White-Out Conditions

Bel Canto

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 5, 1993)
• Original Release Date: 1987
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nettwerk Records
• ASIN: B000005DB5
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #244,179 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifuly moody album., November 17, 1998

By	William D. Milsten (Jacksonville, Florida) - See all my reviews

Bel Canto, from Tromso Norway (above the Artic Circle), is making beautiful music, and no body in America has seemed to notice. Combining ethnic beats and instruments from around the world, with Anneli Drecker's haunting and whispy vocals, Bel Canto delivers "icy-cold" moods and "wintery days" to us through their music. This is a great album.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An impressive debut from a unique group., July 30, 2001

By	Lord Chimp (Monkey World) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Hailing from Norway, Bel Canto is a group with a unique blend of musical ideas that creates something fresh and wonderful. For a debut, White-Out Conditions reveals a remarkably strong songwriting affinity within the Drecker-Jenssen-Johansen unit of Bel Canto. Anneli Drecker is the band's most distinctive quality...she's a lovely, ethereal vocalist who develops quite a unique sound on later albums. Geir Jenssen and Nils Johansen create serene tapestries of electronics along with flutes, mandolins, and dashes of eclectic ethnicity for variety. (More diverse instrumentation would also come on later albums.) Over the layers of synthesizers, Drecker creates melodies with her singing, and the cool gentleness of the overall musical effect is absolutely enchanting. The lyrics are simple, but conveyed through Drecker's voice they gain an unusual dimension of feeling, like on "Without You" where the solemnity of the song is powerfully expressed by Drecker's sweeping vocal style. The big highlight for me is "Upland," a brilliant work of electronics with striking melodic progressions and haunting vocals. The playful "Agassiz" evokes a folk-dance, with Drecker's feisty vocals cooing with infectious liveliness. The wonderful vocal melodies in "Blank Sheets" and the dramatic "White-Out Conditions" also make for great music.

2 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 1987 is Correct Release year!, April 9, 1999

By A Customer

Although this says not yet released, this CD in fact was released in 1987 and the CD will say so. But I doubt if you receive the CD before receiving this msg that you will want to return the CD. The year of release does not erase the swoony feeling the music elicits.