Aurora with Askjell at the Manchester Academy2: 10-10-2018.

Norwegian singer/songwriter Aurora Aksnes – usually known just as ‘Aurora’ – has shot to international fame since the release of her first album;  ‘All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend‘ in 2016.  Still aged only 22 she now has a second album out: ‘Infections of a Different Kind, Step 1‘ and is in the middle of a major European tour.  The audience for the sold out Manchester Academy 2 gig had an interesting age and gender balance.  There was a distinct female majority, whereas most gigs in Manchester tend to have a male majority – regardless of the gender of the artist.  The average age was also markedly lower than usual, most being of student age, or not much older.  Academy 2 is, of course, part of Manchester University Student Union, so this might not come as much surprise, but in fact many audiences at the same venue have a significantly higher average age.  There were even quite a number of young children present and it was a nice touch that a special area was roped off for them right at the stage front to make sure they had a good view.  One little oddity, though, there was no merch stall, which gave the black-marketers outside rather too much of a free hand, especially as they were an album behind in the faked T shirts they were selling.

Fig 2. Askjell. Photo: ‘Hera Says’ team.

Support band ‘Askjell’ are another eponymous outfit, like ‘Aurora’, being named for their front man and keyboard player Askjell Solbrand.  They were a five piece on the night with four men, on drums, guitar, bass and keys, along with a female cellist.  Askjell himself is an old friend of Aurora’s.  They come from the same west coast Norwegian town of Bergen and he was involved in the production of her new album along with two of the bonus tracks on the deluxe version of her first.  The band play what they describe as ‘songs’ as they introduce them, but they are songs without words.  In other words, they are song length instrumental pieces.

The music is quiet, gentle and melodic, and for the most part the songs float serenely, but they are anchored by a surprisingly determined drum beat which gives them a special feel.  The Academy has a bar at the rear of the auditorium and, sadly, loud chatter from that area was a serious distraction to those of us actually trying to listen.  But the music is clearly beautiful and I would very much like to be able to hear more some day, freed from interruptions, probably on record.  I suspect it would be particularly suited to being played loud on decent quality headphones.

Fig 3. Aurora. Photo: ‘Hera Says’ team.

For anyone who has not seen Aurora live, she is a revelation.  She is famously tiny and has a little girl demeanor and speaking voice which makes her seem even younger than she is.  But the moment she starts to sing, you see a very different, far more powerful woman emerge.  She is a hugely energetic performer, dancing wildly, with her long ice blond hair flying around her.  Yet despite it all she stays note perfect on the vocal and, perhaps surprisingly, she still uses hand or stand held mikes, rather than one of the radio headset mikes which have become all but ubiquitous with many other singer/dancers.

Her vocals received great support from the sound engineer.  Her male guitarist and female keyboard player supplied wonderfully atmospheric close harmonies and the whole ensemble was mixed just perfectly to bring out the subtle beauty of so many of Aurora’s songs.  ‘Hera Says’ has been nagging for some time about the poor mixing of vocals at all too many gigs lately – even with big name artists.  This one showed what can be done if the engineer is prepared to make the effort – and the difference more than justifies the relatively small amount of extra care involved.

Fig 4. Aurora. Photo: Hera Says team.

 

As for the set, it was generously long at 1 hour 40 mins – including an encore – with 19 songs in all.  Aurora performed all eight tracks on ‘Infections of a Different Kind, Step 1‘ along with seven off the first album, plus ‘Nature Boy‘, a cover of the Nat King Cole standard, which was a bonus track on the deluxe version.  Everyone has their favourite, of course, and she did not play mine – ‘Black Water Lilies‘, but you cannot have everything and what she did play was magical, with the arrangements often different from those on the records, but in each case this added an extra perspective, rather than just being change for change’s sake.  In addition, there were three more songs which have not yet appeared on record.  Aurora has said that she is already working on a ‘Step 2’ for ‘Infections of a Different Kind’, and we may well have been getting something of a preview.  If so, although no titles were announced, the new songs were well up to her usual standard.

Fig 5. Aurora. Photo ‘Hera Says’ team.

The evening ended with an encore in which she played the ‘Infections of a Different Kind‘ title track completely solo, with just her and an electric piano, which was the only time she played an instrument all evening.  It was clear that she was starting to get a little horse by the end, and actually apologised profusely when she failed to reach one particular high note, but it was still a riveting performance (it should sound like this).  She was playing in London on the following evening, which was the final UK gig of the tour, and as we left we heard a number of audience members expressing hope that she would be back in good voice for that.  Fortunately, Mark Cobain has posted videos from the London gig on YouTube and she does seem to have been fully operational again.

Aurora has a reputation for cute but rather eccentric spoken interludes between songs.  She makes off the cuff remarks and tells stories and jokes, few of which make much sense.  She was on form at the Academy.  When she first came on we were greeted as if we had stayed waiting in the auditorium since her last visit to Manchester, with “You’re still here! You look so well. How are you doing? Are you eating?”  We got a curious mini lecture about banana fly DNA and after one particularly exuberant dance she told us that “I am a river of sweat and I think my brain has fallen out.  It’s over there somewhere.”

Fig 6. Aurora plays an encore. Photo ‘Hera Says’ team.

She started what we expected to be a joke with “A racoon went into a bar.  Nothing happened to it, I just said the first thing I thought.”  She sang happy birthday to a member of the audience, something she is famous for and eventually she decided that she did not like her shoes, a pair of pink trainers.  She took them off and hurled them to the side of the stage, saying “These motherf***ers have to go.”  Somehow in her cute little girl voice, the expletive sounded much worse, but got a huge laugh.  And throughout all these interludes, some of which were quite long, she held the entire audience in the palm of her hand.  She really does have charisma.

In all this was a great night that I for one will long remember.  For those who have not heard Aurora’s new album it is rather different to her first, but just as exquisitely beautiful.  It is a record that takes a little bit of getting into, but after that it just keeps on getting better on every hearing.  And if you get the chance ‘Askjell’ are well worth a listen too.

Hera Says.

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Fig 7. The Aurora Album covers: ‘Demons’, left and ‘Infections’, right.