Ane Brun - Portrayals
Flyctory.com Pros
- Nice set of music classics
- Beautiful vocal performance
Flyctory.com Cons
- Rather monotonous cover style
Ane Brun is on stage for just over 20 years now. Due to her stage anniversary, she releases the album Portayals on 10th March 2023. The album contains a collection of her most popular cover versions. I had a listen and share my thoughts with you.
Ane Brun – About The Artist
Ane Brun, civil name Ane Brunvoll, is a Norwegian singer-songwriter from Molde in Norway. Her mother is known as a jazz singer and pianist as well. Portrayals is released just at her 47th birthday. At the age of 19, she moved to Bergen for studying and also started to write own songs. A few yesrs later, she recorded first demos and finally went on to Uppsala and Stockholm in Sweden to pursue a musical career.Her debut album Spending Time with Morgan has already been quite a success, entering the Top 20 of the Norwegian charts. However, the following careers turned her into one of Norway’s most famous artists. Six of her albums made it to the Top 5 in Norway, four of them to the Top 5 in Sweden. But she also gained fans in other countries like the Netherlands. Portrayals is Ane Brun’s twelfth studio album overall.
Her only chart-topping single was the 2005 Lift Me with Madrugada, being a #1 hit in her home country. Two covers which are also represented on this album, Big in Japan and True Colors made it into the Swedish Top 5 each in 2008. Can’t Stop Playing (Makes Me High) by Dr. Kuchol and Gregor Salto, which features Brun as a singer (2015), is a golden record in the United Kingdom.
Ane Brun – Portrayals – Track by Track
The thirteen track album lasts 41 minutes

1. Halo
The quiet, folk-pop alike style of Ane Brun meets Halo, which we all know as such an energetic song by Beyonce. I feel that these kind of encounters lead to really interesting cover versions. Here, strings, a touch of acoustic guitar and the voice of the Norwegian point on a very different way to look at the song.
2. All My Tears
In the second track, Brun is condensing the country song by Julie Miller in several ways: first of all, there are just a few acoustic instruments, which take away the country-rock touch of the original. Apart from that, this version just lasts about two minutes. Nice listen.
3. True Colors
This cover presents Cindy Lauper’s True Colors as a piano ballad. Very intimate and fragile – overall, the song has a really nice sound.
4. Make You Feel My Love
After the very quiet song interpretations before, the Brun’s version of the Bob Dylan track feels at least more present and “louder” than the songs before. Especially when the strings are joining in, this one is a really beautiful listen.
5. Big in Japan
Brun allows the 1980’s classic Big in Japan a rather long acoustic guitar intro. In general, her version comes with sufficient breaks to have instrumental-only sections. To me, this one is a bit too much slowed down – even though I have to admit that I enjoy her vocal performance.
6. By Your Side
The origin version of By Your Side by The 1975 is a slow track working with different kinds of sounds and instruments. This new album version does not have the individual touch of the songs before and feels too similar to the recordings before.
7. I Want to Know What Love Is
The Foreigner classic interpreted by Ane Brun starts rather energetic. The first part reminds of a slow folk rock song. The chorus, however, is very stripped down and almost concentrates on her voice completely. That leads to a nice mood, but again I feel that this recording might work better life on stage than as a studio recording.
8. Always on My Mind
In this eighth track the Norwegian meets Elvis… or B.J. Thomas, who did the first-ever recording of this track. This song preserves the country music heart of the song, which I feel more balanced. One of my favorites of this album.
9. How to Disappear Completely
The album jumps from an early 1970’s song to a rather recent recording. Radiohead made How to Disappear Completely famous. Very atmospheric recording – but I feel she is doing a bit too much again.
10. From Me To You
The drive of the song by The Beatles may be gone, but I feel that this swaying folk-alike interpretation is not at all bad. Gives a bit of spring feelings to me.
11. Feeling Good
Michael Buble’s Feeling Good has such a nice vibe and mysterious touch. I feel a bit sad that Brun could not keep it. Luckily the violin in the background works perfectly and turns it to a nice recording.
