Susanna & The Brotherhood of Our Lady Album - Garden of Earthly Delights

A musical interpretation of Hieronymus Bosch's fifteenth century triptych panels sounds like the kind of recorded oddity that emerges from a crate digging session at the local vinyl fair, rather than a contemporary electronic folk-jazz release. However, when the artist and songwriter is prolific Norwegian composer Susanna Wallumrød, and when tracks like Gluttony and Lust, Death and The Miser, and Ship of Fools focus clearly on present-day issues such of poverty, equality and the environment, you quickly recognise that Garden of Earthly Delights is more than a leftfield vanity project of eccentric self-indulgence.
 
Indeed, this album follows in the footsteps of a series of acclaimed releases from Susanna over the past 14 years – including last year's Go Dig My Grave, a mixture of Appalachian folk, French poetry, English opera, and which even featured a cover of Joy Division's Wilderness. For her latest project, though, she recruits four fellow Norwegians to The Brotherhood of Our Lady, itself a reference to Bosch's medieval sponsors, and brings together striking vocals, guitar, accordion and electronics to map out a haunting mixture of vocal balladry and minimalist soundscapes.
 
From the departure of Wayfarer to the final Gathering of Birds and its warning of imminent floods, Garden of Earthly Delights, like the works of Bosch, is filled with striking allegory and behavioural scrutiny. Not so much a visit to paradise as a salutary signpost in the righteous direction.
 
8/10