THE NORDIC MUSIC PODCAST

This episode brings Melody A.M.’s attention back to Norway with singer-songwriter, Ane Brun, who this year celebrates a very special anniversary - 20 years since the release of her debut album, Spending Time With Morgan.

 

To mark the occasion, Brun has recently released a new retrospective record, Songs 2013-2023, highlighting peak points from her studio recordings in the past 10 years, as well as another collection, Portrayals, which collates some of the best-loved cover versions she has recorded, including her portrayal of Beyonce’s 'Halo', with Linnea Olsson, which has had over 65m streams on Spotify alone, to date. 

 

Spending Time With Morgan came out when Ane Brun was 27 year-old. After flitting and flatting between her Norwegian hometown of Molde and Barcelona, Oslo and Bergen for several years, she eventually settled in Sweden. The album was recorded in Stockholm and Uppsala and its recording was financed through Brun's salary from working at a record store, academic scholarships she’d been awarded and loans from friends who wanted to help her out in return for a future percentage of sales. 

 

When the album was done, Brun really loved the songs and the recordings. She presented a sampler of the album to 4 or 5 record companies and also to some other music business people, but their response was slow and unenthusiastic and she was so hungry to get started, that she decided that it was better to release the music herself, instead of waiting around for anyone else’s permission to do so.

 

In the 20 years since that album’s release, Brun has made her mark not only on the Nordic music scene but all over the world, with an initially folky twist on pop and, in more recent years, an underlying rhythmic and electronic feel to the production. 

 

Speaking with Melody A.M. from her studio, Brun reflects on her two decades in the music business, she shares some details about her next studio album, which she is hopeful to release in 2024, and we also explore the impact of A.I. on musicians and creativity. As part of our interview, Brun tells Melody A.M. that she’s tried the command “Write An Ane Brun Song” on ChatGPT and invited us to try the same and see what we got.

 

And so... we've decided to give it a go and the result was a ChatGPT-composed 'Ane Brun song' called "Dreams Echo in Silence". Here are the lyrics:

 

(Verse 1)

There's a morning whisper on the shoreline 

Under a sky draped in crimson hue 

Where the rhythm of the restless ocean

Keeps a beat only the hearts of the brave can pursue

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In the quiet cradle of the mountain,

A tale of ancient time softly unfurls 

Its voice echoed in the wind's aria 

Of truths unfathomable, to be found in this world

​

(Chorus)

Amid the noise of our existence

Listen to the songs of the silent heart

They speak in notes of sorrow and resistance

A melody of endings and starts

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(Verse 2)

In the hollows of city shadows 

Humanity’s dreams and doubts collide 

Drowning out the symphony of silence

With tales of love, of life, both lost and untried

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Beneath the canvas of the starlit heavens 

Waves of time etch the face of the moon

Whispering sonnets of cosmic wonder 

In the tranquil hours of the late afternoon

​

(Chorus)

In the dance of light and darkness

Feel the rhythm of the universe impart

Its tale told in the language of the timeless 

Songs from the strings of the silent heart

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(Bridge)

Listen, listen, oh you seekers 

The earth and sky, they’ve stories to share 

Unravel them in the light of the silent heart 

Their secrets lie in the threads of love and despair

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(Chorus)

Between the chapters of life and death

Weave tales that set you apart 

Find the courage to sing the unsung

Echoing from the depths of the silent heart

​

(Outro)

And when the world becomes too noisy

In the quiet, may your true journey start

Through valleys of pain and peaks of joy

Guided by the songs of the silent heart.

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Ane, if you're reading this, we're looking forward to hearing your rendition of this song some day!

 

In our interview, you'll also hear us discussing using ChatGPT to devise a set-list for an Ane Brun gig and we gave this a go too. In response to the command “Please create a set-list for a 2-hour music concert by the artist Ane Brun”, ChatGPT suggested the following (it left off Brun's latest single, 'Hand in the Fire', which is an unacceptable omission):

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1. "Shape of a Heart" 

2. "Do You Remember" 

3. "To Let Myself Go" 

4. "Directions" 

5. "These Days" 

6. "Don't Run and Hide" 

7. "Worship" 

8. "All My Tears"

9. "Fingerprints"

-- Short Break --

1. "Take Hold of Me"

2. "Black Notebook"

3. "You Lit My Fire" 

4. "Feeling Like I Wanna Cry"

5. "Hanging"

6. "Undertow" 

7. "We Need a Mother"

-- Encore --

1. "All We Want Is Love" 

2. "Honey" 

3. "Halo"