12. Into My Arms
I rather enjoy when the artist is trying to keep some power and energy in the song and does not suck it out completely in favor of a very intimate atmosphere. I feel that Brun did a nice job here and kept some soul in the Nick Cave & the bad Seeds song. Good.
13. Blue Moon
In fact, this song has been written in 1933 already. I feel also in that context the piano interpretation of the track feels rather sensible. Nice finale.
Ane Brun – Portrayals – Spotify
Here is the album on Spotify:
Ane Brun – Portrayals – My View
I struggle with Portrayals. Ane Brun has an amazing voice. I feel that many of these versions blow you away when she is doing her tour soon (see below). For a studio recording, though, the style of the covers is often too similar, the album feels almost boring here and there. Sorry.
Ane Brun – 20th Anniversary Tour
In September and October 2023, the Norwegian is touring Europe with her 20th Anniversary Tour. Here is the list of shows:
Fr 22-09.2023 |
Helsinki (Finland) – House of Culture |
|
We 27.09.2023 |
Stockholm (Sweden) – Cirkus |
|
Fr 29.09.2023 |
Jönköping – Spira |
|
Sa 30.09.2023 |
Malmö – Malmö Live |
|
Su 01.10.2023 |
Gothenburg – Göteborgs Konserthus |
|
Sa 14.10.2023 |
London (United Kingdom) – O2 Shepherds Bush Empire |
|
Tu 17.10.2023 |
Berlin (Germany) – Admiralspalast |
|
Fr 20.10.2023 |
Borgerhout (Belgium) – De Roma |
|
Sa 21.10.2023 |
Paris (France) – La Cigale |
|
Su 22.10.2023 |
Utrecht (Netherlands) – TivoliVredenburg |
|
Tu 24.10.2023 |
Hamburg (Germany) – Fabrik |
|
We 25.10.2023 |
Copenhagen (Denmark) – VEGA |
|
Th 26.10.2023 |
Aarhus – VoxHall |
|
Sa 04.11.2023 |
Örebro (Sweden) – Örebro Konserthus |
|
Su 05.11.2023 |
Uppsala – UKK |
|
We 08.11.2023 |
Bodo (Norway) – Svommehallen Scene |
|
Th 09.11.2023 |
Tromso – Driv |
|
Sa 11.11.2023 |
Trondheim – Tapperiet E.C. Dahls Arena |
|
Su 12.11.2023 |
Molde – Björnsonhuset |
|
We 15.11.2023 |
Oslo – Sentrum Scene |
|
Th 16.11.2023 |
Oslo – Sentrum Scene |
|
Fr 17.11.2023 |
Stavanger – Stavanger Konserthus |
|
Sa 18.11.2023 |
Kristiansand – Kilden Teater & Konserthus |
|
Su 19.11.2023 |
Bergen – Grieghallen |
|
Flyctory.com and Norway
Here are all Flyctory.com postings related to Norway:
Time to look back to the Flyctory.com year of music, part 2. In my 30th December 2024 posting, I am ...
For our stay in Bergen, Norway, my wife and I chose the Hotel No13 in the center of the town ...
Airport trains are a very convenient option to get to an airport. The Arlanda Express in Stockholm, for example, makes ...
My wife is a huge fan of zoos and animal parks. Thus, when we visited the Norwegian city of Bergen ...
Oh, I traveled too much the last weeks again. Time for another Food I Had Onboard posting - this time also featuring ...
This time, selecting the leading track of my Songs of the Week was really troublesome. Three candidates have already been released ...
The engine of the train states Se Norge. Ta Toget - or: "See Norway. From the train". Apart from the Flamsbanen, the Bergensbanen, ...
Wow, what an intense week. Flyctory.com felt like my former sports project, sport-live.net, the last ten days. So many match ...
After Switzerland had a lot of trouble with Slovakia before, Finland was aware not too take their final group match ...
