Privately-pressed in Copenhagen, in 1981, this is an LP of odd beauty. Re-discovered, and appearing on forums and message boards around ten years ago. Now scheduled for reissue at the end of February by New York-based Frederiksberg Records. It`s an album that in some ways is a companion to Beverley Glenn-Copeland`s Keyboard Fantasies. Where singer / songwriter Suzanne Menzel`s “Folk” gets paired with Klaus Schonning`s more modern, partly electronic, instrumentation. Auto-Harp, Clavinet, Kalimba, and Melodica. Klaus couples acoustic guitars with New Age keys. Synthesised solos. Wistful harmonica. Sampled birdsong and rain. Captures love in multi-tracked harmony. Suzanne sings barbed but melancholy attacks on consumerism. Sad odes to the seasons. An anti-pollution lyric set to a machine-made Morris Dance. Anne Briggs Madigrals that move to funky bass-lines and sequencer patterns. Like Sandy Denny covering Anna`s Systems Breaking Down. Mike & Sally Oldfield`s Cosmic Pop meets Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders. Or The Wicker Man. Suzanne, the enchantress. Casting a an otherworldly spell accompanied by Post-Punk, Disco-Not-Disco rhythms.
Suzanne Menzel`s Goodbyes And Beginnings is due to be in shops on February 26th, but the best way to keep up to date with the release is to sign up to the Frederiksberg Records Facebook Page.
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