In the City of Dreams….

 

This is it! An extremely rare fortune for listeners who have searched through the much useless material heard today, whose ears suddenly stand up when they finally find what their ears and minds have longed for: a particularly fortunate moment that makes us completely content. At the present time, such a stroke of luck is spinning in my CD player, and I am mesmerized from one song to the next: "The City of My Dreams" by Sophie Dunér, her string quartet and its guests.

This exceptional Swedish artist is not only a vocal virtuoso in the delivery of the 17 pieces she composed, set the text, and arranged on this exhilarating album—she is also an outstanding talent, whose emphatic and thoughtful impression in the future of contemporary music, jazz, and song comes around very rarely. Yet she has found a relationship that is difficult to render in this genre. In terms of “song,” I have already decided for myself. Sophie Dunér has attained the most unattainable, namely, to be at eye level with Kurt Weill, Lennon/McCartney, Gordon Sumner, Ricky Lee Jones and Kate Bush (only a small suggestion of what she has introduced in her renderings).

 Naturally, such comparisons are inadequate. Sophie Dunér has her own all-conclusive model, where elements from jazz and contemporary music are blended ingeniously, and at times embedded with fragments of pop music. Her texts – to be read inside the digital packaging – are just as intelligent as the entire conception. Her powerful string quartet has an essential wholeness, which contributes to its enchanting form. Sophie Dunér takes the listener by the hand and leads them into her city of dreams, which can also be mine, yours or anyones. Crisp, powerful or flirtatious, whispering or roaring, with her impressive voice, she draws the delineations her tales of love and illusion, of winners and losers – straight from the head and the gut. It is worth listening to. The kiss of the muse for this fantastic album!