From
Jurgen Moises
be like water Loud Tori Amos this was the crucial piece of wisdom that opened the floodgates when writing the songs for their current album “Ocean To Ocean”. It comes, exactly: from Bruce Lee. And she helped her fight the “monster of depression” that gripped her during the pandemic. Your other solution in such cases? Travel. But that didn’t work. That’s why the album was created in digital exchange between Cornwall and the USA, where the 59-year-old lives alternately. It’s one of their best in a long time.
It was almost a pity that she only played two songs from it in the sold-out Isarphilharmonie in Munich, “Ocean To Ocean” and “Metal Water Wood”. But maybe the pieces are too closely linked to Corona or the death of her mother. And there are 15 more albums to choose from. The beginning? “A Sorta Fairytale” from 2002. Maybe because it’s incredible that travel is working again. In fact, the singer dressed in green and gold looks quite relaxed. But also slightly nervous when she adjusts her stool between a Bösendorfer grand piano, two electric pianos and a keyboard. They play them one after the other or simultaneously.
There is not much talk. Instead, Amos lets the music flow, supported by bassist Jon Evans and drummer Ash Soan – two masters of their craft, with whom she expands songs like the great “Lady in Blue” into the epic through atmospheric intros or interludes. From the nineties, when she broke through with her highly poetic, feminist songs, there are “Cornflake Girl” and “Take To The Sky”, which she plays as encores. And there is a cover version with “Famous Blue Raincoat” by Leonard Cohen. She calls him one of the “big guys”. Before that, the young Norwegian singer Hilde Skar called Amos a “legend” in the opening act. As such, it is duly celebrated at the end.