Benni Hemm Hemm
Kajak
Morr Music
While a competently written album, and one that is well executed by the musicians, "Kajak" seems to drift by rather effortlessly without always catching one's attention. There are some stunningly beautiful moments, "Regngalsinn" and "Sex eða sjö" being two of the album's highest points, but Benni Hemm Hemm's lullaby-like delivery, soothing and gorgeous as it often is (see: "Stoffer"), seems to dull the immediacy of their approach and cast a near-juvenile shadow over their compositions. Much of "Kajak" feels as though it could be the soundtrack to a man walking down a deserted road during the Depression, a nostalgic element present that retains many of the dated melodic themes from those earlier eras of American folk music. There is the power within Benni Hemm Hemm's music to evoke a visual response, and as I sit on my mother's porch in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains watching the breeze reflected in the gentle movement of the trees, "Kajak" is an appropriate companion. Though, while the music is suitable for lazy Sundays and afternoons spent in the country, it certainly doesn't resonate quite so strongly when engaging in life rather than merely watching is pass by.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson