Standing and waiting outside a church in the cold, thinking about life, along with so many other people. Someone walks past “Wonder what’s going on here then?”. To be honest I wasn’t sure what was going to happen or what to expect from beautiful Icelandic Emiliana Torrini and her dainty songs. When she took to the stage the whole room went silent, and then applause began for all the warmth that she brought upon all of our chilly fingers, silent lips and thought filled minds.
This gig was full of light and shade, with huge emotional diversity drifting from the dainty elegance of “Birds” which tells the tales of nature as if it was a play, to the darker and silently viscous “Gun”, to the super exciting beat of “Jungle Drum”, that Emiliana described as “making her want to pee her pants, every time she plays it.” And it didn’t stop there, she also pleased our ears with a good collection of delightful songs from both of her first album ‘Fisherman’s Woman’ and the wonderful “Love In The Time Of Science”.
Although being classically trained, Emiliana has a voice that is almost like a waif-like whisper that everybody wants to hear. Everything that she sings and even says, means something to everyone in so many different ways and it is so nice to finally hear honesty flowing from an artist’s heart in a day and age where everyone writes songs for the sake of it. Emiliana give’s birth to a song for a reason and sings about everyones life as if it was their own. She was just her charming delicate self, all though the night, telling ditzy little tales of the funny ways she came to writing songs and describing things with innocent “doo do dooo’s”, “tah dahs!” and “bunks!” and then making us tingle with sparkling songs which danced along our spines. Her songs are magically flourished with the playfulness of soft synth swooshes, distant chimes and a handful of other pleasing quirks.
All in all it was one of the most beautiful experiences, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I walked away with a feeling that my heart had been lifted.
Words by Daisy Warne
Photography by Matt Hodson
www.myspace.com/emilianatorrini
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