Don’t get the wrong idea that Cornelia’s goldenness is not all about physically power and blonde hair. No, Cornelia is golden in the fragility of her voice over gentle electronic melodies. Think of a Joni Mitchell meets Kate Bush with a Matthew Herbert production and you’re in the right sort of area.

In fact, she sounds a little Mitchell/Bush as she explains her motivation for the album, “I had these sounds in my head. My main ambition was really just to get them out of there”. Inner demons at work I thinks and as you might guess from the song titles, there’s quite a lot of internal pain going on, angst, self doubt, like ‘They Hit Him’, ‘If You Know Me’, ‘I’m A Fool’ and ‘Leaving My Father’s House’.

So perhaps it’s no surprise that it’s taken her 10 years to find the right musical setting for her lyrics. And she has in the multi-talented RMJC who you will recall from Natalie Gardiner’s California album. Engine is far more electronic, blippy and leftfield. “Kinda scary was the road I had to go” she sings on the opener ‘Coming Home’ but it does get more positive in spirit as when she gets home, “You better treat me like the golden child”. This track has a great mix of folktronica, beats with some killer harp and cello (now that’s always a winner).

‘They Hit Him’ has an almost Jonny Trunk type 60’s commercial musical hook which gets better on every listen whilst ‘If You Know Me’ make me feel quite tearful.

Mr. Trunk would certainly approve of her three stage compositional technique, work out on Wurlitzer, get some different musicians to improvise and to finish off add some atmospheric field recordings; sort of an experimental version of Break Reform, particularly ‘I’m A Fool’ is it’s a bit jazzy and I prefer the ‘Joni’ styling better than the ‘Kate’, say ‘If I Took You Home’ compared to ‘Difference’.

And whilst the lyrics are personal, songs like ‘Little Spaceman Song’ (which is about her sister), reach out to you; particularly spacey blippy this one. And the album finishes on a high with the mournful loneliness of ‘You Call’ and for us ornithologists, ‘Blackbird’ (also see Finn Peters’ ‘Nightingale’ from Butterflies and did I ever tell you about my collection of field recordings by Sture Palmer of British and European bird songs on Sveriges Radio from the 70s? Another day perhaps)

So, not the most obvious album you’ll hear this year but definitely a grower and I can see that ‘Coming Home’, ‘You Call’ or ‘Blackbird’ being picked up on by those with open ears and it’s a great album for mixtape compilers as any of the 11 tracks could be used for that unpredictable start. It’s an impressive debut and definitely FLY.

Reviewed: Cornelia - Engine (Ramjac) Cat No. RAM10 Release date: 20th October 2008
Tracklisting
1. Coming Home
2. They Hit Him
3. If You Know Me
4. Go Down
5. I’m A Fool
6. Leaving My Father’s House
7. Difference
8. If I Took You Home
9. Little Spaceman Song
10. You Call
11. Blackbird

Links
Carolina Klüft http://carolina.fanfreak.net
www.sr.se