Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos

After two albums in the Susanna & the Magical Orchestra partnership, Susanna Wallumrod steps out on her own, along with some collaborators, with her unusually titled debut. Saying that Susanna is a newer generation's Stina Nordenstam does both artists a disservice — they each have distinctly different styles and approaches — but besides a shared nationality both have a strong, clear vision of their own path to pursue, and Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos makes Susanna's path all that much more entrancing. Starting with the calm, piano-led "Intruder" (absolutely 180-degrees from Peter Gabriel's similarly titled song but just as strangely beautiful), the album lives up to the striking cover art, showing the musician's head turned away from the camera, surrounded by blackness. Throughout the sense is of hidden depths and emotional turmoil sublimated in reflection, and while the exact sense of reach and delivery differs, it suggests nothing less than the last two Talk Talk albums at their most understated — less "Ascension Day," more "Runeii." On songs like "Hangout" and "Demon Dance" her higher delivery offsets the downbeat undertow of the music but the sense is of a sparkle of moonlight on a pond, an approach Nina Simone at her most romantic would have appreciated. The accompaniment from the various guest performers is so calm as to be almost ghostly, to dramatic effect — on "Stay," the guitars from Helge Sten arc softly in the background, almost subliminal but all the richer for their impact. On a song like "Better Days," meanwhile, the sudden rich surge in both playing and singing toward the end of the song underlines the lyrics "A better day will come" perfectly.