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Ane Brun, 'Directions'

Sometime late this year Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun will release a new full-length album. And though we don't have a name for the album yet or a release date, Brun is sharing the first new track from the record and an enchanting video to go with. The song is "Directions," and the video features Brun, alone in an empty airplane hanger, dancing to a deep, kettle drum beat.

Watching Brun's moves, choreographed by Stockholm-based dancer Mari Carrasco, it's hard not to think of Thom Yorke's manic solo dance number for Radiohead's "Lotus Flower" video or Robyn's tightly wound "Call Your Girlfriend." Brun's routine is more contained than either, but no less surprising.

It turns out Brun always wanted to be a dancer before getting into music. "I was one of Norway´s top 15 rythmic gymnastics performers in my teens, and I danced any chance I got back then, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, etc.," she tells us via email. "But as I started playing music, I ended up mostly playing guitar and singing, and forgot all about the moves. At least until I released It All Starts With One in 2011 when I skipped playing the guitar on many of the songs, and I sang on top of rhythms. This lead to more and more moves on stage, not choreographed — but more spontaneous.

"When I knew that 'Directions' was going to be the first song to be released from my new album, I decided I wanted to dance in the video for it. [And] I wanted to learn a choreography and try to express the feeling of strength and courage that I feel this song is about. we decided to make it simple and honest. Just me and the dance. It was a wonderful process going back to dancing full on like that. My physical performance is of course not as when I was 16, but I'm definitely going to continue!"

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.