Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra
Racing The Storm
★★★
BELLA UNION. CD/DL/LP
Torrini’s second LP with Belgian electronica duo TCO.
Aarich Jespers and Kobe Proesmans first collaborated with their Icelandic- Italian muse when they approached her with reinterpretations of her songs for 2018’s The Colorist Orchestra & Emiliana Torrini. This time, artist billing is reversed, the pop-immersed, operatically trained Torrini taking the reins on a richly detailed album of co-writes sketched in bold, exotic colours. Predictable, perhaps, to mention Torrini’s compatriot Björk, and the rich marriage of electronic elements, strings and bustling percussion here does occasionally evoke Ms Guðmundsdóttir’s work with Matmos, say – and her liking for sketching Iceland via sound. Ultimately, though, RTS charts its own path. Torrini’s malleable, intimate voice, the title track’s haunting Tropicália and foreboding instrumental A Scene From A Movie are all noteworthy, while spectacular closer Lonesome Fears packs percussion so striking it feels like a baseball bat blow to the legs.