East of Eden

iTunes Review

You may know Victoria Bergsman from her work with the Concretes, or with Peter, Bjorn & John (she’s the female voice on “Young Folks”). On East of Eden, Bergsman transports us to Pakistan where she traveled and recorded, indulging her affection for the late singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and for Qawwali (a type of Sufi devotional music, popular in southern Pakistan). The end result is astoundingly effective. There are many lovely moments of cross-cultural pollination, like the swirling, Qawwali field recording “Wapas Karna,” the mournful Swedish language “Tidens Gång,” and the rippling, exotic strings on tracks like “Watch the Waves.” But the gorgeous, slow motion sway of “Greyest Love Of All” and the melancholy “To Lose Someone” (strangely reminiscent of a Robert Flack melody) keep Bergsman’s affinity for western pop music in plain view. Even the tablas, flutes and tambourines on “Day By Day” can’t keep the sugary sweetness of fizzy pop from bubbling to the surface. East of Eden is a richly rewarding aural delight.