A lonely doll and all her precious, secret things.
A. C. Walter | Lynnwood, WA USA | 05/17/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Anja Garbarek's "Balloon Mood" is the sort of album that shifts one's perceptions to the metaphoric and to the subjective. I sometimes find myself picturing the album as a pile of multicolored sticky sweets lumped into a crystal candy dish, of the sort one might find in the homes of lonely old widows.
The album's cover displays several identical snapshots of a mirthless young blond girl. This image is probably the reason for my further fantasy, imagining Anja's precious voice issuing from the lost soul of a porcelain doll condemned to the hell of an abandoned nightmare factory. The album's vivid blend of industrial music and electronica lies in fragments about the doll like dilapidated but magical machinery--machinery with no one to serve but her.
In this remote and confined soul-space, Anja's songs often have the eerie quality of an Emily Dickinson poem. Other comparisons come to mind as well. The psychedelic, wandering narrative of "Strange Noises" is very close to Ken Nordine's riff-based storytelling and the albums of "word jazz" that he has released over the past four decades. In "Picking up the Pieces," Anja combines her tragic surrealism with a dense, White Zombie style, cyber-metal drone with a chorus in baby-doll voice: "You took away my red lips / And cut them up in pieces / So now I can't kiss the moon / So now I can't kiss the moon goodnight / No longer fly, through the clouds / No longer touch, the stars."
All the best idiosyncratic elements of the album are pulled together in "The Cabinet." Here, Anja sings about a cabinet hanging above her bed ("filled with all my secret things"), at which she stares during the night. In the background, crowding her voice, all sorts of tiny sounds are at work, hinting at a parade of ceaseless activity. The song, like the whole album, suggests a worrisome thought--the notion that maybe a tribe of small, careful animals or shadowy mechanisms are forever creeping about at the back of one's unconscious mind.
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Dreamy, daring & childlike
nordicjunkie | Melbourne Australia | 04/11/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This CD is amazing. Anja was recommended to me by someonebecause I was a Stina Nordenstam fan and I have not stoppped listeningto this CD since I got it. I used to love Bjork but I think Anja is more daring and willing to try new things. She has a beautiful voice and has some cute little stories within the songs. I especially like 'beyong my control', 'the cabinet' & 'she collects stuff'. Really brilliant stuff. Marius De Vries (of Bjork fame) is also listed on here as being a collaborator. He's recently done stuff with Neil Finn as well and I can hear some of that style in this record."
A hidden treasure
P. Scott | 08/17/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I'm a norwegian musiclover,who's had the joy of owning this remarkable album since it's release in '96.Let me tell you;it's one of my favorites ever.Time has been kind to Balloon Mood.It's like nothing you have heard before.Produced by well known master Marius de Vries,the complexity of the soundscapes is amazing.Anja says she is mostly focused on atmospheres in her music.Having no rules as her only rule,she and de Vries has found a blend of something electronic and organic,with jazzpop as the major feel.They certainly do their own thing.You have to hear for yourself.The detailed sound demands good Hi-Fi equipment,and it continues to impress over time. Anja's voice is a very clear and "sweet".She poures emotion into everything she does,and listening to the lyrics makes you understand she has her special,but honest way of telling small stories and exposing sides of human nature. I higly recommend this album with my head and with my heart.It's truly magical.And another thing;my crush on Anja just don't seem to go away."
