Journalists love to draw gilted images of Anneli. In interviews and
reviews she often seems more like an angel than like a mortal. It is 
true enough that she has a god-given voice, but we have also heard birds
chirp about a too sensitive and confused nordlending (= someone coming 
from northern Norway) with bad habits and blonde hair.
	Nonetheless, the message in the winter regarding miss Drecker 
being pregnant gave widely different reactions among respectively female 
and male Bel Canto-fans. While the girls smiled gloatingly, the boys 
didn't take it so lightly. Suddenly, used-shops were filled to the roof 
with Bel Canto-albums, and tears crossed borders via the Internet.
	We in BEAT suspect them to have fallen for blinding images based 
on shallow interviews, filtered photographies and, yes, the beautiful 
songs. Let us assume that the evil tounges are correct, and tear the 
skin of Anneli and the band and the myths with her.

In the seventh month sometime, yours faithfully stumbled upon Anneli in 
Olavskvartalet in Trondheim. Both were in Trøndelag (part of Norway) on 
the occasion of the TMV-festival. It was Anneli's third visit at TMV. First, 
she was there with Bel Canto, then with Jah Wobble and finally in 
connection with the Music Channel project this year.
- "In the middle of the soundcheck, I spotted Sola from DumDum Boys out on 
the floor", she pants while she rocks along like a penguin.
- "I hadn't seen him for a year, and impulsively jumped down from the 
stage to say hi. The others were vexed at my thoughtlessness. The stage-
edge was about a metre tall, and hardly made for diving from by pregnant 
people."
	I find an empty table in Café 3B, and Anneli treats me on tea. 
For Nils' money.
- "I always forget taking with me money on tours", she admits. "I always 
have to borrow from Nils. He is my bank, and is much better with money 
than me. When we lived in Brüssels around the release of our debut-album, 
suddenly one day both Nils and Geir had fat wallets while I was as broke 
as ever. I think they still feel guilty about not reminding me to apply 
for the TONO-grant, which we all were entitled to." Nils and Geir started 
Bel Canto together with Anneli in Christmas 1985. Geir participated on 
the first two albums (White-Out Conditions in 1987 and Birds Of Passage 
in 1990), before he withdrew and started on his own with the ambient-
project Biosphere. He hardly suffers today, something Anneli shouldn't 
either, strictly speaking.
- "Recently, only Nils got money from TONO again, this time because I had 
forgotten to forward the ligningsattest(?). I have always been like that. 
When I was about twelwe, I acted in the movie "Søsken På Guds Jord" 
(Children On God's Earth), and Se&Hør made an interview with me. The 
headline was: "Moviestar who doesn't want any money". I couldn't understand 
that one could crave payment for doing something one likes to do. It is 
that way with Bel Canto, too. Per Erik, our manager, always has to make 
sure that I get my fee."

What Anneli lacks in fitting pompousness, she compensates with unrestricted 
self-irony. It is therefore not only darkness in the end of the tunnel. 
The humour and the heartily laughter can if possible save some of her 
being(?). It isn't only regarding budgets she is confuses. The life as 
famous she also handles rather thinly.
- "In Paris once, I walked into a Virgin Megastore to look for a Bowie-
album. I searched and searched on the letter B, and on the way I, by 
accident, saw a Bel Canto-album. "But, aren't those from Norway?", I 
mumbled excitedly. It took a few minutes before I remembered."
	As soon as Bel Canto has been in the studio and recorded an album, 
it is history for Anneli. With no transition she wanders out in the world 
like and ordinary woman. At least she feels like this herself, until 
others with better memory unknowingly reminds her that Bel Canto's 
creativity benefits the outside-world too.
- "Once, when I was out in Oslo, a stranger came to me and asked if we 
had seen each other before. "Oh no, this is the classical pick-up-tricks", 
I thought suspiciously. The guy continued: "Now I know, you sing in a 
band!" "No," I answered firmly, and meant it. When I finally remembered 
that he actually was right, I confessed. He of course thought I had lied 
in order to get rid of him."

