CD 9165-2

Susi Hyldgaard "BLUSH" Susi Hyldgaard - vocal, piano, keybards, vibrafon, accordeon; Jannik Jensen - bass; Dickon Hinchcliff - violin, stringarrangements; Steve Arguelles - drums; Susanne Carstensen & Manuela Laerke - choir The Wrecking Crew - strings 1. Blush 4:26 2. Take Your Time 3:39 3. Seeking 4:32 4. Suck The Bone 4:27 5. Follow 3:38 6. Sometimes 4:08 7. Thai Food Chillilimit 4:38 8. This Little Island 4:04 9. Could This Be The Reason 4:40 10. Sisters In Shame 2:58 11. Seeking Remix by DJ OPIATE - 4:34 12. Blush Remix by MATHEW HERBERT all compositions by Susi Hyldgaard recorded 2004 in London (RAK Studio by Ian Caple), Paris (Plush Studio by Steve Arguelles) and Copenhagen (Soundtrack Studio by Troels Moller)

Blush is the fourth cd from Susi Hyldgaard. The three previous CD's Homesweethome, My Female Family and Something Special Just For You (Best New Name in Jazz Grammy Award 2000) had a lot of publicity and great reviews both in and outside of Denmark. Among her sources of inspiration you will find a great variety of artists from lyrical jazz masters like Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek to the classics like Bach and Debussy. In recent years the electronic/acoustic scene has caught her attention with names such as Lamb, Massive Attack, Moloko and Lambchop amongst her favourites. When she has not been touring with her own band she has taken time off to take some musical adventures, eg. a couple of duo concerts in France and Denmark with NHØP and concerts with Nils Landgren. She also composes film scores and finds the work with directors and pictures a pleasant change from performing. She has worked together with Michael Mantler in his version of Paul Austers "Hide and Seek" which has been performed as a theatre play in Copenhagen and Berlin. The music to "Hide and Seek" has been released on ECM records and features Robert Wyatt and Susi Hyldgaard.The latest news has been her guest appearance at the "Jazzpar "prize concerts in both Copenhagen and Paris. The winner 2004 was Aldo Romano, and the music came out as a live cd, to be released on Enja march 2005. Together with Diana Krall, Rebekka Bakken a.o. Susi Hyldgaard is also featured on the universal music compilation "famous 3 the finest female jazz today".

With the help of Dickon Hinchcliff (Tindersticks) and Steve Arguelles and some extra work from Mathew Herbert and DJ Opiate (Björk) Susi Hyldgaard has created a very personal and touching album:

"I wanted to make a simple album. As few instruments as possible, a few beats, words that were as easily understood as possible. An accessable album. With strings and electric bass.
I ended up doing so many things myself in my rehearsal space. I didn't really plan it to be this way, but this ended up being the easiest way to make the music simple and as close to what I thought the songs needed …
I created a lot of new sounds. Felt the freedom of the new technology, computers with recording and editing systems, doing vocals…………redoing vocalsuntil the songs felt right. Working just with yourself is also where you definitely find you own limits….I sometimes felt like I was making broth out of way too old bones, and this is where Dickon, ect. came in"

Why Dickon Hinchliffe:
"My husband invited me to my first concert with Tindersticks, last November. I was very touched by their music and with the sincerity they possessed when they presented their music to us. They never seemed pretentious just sincere. I heard Dickon twisting and turning himself, going for whatever sound on his violin, voice or guitar, looking to get as close to whatever the songs and music around him asked for. I asked Werner Aldinger (record company) what he thought about having Dickon as a part of my coming album. He liked Tindersticks very much and he had been to several concerts with them so he wasn´t hard to talk into the project. Werner gave Dickon 10 songs from a live recording at Schloss Elmau. Luckily Dickon liked the music very much and agreed to make some violin arrangements for the songs on the album. More demoes, and ideas left my house and however weird or obscure, he took them all seriously and added what was needed with his arrangements. The actual recording with 16 strings at Rak´s in London was a frightening kick. Strings are magnificent instruments. I played piano and sang live to add a "livefeel" to the recording. It isn´t easy to agree with so many people at one time! Some songs worked with a clicktrack and some we did rubato. Its an amazing feeling to play and sing a song and have a 16 piece string orchestra follow your every breath, your moves up and down in tempo and catch your feel for the song. Doing "Sometimes" like that, conversation in rubato, felt so good. We worked from early morning and found ourselves trying to survive through a recording of "Sister in Shame", very late at night. Tough, but soothing in a way.

Why Matthew Herbert:
"We played around this remix idea for some time, Werner and I. Actually what I fell for with him wasn´t so much his bigband album, it was some work he´d done with Two Banks Of Four, I heard it on a webside. I also read an interview with him in a Danish newspaper. He has an idea behind what he does. He wants to inspire people. I like that."

Why Thomas Knak - Opiate:
"He´s just good, he very much has his own sound, poetic and tender and weird. And he does simple things."

Why Jannik Jensen:
"He was on my first Cd and part of my first serious band as well .We have played a lot together. Even though it had been 8 years since we´d played together, the first session we had in my rehearsal space on " Could this be the reason " feld like hand in glove. This is also the version of the bass you hear on the Cd. He´s thee electric bassplayer for me. Live he kicks so badly, he can be a lion in a cage, but he can also play very tastefully with tenderness. And then he´s stubborn like a mule, he never gives up especially when it comes to music he´s a perfectionist, on playing and on his sound and I have a lot of respect for that, even though we can get into a fight occasionally."

Why Steve Arguelles:
"I met him when I was a part of a jury in Germany.He´s a great drummer .He has a very unorthodox way of using his drumset, and since I seldom hear straight drum playing in my music, I chose him .We played around this for some time in Paris, and I actually had a lot of tracks with his playing and programming. Many of the songs has had a totally different approach when we worked together, but I ended up erasing many of these tracks, because the songs didn´t come out in the right way. These things are hard to plan, and in the end the songs win."

Why Susanne Carstensen and Manuela Lærke:
"I´ve been working with Susanne on my live setup. She can do those beautiful things with her voice that I can´t do. She´s got a special shine. We played many of the songs on the album live, so she was a natural choice when doing the album. Manuela has got great powers in her voice, a colourful darkness, and then she´s very "tight" when she does those kick butt lyric things…..and she´s a very good friend of mine."

Why Charlotte Garner:
"I knew for two years that the Cd was to be called Blush.I just couldn´t write the titelsong ..
This is where Charlotte comes in. I called her 3 monthes before deadline, we met twice, and like always, she molded my feverish babbling thoughts into a beautiful lyric and eventually a song was born."