Union Chapel, the Grade II listed working church, is an imposing building that if nothing else, offers welcome sanctuary from the late night filth and up-market hustle of Highbury and Islington; an inspiring sight further complimented by lack of queue and clutch of friendly, smiling door staff. Only upon entry, with church doors slamming firmly shut, do the words “You won’t find a seat” actually register. It’s only 8 pm and already all the pews are taken and no-one looks like moving, not even if Jesus himself were to make a guest appearance; and with good reason as tonight accommodates a rare and welcome UK visit from Norwegian Ane Brun.
But before the main event, the support, which for this particular evening of worship is two-fold. First to set foot on the alter is Welsh starlet Ellie Goulding who puts in a beautifully crafted solo acoustic session before the widely acclaimed Faroe Islander Teitur employs some deafeningly minimal piano to accompany his concentrated, concise and impassioned, although at times sedentary, observational lyricism, in a set that includes ‘We Still Drink The Same Water’ and ‘The Singer’.
Whatever your religious leanings, watching live music performed in a church is a far cry from other venues; no mass bar exodus, no jostling, no swearing and an awful lot of respect, a respect reiterated with the appearance of Ane Brun. Wearing a simple black dress, the congregation are immediately stunned into further bouts of lingering silence with ‘The Puzzle’ and ‘Changing Of The Seasons’ (dedicated to “all the Scandinavians in the room”) her shy demeanor belying the power of a vocal that cuts through the Victorian gothic architecture and permeates the acoustically superior space without exception. A stripped back affair with just acoustic guitar and three backing singers fondly referred to as her “diamonds” it’s an emotionally heightened set that arguably showcases the best of her fifth and most recent studio album.
Exercising complete control, with only an accentuated hint of her spoken Nordic lilt, the spine-tingling ‘Lullaby For Grown Ups’ precedes a solitary tear inducing cover of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colors’, the slightly unpolished concentration of ‘Round Table Conference’ further adding to her charm. With an audience enchanted and under her spell the more upbeat ‘Balloon Ranger’ offers an exit route to the piano for the elegantly choral ‘Armour’ and US album bonus track ‘Petrified Forest Road’… the gravitas of swearing in a church with the lyric “fuck off” not lost on the giggling songstress. Captivation can be short-lived, but as glistening candles cast fantastical shadows, the organically stunning ‘Ten Seconds’, ‘My Star’ and ‘Treehouse Song’ ensure Brun’s longevity, before ‘Don’t Leave’, performed with ragdoll body-language, signals the end of the set and succeeds in melting the last of any as yet unaffected hearts.
Having stolen the show albeit her own, a visibly emotional Brun returns to a scene of pew-banging fervour and urges the crowd to hum a continuous note as she leads ‘Linger With Pleasure’, the music reflecting in her already wide eyes. Good friend and earlier support Teitur also returns, leaping onstage to guest, after some whispered conferring, on ‘Rubber And Soul’, before the fragility of this fiercely independent woman is further exposed with “one last song of misery” ‘The Fall’. It’s a haunting yet fitting end to haunting show and one deserving of the rapturous standing ovation it receives. Ane Brun doesn’t play the UK much, the circumstances somehow haven’t been right, but tonight might have just changed that.
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