Susanna

Susanna fuses jazz, rock, and electronica into atmospheric songcraft that retains the close focus of a singer/songwriter’s personal vision. Much of the Norwegian vocalist, pianist, and composer’s adaptability stems from classical training and a clear, elegant delivery frequently likened to the work of Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, and Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser. That stylistic breadth extends from artfully stark reinterpretations of material by Dylan, Prince, and AC/DC to her own densely layered originals. An inventive and open collaborator, she has joined forces with leading figures from Norway’s jazz and prog rock communities as well as international artists such as John Paul Jones and Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Launching her solo path in the late 2000s via spare releases typified by 2007’s Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos, she expanded her palette during the 2010s through prize-winning projects including 2013’s The Forester, recorded with new music ensemble Ensemble neoN, and 2016’s wide-ranging Triangle. Fresh approaches to other artists’ catalogs stayed central on 2019’s Hieronymus Bosch-inspired Garden of Earthly Delights and the Baudelaire trilogy that closed with 2023’s Baudelaire & Orchestra. On 2024’s reflective yet forward-moving Meditations on Love, Susanna offered renewed angles on both romantic repertoire and her own evolving sound.

Born in Kongsberg, Norway, Susanna Wallumrød belongs to a musical household that encompasses brothers Fredrik Wallumrød on drums and Christian Wallumrød on piano, together with cousin David Wallumrød, also a pianist. She began performing in 2000 as Susanna and the Magical Orchestra alongside keyboardist Morten Qvenild, a member of Jaga Jazzist. The pair’s first album, List of Lights and Buoys, surfaced in 2004 and merged original material with covers such as Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Co-production duties were shared by Andreas Mjøs and Deathprod’s Helge Sten, to whom Susanna is married. On 2006’s Melody Mountain, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra presented interpretations of songs by artists ranging from Kiss to Sandy Denny.

In 2007 Susanna initiated her independent solo work with Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos. The quietly ambient pop collection incorporated contributions from Sten and Qvenild as well as respected Norwegian jazz and prog musicians including Christian Wallumrød, drummer Pål Hausken, and Baroque harpist Giovanna Pessi. The next year’s Flower of Evil reunited Susanna with Sten and Hausken for another program built largely around covers, among them a reading of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “Joy and Jubilee” that featured the American songwriter on two tracks.

Susanna revived the Magical Orchestra guise in 2009 with 3, enlisting Wildbirds & Peacedrums’ Mariam Wallentin alongside Fredrik Wallumrød, Sten, and Qvenild. That same year she toured with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and issued the limited-edition single “Forever/In Spite of Ourselves” containing their duets. She rejoined Pessi for the 2011 ECM release If Grief Could Wait, which juxtaposed settings of Henry Purcell and Leonard Cohen with Wallumrød originals. Also in 2011 she supplied music for Jeg Vil Hjem Til Menneskene, a volume of Gunvor Hofmo poems. The following year brought her third solo album, Wild Dog, issued on the SusannaSonata imprint. Drawing input from members of Arcade Fire and Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s band, the record drew particular notice for Wallumrød’s songwriting. Her 2012 appearances included a collaboration with Norwegian Quartet at the Oslo Jazz Festival, and she received a Gammleng Award in the Open category that year.

After appearing onstage with John Paul Jones at 2013’s Øya-festivalen, Susanna partnered with Ensemble neoN on The Forester, a sequence of chamber folk pieces that earned her first Spellemannprisen, Norway’s equivalent of a Grammy. She next joined Jenny Hval for 2015’s Meshes of Voice, another Spellemannprisen recipient, and followed it that summer with an EP of Tina Turner and Leonard Cohen songs. She also received the Radka Toneff Award, which recognizes performers who sustain the artistic ethos of the late Norwegian jazz singer. In 2016 Susanna won the DNB Award at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival, an honor that carried both a cash prize and a commission for new work to be presented the subsequent year. For the expansive, spiritually oriented Triangle she recorded in Oslo and L.A. with participants from Norwegian groups such as Splashgirl, Supersilent, Moskus, and Sudan Dudan, plus American acts including Helen Money and the Cairo Gang. Like earlier releases, the album secured a Spellemannprisen; additionally, Susanna earned the Edvard Award, given to Norwegian composers, for her Triangle work.

Following Triangle, Susanna issued 2018’s Go Dig My Grave, which contained a version of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” together with traditional material and again featured Pessi. With Garden of Earthly Delights—originally commissioned for Vossajazz Festival 2017—she presented intricate, sensuous songs prompted by the surreal imagery of Hieronymus Bosch’s celebrated triptych. Her ensemble, the Brotherhood of Our Lady, titled after the religious body that supported Bosch, drew members from Norwegian acts Skadedyr, Listen to Girl, and Propan. Recorded on Norway’s northwest coast, the album appeared on SusannaSonata in February 2019 and earned a Spellemannprisen nomination. In September 2020 Susanna released Baudelaire & Piano, launching a trilogy that set Charles Baudelaire’s poetry to music. The stark interpretations of poems drawn from Flowers of Evil were tracked at Stockholm’s Atlantis Studio and co-produced by Wallumrød and Sten. Live performances of Baudelaire & Piano with composer/improviser Delphine Dora and sound collagist Stina Stjern generated the project’s second installment. Arriving in March 2022, Elevation incorporated Stjern and Dora in a more abstract, layered treatment of the same poems. Susanna concluded the trilogy with July 2023’s Baudelaire & Orchestra. To enlarge the earlier pieces, she assembled a team comprising Sten and Stjern, vocalist Anita Kaasbøll, composer Jan Martin Smørdal, arranger Jarle G. Storløkken, and the KORK Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Norway’s national broadcaster NRK.

Once the Baudelaire series ended, Susanna reshaped her music once more. Collaborating with producer and multi-instrumentalist Juhani Silvola, reedists Harald Lassen and Morten Barrikmo, Cortex drummer Dag Erik Knedal Andersen, Ensemble neoN percussionist Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen, and string player Sarah-Jane Summers, she tracked the material with engineer Marcus Bror Forsgren at Oslo’s Studio Paradiso, crafting a fluid yet propulsive texture suited to her examination of love’s more fraught and intricate phases. Issued in August 2024, Meditations on Love took cues from Harry Partch, Angelo Badalamenti, and Ethiopian soul alongside matters of the heart.