This is not really an album I would ever have expected from Carsten, and indeed his name is in rather small print at the bottom of the cover showing he provided the music and lyrics. He graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Music as a classical saxophonist and is as happy performing with an orchestra as he is with a jazz group, and I have reviewed albums of his which have featured different versions of those styles, but here we find himself moving in a somewhat different direction again. Here we find him providing piano, keyboards and sax for featured solo vocalist Suzanne Bushell. She may be unknown to many of us, but her brother Paul (who also contributes to this) has worked with the likes of Phil Collins, Elton John, Alanis Morissette, Nelly Furtado, and Céline Dion while he has long been bassist and music director for Faith Hill.
For the most part these songs could be considered alternative pop, while Kate Bush is very much an influence, with Carsten often very much in the background as the focus is very much on Suzanne, who has a very jazz style to her performance. The title cut is simply beautiful, with delicate flute making a welcome appearance alongside some gorgeous fretless bass, all making important contributions but never detracting from the vocals. This album is all about storytelling, with the instrumental passages having a very important part to play we move along. Carsten refuses to allow us to sit in one particular area though, so we can move from a cappela into orchestral, or a ballad which involves chamber music. The result is an album which feels incredibly mature and also very much out of time as no-one produces music like this anymore and it feels as if it belongs very to the Fifties or Sixties, with just the instrumentation and the way it is played showing it is from a more modern era.
Yet another very interesting album from Carsten, I wonder what he will come up with next?
Rating: 7/10
