How many of us really get to tell the story of our lives publicly, the real stories, once we are gone? We are talking about the ones about the real ourselves, those stories that cannot see the light of the day, because they encapsule our real essences and deep secrets, might them be filled with light or darkness, solely because society imposes us to project an image of ourselves that is not completely who we really are? The answer is "not very often", but, when that exception takes place, the outcome may be overwhelmingly beautiful and fascinating.
The latter is exactly what happened to the enormously talented Icelandic singer/songwriter Emiliana Torrini who, one day some time ago, went to visit one of her friends in UK, Zoe, to try and support her emotionally after the recent passing of Zoe's mother Geraldine. It was during this period that Torrini, who had met Geraldine Flower only at a later stage of her life, stumbled, together with Zoe, upon a box containing dozens of previously unseen and unread letters, where new and unknown aspects of Geraldine's life emerged, like the fact that Geraldine had received nine marriage of proposals throughout her life (never accepted) and among the letters of many male admirers, there were quite a few about a mysterious man called Reggie, with whom Geraldine started an intense correspondence where love was often the subject of those letters while, some other time, there were some more cryptic letters that would possibly indicate that Reggie, the mysterious man, could also have worked as a spy, back in the 70's.
Emiliana Torrini, who has always been very keen, throughout her glorious career, to write songs about women's wonderful emotional universe, couldn't resist to the opportunity to bring back to life the secretive and fascinating life tales of a woman like Geraldine Flower that perhaps, a little like the Icelandic artist, was very intense and immediate in manifesting her inner feelings with those she felt an immediate connection with.
Those are the premises with which Torrini's new album called Miss Flower was born, a record made of 9 (plus 1 instrumental) of Geraldine's life stories re-imagined by the talented Icelandic artist, where Torrini manages to balance in an incredibly effective fashion, different style of arrangements that would work perfectly as each song's individual soundtrack, encapsulating each tune's narrative with gusto and attention through different soundscapes that may vary from Electronica to Ambient or from Semi-Acoustic to Latin, depending by the song's theme.
Then there is Emiliana Torrini's voice; sometime angelic and some other time a little tenebrous too, but always able to carry within that deep, trademark intense vibe, capable to switch from child-a-like little cheekiness tones to more evocative, passionate ones, with such effortless talent.
The singer/songwriter knows very well when to use, at times, her voice as a raconteur of Geraldine's letters, in some of the album's songs and when to use her powerful, unique singing skills to accentuate Geraldine's inner feelings , like she so masterfully does on songs like Dreamers, Love Poem and The Golden Thread, among others.
Miss Flower ends with a wonderful, brief instrumental called A Dream Through The Floorboards, where the sound of a piano and a creaking floorboard in the background evokes so delicately a time of the world where letters about love, passion, mystery and sensuality were hidden in places like those, stored and kept safe from a society that, back then, was not ready yet to openly discuss those topics, a time where also deep emotions were seen as taboos and as such, needed to be hidden from the world.
It may have taken a decade for Emiliana Torrini's new solo album but the waiting was worth all along. Miss Flower, together with being the tribute to a splendid lady that loved life and was loved by life, it is also the ultimate statement of an artist like Torrini that breathes and lives music on her own skin like very few others are able to do, supported by a voice and an inspired song-writing style of enormous scale. One of the most original and best record to date of this marvelous Icelandic artist.
Miss Flower is due to be released on 21st June 2024 via Groenland Records
