With Hanne Hukkelberg you never know what you get. Just that it’s experimen… Read Full Bio ↴With Hanne Hukkelberg you never know what you get. Just that it’s experimental, cinematic and melodic. Hukkelberg’s music has always been about personal sound. This has given her great artistic freedom to move effortlessly between genres, and her three previous albums are defined by utterly distinct soundscapes: debut Little Things (2005) was eccentric and adventurous, second offering Rykestrasse 68 (2007) warm and lyrical, and third album Blood From A Stone (2009) explored a huge, romantic indie rock canvas inspired by the likes of Sonic Youth, Cocteau Twins, Pixies, Einstüerzende Neubauten and P.J. Harvey.
The otherworldly take on pop, jazz and art rock has given Hukkelberg two nominations for the Norwegian Grammy, mulitple tours and a wide audience internationally and a tour with Wilco in 2010. This was also the year she travelled to New York to write new material.
The result is Featherbrain – Hukkelberg’s fourth album – the last part of the circle, to be released world wide February 2012.

Combining the noisy guitars and heavy rhythms of Blood From A Stone, the stripped-down, lyrical lightness from Rykestrasse 68, and the weired and quirky sound picture from Little Things, Featherbrain creates a kind of antique pop music, at the same time brittle and soft, powerful and fragile. Hukkelberg explains:”This album feels like the missing link. Now these four album are one”.

Featherbrain is a risky album. Both dissonant and lyrical, it is music for headphones and notebooks. Its intimate, eccentric sounds demand your intimacy and your eccentricity, but the effort is rewarded: a personal and honest sonic world opens up, in fact, so sincere Hukkelberg had to toughen up to record it. Listen carefully!

www.hannehukkelberg.com

Berlin
Hanne Hukkelberg Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Picking dry
And crispy paint flakes
Off a large, white
Brick wall
While I stare
Out of my window.
Stare at my neighbor's balcony.
Old bullet holes.

Behind wild botany.

On the outside
Of the penny marked
Punks are selling
Black and white fanzines.
She buys one,
Walks on by
To another.
Black and white.
The women meet,
Black and white,
The women kiss.

Doodelei.

Shy, polite
You show me yourself.
Forgetting regretting,
But conscientiously humble.
You, you tell about your past.
And with open arms
You listen to mine.

Ooh dei doodelei.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Hanne Hukkelberg's song "Berlin" describe a scene of urban decay and contrast it with moments of human connection and intimacy. The first verse paints a picture of the singer picking at old paint on a wall as they look out the window at their neighbor's balcony, noting the contrast between the wild botanicals and the old bullet holes. The second verse shifts to a scene of punks selling black and white fanzines outside, until two women meet and kiss in black and white. The chorus of "Doodelei" is a nonsense phrase that adds to the dreamlike quality of the song.

Line by Line Meaning

Picking dry
Removing old, dried-up paint

And crispy paint flakes
Taking off small, brittle pieces of paint

Off a large, white
From a big and white

Brick wall
Wall made of bricks

While I stare
Gazing

Out of my window.
Through my window

Stare at my neighbor's balcony.
Watching the balcony of my neighbor

Old bullet holes.
Previous marks of a shot

Behind wild botany.
Covered by an abundance of plants

On the outside
Externally

Of the penny marked
In a lower-class area