Ten years after marking her first decade as a recording artist with the release of SONGS 2003-13, the distinguished, platinum-selling ANE BRUN has announced the release of a brand-new track, ‘HAND IN THE FIRE’, with a stunning choreographed video.
The new single is included on SONGS 2013-23, a celebration of her second decade as one of Norway’s most decorated contemporary artists, released in full today.
Like the song, the 16-track compilation is released by Brun’s own independent label, Balloon Ranger Recordings, today - available on CD and LP, as well as via all DSPs.
Written in Tuscany in 2022, ‘HAND IN THE FIRE’ features cellist Linnea Olsson (a regular BRUN collaborator) as well as Samuel Starck, who played a big role on 2020’s After The Great Storm, and Per Eklund, who performed on that and the same year’s How Beauty Holds The Hand Of Sorrow, not to mention 2011’s It All Starts With One. In true BRUN tradition, the song offers encouragement, this time “to someone who’s feeling unable to break free from something that’s holding them back from fulfilling their potential.” It displays the Eastern charms that have sporadically influenced other songs, among them ‘Worship’, her duet with José González on 2011’s It All Starts With One, and it was mixed and mastered by Prash ‘Engine-Earz’ Mistry.
The track is accompanied by a stunning choreographed video featuring dancers Einar-Anton, Aas Nikkerud, Janine Koertge, Rachel McNamee, and Hiroki Ichinose from the Gothenburg Opera Dance Company. Directed by Shruti Ganguly, a new friend, filmmaker, writer, and director whom Ane was fortunate to meet in Oslo back in the first few months of the pandemic.
“I've been eager to work with Shruti and the video became a perfect project for us to do together, in our new hometown Oslo. The video would not exist without my experience with ”12 Songs” in 2023 with the Gothenburg Opera Dance Company”. (A stage performance for music, orchestra, and dance by Kenneth Kvarnström) explains Brun. “It was a very special experience for me. I was surrounded by these world-class dancers on stage, and I performed the orchestral versions of my own music at the same time as I was an integral part of the choreography. It became the most amazing artistic challenge of my career so far.
So when we were producing a music video for the new track ”Hand in the Fire”, I wanted to invite some of the dancers to express the inner complexity and contrasted emotions "Hand in the Fire" is about. I wanted them to be my emotional tentacles. The dancers and I started the work by improvising the song in a dance studio in Gothenburg, and we continued the exploration of the movements while recording the video in Oslo. The choreography in the video is improvised.”
‘HAND IN THE FIRE’ opens SONGS 2013-23, which draws on BRUN’s second decade as one of Norway’s most decorated contemporary artists. With three Norwegian Grammys and two Swedish Grammys among the multiple awards lined up on her shelf, she’s seen her international reputation flourish over the course of the last ten years on the back of world tours and prestigious concerts, not least with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (which birthed 2018’s Live at Berdwardhallen album, her third live collection). She’s contributed, as well, to multiple film soundtracks – among them a collaboration with Emmy Award-winning Dustin O’Halloran on 2018’s Puzzle OST – and she even enjoyed an unlikely UK Top 5 hit in 2015 singing on Dr Kucho! & Gregor Salto’s ‘Can’t Stop Playing (Makes Me High)’, which, incidentally, she co-wrote. And all that’s not to mention the small matter of her invitations to perform at the 2017 Nobel Prize Dinner and the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. There is, it’s fair to say, a lot to celebrate.
BRUN’s pure, seraphic voice, with its quiet, distinctive flutter, has always been crucial to her appeal, its tone suggestive of someone who’s not only endured their own share of suffering but who is also, as ‘Don’t Run And Hide’ declares, “here for you”. “I think a lot of my music is about being free,” she says, “being authentic to yourself, being open to life, to love, to experiencing all that life can bring, and going through all its transitions. It’s about what holds us back, and about accepting that life has darkness but still always moving towards the light. And it’s about hope. Lots of hope.” As SONGS 2013-23 emphasises, there’s undeniably something thrilling in hearing an artist at the top of their game, especially one so willing to bare their soul.
SONGS 2013-23 follows the release this March of Portrayals, a collection of twelve of Brun’s most acclaimed covers. It contains the following songs:
The Hand In The Fire / Directions / Don’t Run And Hide / Crumbs / Lose My Way / Take Hold Of Me / Honey / You Lit My Fire / All We Want Is Love / Trust / Hanging / Black Notebook / After The Great Storm / Closer / Fingerprints / Last Breath
BRUN has also announced a series of shows across Europe later this year as part of her 20th Anniversary Tour and will play live at the 02 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on October 14th. Tickets are available here.
22.09 HELSINKI House Of Culture
27.09 STOCKHOLM Cirkus
29.09 JÖNKÖPING Spira
30.09 MALMÖ Live Konserthus
01.10 GÖTEBORG Konserthuset
06.10 SKELLEFTEÅ Sara Kulturhus
14.10 LONDON Shepherd's Bush Empire
17.10 BERLIN Admiralspalast
20.10 ANTWERP De Roma
21.10 PARIS La Cigale
22.10 UTRECH Ronda
24.10 HAMBURG Fabrik
25.10 COPENHAGEN Store Vega
26.10 AARHUS VoxHall
04.11 ÖREBRO Konserthuset
05.11 UPPSALA UKK
08.11 BODØ Svømmehallen Scene
09.11 TROMSØ Driv
11.11 TRONDHEIM Tapperiet
12.11 MOLDE Bjørnsonhuset
15.11 OSLO Sentrum Scene
16.11 OSLO Sentrum Scene
17.11 STAVANGER Konserthus
18.11 KRISTIANSAND Kilden
19.11 BERGEN Grieghallen
