Singer Silje Nergaard is something of a national icon in her native Norway and Scandinavian countries, selling staggering amounts of records and winning just about every music prize that exists and it's no surprise when you hear her sing.
Possessing an angelic vocal ability that is tempered by a husky, honeyed tone, Nergaard returns with a new excellent album, which is to repeat the success of her well received 2004 album Nightwatch.
A sophisticated song writer who has embraced much of the cool contemporary sounds of the much feted Norwegian nu-jazz scene, hers is a very contemporary take on the jazz vocal tradition, yet far from a detached performer, her music is life affirming and joyful as Ella or Nina sounded in their prime.
As internationally acclaimed as she is, the successful, she has recorded this sublime album "Darkness Out of Blue", with a new approach and a new band, this is her first new album in three years. Showcasing her writing and arranging on a complete set of orginal songs Silje says of the album; "This has been a very inspiring project. It feels extremely important, and I sense it is the beginning of something new."
It's a more pop-oriented album but the terrific, candy-voiced Norwegian singer is at her best.
She has also used the legendary composer/arranger Vince Mendoza to arrange two of her songs; "Paperboats" and "Let Me Be Troubled", the first and the last song on the album.
"Darkness Out Of Blue" shows her wide range of influences better than any of her previous discs; but as Silje says, this is a reflection of herself.
"Everything I have done, is done out of my own world. My roots are many different places. I am not ruled by genres and their regulations, and I believe my strength is that I create something which is totally mine."
Thus she draws from the classic and the modern from iconic female singers Ella Fitzgerald and Emmy-Lou Harris, to the melodic sound of Bill Evans to the deep dance ambiance of Zero 7, all combining to make something unique, new and entrancing.
Silje's band still includes long time friends guitarist Bjørn Charles Dreyer and the drummer Jarle Vespestad, while new collaborators include Helge Lien and Finn Guttormsen on piano and bass represent the new contribution; both extremely talented musicians with diverse backgrounds, but with jazz as their first love.
As she says, in her "It was time for change and renewing", and what incredible results that has brought. I am loving it! You will love it!

January 11th 1967, the original lineup sat at the Sound Techniques Studios in London and, with Joe Boyd as producer, did their first profesional recording session. Two tracks were filmed: a 17 minutes long and a jam titled , a sort of precursor of pieces like and . Later in April 67 underground paper IT (International Times) organised at London's Alexandra Palace a multimedia show called that included musical acts (Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, The Move, Arthur Brown & The Crazy World, Pretty Things, Small Faces and Eric Burdon & The New Animals among others), light shows and "living art" performances. The event was filmed by and released a year later as , a 70 minutes documentary considered as the most relevant document about English Psychedelia and the Swinging London. This DVD contains the two Floyd tracks, collated with images of Whitehead's film and footage filmed at the legendary UFO club. 2005 edition, includes some film extras and a CD with the 2 Pink Floyd tracks. A must for Syd Barrett/early Floyd fans.

Apart from an almost unrecognisably languid arrangement of David Bowie and Pat Metheny's This Is Not America, Nergaard composed all the music herself, but while the music fits her beguiling, wide-eyed intonation perfectly, collaborator Tim McGurk's English lyrics are less successful.
Although there are occasional glimpses of brilliance, in general the barren phrases and overwrought verses show nowhere near the same level of precision or flair as the music.
This deficiency, combined with the quiet intensity and tidy lyrics of the Nergaard-penned closer (sans McGurk), On And On, may induce you to seek out Nergaard's more experimental (and self-produced) Norwegian language releases. Nergaard may be regarded as being at the forefront of the contemporary European jazz scene but on Nightwatch, she seems just as comfortable lounging around with more conventional pieces like In A Sentence.
It's the innovative blend of exuberant jazz plus a liberal pinch of this and that which really sets the mood of Nightwatch.

Where her more famous contemporaries achieve greater mass appeal by dumbing down or aiming at a younger audience (Katie Melua, Norah Jones),or worse, adding a generic 4-beat pop backing (Dido), Silje Nergaard writes and sings mature music for discerning adults, with astounding results. The key to her appeal, perhaps, is in the combination of mature composition and pure, innocent voice. There are other artists who soundlike her, there are others that write like her, but nobody who combines the two so successfully.
But that's not to say that the music sounds old fashioned. Employing avariety of contemporary jazz styles and with a minimal musical accompaniment, Silje manages to achieve the rare feat of an entire album that never once falls into middle of the road blandness yet sounds fresh and modern and new on every listening.
The highlights on this album are "The Waltz", which effortlessly evokes such gorgeous romantic images that it almost physically hurts; the playful duet "Dream A Little Dream"; and "Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered",which delightfully combines the sexy with the coy. In contrast, a couple of the songs are very low-key; in particular, "Don't Explain", the final song on the album, seemingly trails off into nothingness, which cannot help but leave the listener yearning for more.
This is music for demand the real thing, but more than that, it's music for people who believe in love at first sight. Silje's sensuous voice is so heart-stoppingly beautiful throughout that by the end of the album, you'll believe in love at first note, too.

Silje Nergaard (born June 19, 1966 in Steinkjer, Norway) is a Norwegian pop and jazz vocalist based in Oslo. While her music early in her career (e.g. Si det, si det from 1985) may have had a distinct pop feel, she has since moved on, and virtually all of her later releases consist of jazz-oriented tunes.
Nergaard’s musical journey began early. At age 16, she stepped on stage joining a jam session at Moldejazz, Norway’s international jazz festival, with a band comprising ex-Jaco Pastorious musicians. The country’s jazz journalists applauded the young talent. Since that day, she has steadily developed as a composer and become popular for her unique voice and talent for songwriting.
Since her 1990 inaugural jazz album, Tell Me Where You’re Going, produced by jazz guitar maestro Pat Metheny, Nergaard has become one among very few Norwegian artists to have had commercial releases in major music markets around the globe - including Brazil, Germany, the U.S., and the United Kingdom - and doing so with great success.
Her later albums, Port of Call (2000), At First Light (2001), and Nightwatch (2003), have all proved resounding commercial successes and received rapturous critical praise. With Nightwatch she also made history: no other jazz artist before her had shot straight into the Norwegian sales charts twice to reach #1 within the first week of release. In 2004 she received a Norwegian music award for Musician of the Year.

At First Light is the second-best-selling jazz album of all time in Silje Nergaard's native Norway..…….

The Guilty dream team returns! Of course, this refers to Barbra Streisand and her amazingly multi-talented collaborator Barry Gibb who have just created the refreshing, utterly entertaining Guilty Pleasures. In Streisand's 61-album catalogue, this new work of pop music is only matched in excellence by Guilty 25 years ago. Indeed, time has been kind to the creative pairing, Streisand enhancing her virtually ageless vocal prowess through the years, while Gibb has become a recording studio genius and prolific songwriter/producer/arranger for other artists including his brothers Gibb. In fact, he enlisted his sons Ashley and Stephen to join him in writing again for Barbra, inspiring marvelous and diverse performances, from the delightful mid-tempo radio friendly "Above The Law" to the lovely ballad "Letting Go."