Emiliana Torrini

When I was at summer camp (right after the fourth grade), I decided to showcase my burgeoning singing skills at a solo performance at the talent show in front of the swimming pool. My plan was to sing some pop ballad karaoke style and wow everyone with my dulcet tones. As soon as the first strains wafted over the expectant crowd, my jaw locked and my eyes began to tear.
"Are you gonna sing?" asked the smarmy kid in the front row in Hawaiian shorts. He was a fifth grader. I shook my head, terrified. "Are you gonna cry?" he prodded with unmasked glee. I nodded, eyes brimming and ran off stage, where I spent the remainder of the talent show watching everyone else perform their brilliant and well rehearsed pieces.
That brief moment was perfectly reflective of my career as a singer, which is why whenever I see exceptionally talented female artists/singer-songwriters, which seems to be the case as of late, I find my appreciation slightly tinged with envy. Such was the case tonight as I watched the lovely and Icelandic Emiliana Torrini.
I was introduced to the songstress through her vocalist work with Thievery Corporation, her charmingly and ambiguously accented voice fluttering above the DC duos world dub beats. So it was to my great pleasure when I received her sophomore effort Me and Armini and found nearly the entire thing to my liking.
The more I find out about Emiliana, the more I like her. She has an impressive resume; she was a member of electronic outfit GusGus, has toured with the likes of Moby and Dido, and garnered a Grammy nomination for co-writing and producing Kylie Minogue's "Slow," which is a killer pop track, and released her trip hop debut Love in the Time of Science on Virgin in 1999. Knowing all of this, it comes as something of a surprise that Me and Armini is a rather successful departure into folk waters, though there are clear influences of reggae, trip hop and jazz in different songs. Her voice, which is sweet and, according to those with more technical knowledge than me, of limited range lends itself well to an organic, unplugged sound and the overall effect is lovely and feminine, but in such a way that it becomes quickly clear that she is most definitely a musician. And she quietly rocks.
In the intimate and somewhat surreal setting of the Standard Hollywood's Cactus Lounge, Emiliana quietly introduced each song in her acoustic set, explaining the songwriting process. Poised as she was as a singer, she (quite adorably) shied away from the mike, fidgeting bashfully as she explained that she had no recollection of writing the title track, and that Armini was a friend that she had made in her whiskey. Liquid inspiration or not, "Me and Armini" remains one of the strongest tracks on the album, backed with reggae rhythm guitars for a more exotic sound. She was kind enough to play some of my other favorite tracks from the album, introducing the cautious and pared down "Big Jumps" as a song for people to who were brave enough to be happy. But the song that truly moved the crowd (and coincidentally is one of the album's singles) was the fast paced and buoyant (at least in comparison to the rest of the album) "Jungle Drum." It is indeed a love song, and made all the more endearing by the fact that she acknowledges that it is nowhere near poetry, before going on and singing the onomatopoeia of the jungle drum beat with all her heart.

Check her MySpace.