Bel Canto ‎– Shimmering, Warm & Bright

The best album from this Norwegian duo. Mixing "arctic" pop music of sometimes breathtaking glacial beauty with electronics and Eastern influences, Bel Canto had a sound all of their own, as well as a superb vocalist in Anneli Drecker. Geir Jenssen had left when "Shimmering..." was released (meanwhile he had become Biosphere and carved out his own territory in ambient techno), nevertheless this is the band's definitive highlight. Stunning songs a-plenty, including "Unicorn" and "Summer", and the title track is a Norwegian pop classic which is some of the finest 3 minutes of music ever recorded in this country. If they weren't signed to a deadbeat Belgian indie label they would have conquered the world, instead they remained an obscure cult group abroad, which was a crying shame.