Frida Hyvonen

News that Frida Hyvonen is touring Australia in March shouldn't have arrived via email. A bone-white silk banner bearing the details flown through my window, held aloft by the heavy beaks of a couple of blackbirds would have been more appropriate. Frida deserves that kind of pomp and ceremony; live she is a severe and elegant presence seated behind a grand piano.

Beloved in her native Sweden, and increasingly so internationally, Frida Hyvonen is as inimitable in concert as she is on record. I had the great luck of seeing her perform in a small Swedish church in midtown New York late last year, and though it was frightfully cold outside and icy in, the temperature dropped from my mind as soon as she took to the stage.

Her recent Silence Is Wild is a rare album of majesty; a mix of bare piano ballads and lush string and synth orchestrations. Lyrically, I find it hard to think of many (any?) other contemporary songwriters so strong and incisive - her topics often sound brusque but there's a lot of dark humour lurking in the subtext.

Having toured with fellow Swede Jens Lekman many times, and currently represented in America on Secretly Canadian (home to Antony & the Johnsons amongst other pop giants), Chapter Music present Frida in February. The Sydney show is at the rather intimate Paddington Uniting Church, so you best be quick for tickets.