The first match of Arena B was the Scandinavian battle between Norway and Sweden. Of course, the yellow and blue ...
If you are outside the Americana music sphere, The Northern Belle might rather refer to you as a luxury train ...
It's quite a while ago already since I visited Lillehammer for the Norway vs. India Davis Cup tie in September ...
Somewhere in Oslo is one of these releases I happen to run into on promotion platforms and I just feel that ...
Carnvial in Cologne - and I am in he United Arab Emirates this weekend. It is rather party season, no ...
In general, I plan to increase the frequency of my athletics coverage during 2024. The first event of that sports ...
Unfortunately, I could not complete the Country Christmas Playlist this year due to technical issues. However, since the days become ...
It is quite a range of music represented on Flyctory.com - which is also illustrated by two of the key ...
When I recently ran into the single release Norwegian Black Metal by Simen Mitlid, I just had to share it with you ...
Especially for emerging artists, I still feel it is good to break the typical Friday release cycle so far and ...
Unfortunately, I had to kick out quite a lot of songs from my list, which I really liked. They just ...
The domestic newspaper Dagbladet named the Norwegian band Atena a semi-exitic act in the Norwegian metal flora. Honestly, when I received ...
When Swiss International Air Line recently released the seat map of their new Airbus A350 fleet, a real advantage of ...
Lillehammer - the small Norwegian city, which became globally known in 1994, when it hosted the Olympic Winter Games. In ...
Wow - I had so many albums this week. Even if I skipped all travel posts and do the regular ...
September 2023 will be a quite busy monh. If I finally receive all press passes I envisage to get, there ...
This weekend, I have been traveling through England, doing some musical-chasing. As mixed as the stuff I have been doing ...
Even though the former Olympic sites are what Lillehammer finally made famous, I would still rate the open air museum ...
Okay, I have to give in: I really like the voice and the songs of pop artist Emma Steinbakken. The ...
I received so many great albums this week - no chance to process a fair fraction of them. However, the ...
As I told you in previous postings, I initially gather candidates for my Songs of the Week, before I narrow the ...
After some rather intense traveling, I am glad that there is just a short trip this week. I concentrated on ...
After my most recent edition of my Songs of the Week majorly featured German artists and a lot of pop, my song ...
A rock band from Norway which is releasing their first album after 17 years... That's about the story when I ...
Despite Tromso is just having some 40,000 inhabitants, the city is quite well known as a touristic hotspot in Northern ...
Norwegian artist Siv Jakobsen releases her fourth studio album on 20th January 2023. Gardening contains just some new and some previously released ...
The 19th August 2022 edition of my Songs of the Week was lead by a Norwegian-origin band: Hey Rosie by ...
Reporting from Davis Cup tie typically requires a reasonable hotel with sufficient space for all the equipment, good food and ...
Welcome to the first Songs of the Week posting in 2023! Despite the music industry is slowly getting back to business, I ...
The last posting of the year - Best Ones 2022 is introducing you to my best experience last years (as ...
Finally, going to Lillehammer for the Tennis Davis Cup Norway vs. India felt just too tempting - and so I ...
On my way back from the 2022 Lillehammer Tennis Davis Cup tie of Norway hosting India, I went back home ...
The press kit to her EP Fall in Love/Apart states "Hanne Mjøen is not your average pop queen. With her last EP ...
The 7th November 2022 is one of these days I will hardly forget so quickly. In a Weird Al fan ...
Even though I haven't been overwhelmingly optimistic about success on the sports side of the Indian tennis team at the ...
Just two months until Christmas - but I still refused to have an according song in my Songs of the Week ...
Freddie! Who would have thought that Mr Mercury is part of my Songs Of The Week one day. Not sure if Bryan ...
In order to support the Indian team at the Tennis Davis Cup in Lillehammer in Norway in September 2022, I ...
The night before I headed to Lillehammer for the Tennis Davis Cup tie Norway vs. India, I had a night ...
