Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe the last good Bel Canto album..., May 13, 1998
By A Customer
Bel Canto took a fairly long hiatus after recording the brilliant "Birds of Passage" and returned with this album, the title of which does a fairly good job of describing its sound. It's essentially introspective electro-pop with female vocals, but that's too easy a description. (We're not talking Annie Lennox here.) Bel Canto hail from Norway, above the Arctic Circle, and they have a darker outlook than most bands of this ilk. Maybe that's what happens when you don't see the sun too much certain times of the year. Vocalist Anneli Drecker comes off a bit like Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser, but, as is not often the case with Miz Liz, you can actually understand what Anneli's saying--except when she's singing in German, Spanish, French, Arabic, or Norwegian, as she is wont to do from time to time. World-music influences populate this album in a way they didn't previously, and it's a less-self-consciously "European"-sounding record than their past work. It's beautiful, if not quite as "special" as "Birds of Passage," and is certainly a good enough place to start with Bel Canto. File it somewhere between Cocteau Twins' "Treasure" and the Sundays' "Reading, Writing & Arithmetic." (NOTE: "Shimmering, Warm & Bright" was followed by the astonishingly bad "Magic Box," which you should avoid at all costs.)
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Underappreciated Group From Norway, January 13, 2000
I first discovered Bel Canto, this wonderful vibrant, dark-toned band from the Arctic Circle in Norway, when I was dj at a college radio station in a small southeastern Minnesota town. "Shimmering" was the album that hooked me into them. It's eclectic. It's dark. It's bright. It's warm. It's shimmering. It's electronic. It's hypnotic. It's haunting. It's catchy. It's a must-have! Soon you'll be doing what I did and purchasing all this band's albums! Unless you're boring and listen to sterile music.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shimmering Warm & Bright, September 28, 2002
For a very long time now the desire to write has been dead to me but everytime I listen to Shimmering Warm & Bright, images start pouring into my mind; stirring a yearning that has long been forgotten... Bel Canto is a Norwegian duo that consists of Anneli Drecker (vocals) and Nils Johansen (producer, programming). This is the only album I own by Bel Canto but it certainly won't be my last. After hearing this incredible masterpiece I am now eager to explore their newer releases as well as their imports. That's how much I enjoy this album, which is honestly too amazing for words. However, I will try my hardest to describe their sound... Anneli Drecker's darkly untamed vocals soar over rich, sonic layerings that often remind me of Opus III because of the dreamy techno beats ("Unicorn, Summer") that are often fierce and operatic sounding, while remaining beautiful all the same. Nils Johansen completes the duo Bel Canto with the usage of electronics to compliment and enhance the strings, woodwinds, and everything else that's used on Shimmering Warm & Bright. And while Anneli mostly sings in English, she also sings in French ("Le Temps Degage") and in German ("Die Geschichte Einer Mutter"), which is truly the most haunting song on here. My favorite track though (which was hard to choose) would have to be the closing song "Mornixuur" which is a glowing triumph that ends this otherwise somber album on a note that is light and merry. The bizarre thing about this album though are the lyrics, which absolutely make no sense! I do like the lyrics to "Spiderdust" though ('She lived in limbo/ Time showed no mercy/ Until a man in gray gave her/ Doses of sweet poison'). If you hang unto every word sung than you probably won't like this album but lyrics mean very little to me so that hardly detracts from the greatness of this album. This receives my highest recommendation!
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by Bel Canto 