Candid, ok, but with what does that help when the lady has a stubby nose, 
overgrown eyebrows and problem-skin? And let's not forget her hair.
- "I never forget the time I was so tired of my haircolour that I rubbed 
it with self-bleaching. That same day, we went out to the city. The sun 
was glowing. On land again we passed a kiosk, where I saw my reflection 
in the window: My hair burned in red and orange, and my skin reminded me 
mostly of a well-grilled lobster."
	And the nose of a beetroot?
- "If we get a boy with my nose, I want to call him Rudolf."
	What about Brynjulf, after your eyebrows? (Bryn = brow in Norwegian)
- "I barely recognised myself after the picture-shooting for the cover 
of the new album. The make-up artist had pinched away so much of my 
eyebrows that only two thin lines were left.

Anneli speaks in a soft voice, yet she is full of life. She mainly speaks 
by herself. I get to know more than I could ever dream about without 
having to ask and dig for answers. She behaves without being asked as if 
I was a friend, and not a sensationrandy journalist. But I wouldn't be 
her kid for everything in the world.
- "Early this spring I heard about a new painting-school. I have attended 
the drawing- and paintingschool at Strykejernet in Oslo for a year, but 
had to break the studying because of the work with the last album. I have 
always enjoyed painting, and I applied to the new school just like that. 
Some weeks ago, my teacher called me for a conference. It was embarrassing. 
I had forgotten that I am pregnant with term around the start of the 
semester. The teacher naturally saw it at once, and asked me nicely to 
try again next year. Terpentine and breast milk don't mix well."
	Anneli is very sorry that she has neglected the painting. But it 
has been time for some, after all. After the recording of autumn's Magic 
Box, she decided to illustrate each song and make a calendar out of it, as 
a gift to the family.
	What she has done, shows a simple and naïvistic line.
- "We had also imagined the video for the single "Rumour" as something 
childish and naïve. When the director showed us his ideas, we were 
shocked. It was as if he had read our thoughts", Anneli says and slurps 
up the rest of the tea.
	The director behind the new video is the American Fred Stuhr, who 
has earlier visualised amongst others songs by Tool and Green Jelly.
	In a few hours, Music Channel will end it's Norwegian tour. Before 
that, Anneli wants to take a bath, and she looks forward to withdrawing 
to the hotel. But in a few weeks, I will be permitted to repay the tea. 
Then, we'll be in the eight month.

Music Channel was created by Sigbjørn Nedland together with two Israeli 
and two Palestinian hand-picked musicians. Bel Canto was a natural choice 
from Norway. Under a concert Music Channel held at Cosmopolite in Oslo, 
somebody in the audience started to call for Bel Canto. Anneli became 
indignant on behalf of the foreign musicians, and gave the screamers an 
answer: "Canto, can eight." (Can two, can eight)
	Puns are a central part of the Anneli-humour. The favourite-joke 
is as follows:
	Anneli: -Do you know what is the coldest people on earth?
	BEAT: -Eh, the eskimos?
	Anneli: -No, hindu, cause that rhymes with vindu
	BEAT: -Oh yeah?
	Anneli: -Yes, because when it rhymes on vindu, it is damn cold!
(I'll try to explain to non-Norwegian readers. Norwegian "vindu" is 
English "window". Norwegian "rime" (which Anneli uses) means both "to 
rhyme" and "to frost". Now, you can try to find the humour :-)

Whether Music Channel has participated in strenghtening what eventually 
is left of peace and ceasefire in the Middle East, will remain unsaid. 
Under the press-conference for Music Channel's cd-release, Anneli defended 
the initiative with teeth and claws.
- "Politicians are good at signing peace-treaties. But in order to create 
real peace, more is needed. Culture is important, and music is culture's
best tool when it comes to make agreements between people and to break 
borders. It is easier to jam together than to share sequin and canvas."
	The 27th of June, the main notice on the reader's letters-page in 
Dagbladet was dedicated to a submitter who meant that Bel Canto ought to 
receive the Nobel peace-prize because of the Music Channel-project.

