Randi Tytingvag: Grounding

Just like Jenny Lind and even Abba's Frida Lyngstad, Randi Tytingvåg is one of the latest of a long line of Scandinavian female singers who have adapted their innate skills to appeal to a market far beyond their native shores. And that is not to mention Norway's clutch of other successful young female jazz singers Rebekka Bakken, Hanne Hukkelberg, and their acclaimed colleague Silje Nergaard.

Tytingvåg is a singer who is as capable behind a pen as she is behind a microphone, and Grounding is yet another collection of catchy, self-penned songs. This time though, she is backed by a collection of musicians more familiar with a rock idiom than on her previous more traditional, crossover album, Let Go (Ozella, 2006).

Guitarist Ivar Grydeland brings his experience as a purveyor of wide, electronic instrumental vistas (as with his principle band, Huntsville), and constructs them here with overlaid guitar and banjo tracks, while Tytingvåg slips her often plaintive, questioning tales of love and loss in between echoing guitar breaks on the acoustic "All that is not free," the opening "Impatience" and the echoing "Starbuck." The songs here are a selection of neatly turned stanzas sung in her clear, fairy-tale voice, tending to follow a regular structure of a repeated kernel chorus interspersed with solo breaks. The selection of eleven tracks constitutes a pleasantly rounded album and with sufficient airplay each could truly become popular.

This crystal clear recording offers a glimpse of the rich live performances Tytingvåg must offer when supported by her talented musicians.