Speak to me of truth and beauty and the wonders that it might bring to the world. Speak to me also of simplicity and reverence. Speak to me of all these things and I will speak to you of Sofia Talvik. The path to fame and fortune, although it should be the property of Ms Talvik, is full to overflowing with the synthetic and those to whom pretence is honesty and yet Ms Talvik perseveres regardless.
Ms Talvik’s EP “Folk” might well consist of songs sung solely in Swedish but that does not deny in any way its effect on those of us not equipped with subtitles. Her words, or more precisely the words of a past as far distant from her as they are to me, are sensitively supported and delivered with an elegance and sensitivity belonging to a time when such things were valued with her voice, confident as ever, swimming in a sea of minimalistic ambience as if to reject all the complexity of modern times. Would not Gale Garnett, in times past, have adopted the acoustic resonance of “Det brinner en eld” as her own? It is no hyperbole to state that the essential truth of folk music lives on in these naturalistic renditions.
While this EP may well represent a, no doubt temporary, change of direction for Ms Talvik it certainly also represents yet another piece in the complex jigsaw that is her talent.
This EP is available from Bandcamp.