The Road to Gävle

iTunes Review

Denmark’s Tina Dico originally intended to write a handful of peripheral songs for the soundtrack to the Danish feature film “Oldboys,” but instead she happened to birth these 13 exquisite songs that make up The Road To Gävle. The first thing that stands out on the opener “Long Way Home/Rain On The Court” is the siren call of Dico’s voice and how her self-harmonies sound so enchanting. There are other magical moments in which sections of songs like the rootsy “Goldhawk Road” recall the amazing triptych of Emmylou Harris, Allison Krauss and Gillian Welch on “Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby” from 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. The more contemporary folk song “In Love & War” dynamically layers dexterous guitar arpeggio picking with Dico’s inflections harmonizing and making way for handclap rhythms and a distant couple of horns playing wistful and melancholy tones. “Two Funerals” sounds as stark as the title suggest, but beautifully so with a subtly dramatic string section providing the grace and serenity of a lone skater on a frozen lake.