As a prelude to Music Channel, Anneli and Nils travelled together with 
Sigbjørn Nedland to Israel and Palestina last autumn. Anneli is, as always,
an exquisite story-teller.
- "The day after we had been in a café in Jerusalem, the place was bombed 
by the Palestinian extremists in the Hamas-movement. We really got to feel 
the conflict ourselves down there. From the news at home, I have been 
accustomed to seeing the Middle East as a distant Mars-landscape. Now, 
the desert sand and the bloodbaths suddenly became a part of our reality, 
too."
	The café-bomb was supposedly meant as a protest against just the 
peace-treaty which was signed a copule of months later. Since then, we 
have seen that it developed into an intricate wickerwork of revenge and 
against-revenge between Israelians and Palestinians.
- "Do you remember the bus-explosion it was so much fuss about?", Anneli 
continues and plants her eyes in me. I involuntarily turn my glance 
downwards, mumbles nervously to myself and pretends as if I have it on 
my tounge. Anneli comes to my rescue: - "It was an Israeli soldier who 
was kidnapped on the country road by Hamas. They held him as hostage, and 
threatened to kill him if the peace-treaty wasn't cancelled. As we know, 
it ended with him being shot. The same day the kidnapping happened, we 
drove past an Israeli soldier who was hiking. I doubt that it was the 
same man, but it might as well have been."

	A spooky thought. Anneli nearly catches fire by enthusiasm in the cosy 
café we've found. It lies right around the corner from her apartment on 
Grünerløkka in Oslo.
	I had to wait about an hour after the arranged time before she showed up. 
She had mixed up one café with another.
	I don't believe it! I have hanged around this area for six years.
	Everything considered, I have to confess that I am happy to see 
her again. But her stomach looks like it could explode any minute. Anneli 
is quite short, and soon it is easier jumping over her than going round. 
I unknowingly lean backwards, but she asks me to come and feel.
	The skin is tight like a drumskin. I squeeze tenderly, and the 
hand bumps into something hard.
- "That's the baby's butt", Anneli smiles to my timid look. I jerk 
back and reminds her on the tea I owe her. It is the hottest day in the 
world, and Anneli of course prefers ice-cold Farris. (Water with fizz)

	Anneli tells me that she is grateful for everything that drags 
her down to earth, in the same way that the trip to the Middle East made 
her involved in human-to-human relations in a - to her - unaccustomed way. 
She isn't the type who grinds political history, who knows the dates for 
wars and epidemics and other cruelties. Rather, she seeks to find 
relationships and reasons on a more universal level.
	She rather ponders upon what makes human capable of bestial 
ill-doings instead of counting and categorising them. This doesn't mean 
that she bears less weight on her shoulders than others. She is too 
sensitive for that.
- "Anneli is an emotional rollercoaster", says big-brother Per-Arne. 
I made a call to him in Tromsø, where they have grown up, before this 
café-night.
	Per-Arne remembers a series of episodes from their childhood 
where Anneli was almost too fair and democratic. She usually got more 
hurt than those which the bad things happened to.
- "When she was twelve-thirteen years old, I did something she holds 
grudge against me for still. I had a box of salt-lozenges, and offered her 
friends one each. There was only one that I didn't want to share with, 
and I said it as it was. Anneli was heartbroken. She takes all such 
things seriously. Nothing shall be at disadvantage to anybody, neither 
people nor animals."

Or trees. Just down from the café lies the park Olaf Ryes Plass. On the 
other side Anneli lives with a view over the green area. Late this spring 
she and the neighbours got an unwelcome surprise. Oslo Park- and Athletics-
department had cut down several of the trees in the park.
- "I was very sad when I woke up and saw what had happened. The day before, 
I had sat in the shadow of an old mapletree and enjoyed a book. Suddenly 
it was gone. I reacted spontaneously and wanted to lay a wreath on the 
stump. Of course, I was broke then."
	Anneli wasn't the only one who thought like that. Soon, there 
were both wreaths and odes to trees in the park. And the same day, an 
action-group was established for the preservement of the trees.
- "We are all kinds of people, but old artistbohemians are in the greatest 
number. The local authorities defended the mass-slaughter by saying that 
"the trees had rot in the top". That is insane. Who hasn't a little rot 
in their top?"

