LOS ANGELES
Tuesday, January, 13, 1998
The ethereal voice of Scandinavian star Sissel
helps make the music of
"Titanic" so haunting
One of the most evocative sounds on James Horner's memorable synthesized score for "Titanic" is a human voice, that of Norwegian star Sissel. A pop phenomenon in Scandinavia with millions of album sales and sold-out concerts, Sissel sang the opening and closing hymns at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games at Lillehammer. She had an international hit with Placido Domingo recording the official Olympic song, "Fire In Your Heart," and is currently paired with rapper Warren G on a hit single of "Prince Igor" from Def Jam Recordings' CD, "The Rapsody Overture."
Horner says it was pure luck that he found her for "Titanic." "I was after a very special voice, a particular color," he says. "I listened to a lot of people. I was looking at it more as an instrument than as a human voice. It may seem a little bit sort of excessive on my part, but I was looking for a certain quality and, just by chance, I heard a CD that she made. Most of it was Euro Pop stuff, but there was one cut on it that was just exquisite. It was a folk song, and she was singing it with a variety of emotions, and of all the things I listened to, this was the one thing that seemed to nail the quality I was after."
Sissel, whose albums have made her a kind of Nordic Enya with a mix of folk music, new age and jazz, was immediately intrigued by what Horner was trying to do. "It was very interesting that someone was listening to my voice as an instrument," she says. "On Titanic," there were no words, just oohs and ahhs, which is a big difference. He wrote the score for instruments and my voice, and it was fascinating to work that way, to be a part of this huge experience."
A star in her homeland since she was 16, Sissel (last name Kyrkjeb¿) is now 28 and living in Copenhagen with her Danish entertainer-husband and their two-year-old daughter. But she hasn't strayed far from her roots in Bergen, on Norway's west coast. "I'm very proud to be a Norwegian girl," she says. "It's very clear, very pure countryside and to be brought up in that country reflects me and the way I choose my music. It sounds very sticky, but nature is very important to me. I choose music that reflects the power that nature has."
Scandinavian music has much in common with Celtic music, and Sissel had a record breaking tour just before Christmas with Ireland's Chieftains. "Nordic music, like Irish music, is grown from inside the people," she says. "When the Chieftains play, you can see the hills of Ireland and that's what I like about the music I use."
With an English-language record planned on PolyGram and the attention she is getting from "Titanic," Sissel is contemplating success in America. "A lot of things are happening very fast, but I think everything is sorting itself out," she says. "You have the expression use your elbows to get ahead? I'm not that sort of elbows girl. I like to live my life the way I have it. To enjoy the business, I have to get away from it. At home with friends and family, that's my base so that I have the power when I go on the stage or in the studio. Real life is what I sing about and so I must live in the real world."
-- Ray Bennett
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