you can tell this looking in my eyes

hm I really got to stop this habit of only transferring posts long overdued in my mind to type at four am in the morning. Never really liked sitting down in front of the keyboard just because a blog needs life, well see this and you might understand what I try to avoid---> http://xkcd.com/77/ .

Anyway, I finally decided to snap up Victoria Bergsman ( of swedish Concretes fame) debut solo album " Open Field" just last week. Looking back I do not understand why I had doubts about it when I first saw it on the shelf about a month ago but there we go. Just after I grabbed hold of the cd, an american couple came up and handed me a HMV stampcard, which just needed a purchase of $20 more in order to get the reward of $25 worth of anything from HMV. Oh yeh and in classic Zhanhui fashion of happily losing the bird in hand he drops the damned card while filling up the job application form at said outlet later. Bloody hell. Keep forgetting *both* my hands can be used to hold stuff now.

I suppose things like to balance themselves out, in a fashion anyway, as everything went smooth for the form and subsequent interviews the next day.

No that is a lie. It was only yesterday that I realized with a twisting fear in my gut that under " which artist released 'Blonde on Blonde' " I had filled in *Blondie* without thinking much...

No I may not really listen much to Bob Dylan but *still*, Blondie?!?!


Hah right that's enough, here is the song which you are here for.

Branching away from the 'sounds-complex- but-truthfully-devastatingly-elegant-and-simple' aesthetic of her ex band The Concretes, Victoria has chosen instead to focus on simpler, tighter arrangements woven around just her voice and a few other sparse instruments. What she fashioned, is this sense of *space*, of a starkness that has a kind of unblinking sincerity behind it. An openness that doesn't envelope but instead encompasses. It is the same kind of wow as ' Say Something New', but approached from the other direction, the beauty in pure sheerness kind.

She is right in bringing her amazing vocals to the forefront, for that and the careful arrangement in the songs make this album shine. Not in the sense of a bright burning star but the sure quiet glow of embers. But truly, like I quote from another " we don’t really need stripped-down arrangements and a cappella passages to know that Bergsman’s voice is special—this smoky, fragile/strong, entirely distinctive thing."

Ill put up the most obvious single from ' Open Field' here. The song is penned by Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura for her friend Victoria, and that I supposed lent the measured indie catchiness to the tune. There's a video up for it on youtube too.

Be sure to check up her myspace link too, you can practically sample the whole album there. ' Cedar Trees' is another gem.

Taken By Trees - Lost And Found

Well, call me different but there is this sense of Northern stoicism that Victoria Bergsman sings with, that I just kind of find myself identifying with.