The vibrant front cover of Ane Brun’s sixth studio album shows her gazing wistfully into the middle distance, an indefinable expression of what could be expectation, nerves or loneliness on her face. In her hands, she holds a bunch of blood red roses. Whether she’s about to leave, or has just arrived, is unclear from Swedish artist Aida Chehrehgosha’s portrait, as is whether the flowers are a gift for Brun or someone else. Even the title is open to interpretation: does this freedom exist already, or is it something longed for but still unattained? Such ambiguity lies at the heart of When I’m Free, arguably the Norwegian born, Swedish-based singer and songwriter’s most ambitious album to date. It’s a lyrically and musically bold record that addresses change in many forms, a snapshot of a life in flux that even the typically humble Brun concedes is “probably more extrovert and dynamic than any of my previous work.”

The title comes from the song ‘Still Waters’, which, like so much of Brun’s work, runs deep. An encapsulation of the feeling that comes from turning a corner in one’s existence, the song is dedicated to her own, intimate belief that issues and hang-ups that once besieged her have been left behind. As an album title, however, When I’m Free also articulates the sense that autonomy is something to strive for and not, necessarily, enjoyed automatically. These are themes reiterated in other songs: in the sumptuous ‘Hanging’, where she identifies “the moment before the decision to leave each other is made, when you know a relationship is going to end but it just feels impossible to accept it”; in ‘Black Notebook’’s haunting realisation that our emotions are constantly developing and mutating; in ‘Directions’’ trip hop influenced celebration of (self-)determination; in ‘You Lit My Fire’’s impassioned hymn to those still engaged in the ongoing struggle for equal rights; in ‘Better Than This’’ composed condemnation of destructive stasis and ‘Signing Off’’s vulnerably shimmering but resolute proclamation of independence.

While it’s presumptuous to trace a line directly from the album back to a single experience in Brun’s life, it’s tempting nonetheless to suggest that the record’s genesis lies in Brun’s enforced cancellation in late 2012 of a North American tour with Peter Gabriel, for whom she had previously opened shows in Europe, and with whom she undertook the Kate Bush role in Gabriel’s live performances of ‘Don’t Give Up’. It wasn’t the first time she’d fallen sick, but this time she was forced to rest in bed for weeks, unable to return to the stage until spring the following year. But, whereas she had previously struggled occasionally with her health concerns, letting them weigh her down, this time she had an epiphany.

“One night,” she recalls, “I woke up and thought, ‘Why are you so afraid? It doesn’t help you in any way. Let your mind and body rest so it can heal.’ It was an important insight, and even though 2012 was tough, it symbolised a kind of metamorphosis for me. When I recovered, I experienced an almost bliss-like feeling. Imagine how you feel when you’ve been down with the flu, and you’re so happy to be well again, then multiply that feeling ten times! I’d replaced all the worrying and fear with gratitude, and the feeling lingered. I can still go back and dock into it now and then. So somehow, since 2012, I’ve been able to approach life very differently than before.”

Despite this, When I’m Free picks up, in a sense, from where her last lavish collection, 2012’s It All Starts With One – a platinum seller in her Norwegian homeland – left off. Born of confusion and yet revelling in clear-headedness, it represents further musical progression from her early, acoustic songwriting, with Brun sounding more spontaneous and full of life than ever, her growing confidence in her pure-as-a-bell voice and her ever-ripening songwriting taking her to places that will astonish those who still think of her as a delicate troubadour.

“My musical development,” Brun insists, “has been natural. I’m self-taught, and it started with me and the guitar, and sometimes a piano. I created a sound around those two elements that I could handle. I was first very inspired by music in the singer-songwriter genre – Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, Joni Mitchell, Ani Difranco – and the simplicity and presence of many of their recordings attracted and moved me, so I was sensitive to bringing in other instruments. As years went by, I felt like expanding, adding more energy and fun, mostly through challenging myself in my stage performances. They’ve been like my years at a music academy - playing live for people, working out new live sets and constellations, rearranging my own songs and other’s. My voice, too, has evolved in both strength and depth, and I’m perhaps braver and more ambitious about my expression.”


Where 2008’s Changing Of The Seasons looked to Bonnie Prince Billy’s The Letting Go, and It All Starts With One was inspired by the likes of Ray Lamontagne, Nina Simone and Madonna’s Ray Of Light, When I’m Free looks back joyfully to some of the sounds that shaped Brun’s youth: DJ Shadow, Charles Mingus and Lauryn Hill, indications of the versatile musical taste she’s displayed since she was a child. “As I’ve grown into the person I am today,” she explains, “my own music has grown in the same way. I feel I’m in a place now where my young self and the 39 year old self have joined forces.”

