Customer Reviews

Fisherman's Woman

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This album is quite different from "Love in the time of Science", her previous album. I can't help but compare the two. There is no Trip Hop Techno here at all, no dramatic ups and downs - not that it isn't a mesmerising effort, it is, like the preceding album, yet it does mesmerise us in a more hushed way...

There are no vocals like "Telepathy" for example ,where to me, she sounded like a mad mermaid calling back her loved one to come to her, it was quite a dramatic song that showcased her vocal range in the previous album, that's for sure. Here there are no Thrash metal interludes a-la "Dead Things" either. If you were fans of her song "Summerbreeze" in the previous album , then this CD is full of unplugged sounding songs like that.

"Fisherman's woman" has a very warm and intimate feel to it, it is at times quite romantic, very relaxing very soothing and poetic. Most of the songs have a hushed lullaby-like sound to them.

I'd go as far as say that a few songs in their accoustic smooth blissful contemplation sound a bit solitary and low-tempo jazz-like even qualities emerge (don't think of Jazz with trombones or muffed trumpets). Accoustic guitar and pianos accompany all the songs here, as if they were recorded in the warmth of one's home, solitary, while the sun sets in a cold snowy evening outside.

The packaging for this edition is a beautiful digipack in recycled-type paper, it comes boxed with Emiliana's handwritten lyrics included in this first Deluxe edition.

If you are fans of albums by Hope Sandoval or Lori Carson, then you will definitely like this one. It seems also that Emiliana got quite influenced musically from her Slovo collaboration in 2002 on the album "Nommo" (where Kirsty Hakshaw did some similar blissful vocals as well), I think she might also have gotten tired of being unfairly compared to Bjork from her previous album that she wanted to show another side of her music and craft.

I like this cd and consider it an excellent release. It is quite uncommercial sounding, which is something i always respect in an artist. Not repeating themselves, finding new ways of expression and not following the mainstream, just doing what they like musically and what feels good.

Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini captured the audience's ears with the exquisite "Gollum's Song" in the second "Lord of the Rings" movie, then with her U.S. debut "Love in the Time of Science." Now her long-awaited sophomore album, "Fisherman's Woman" has come -- and it was worth the wait.

In "Love in the Time of Science," the sound was exotic trip-hop. This time around, Torrini opts for a more organic sound. For instance, the downtempo "Lifesaver" sounds like it was recorded in a boat -- there are wooden creaks just under Torrini's gentle acoustic guitar and wistful vocals, as if she were sitting in the middle of a lake when she recorded it.

That same feeling sticks to the other songs on the album. Torrini seems to be thinking about loss, but her songs are never really quite tragic: the opener "Nothing Brings Me Down" is a good example, with its stripped-down guitar-and-piano sound, followed by the exquisite "Sunny Road," and ending with the entrancingly dark "Serenade."

It's a pretty drastic thing to change your sound after a successful first album. But Torrini not only does it, she succeeds again. The same sense of eerie romance that was in "Love in the Time of Science" is in "Fisherman's Woman" as well, but it's more intimate. And sad. As beautiful as Torrini's trip-hop is, her acoustic ballads are just as lovely.

Don't expect programming. No trip-hop. Torrini opts for a more organic sound this time around, mainly using guitar for the instrumentation. A few other things pop up -- sound samples, piano -- but guitar is the heart and soul of the music. And Torrini's voice doesn't lose any of its beauty because of the lack of production. "And it's funny how your cause/makes no sense at all," she sings in "Lifesaver." For someone so sad, she sounds almost playful.

With her first album, Emiliana Torrini showed that she was a pop singer to watch. In the intimate "Fisherman's Woman," she proves that her second effort was worth the wait.

If you liked Emiliana's first CD (or loved it to death, as I did), Fisherman's Woman won't be any letdown. Although the sound is more peaceful, sweet, and calming, she won't let any song escape without the haunting tremor of her childlike voice. That quality makes this CD arresting and languid, warm and cool.
This is more "real" sounding, as well. There is less use of any sort of effects; it's mostly guitar with Emiliana's voice taking the lead. The line "Running naked, dragging a kite...her dress on a string," rather conveys the spirit of the album...odd, yet uplifting. And in general just plain charming.

*Note: If you want something else like Emiliana, I've searched a lot and the closest thing I've found is the album The Divine Comedy by Milla. (That being Milla Jovovich, which makes it even better.)

*Another note: If you're an Emiliana fan, I strongly recommend taking a look at the album "How Things Work" by Mr. Dan.
Interview: "We just clicked," she explained. "It was funny, because [Dan] comes from a dub/reggae/hip-hop background and he went straight onto the drum machine. But I wanted to get away from singing on top of big production, and I said, 'Can you just play piano or guitar or something?' I love that classical sound. So he picked up the guitar, and it was just incredible. It was sort of like it was meant to be, because he ended up being one of the best guitar players that I've ever seen. These complicated, beautiful melodies seemed to pop out of him effortlessly."

Throughout this sonic saucer,Emiliana Torrini's medieval look and luminous voice,transports us to a magical aural place in a particular time and space inspired now by her crystallic gorgeous folk pop melancholia.The songs included here march along hypnotically providing moments of quietly and blisfully deep peace with a beautifully calm that seduces our minds and hearts completely and only because of the expression without artificies and total sweetness of Emiliana's innocent and pure vox.Poetic art in songs like Serenade,Heartstopper,Next Time Around and the title track,the elemental sonic points here.And I only can imagine the A1 remixes that could appeal most of their tunes to inspired global DJ`s.I've only had les plus belles heures while listening to this stellar sonic sphere:21st century rural folk-pop-romantic and atmospheric tunes in crescendo.
HELENE RAMOS GALAGARZA
journalist/editor of Britania Fanzine and radio dj broadcast of the radio shows in peru: EQUINOXE AND 2001_ONETHOUSANDYEARSAFTER! www.sonidoextremo.com