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Manchester band Joy Division's iconic song and post-punk classic got a kind of "silent treatment" when Susanna and Morten Qvenild covered it on "Melody Mountain" in 2006. Measured in terms of streams on Spotify, it is her most popular song (it recently passed 3,2 million games). It was prominently placed in a central scene in the 3rd season of the TV series "Grey's Anatomy".
M for "Meshes of Voice"
Two strong and important Norwegian voices and musicians formed a kind of art pop superduo on this album in 2014. Together with Jenny Hval (also known under the name Rockettothesky), Susanna recorded this album already in 2009, a live recording from the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, then as a commissioned work for the event Ladyfest. A rich and exciting album at the crossroads between piano-driven ballads, contemporary music-like slowcore and sound experiments. "Whale red" there, that is.
N for Ensemble neoN
A large group of Music College-educated musicians formed this contemporary music ensemble in 2008. Five years later, they recorded the album "The Forester" together with Susanna, who ran away with the spellemanpris in the given, almost automatically quality-stamped "Open class". A relatively short album (33 minutes), where the title track stretches over three parts and the first quarter of an hour.
O for Oldham
Will Oldham is a slightly mythical and legendary American indie/folk artist, early in his career known under various aliases such as Palace, Palace Music and not least Bonnie "Prince" Billy. In 2008, he took part in a duet with Susanna on the opening track of 'Flowers Of Evil' - an epic slow motion version of Thin Lizzy's 'Jailbreak'. But Oldham's admiration for Susanna peaked in 2017 when, as Bonnie "Prince" Billy, he simply covered Susanna's entire 2007 solo debut 'Sonata Dwarf Mix Cosmos' under the title "Wolf of the Cosmos".
P for Parton
Susanna Wallumrød's extensive catalog of distinctive cover songs is sometimes in danger of overshadowing her own material. But the debut album "List of Lights and Buoys" contains only one such song: Dolly Parton's multi-layered masterpiece "Jolene". Susanna brought out a completely different musical language than the original and evoked completely different denominations in the main character's desperate love struggle. And at the same time set a completely separate standard and direction for his interpretations of standard material from a wide range of popular music.
Q for Morten Qvenild
Although they both grew up in Kongsberg, Susanna Wallumrød and Morten Qvenild hadn't played together until they started little by little on the project that would eventually become called Susanna and The Magical Orchestra around the year 2000. "We practiced for a whole year before we played our first concert, at Nattjazz in Bergen in 2001. We tested both cover songs, such as "Jolene" and "Hallelujah" and also started writing our own material. It took the time it took with several rounds of recording, but the result was good. I'm still very proud of it," says Susanna about her debut album "List of Lights and Buoys", which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It came out in February 2004.
R for Rhodes piano
An electric Rhodes piano has a unique sound, a warm sound with a very special timbre. The instrument was invented by Harold Rhodes in 1970, and quickly became popular in jazz, funk, soul and rock. The Rhodes sound appears throughout Susanna's catalogue, but is particularly prominent on some of the tracks on the demo version of the Hofmo project "Jeg wil hem til the people", and in cousin David Wallumrød's hands on the live album from 2021.
S for SusannaSonata
Susanna's own record company is called Susanna Sonata, and was started in 2011. In addition to being a musician, Susanna has had a clear voice in many matters in the music policy debate, and several board positions in musician organisations.
T for "Triangle"
"Triangle" is an extensive and ambitious and critically acclaimed album from 2016 that spans over 70 minutes, recorded in Los Angeles and various locations in Oslo, including in the acoustically spectacular Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum. "Soul music for lost souls", says the laundry note on the record label SusannaSonata's website, with musical GPS coordinates such as Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Cocteau Twins and Prince.
U for the University of Oslo
Susanna is almost the exception that confirms the rule in recent Norwegian jazz: It is possible to reach where she has without both the jazz line at NTNU in Trondheim and the Academy of Music in Oslo. Susanna took what used to be called basic and intermediate subjects in music at the University of Oslo and left it at that. "Major was very theoretical for me, I would rather play and write music," she explains.
V for "Winter evening"
One of Gunvor Hofmo's poems that Susanna has set to music on the album "Jeg vil hjem til sønder". The poem began Hofmo's poetry collection of the same name from 1946, while Susanna has placed it second last on her album. "But you too get the glow of eternity on a high and cold starry night", it says in the last lines of the poem.
W for the Wallumrød family
Susanna comes from a solid musical family. Eldest elder brother Christian is performing at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival this year together with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (Smeltehytta Saturday 6 July), while Fredrik is a drummer with a past in Span and a long CV of session work. She also has two singing older sisters who chose career paths other than music. Susanna's father and uncle each bought an identical Yahama piano, which was not only important to Susanna, but also to cousin David Wallumrød.
X for "Ecstacy X"
"Garden of Early Delights" is an album from 2019, with Susanna and The Brotherhood of Our Lady. The song "Ecstacy X" and the rest of the material are inspired by a selection of paintings by the 1500th century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch. This was originally a commissioned work for Vossajazz in 2017, and one of the first projects where Susanna collaborates with Stina Stjern (Stina Moltu), who is an important contributor to the Baudelaire project which is now coming to the Kongsberg Jazz Festival.
Y for Young
Neil Young's "Wrecking Ball" is taken from the album "Freedom" (1989), and is perhaps an atypical cover choice. But instead listen to Emmylou Harris' version from the Daniel Lanois-produced album of the same name from 1995, and it's easier to hear where Susanna gets her distinctive interpretation on the 2021 "Live" album from. Low-key vocals and meek and freely associating Rhodes piano signed by David Wallumrød make this yet another representative example of Susanna's completely unique interpretation skills.
Z for Monica Zetterlund
Monica Zetterlund has been an important source of inspiration for Susanna, and in particular the album the Swedish jazz singer recorded with Bill Evans, "Waltz for Debby" from 1964. In a radio documentary with NRK in 2013 Susanna explained what it was like to find her own vocal style, including via Zetterlund. “I would say it took quite a few years of focusing on getting to know one's own voice. There are quite a few kinds of realizations you have to come to then - in the face of trying to sound like one or the other, whether it's Billie Holiday or Monica Zetterlund or Aretha Franklin or Ella or Betty Carter. It's an incredibly interesting part of the work to try to imitate and do what they do in terms of phrasing and sound", she explained at the time.
