Christine Guldbrandsen

Christine's debut album Surfing In The Air was recorded when she was just seventeen years old. The eleven light pop-oriented tracks illustrate the crystalline soprano texture of her voice. Solid rock instrumental arrangements never overwhelm the vocal layers. In addition to a lovely illustrated lyrics booklet, a music video to accompany the album's title and opening track derived from the "Walking In The Air" classic, is included as a bonus.

In addition to the worldwide pop tracks, the album included Scandinavian-style arrangements that are certain to broaden most listeners' tastes. Use of ethnic flute and other traditional instruments adds to the texture of "My Secret" and "Invisible Friend." Christine, rather than entirely self-harmonizing with addintional vocal layers is accompanied by backing vocalists on most numbers. And while the instrumentals are tremendous, Surfing In The Air is primarily a female vocalist album.

The album blends pop, rock and ballad tunes with Eurovision Song Contest-style tracks. With Christine's lavish vocals soaring above lush instrumental arrangements, "In Your Embrace" and "The Far End" are certainly among the album standouts and the strongest ESC-style numbers on the album. Other numbers are more sparsely arranged permitting Christine's vocals to carry the entire song. Such is the case with the lovely tracks "Fly Away" and "The Search" whose string solos are just superb.

Listeners will be delighted with the Scandinavian style pop tracks that have been included. "The Sign Of The Ring" clearly combines the best of traditional with the best of pop to deliver a very memorable track. And Christine delivers the most sensitive ballad with distinctive vocals and very little accompaniment in "Low" picking it up a notch with harmony layers and rich arrangements in "The Pretty One." The album concludes with "Dreams," where new age styled arrangements support crystalline vocals sung in Latin and English. Crystalline vocals and lush instrumental arrangements contribute equally to an outstanding debut album!

Christine's second album on Epic, recorded right on the heels of her debut, is entitled Moments. The eleven track CD is joined by a lovely booklet with photos (but without lyrics) that illustrate a maturing and very pretty young woman. The CD continues to illustrate that her voice is equally pretty. The recorded material is gentler. Arrangements are far more orchestral but share the lush quality of the artist's debut album.

The first thing listeners will notice of the album, especially when comparing it to Surfing In The Air is the more classy recording style. Perhaps to appeal to a broader audience, rock and pop references are not overwhelming, but that's not to say that songs are without guitar or other instrumental solos. Christine's vocals are crystalline and the recording demonstrates a prowess granted to few artists. She has settled well into her soprano range with tremendous power and emotion. Crisply delivered, "Feet On The Ground" is a radio friendly pop number. The warmly arranged and cinematic vocalise "Mist" is a standout likely to be overlooked by the uninformed.

Enthusiasts will again be delighted with the blend of modern and traditional Scandinavian instru- mentals. The upbeat pop number "Because Of You" has lovely vocal harmonies, again supported by additional artists, and is an album standout. The Bette Midler Grammy Award winning song, "From A Distance" is covered tremendously by Christine on this album and will draw significant attention to the artist worldwide. The lightly arranged tracks "Silverlight," "Autumn Dawn" and "My Angel" highlight Christine's vocal power.

The track "Between The Lines" is a stunning West End number. Christine's soaring soprano works well atop piano melody and orchestral washes. The album concludes with a Norwegian language bonus track entitled "Sommernatt Ved Fjorden." The theatrically styled vocally intensive track is a rich duet that illustrates Christine's vocals at their most crystalline opposite tenor Rein Alexander. Moments is a superb follow-up album!

The third album by Christine Guldbrandsen and first on her new label is aptly entitled Christine. The three year gap from her prior release has distanced the artist from mainstream pop and rock to produce a project best classified as progressive Celtic. The artist's development from pop to easy listening to progressive Celtic is evident in the instrumental arrangements. The transition has been made thankfully loss of emphasis on Christine's powerful and crystalline vocal texture. A combination of traditional and modern instruments works well with the primary change to Norwegian lyrics.

The songs on this album span a wide range of styles, from ballads with choir and piano to richly arranged soundscapes. Christine has written several of the songs in collaboration with her creative team. Among these is the standout track "Alvedansen," Norway's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. This popular song was reworked for the album. Apart from one Norwegian folk song the rest of the album is new material. And every song was obviously prepared with Christine's stunning crystalline voice in mind. Enthusiasts will be pleased with the booklet that accompanies the CD. In addition to a wide range of stunning artist photos, full lyrics are provided in the booklet.

Artists can often deliver more emotional content when singing in their native tongue and this evolution has worked well for Christine. To broaden her appeal worldwide, she should consider balancing English with Norwegian in the future. Following the upbeat "Dansekjolen," Christine moves into a tender piano backed ballad entitled "Langt Bortenfor." Strings add additional color to the number. The cinematically styled English lyric "Journey's Song" and choral "Dove" are an album standouts.

The combination of traditional instruments and modern arrange- ments work perfectly to support Christine's far ranging vocal power. Improvements in emotional delivery are evident track to track in upbeat folk numbers, sweeping West End styled tracks and very light Norwegian ballads. Bravo Christine!