STINA NORDESTAM - 'DYNAMITE'

Fans of the noble art of national stereotyping will be reassured to hear Stina Nordestam is still writing soundtracks for seasonal affective disorder, and generally underpinning every suicidal cliche attendant to her Swedish homeland. "Lyrical musings on suicide, sudden death and gradual human decay," chirrups her press release. But while Ms Nordestam's compelling vocal fusion of Nico's sombreness and Moomin Valley's haunting beauty remains in place, musically Dynamite is a vast departure from her previous album 'And She Closed Her Eyes'.

Gone is the drifting, jazz-tinged ambience, to be replaced by drifting fragments of anyone from Joy Division and Can to 'Arcweld'-period Neil Young. Nordestam's tracks have always been the ghost of songs, and here she backs them with the ghosts of sundry distorted guitars. This works with stunning effect on pieces like 'Under Your Command', the title track and the disquieting 'The Man With The Gun', but, elsewhere, the mood of desolation will deter anyone but an ardent admirer of Scott Walker's 'Tilt'.

Oddly enough, the most inviting introduction to Nordestam remains her beauteous collaboration with Vangelis, 'Ask The Moutains'. 3 out of 5

......................................Select Magazine - December 1996

Fact - Stina recently turned down an offer to work with The Chemical Brothers. Apparently, their amyl-associated party repute wasn't quite to her taste.


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