Our meeting takes place right after Anneli and Nilse have landed after 
videorecording in Hollywood. That is, Nils came home a few days ago. 
Anneli was withheld under touchdown in London. It is supposedly required 
an extraordinary flightpermission for pregnants the two last months. But 
Anneli was at the right side of the margin.
- "I had been sitting clasped in an upright position for nine hours from 
Los Angeles. It was exhausting, and I probably looked like the labour pain 
had already begun when approaching Heathrow."
	Then she had to go to a doctor in order to get papers on that 
continued crossing was justifiable.
	The doctor laughed loudly and giggled: - "It's gonna be big!" 
The video they recorded in the States, was for the single "Rumour". The 
song stands out as probably the biggest sales-argument on the album.
- "We didn't think that song was going to become anything. We didn't get 
any further from the starting point until I one day dared to try without 
Nils' violin. Nils sat on the toilet, and came rushing back with his 
pants on his knees when he heard what was going on. "You are destroying 
the song! You are destroying the song!", he hissed. But it was after 
this that we started to get the hang of it. And we turned out without 
the violin."

Bel Canto are perfectionists. It has, as said, gone three long years 
since Shimmerin, Warm And Bright saw the light of the day. But the long 
pause isn't only because of some studio-perfecting. After Shimmering was 
at bay, manager Per Eirik Johansen decided that those who wished to mate, 
ought to go to work immediately. It is naturally most practical in a 
band that as many as possible do those sorts of things at the same time.
	Percussionist Andreas Eriksen sensed the seriousness and became 
a father in a hurry. Per Eirik wouldn't do worse himself, and made two 
well-made twins right afterwards. This inspired Nils, who had two girls 
before Christmas last year. Almost at the same day that Nils' girlfriend 
gave birth, Anneli's child was unnfanget(?).
- "Nils and I are very considered with synchronisity", Anneli explains, and 
burst over with histories of other episodes with strange coincidences. 
One of them is about the text to the song "Paradise" from the new album.
- "I write all lyrics at night. When I worked with "Paradise", I sat for 
hours working with one single line. In the end, I wrote "... I'm in a 
boat alone in the open sea...". I wasn't completely satisfied, but let 
it lie. Instead, I went out to but a morning paper. The front-page was 
dedicated to Per Liland, who said: "My life the last years have been 
like being alone in a boat on a raging sea." That I call synchronisity. 
I ran home and changed "open" to "raging" in the textline I was working 
on."

	Here, Nils stumbles into the café with one piece of twin on his 
stomach. Nils calls her Nora, but Anneli prefers Little Buddha after the 
tubby cheeks and the peculiar hairdo. Nora would possibly have preferred 
to sit in the shadow of a tree like Buddha senior, but father is busy 
planning a family-trip to Tromsø. The interview comes very unconveniently, 
and he doesn't quite find peace either. That's the way it goes when you 
listen to what your manager has to say.
- "Getting kids never fits perfectly", Nils protests.
If you want it, you might as well do it.
- "We can't let the life as artists hinder us in having kids. But it is 
important that one is safe with oneself before one shall represent 
safety for somebody else", Anneli adds, who herself wanted to do more 
before she became a mother.
- "I've always dreamt of taking the bohemian life to the limits. Renting 
an atelier in a shut-down factory, drinking red wine all night and rushing 
around with The Police on the walkman in the day."

One day this spring, it was finally clear who was going to release the 
new Bel Canto-album Magic Box. The choice fell on the Angloamerican 
combine Atlantic.
- "We have never had more freedom than we have now", Nils claims. Atlantic 
has money in the bank, which makes most ideas realisationable.
	From the beginning of the music-career, the small Belgian indie-
label Crammed Discs has released Bel Canto, with Sonet and since Warner 
Music as distributours here at home. Crammed originally had the first 
option on five Bel Canto-albums.
- "Eventually, Crammed hindered us more than they helped us", Nils 
continues. "Empty promises and unpaid bills made life sour for Bel Canto. 
They always lacked licvidity. Instead of waiting for them to pay old 
studio-bills, we decided to start the new album with our own resources. 
Much of the touring we have done on the way, we have done in order to 
get money for more studio-time.
	Bel Canto, understandably enough, wanted to get away from the 
deal with Crammed before the five albums were finished.
- "We sat hard against hard. We threatened with quitting the whole music-
thing. And we probably would've, too. We wouldn't have bothered anymore", 
Nils says. It ended with Bel Canto having to be bought free from the 
contract.
- "I have never seen Nils as angry as when we had the worst fights with 
Crammed. I was really scared", Anneli remembers, and Nora starts to scream. 
Maybe she senses what lies in wait for her. Nils blames it on her being 
hungry, lays her in straps again and stresses along.

