Stina Nordenstam

Oh, cheers for posting that Knife remix Soundslike. Not sure how I missed that.

oh yeah that remix was how I first got into the knife

also speaking of david sylvian tracks, stina nordenstam tracks, and tracks "for these times"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga4IcaRsHic

Was there any context to the idea that she'd be too challenging to work with?

They'd initially offered to release Memories of a Color but after meeting with her, Ivo decided that a working relationship would be overly complicated - apparently her personality "mirrored her beguiling, obsessive music" and he wasn't in the frame of mind to engage with this at the time.

Ha, yes, Katherine - that was one of the few tracks on there.

re: Stina and Sylvian, I'm somehow convinced (with no proof whatsoever) she wrote "Greetings from the Old World" by way of a salute to him when he moved from England to America. I remember reading her generic explanation of the song on her Myspace site and adding (my) 2+2.

discovered her thanks to akm's mention in the cassandra jenkins thread and wow i love her first two albums, especially and then she closed her eyes. i really love all the sax, it feels like music i've been wanting to hear forever.

dynamite is intriguingly strange but hasn't quite clicked for me yet, it's quite a left turn but i'm hoping it will open up to me. it feels sonically of a piece with from the choirgirl hotel, but pushed further into that realm in a way that tori never did. the contrast between her quiet, deadpan vocals and the kinda industrial/post-punk backing is fascinating

looking forward to checking out the rest of her output

The first two Stinas are def the most aligned with the Cassandra Jenkins record (which is completely great), insofar as they have more light and warmth in them than her later albums - the 'sound' of early spring, watery tentative sunshine, lengthening days etc. Really brisk and fresh.

The subsequent Stinas all feel really bound up with autumn/winter to me, to varying extents - all are great but it's a much chillier vibe overall. Dynamite is the one that leans most into 'encroaching gloom'. FTCH is a really interesting comparison and one that hadn't occurred to me before.

I disappeared down a bit of a This is Stina Nordenstam wormhole upthread but I do still think it's her strangest record in that it tries to make a big (tiny) crossover pop record out of a fuzzier version of the Dynamite sonic palette and ends up sounding like some kind of plaintive alien bulletin or... something.

I think the World Is Saved is her best album. I wish she'd return to recording.

God I love 'Dynamite' so much. Dig 'This Is' and 'People Are Strange' and 'The World is Saved' and the rest. But 'Dynamite' stands out, for me. Such an elemental sound--those crunchy guitars paired with the Reich-ian strings, and her voice... An album that hasn't aged a day.

I'm afraid she's going to go the way of Mark Hollis--silent until silenced.

I feel like there's a big jump in skill and quality between albums one and two - And She Closed Her Eyes really codifies some qualities that define her subsequent work despite the massive stylistic shifts.

Like, the voice is the same but from the first line of "When Debbie's Back From Texas" you can hear how much more aware and deliberate her use of it is - this Rickie Lee Jones in an iron lung quality, superficially blank and stripped (or evacuated) of affect, yet perversely affecting. A quality that extends to her suddenly incredibly sharp lyrical economy, conveying entire worlds and personas with the smallest number of words possible.

"From Cayman Islands With Love" from The World Is Saved is a great example of this:

Half a day behind and miles away
I'm on a beach
The only one around I know who can't
Enjoy the heat
I bought the postcard
Now I have to write the words
I left the country
There's a chance you may have heard
Grand Cayman is great
Of course it is
Weather like this
Living is great
Of course it is
What else did you think
What else did you think
I said I want a man and not a boy
You left the room
The Caribbean sun so leaves me cold
You never do
I want to see you
Even want to see you bleed
I can't believe I paid for this
There's nothing here I need
Grand Cayman is great
Of course it is
Weather like this?
Living is great
Of course it is
What else did you think
What else did you think

... The deliberateness emptiness of "weather like this?"... I love it.

... That said, the last two tracks of Memories of a Colour are the best on the album, so if you listen to the first albums back to back it's like Stina is gearing herself up.

I bought "And She Closed Her Eyes" in 1994 when I was in high school - I think I bought "Park Life" (!) in the same haul. Mark Radcliffe had been playing "Little Star" every night on his Radio 1 late show.

Anyway, it's just the most beautiful record - I think it might be favourite ever album, the only album I've never gotten bored of listening to. I used to put in on with "Five Lives Left".

I can't believe The World is Saved was released 16 years ago. And look at idiot me above, thinking ten years was a long time.

This Is is getting a vinyl reissue in June: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-us/product/stina-nordenstam/this-is-stina-nordenstam

Has she gone completely reclusive? Retired? Does anyone know?

Lol this revive is going to get Tim F's hopes up once again ;_;

This thread contains evidence of me being startled at the passage of time in general terms at about the time The World Is Saved was released.

It’s been almost 20 years since then.