Songs 2013-2023 (Gate) [LP], Ana Brun, Vinyl

It's ten years since ANE BRUN marked her first decade as a recording artist with the release of SONGS 2003-13, a career-encapsulating double album. Now, with her international reputation flourishing, SONGS 2013-23 allows the distinguished, platinum-selling Norwegian singer songwriter to celebrate her second decade in the business - not to mention her multiple Norwegian and Swedish Grammy awards - while also illustrating the ongoing, fascinating evolution of her singular, compelling talent. Combining tracks from 2015's extrovert When I'm Free and the pandemic era's twin releases, 2020's richly textured After The Great Stormand the more fragile, intimate How Beauty Holds The Hand Of Sorrow, the collection also offers a possible indication of Brun's next moves with a brand new song, 'Hand In The Fire'. Like it's predecessors, the album is released by her own label, Balloon Ranger, and epitomises the fiercely independent Brun's blend of boldly uplifting sentiments and comfortingly melancholic melodies delivered by one of the era's most compassionate voices.