Any new recording by the Norwegian vocalist, pianist and composer Solveig Slettahjell is a huge cause for celebration, especially one as judiciously programmed and commandingly performed as Live at Victoria. Recorded over a single night at Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene, Oslo, the album is constructed almost as one long crescendo. Taking in the contemplative (‘12th Of Never’), the poetic (the hieratic ‘Visit’, one of three settings by Slettahjell of poems by Emily Dickinson, one of her most important touchstones) and the profoundly touching (Tom Waits’ ‘Take It With Me’), it reaches its climactic point with exquisite arrangements of two songs, Leonard Cohen's ‘Come Healing’ and Curtis Burrell's ‘I Don't Feel No Ways Tired’, both of which feature the 10 glorious voices of the Safari choir. As on her 2009 release Tarpan Seasons, Slettahjell's setting of Dickinson's ‘A Day’ assumes the role of a numinous coda. In an age of downloading and streaming, Live at Victoria is an album that demands to be heard in one sitting.