| Susi HyldgaardWinner of a Danish Grammy for her 2000 release, Something Special For You, vocalist, pianist, accordionist and laptop sound sculptor Susi Hyldgaard proves she’s an innovative jazz interpreter on the forthcoming Enja/Justin Time release, Blush. Singing in a nervy, emotional style that echoes the Beats, Hyldgaard’s vocals are alternately sweet and pungent, courageous and romantic. Accompanied by a jazz trio, strings and two of Europe’s most prominent remix DJs, Blush is the acclaimed vocalist’s most intimate and outrageous recording to date.
“Blush is a development for me in that it is very simple,” Hyldgaard says from her home in Copenhagen. “My earlier albums were more complicated and there was a greater span, a larger difference between the songs. This is a more connected album than my other three. But the sound and the way of moving and the writing -- I basically write the same songs throughout.”
Born in New York, but raised in Copenhagen, Hyldgaard, like many European musicians, has an irreverent but advanced take on American music. Though she incorporates jazz phrasing in her vocals and piano work, Blush is practically a stream of consciousness album that explores as many styles as it discards. Hyldgaard’s exotic vision and intimate approach create a novel sound, like Bjork or Cassandra Wilson interpreting lost folk songs. Recording much of Blush in her home studio, Hyldgaard worked in her typical heavy edit method, fashioning strings, bass, beats and effects on her Mac computer.
“Usually,” she explains, “I take my trio into the studio and then cut and edit the sounds, but it still has a strong sense of the songs. Blush is also very much centered around the bass. The Tindersticks’ Dickon Hinchliffe arranged the strings and then I recorded my drummer in Paris, and edited everything at my summerhouse in Hornbaek. So I would record and edit, record and edit; my electronic universe is the same, things sampled and put through effects.”
But is it jazz? “I am not a jazz singer but it is where I come from,” Hyldgaard replies. “I used to be an accompanist in bands playing standards behind singers. I tried to write for a quartet, but it never came out in the right way; I never felt good singing those songs. So I come from jazz but now it is not important whether it is jazz or not, we are beyond that.”
Lush Rhodes, finger snaps, vibraphone and plucked bass introduce the opening title track, with Susi’s humid vocals describing an erotic tryst. “Take Your Time” and “Seeking” are further warm portraits etched in strings, samples and Susi’s darkly evocative vocals, followed by the ominous “Suck the Bone.”
“That is about when you go into the world and you have to put up your shield,” she explains. “People can take away whatever forces you have. I had to reach a point where I was able to move around in the world without giving away too many of my powers. That is something you have to learn; to not let people take away your forces.”
“Thai Food Chililmit” is Susi’s rapid-fire take on travel, food and sex. Samples bounce, beats juggle, and electric piano illustrate a midnight food fest. “I like food a lot, and the song is also about sex, and those things are connected, I think. It is the way you go about life. It is how you take life in. And how you take life in is what you eat. There are very few things that I won’t eat.”
One of the album’s most serious songs is “Sisters in Shame.” A more conventional track, Susi sings over her simply recorded acoustic piano with violin accompaniment. The mood is stark, the melody dark. “That is about not being able to have a baby,” Susi explains. “In our culture you are supposed to be able to deliver this certain thing and if you are not able you are treated differently, as you are treated differently when you have an abortion. A lot of my friends have had abortions and they don’t talk about it, and people who can’t have children are shameful about it as well. Maybe it is Scandinavian. To cover up and don’t tell.”
Born in 1963, Hyldgaard moved to Copenhagen when she was barely two but her father, an amateur bassist, played American jazz and classical around their home. Blessed with perfect pitch, Susi began studying classical piano when she was five, and by university was fronting her own jazz quartet. Rickie Lee Jones, Carole King, Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett all influenced her blossoming style. But it wasn’t until age 32 that she released her first album as a singer, My Female Family. Already adopting her cut-and-paste production esthetic, Hyldgaard recorded Something Special for You, which won a Danish Grammy. HomeSweetHome followed, which led to work with the late Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson, and tours with her trio. Then as now, intimacy is Hyldgaard’s goal.
“I wanted Blush to be minimal because I have always done complicated records,” she says. “It was recorded very simply, but always with the same goal to have the intimacy rule. I believe that when you write lyrics there is an atmosphere to the songs and you can hit that atmosphere with your voice, but it only happens once. In the studio this is expensive to do so I skipped the bit about being careful with the noise and the clicks and just went for the right atmosphere. Intimacy is the purpose.”
Few musicians successfully take from so many styles to create such a unique vision as Susi Hyldgaard. A children’s film score, Prop & Bertha, a standards project, and a recording of original material with the WDR big band are in the future, but Blush is Susi Hyldgaard’s intimate statement of innovation in the here and now. | Discography
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