Take out the slight blips and 2019 was a great year for Sonic Breakfast. This top ten rundown has enabled me to reflect on some of the many highlights. But ten is a pretty arbitrary number and it does mean that no space in this list has been found for some storming memories; LIFE at Marathon Kebabs (here), my early evening at the Institut Francais (here), Spearmint and Piney Gir at Water Rats (here) and Louis Brennan at the Pensioner (here) being just a sample.
I’ve hinted at it elsewhere in the countdown but 2019 was my Norway year. Aided by great releases and invites from Georgie at Propeller Records, I’ve been able to scratch the surface of a rich musical scene. There is no genre that defines the country. But, like cuckoos, the Norwegians are nesting in other homes, putting their own unique slant on the tried and tested to come up with something new.
Number one (fanfares all around) in the Sonic Breakfast chart of 2019 goes to the ace Bjørn Tomren and his short, showcase set at the Betsey Trotwood back in the Spring (here). Was this the best gig I went to over the course of the year? Probably not! But it whetted my appetite for an artist who had a neat spin on gloomy Americana. Like Kurt Wagner from Lambchop, Bjørn’s voice deeply swayed over picked guitar as stories of frustrating times on the road were relayed.
His album, Bad Science Fiction, came out in October and it really is a record to cherish. Dripping with melancholic delivery, it’s icy Americana, one for wintry nights around a log fire or for long drives over freezing plains with your in-vehicle heating turned up to eleven. It dabbles in folk and jazz flourish before returning to its alt-country core. A true slow burn of an album, you could see the quality of the songs emerge during the Betsey Trotwood showcase.
A truly deserving number one.
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