Even though there are quite a bunch of German (language) songs and German artists in the set of new releases ...
CC Amfi is an ice hockey arena in Hamar, Innlandet, Norway. Sports fans know it as Hamar Olympic Amfitheatre. During ...
While the last week brought me to Sunderland, Hamburg and Lillehammer in Norway, the song selection of the week comes ...
After Norway took the straight lead on Day 1, they were almost mandated to get to the Qualifiers of 2023 ...
Crunch time on day 1. Some of the hosts felt very sure that Casper Ruud's appearance in Lillehammer might be ...
One year after being with the Indian team in Espoo, Finland, I was so flattered that it was Davis Cup ...
Honestly, I had a lot of 1970's and 1980's songs in mind the last days - so exclude me in ...
Okay, this week, my Songs Of The Week listeners need to stay strong: I started my list with schlager (with a touch ...
This week, I had at least an easy time determining the leading track of my Songs of the Week. I listened ...
I had a long list of songs for my Songs of the Week... and after I composed a nice order of ...
I am still in the process of recovering from illness - not sure if that had any influence on my ...
Oh, I feel that the Songs Of The Week are really a tradition on Flyctory.com now. More than three months since I ...
My trip through the United States following the Pittsburgh Penguins in eleven days was definitely the highlight of my week ...
Not really sure whether it is my March 2022 trip with the Pittsburgh Penguins or other influences, but this time, ...
Calling your band The Dogs feels to be rather popular. I found a US act and a former British one, ...
My Songs Of The Week slowly turn into a tradition. This week, I definitely saw that the number of releases massively ...
What are you doing when you are making new friends at the party celebrating your recent Bachelor graduation in contemporary ...
There are these kind of artists, who very quickly persuade me that I should have a deeper listen into their ...
Guitar riffs from Norway: the duo releases their new album The World Is a Rabbit Hole on 3rd September 2021. Let's ...
Blues rock from Europe on this 27th August 2021 release: Krissy Matthews is active in the genre since fifteen years ...
Covid-19 felt to be a good opportunity for Esa Holopainen to go solo. Instead of releasing new stuff with Amorphis, ...
The naming of Beharie's EPs so far might not be that creative - but his songs are a g good ...
Adam Douglas feels to be rather a Norwegian than a US artist nowadays. He is living in Hadeland North of ...
12th February 2021 feels a bit like the Norwegian rock day on Flyctory.com. A few days after I reviewed the ...
With Flyctoy.com, I already ran into music from a couple of Norwegian artists. I recently reviewed the new album by ...
There is not just Lordi and their Hard Rock Hallelujah - also some other bands who love the harder guitar sounds made ...
Nikita Skogen just released her debut single, Break Your Heart. Nonetheless, the Norwegian country music artist already has gained comparably quite ...
I ran into Hannah White and her band project, The Nordic Connections, for the first time during the British Country Music ...
There were a lot of new EPs on my list on 22nd May 2020. Nevertheless, one song collection I was ...
Though Liv Austen is originally from Norway, she is an established artist of the British country music scene. On 10th ...
Leo Moracchioli sounds very Italian, but in fact, the metal musician and producer is Norwegian citiizen. Despite his Youtube has ...
Tribute & Cover Music
Here are all my postings related to Tribute & Cover Music:
The Malawi-born jazz singer is releasing her seventh studio album on 10th January 2025. Thereby, the album One Grass Skirt ...
Time to look back into songs released during December 2024, which did not make it to my Country Music Playlist ...
Time to look back to the Flyctory.com year of music, part 2. In my 30th December 2024 posting, I am ...
I had a quite turbulent and emotional November 2024. The more, I appreciated good music. Here is my overview of ...
Sometimes, when I scan new music releases, I run into songs or albums, which simply make me smile. One of ...
I still don't really manage creating a proper backlog of already prepared posting. Thus, the last weeks have been very ...
What a week - I returned from my tennis coverage in Newport, now I am at the Olympic Games in ...