Before he waves good-bye, he reaches to convey handy information of the 
type "of all the scientists ever, ninety percent lives today", and "half 
of every book that is released, is written after 1950". Per Eirik has 
earlier described Nils to me as a balanced and patient professor-type, 
while he characterised Anneli as having more temper and being more sensitive. 
The manager thinks that it is this chemistry between Nils and Anneli 
that makes Bel Canto.
- "We fill each other in in many ways, but it isn't entirely correct", 
Anneli thinks. "True enough Nils is better at accepting things and 
holding the balance when something irritates him. In return, he gets 
more angry when the cup is full. I am much more spontaneous and 
impatient. I hate waiting, and have to get the aggression out there and 
then. Further, I am often moody, but Nils grumbles more. He is a detailfreak 
and informationlover, reads Illustrert Vitenskap (Illustrated Science) 
and throw knowledge like "why does the frog croak" about."
	But how on earth have you kept together for so long?
- "We give each other room. When I take off too much, Nils gets me down 
on earth again. I think faith has decided that I shall be surrounded by 
people who tie me to the ground sometimes. I am dependent on that in order 
to be at peace with myself. But Nils is first and foremost an extremely 
good friend. He is always there for me."
	Anneli tells about the time her cat fell down from the balcony 
and broke its pelvis. Anneli was dumbfounded and didn't know what to do. 
It was in the middle of the night, but she had Nils. He arrived at the 
instant and held the cat alive until the vet's opened. Then, he naturally 
had to pay for the operation too.

The writer Jens Bjørneboe's favourite metaphore was the one about the 
lobster who leaves its shell after it grows out of it. Suddenly, the knight 
of the ocean is naked, and has to meet all the enemies of the sea without 
protection. In the same way, I feel Anneli has grabbed us by the nose 
under these interviews. The project we started on, with "skinning" her and 
letting the world know who she really is, soon fell to the ground because 
Anneli herself opened the door to her inner self, without any concern and 
disarming. In contrary to the naked lobster, she doesn't crawl into hiding. 
But this technique can impossibly work as well opposite all the moneymad 
bullies in the music-business in the long run.
	I must probably don a shell myself, too. I have never looked at 
myself as a person that others can make use of with cunning methods.

	The hours roll by. Our water is long since drunk. Anneli chews 
icecubes and tells about her favourite-icecubes. She has her scientific 
talents, she too. I have gotten enough of the cold, and pulls myself 
together to ask if she doesn't want a glass of red wine, too. After a 
little while she says that it is a splendid idea.
	Red wine gives the body iron, and you avoid hyperactive kids. She 
about that.
	I order a flask.

The wine has gone straight to Anneli's head. But it is just the same she 
who remembers that we have a deal with Kirsti and Andreas about a croquet-match. 
She has her moments. We dizzy along to a lawn nearby. Kirsti has already 
made the course when we arrive, but Andreas is absent.
	"The Bel Canto-people are the least punctual I've ever come across", 
Kirsti shouts. But at the same moment she strikes the last pin into the 
ground, Andreas comes rushing on a bike.
	We start the game. Anneli starts talking about the trip to America. 
This time, Nils shopped more than me, she triumphs. While Anneli and I 
fight for the bronze, Kirsti and Andreas put their heads together and 
makes plans for an own videorecording in Trysil, an area they claim is 
superior to Hollywood in most aspects. A storm is coming in the Bel Canto-
camp, but right now, Anneli is selfcontrol itself.
- "They are completely unique", she says and nods towards Kirsti and 
Andreas, who are now half a course ahead of us.
- "Nils and I have all too much respect for what is done. Kirsti and 
Andreas more often takes the risk in breaking down, for then to possibly 
building something even better."

I have been told that pregnant women have their own aura. In Anneli's 
case the magic was there even before she became pregnant. Today, even 
the sour bird's chirping we heard at the beginning, about a blonde girl 
with bad habits, get a new tone. It almost sounds as beautiful as when 
Bel Canto starts to play. I loose the croquet-match against a girl who 
is pregnant in the eight month. When this is being read, she is in the 
ninth. Then, the water will go in any moment. It will be Anneli's first.
	Some weeks later, the new Bel Canto-album Magic Box will be born. 
It will be Bel Canto's fourth.