Ane Brun
Album: Songs 2003 - 2013
Label: Balloon Ranger
Tracks: 15 + 17
Website: http://www.anebrun.com

Ane Brun is an artist that I feel I owe a debt of gratitude to, she was one of the first artists to introduce me to non-traditional music originating out Scandinavia. Brun herself originates from Norway, but has spent a lot of her musical years operating out of Sweden, where as well as creating her own music, she now runs her own label, Balloon Ranger.

The first album that came to my attention was "Spending Time With Morgan", which having originally been released on her previous own label, DetErMine, was picked up for wider distribution via V2, which was how it ended up in my sticky paws.

Since 2003, Ane Brun has released some eight albums, with all of them represented here to varying degrees. Also during that time, she has recorded and toured with musicians such as Ron Sixsmith, Ani Difranco and Peter Gabriel.

One of the things that attracted me to Ane Brun's music is her willingness to mix pop inspired melodies with political themes. Political activism comes deep with her, she's organised concerts to raise both awareness and funds for environmental causes that often read like a who's who of Swedish music.

If you've not yet been switched onto Ane Brun, this two cd compilation is a great place to start as it brings together tracks from all periods of her career, which means you get both the rich pop songs and the more stripped back more acoustic numbers and understand how much she has innovated her sound over the last decade, innovation that you can hear in the non-traditional artists currently emerging from the region.

The 32 tracks on "Songs 2003-2013" really do represent a good cross section of her career to date and there's no reason to suspect that she'll stop delivering interesting and entertaining music any time soon. If you've not already engaged with Ane Brun, now's a good time to get started.

Neil King