Largely written in her Stockholm studio space, When I’m Free finds Brun employing new techniques to forge songs that she resolved would feature more rhythm and bass within the same, intimate, warm sound she’s always constructed. She shifted between the instruments she’d traditionally used – guitar and piano – and software that allowed her to sketch out the rhythmic foundations of songs and their bass lines, an approach that delivered ‘Shape Of A Heart’, ‘You Lit My Fire’ and ‘Directions’, among others.

“I need to feel inspired to make music,” Brun laughs, “so I can’t stand still. I could easily write and record more albums with guitar-fingerpicking acoustic songs – I love doing that! – but I’m also too curious not to explore all the corners of my musicality. To a listener who’s only heard my studio recordings, I can understand if he or she thinks there’s a great change in my expression over the years, at least in the last five years. But in between the albums I’ve been performing on hundreds of stages, and done other projects that take me further in my music. So, to me, it’s never such a big step. It feels natural.”

For the recording sessions, Brun again worked with Tobias Fröberg – who’d handled production duties for It All Starts With One – but this time took on the role of co-producer, allowing songs time to evolve as they refined the record’s defining aesthetic over an almost eight month period in Stockholm’s legendary Atlantis Studios, her last album’s GIG Studios home and her own studio space. It was, she admits, “as smooth a process as it was difficult”, but the unusually sophisticated, elegant results – which explore disparate musical arenas, from the beat-heavy ‘Directions’ to the magically fragile ‘All We Want Is Love’, from the Eastern-tinged ‘Shape Of A Heart’ to the confessional ‘Black Notebook’ – speak for themselves. This, no doubt, stems from the fact they were performed by the musicians with whom Brun spent much of 2013 touring the world: bassist Dan Berglund (previously part of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio), pianist Martin Hederos (Soundtrack Of Our Lives), drummer Andreas Werliin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums) and guitarist Johan Lindström, who also work together as instrumental group Tonbruket. Also guesting on the album are Lars Skoglund (Lykke Li) and Ola Hultgren on drums; Tobias Gabrielsson (electric bass); Linnea Olsson, Nina K and Sabina Ddumba (additional vocals); and John Eriksson (of Peter, Bjorn & John), who joins them on timpani for ‘Directions’ and provides percussion and mallets for ‘Black Notebook’.

Lyrically, When I’m Free is undoubtedly Brun’s most mature record, full of finely tuned details such as ‘Black Notebook’’s perceptive articulation of our capacity for self-deception – “I could no longer separate what was real/ From my own strong will to feel/ That everything was fine” and ‘Shape Of A Heart’’s shrewd observation that “Though the shape of a heart is always the same/ You can never be sure it fits your frame”. Her Scandinavian roots, too, continue to show in images of water that have populated her songs in the past. “The ocean is in my bones,” she grins. “I grew up close to the North Atlantic, and lived right next to the shoreline of a fjord. Throughout my childhood in Norway, I was either in the water, or by the water, or sailing on top of it.” And, though she continues to address romantic themes on the likes of ‘All We Want Is Love’ and ‘Miss You More’, Brun is increasingly fearless of tackling grander topics. “I´ve written a lot of songs about complicated love over the years,” she says, “and I think I was more inspired to look into other aspects of life this time.”

These include the environmental concerns of ‘Better Than This’ and the sexual politics of ‘You Lit My Fire’, Brun’s ode to the feminists whose sense of sisterhood is gloriously reflected in the song’s soulful arrangements. “For me it´s incomprehensible that not everyone calls themselves a feminist,” Brun states. “The main aspiration of feminism is equal rights for men and women, and I don’t see why any normal grown-up person wouldn’t agree to that. I also feel that people easily take history for granted. All the rights we have as women today, at least where I’ve grown up, have not come without sacrifice. Many women put everything on the line, even their own lives, to fight for basic human rights for women, such as the right to divorce, the right to vote, the right to decide over our own bodies. And they still do around the world! On ‘You Lit My Fire’, as on ‘Better Than This’, I express my frustration at the human race’s incapability to learn from history. This is something that can get me really fired up if you get me started!”

When I’m Free comes at a busy time for Brun. As well as constant touring – in a variety of formations, from full band to solo – she released a Best Of, Songs 2003-2013, and a Rarities album, in 2013, as well as a live album in late 2014. She also co-wrote and scored a UK Top 5 hit (and Dance Chart No. 1) in 2015 with Dr. Kucho! & Gregor Salto featuring Ane Brun’s ‘Can’t Stop Playing (Makes Me High)’. “Sometimes,” she concludes, “when I´m heading down to my studio to make new music, or record something, I have butterflies in my stomach, kind of like when I´m meeting someone I´m in love with or have a crush on. It´s like we’re in a relationship, my music and I!” It’s one of which we should all be jealous, and we’re spoilt by Brun’s desire to share its benefits. This is the sound of freedom.