Garden of Earthly Delights

by Susanna

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Digipack with booklet with artwork by Lasse Marhaug

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
180 gr yellow vinyl with artwork by Lasse Marhaug and glossy finish on the cover

Includes unlimited streaming of Garden of Earthly Delights via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Garden of Earthly Delights 02:31	info	buy track
2.	Wayfarer 03:57	info	buy track
3.	Ecstasy X 03:13	info	buy track
4.	Death and the Miser 04:13	info	buy track
5.	Ship of Fools 01:43	info	buy track
6.	Ecstasy 03:25	info	buy track
7.	Exterior 01:42	info	buy track
8.	Wilderness 03:11 video	info	buy track
9.	Wayfarer II 02:20	info	buy track
10.	Gluttony and Lust 03:18	info	buy track
11.	Beautiful Life 02:57	info	buy track
12.	By Earth and Starry Heaven 01:46	info	buy track
13.	City of Hope 02:05	info	buy track
14.	River to Hell 02:39	info	buy track
15.	Gathering of Birds 03:03	info	buy track

about

Susanna & the Brotherhood of Our Lady
'Garden of Earthly Delights'

The incredible, ahead-of-its-time art of medieval Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch bears strong comparison with the music of Norwegian artist Susanna. Visionary, disturbing, spiritual; vivid images of darkness and light, good and evil, heaven and hell and the folly of mankind. Like her songs, Bosch’s iconic images range from the panoramic to the intimate, and express bliss, torment and tortuous inner conflicts.

On Garden of Earthly Delights, her 13th album, Susanna takes a selection of Bosch’s paintings as starting points for a fervent, poetic rosary of fantastical songs and stories. Tracks like ‘Gluttony and Lust’, ‘Death and the Miser’ and ‘Ship of Fools’, reflect Bosch’s depictions of sin and human weakness, while ‘Wayfarer’, ‘Ecstasy’ and ‘Beautiful Life’ suggest the transcendent search for spiritual rewards.

Susanna has always been a purposeful wayfarer through music. Like the nomadic figure in the painting by Bosch of around the year 1500, she brings minimal baggage, makes thoughtful choices, and ignores temptations and distractions on her path, in order to stay focused on life’s journey. She felt a magnetic affinity to Bosch’s Wayfarer painting and its symbolic landscape: ‘That man feels so alive, like someone I just met’, she says.

Originally a commissioned work for the Vossajazz Festival 2017, Garden of Earthly Delights ranges from soul searching balladry to sonorous electronic expanses. Some listeners might catch echoes of the melodic range of Joni Mitchell, the confessional darkness of Nina Simone and the traumatised intensity of Diamanda Galas, filtered through a medieval folk and modern experimental sensibility. But there’s no mistaking the powerful, questing clarity of Susanna’s distinctive voice, and the core of symbolic imagery she draws on from ancient mythology via medieval mysticism to present-day consumer society.

Accompanying her own wanderings on vocals, piano and electronics, Susanna assembled The Brotherhood of Our Lady, a new group (named after the religious organisation that sponsored Bosch) drawn from Norway’s current dynamic, young and open minded music scene, with members of bands like Skadedyr, Stina Stjern, Listen to Girl and Propan. The album was recorded in the extraordinary Ocean Sound Studio on the Northwest coast of Norway, a fully equipped wooden hut that sits on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the sea. All programming and production was done by Susanna and regular partner Helge Sten (Supersilent, Deathprod), with mixing by Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Lana Del Rey, First Aid Kit, etc). The team and the wild location extract some of Susanna’s spookiest and richest sonic performances to date, with a vivid range of colours to match Bosch’s extravagant imagery.

Like Bosch’s paintings, Garden of Earthly Delights is relevant to today’s world, marking the pathway between salvation and damnation. ‘This album is about exclusion in various senses, wandering and seeking something else within or outside yourself, the beauty of life, overconsumption, capitalism tied together with religious mythical and occult images and symbols.’
Susanna’s visions offer a signpost in the righteous direction. Garden of Earthly Delights is 42 minutes of paradise.

credits

released February 20, 2019

Susanna & the Brotherhood of Our Lady
Garden of Earthly Delights

Susanna: voice, piano, CP80, Rhodes, electronics
Stina Moltu: guitar, tape recorder, voice
Ida Løvli Hidle: accordion
Ina Sagstuen: voice, electronics, synth
Natali Abrahamsen Garner: voice, electronics

Music and lyrics composed by Susanna, inspired by Hieronymus Bosch
Greek mythology and Charles Baudelaire is quoted
Programming by Helge Sten and Susanna
Produced by Deathprod and Susanna

Recorded by Henning Svoren at Ocean Sound Recordings at Giske, Norway
Additional recording by Fredrik Wallumrød at Audio Virus LAB with Helge Sten and Susanna
Exterior performed, recorded and mixed by Susanna at Sonata Studios
Mixed by Andrew Scheps at Punkerpad UK, Ombersley
Mastered by Helge Sten at Audio Virus LAB Oslo, Norway

Susanna would like to thank Vossa Jazz and Trude Storheim for the opportunity. The rest of the crowd on this list bring inspiration and joy through their presence and work: Anne Valeur, André Løyning, Anngunn Sørli, Marita Sørli, Kristina Ringvold, Silje Grimstad, Nasjonal Jazzscene (Line and Jan Ole), Henning Svoren, Andrew Scheps, Fredrik Wallumrød, Sunniva Hartgen, Lasse Marhaug, the Brotherhood (Stina, Ina, Ida and Natali - you rock my world) and Helge.

Cover design by Lasse Marhaug
Supported by MFO and FFUK

SONATACD050
P + C 2019 SusannaSonata
All rights reserved
www.susannasonata.com
www.susannamagical.com

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about

Susanna Oslo, Norway

The Norwegian artist Susanna has released albums as Susanna and the Magical Orchestra/Susanna/Susanna Wallumrød since 2004 on labels like Rune Grammofon/ECM/Grappa Musikkforlag and since 2011 on her own label SusannaSonata. Critically acclaimed for both her own songs and her highly personal interpretations of other people's songs. ... more

susannamagical.com

shows

Jul 6

Kongsberg Musikkteater

Kongsberg, Norway

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