Ane Brun: How Beauty Holds the Hand of Sorrow (Red Lp, Ballon Ranger)

Ane Brun has announced details of HOW BEAUTY HOLDS THE HAND OF SORROW, the second of two new albums, following October 30’s AFTER THE GREAT STORM. Released by Brun’s own Balloon Ranger Recordings on November 27, 2020, these represent her first original material since 2015 and will be available in CD, LP and digital formats. HOW BEAUTY HOLDS THE HAND OF SORROW’s finds Brun returning to her early work’s intimate poignancy, its nine tracks opening with the piano-led ‘Last Breath’ and concluding with a piano-only interpretation of After The Great Storm’s ‘Don’t Run And Hide’, while ‘Lose My Way’ finds her joined by Oscar-nominated, Emmy Award-winning composer Dustin O’Halloran (also of A Winged Victory For The Sullen) and ‘Closer’ occupies territory somewhere between Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush. She picks up her acoustic guitar for ‘Meet You At The Delta’ and ‘Breaking The Surface’, and ‘Song For Thrill And Tom”s luminous buoyancy is meanwhile boosted by angelic backing vocals from Jennie Abrahamson, Linnea Olsson, Therese Borjesson and Carolina Wallin Perez. Nestling at the album’s heart, furthermore, lies the simply magical ‘Trust’. “Both albums deal with the bigger questions in life,” says Brun, “but in 2020 these questions have become even bigger. Even though I wrote most of them before this whole pandemic started, I feel they all have a message that fits the situation we’re in_” HOW BEAUTY HOLDS THE HAND OF SORROW is Brun’s ninth album, mostly written in the Norwegian mountains during summer 2019. It was largely recorded at Stockholm’s Atlantis Studios and Studio Bruket, home to Tonbruket and the studio where musician and co-producer Martin Hederos – who also co-wrote a number of songs – and Studio Bruket’s own house sound technician Anton Sundell reside. The album was produced by Brun, Hederos and Sundell.