Few would contest that Anneli Drecker is a truly passionate singer. Even fewer would disagree that her style and music usually has a strong element of "cool" - of something distant, detached, dreamy, somehow non-corporeal. Tina Turner, she decidedly ain't.

"It's a cool wind, it's a cool world," as she sings here on Frolic, her second solo album. It's not completely metaphorical, either. Anneli hails from Tromsø in Norway, far above the Arctic circle at 70 degrees Northern latitude. This city, home to the northernmost university in the world, is a place where the sun is swallowed up by mythical beasts three months a year, while spectral northern lights ripple through the darkness. It is also the hometown of the most vital electronic music scene in Scandinavia, of which Anneli is the undisputed queen.

Anneli Drecker's beautiful, haunting and unique voice is sometimes compared to Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, though her range and vocal control is far superior. A more feminine Annie Lennox, is another fair comparison.

That voice was first heard in 1987, when Tromsø trio Bel Canto released their debut album White-Out Conditions on Brussels label Crammed Discs. The young, talented singer already, at fifteen, had held a leading part in a major Norwegian motion picture.

The way Anneli describes it, her musical awakening was tied to discovering the third Depeche Mode single, "Just Can't Get Enough", in her older brother's record collection. Now, twenty years later, some of this debt is being repaid. Anneli, now an accomplished composer, arranger and computer programmer in her own right, has dug into the early-to-mid-eighties' bag of tricks for the sounds and grooves of Frolic. That old mini-moog in her studio isn't just a decoration detail. She describes Frolic as being a "back to my roots" or "full circle" album, and starts reminiscing about artists we thought were long forgotten: Fad Gadget, Blancmange, Lene Lovich, Yazoo … and Depeche Mode, of course, though hardly forgotten. Their long-time producer Gareth Jones is a collaborator on Frolic.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, Frolic means "cheerful play", "prank", "a merry party", "an outburst of gaiety" … you get the point. It's a fitting title for this album. Compared to the epic pop songs of Tundra (2000), her first solo offering, Frolic is more playful, more loose and relaxed, filled with an intriguing blend of knowledge and innocence that is very much Anneli's own. All songs are in English.

Since Tundra, there have been two releases with Bel Canto (Retrospect and Dorothy's Victory). Anneli has toured and recorded with Norwegian bands a-ha and Röyksopp, and she has spent time working on acting and "serious" music. She even managed a season on TV in the judging panel of "Norwegian Idol". A long career performing on most continents has brought her in touch with a wealth of ethnic music styles, enriching her own musical vocabulary. In between, she's learned to master her digital tools: Frolic is written, composed, arranged, programmed, produced and co-produced by Anneli M. Drecker, as well as playing keyboards, doing samples … and, of course, singing.

The gentlemen pay their respects, of course. The first single, the elegant "You Don't Have To Change", is co-produced with her hometown's electronica world celebrities, Röyksopp. The two male guest singers are Nick Sillitoe of Illumination and William Hut of Poor Rich Ones. Major collaborators are Gaute Barlindhaug (programming, keyboards, co-production) who records as Kolar Goi, and Raymond Hansen (programming, keyboards, co-production), known as Syntax Erik. Both are from Tromsø. Also crucial were multi-instrumentalist Hans Peter Lindstrøm and Jonas Lie Theis (programming, keyboards, co-production).

Aslak Dørum of Dum Dum Boys plays the bass on "Strange Little Bird", while Lauren Savoy supplies vocals on the creepy, surreal "Monkey Trap", which Anneli wrote after being scared half to death by the bizarre David Lynch film Mulholland Drive.

But mainly, Frolic is just that, a playful and cheerful pop album with the occasional hint of deep mystery, presented in a distinct, often gritty electronic sound. Add to this some of the most beautiful, sexy, compelling - and yes, cool - singing you have heard in your entire life, and it will be like enjoying a meal of the tastiest morsels, the sweetest desserts, both deliciously icy and comfortingly warm.

Torgrim Eggen, author
march 2005