Susanna releases her new album Meditations on Love, today via her own label SusannaSonata, the lead single ‘Everyone Knows‘ is our video of the day. Underpinned by tick tock percussion, and scattered with plinky plonky organs and whispish spiralling woodwind, Susanna admonishes a cheating lover, her vocals reverberating with a transfixing magnetism as she steps into her self empowered feelings. It’s juxtaposed with a nagging self doubt and heartbreak. She’s left them behind but is still quietly wondering, “How can I go on, without you?” It unfurls into a sweeping and artful piece of subtely majesterial songwriting, that intoxicates and intrigues around every corner. The self-directed video, filmed and edited by Jonas Mailand, explores the idea of feeling alone while being together. It features choreography by Sulekha Ali Omar.
Susanna explains of the song: “I tried to capture the very vulnerable feeling of leaving a relationship and the shame that comes with being betrayed. Your world is suddenly turned upside down and you are left with the aching feeling, ‘how can I go on without my love?’ And the ʻlove’ is not just that specific person, but all the things you identify with the relationship, and how you identify yourself, who you are.”
Having spent five years writing material, Meditations on Love reflects the complexities and difficulties of maintaining love. So many songs celebrate the giddy joy of a new connection or lick the wounds from a break-up, but Meditations on Love explores what happens in between, examining the work required by a healthy relationship and contemplating the conditions that turn love into something toxic. Susannaʼs mastery of balladry is well documented, but on Meditations on Love, she introduces a rhythmic presence new to her work. The result is one of Susannaʼs strongest and most dynamic recordings of her career.
Across a career spanning two decades, Norwegian artist Susanna has been a creator of bold, original and enrapturing music, capable of building worlds to lose yourself in. She has collaborated with an astonishing array of musicians such as Jenny Hval and Bonnie ʻPrinceʼ Billy. Her rapturous, honeyed voice has thrived in a variety of contexts, whether accompanied by her own piano playing or a full orchestra. In many of these cases, Susanna entered each recording situation with elaborate arrangements intact and an ensemble fully rehearsed. The studio always served its purpose to get those sounds on tape. But with Meditations on Love, the studio became a crucial tool of exploration.
Photo credit: Ida Fiskaa