I am a huge fan of Tom Petty. I was gifted to see him once live on stage before he ...
There have been quite a lot country and Americana releases on the Easter weekend of 2024. One of them is ...
This week, I published how I feel to concentrate on one Country Music Playlist - at least until I found ...
Yeah, I am still more of an album person. I feel that a long-play is still able to tell stories ...
Not only during the carnival season, music is a core part of the identify of my home town Cologne. Thus, ...
December, when the frequency of album releases significantly decreases, is also a time for me to have some more outside-of-the-box ...
So far, I featured the legendary Dolly Parton twice in my album reviews. In 2020, I shared my view albout A ...
How could I ignore am album starting with a (for me) very special song released on a (for me) very ...
Roberta John Joni Mitchell is a Canadian-US-American singer-songwriter, who majorly did folk and pop music in her career. She has won ...
I spent almost the entire week at work in Dublin at one of our offices. Quite an intense time, which ...
There is somehow always some sort of "topic" behind each and every Songs of the Week episode. If I would pick one ...
Soccer Mommy is a somehow memorable artist name, ain't it? I don't know if she has kids and if they ...
September 2023 will be a quite busy monh. If I finally receive all press passes I envisage to get, there ...
In March 2020, just at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Melanie Wiegmann went to the Maltese island of Gozo ...
This weekend, I have been traveling through England, doing some musical-chasing. As mixed as the stuff I have been doing ...
I am typically rather shy about sharing tribute and cover albums with you.. If I do so, they have to ...
Newcomers and established artists, rock and schlager, party songs and deep messages - I feel that this edition of my ...
Motorbikes and good music - I am having a really good time in Pfullendorf at the Lake Constance region in ...
After I have been pleased with their 2021 album Electro Melodier, Son Volt are back with a new album on 16th ...
I received so many great albums this week - no chance to process a fair fraction of them. However, the ...
From the Highwayman to the Bluesman: about a year ago, I reviewed the album Highwayman by Tino Z.On 5th May 2023, the German is back ...
After some rather intense traveling, I am glad that there is just a short trip this week. I concentrated on ...
Not too many releases due to the Easter week. The week was dominated by my Rock of Ages coverage. First of all, ...
After my most recent edition of my Songs of the Week majorly featured German artists and a lot of pop, my song ...
Welcome to the first Songs of the Week posting in 2023! Despite the music industry is slowly getting back to business, I ...
I guess that the next weeks will be more intense. Depending if you look at the publishing or the cut-off ...
While the music market is more and more focusing on singles and even writes weird stories like Taylor Swift's "Top ...
Christmas weekend - Marry Christmas to everybody who is celebrating. I guess that this week and the following one will ...
I was quite surprised that finally 15 songs made it into my Songs of the Week as of 16th November 2022 ...
I've seen so many floorball and ice hockey battles between Finland and Sweden - one of the most classic local ...
When country music big guns like Miranda Lambert or Willie Nelson gather for a tribute album, you know that you ...
Gregory Dane Brown is a folk musician from Iowa, who started his active career as a musician in 1967. Another ...
The more the Christmas season is getting closer, the more you run into compilations of all kind. One of the ...
Heather Nova has definitely been an artist who has fascinated me throughout her career. After the review of her 2019 ...
Giovanni Zarrella is one of these artists I just cannot have negative feelings about. One rationale might be that his ...
After six years, the duo She & Him are about to release a new studio album. However, Melt Away is a ...
Some seven years after his last album release, Ryan Sheridan is back with a new album. Americana is a cover album featuring ...
Instrumental covers of big 1980's songs, surf music and beat style - that's about the story of the latest album ...
The Scorpions are definitely one of Germany's finest international rock music acts. Herman Rarebell has been part of the band ...
A German artist presenting modern country songs - even though A Life That's Good is a cover album, I felt ...
His Looking For Freedom is still thought to have been a key factor to give Germany the biggest party of ...
Since I ran into the music of Christina Taylor some two years ago, I am a huge fan of her ...