The thought first occurred to me on an escalator rising out of a D.C. Metro station: Norwegian musician Hanne Hukkelberg's arrangements are so dense and unusual they suck in sound. Listening to the title track of her third full-length, Blood from a Stone, I assumed the off-tempo clacks and the loud blasts of distortion I was hearing were all part of the music, the gradual ascension of the escalator heightening the song's steady crescendo. In fact, these elements were part of the machinery; that clatter was the grinding of escalator gears, and I'd heard that whale-song groaning of the belts every day for years. In addition to being a good reminder to get away from my computer more often, the experience suggested to me a mutability in Hukkelberg's music, which can change dramatically depending on your surroundings. To some extent, all music is like this, but her tightly orchestrated pop can be so intricate that it becomes interactive.
That sensation is further heightened by her use of found instruments. Blood From a Stone, like its two predecessors, uses everything and the kitchen sink: bicycle spokes, typewriters, train doors, and flagpoles. Instead of drum kits, Hukkelberg and her backing musicians fashion percussion instruments from old refrigerators, ovens, and other discarded appliances. This isn't Stomp, though. Crucially, she makes no big show of such unusual instrumentation, which is most notable on songs like the standout "In Here/Out There" and the slowly intensifying "Crack", when the makeshift instruments mingle with the bass and guitar to create a strange rhythm section. In general, these are subtle, subdued, and occasionally stiff arrangements, which are as self-possessed as Sufjan's or Danielson's, but typically not as ostentatious.
Hukkelberg would rather let all those unfamiliar sounds affect her songs subliminally, which means Blood From a Stone sometimes sounds muted and detached. In fact, guitar seems to be the prominent instrument on most of these songs: Bent notes fly around the chorus of the title track like sparks from a campfire, heightening the perverseness of the romantic situation she describes in the lyrics, and an agile electric guitar line gives "Bandy Riddles" its insistent, almost desperate pace. Not quite as loose as her two previous albums*, Blood from a Stone* is much more refined and sophisticated in creating such a curious and imaginatively ambient backdrop for her vocals and lyrics.
In fact, this is a singer's album, highlighting Hukkelberg's voice above all else. Sounding at once venomously expressive yet somewhat distant, she goes for heavy-metal drama on "Salt of the Earth", contrasting a thunderous chorus with quieter verses. Yet Hukkelberg sounds jazzily spry on the title track and surprisingly glam on "In Here/Out There". Closer "Bigd Til By" (the only song written in her native Norwegian) shows off her nearly prismatic tone, evocatively accompanied by flagpole, oven, and whatever happens to be in earshot.
