Malin Pettersen moves her voice like a needle into patchwork or a lark gently gliding over a lake’s glassy surface. There’s a plush fluidity that’s marked much of her work to-date, even when arrangements run more rustic and dirty. From fronting Lucky Lips through two EPs and three full records, over nearly a decade, the Norwegian storyteller cashes in her creative currency with what will soon be known as her manifesto. Her second solo studio release, Wildhorse, eloquently enraptures the senses, taking the listener’s hand and guiding them through stories she collected from all corners and crevices of America.
“I hear scientists say particles move in the strangest ways,”Pettersen regards over the dreamboat waves of “Particles,” almost ballet-like. She feels her way across such misty soundscapes with reverent ease, a tender give and take that never feels rushed or too languid to serve a purpose. It’s far more than a singular vision; in fact, many such observations comb to the nucleus of human matter (“It’s like time’s not even time moving forward,” she juggles with conviction on “Wildhorse Dream”). Her voice, ripening like a fine Merlot, then imposes a razor sharp presence that’s alluring and unforgiving.