Album: Ane Brun, It All Starts with One (Balloon Ranger)

Norwegian singer Ane Brun's quietly involving music occupies a spectral space in which her delicate, tremulous voice reveals shared intimacies with a rare poise.

The arrangements are kept almost naked – just a line of acoustic guitar, stalking piano or brooding organ, caressed here and there with strings, vibes, and subtle hints of distant percussion – so as not to intrude on the mood. Her duet with Jose Gonzalez on "Worship" is an exemplary union of forces. Most of her songs deal with the conflicts between solitude and relationships, with unusual imagery: in "These Days", she recalls how, "like an animal, you coiled your darkness around me", while "The Light from One" brings a new approach to the theme of unrequited love, Brun explaining she's giving up carrying a torch for someone else, in order to more capably carry her own.

DOWNLOAD THIS: These Days; Worship; Words; The Light from One