John Fordham 

Emilia Martensson: Ana review – subtle, imaginative songs from entrancing Swedish singer

Swedish singer Emilia Martensson delivers her most personal album yet, moving through Latin grooves, Scandinavian folk and country-rock, writes John Fordham
  
  

Emilia Martensson
Casually confident timing and childlike dreaminess … Emilia Martensson Photograph: PR

Anglophile Swedish singer Emilia Martensson has tackled Broadway standards, chanson, world music and even Schumann song cycles, but Ana is her most autobiographical project, dedicated to her grandparents. It includes three originals, a traditional Swedish folk ballad, a version of Joe Henderson's Black Narcissus with her own lyrics, some superb piano from Barry Green and a little string-quartet colour. Martensson's casually confident timing and childlike dreaminess make an entrancing meditation out of the title track, while Learnt from Love recalls the Latin-grooving empathy of New York's Gretchen Parlato. A traditional Swedish folk song contrasts subtle vocal tones with Sam Lasserson's pulsing double bass, and the country-rocking piano behind Paul Simon's Everything Put Together Falls Apart works perfectly with Martensson's ability to suggest an inner conversation on which she hadn't noticed anyone listening in. A subtle set from a very imaginative singer.

 

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