Emma Pilgaard’s smooth and succulent tones, all delivered in precise, impressive English, at times bring to mind Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and other well-known figures. The tracks on this new and third album, ‘A Woman’s Voice’ are backed by other adept and inspired Danish jazz musicians – dazzling flurries of piano throughout the tracks, bursts of trumpet on several – and reside somewhere between jazz and sophisticated pop. When they are at their most jazzy, the album feels truly alive.
The premise of ‘A Woman’s Voice’ is intriguing. Eight tracks, each dedicated and built around one woman, an interlude to divide them into two groups of four, tales of inspiration and longing, pain and magnificence, Pilgaard has attempted the ambitious and pulled it off with style here.
The clarity of Pilgaard’s vocals renders any lyric booklet unnecessary, and the ease with which we are taken on a journey is noticeable. So much music these days has unclear, even deliberately opaque lyrical content it can feel akin to listening to music inside a tumble dryer.
The nature-linked and relationship storytelling, and the voice that carries it, is more than enough to keep the listener engaged from start to finish. The tracks ‘My Mother’ and the title track go beyond their subjects, the woman they focus their attention on, they resonate into a space where we contemplate our own mothers and the voices of women we know. That is where the album delivers the sensation of being a gift, one that reveals a well of contemplation, and also provides a pleasant punch.
A relaxing listen with some elegant and refined tracks, some cool scat jazz groove moments, too, you cannot escape the feeling Pilgaard is just getting started.
NMC rating: 7/10
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emmapilgaard.christiansen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmapilgaardmusic/
Bandcamp: https://emmapilgaard.bandcamp.com/
