The Norwegian band Bel Canto can stand alongside Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance as one of the most elegant and atmospheric groups of the electronic keyboard era. Singer Anneli Marian Drecker and electronic musician Nils Johansen create “synth-folk” with dreamy vocals and floating keyboard chords.

White-Out Conditions (Crammed Disc, 1987) is a complex album that takes its initial inspiration from Brian Eno’s synthetic nursery rhymes (the two singles, Blank Sheets and Dreaming Girl), but it evolves through the magical harmonies of Baltic Ice-Breaker (at the intersection of a solemn and mournful Nico, a Brechtian theater piece, and a chamber symphony), and the title track (a driving Celtic-gigue rhythm with Enya-like soaring vocals), to a kind of “Arabian techno” in the breathless exotic gallop of the instrumental Agassiz, and to a new-age-like music in the syncopated polyrhythmic weaving and slow misty flute of the instrumental Kloeberdanz. With Upland, the album fades into Pink Floyd-like electronic vibrations (Meddle) and a classically inspired coda, a finale that could not be more evocative, crowning a work steeped in supernatural signs.

Birds Of Passage (Nettwerk, 1989) was recorded with a nine-member lineup including cello, violin, trumpet, and horn. Yet the group remains fundamentally a trio, with Drecker on vocals, Jenssen on keyboards, and Johansen on guitars. Inspiration ranges from the gothic elegy of Suffering to the fairy-tale ballad of the title track, from the world-music feel of Glassmaker to the chamber-madrigal style of Oystger.
Their influences are evident in the medieval Dead Can Dance-like ballad Time Without End, in the martial, archaic Nico-inspired Dewy Fields, and in the melodramatic Kate Bush-esque Shoulder To The Wheel. The arrangements are impeccable, crystalline, and elegant—never indulgent, pompous, or grandiose—and always retain an intimate and tender character.

Their keyboardist Geir Jenssen left the group to devote himself to his numerous side-projects, notably Biosphere.

Bel Canto's Shimmering Warm And Bright (Nettwerk, 1992), performed by the duo of vocalist Anneli Marian Drecker and electronic keyboardist Nils Johansen. The album was a confused collection of radio-friendly numbers, as trivial as the Middle-eastern dance Shimmering Warm & Bright the African-tinged chanson Le Temps Degage, with nods to Ultramarine's techno music (Unicorn) and Eurythmics' synth-pop ballad (Summer). Drecker's insinuating, occasionally operatic, Kate Bush-ian vocals, crafted passionate lullabies such as Sleep in Deep and the eight-minute Mornixuur, and propelled stormy rides such as Spiderdust (the album's standout). The most ambitious piece was the seven-minute symphonic lied Die Geschichte Einer Mutter.

Magic Box (Lava, 1996), their fourth album, renews the magic of Bel Canto, a group suspended between futuristic and atmospheric music, making them somewhat the Yellow Magic Orchestra of Scandinavia. Compared to their early style, the album is perhaps overworked and unusually frenetic, likely influenced by the success of Bjork. On the plus side, Drecker’s contralto has reached a level of sophistication worthy of her mentor, Bush. The soft funky-soul of Rumour, the exotic and lush rhythm and blues of In Zenith, and the tempestuous Caribbean frenzy of Didn't You Know It all demonstrate a more expert hand in synthetic arrangements and a leaning toward danceable tracks for a futuristic nightclub.
The standout tracks are spectacular examples of stylistic fusion. The exuberant melody of Frealunch In The Jungle combines funky guitar, dizzying swing rhythms, and the vocal flourishes of 1950s vocal groups. The “noir” Nick Cave-inspired ballad Bombay relies on equatorial swamp rhythms, metallic guitars, and Indian fanfares. The pan-ethnic cantilena of Kiss Of Spring layers Mediterranean strumming, African polyrhythms, psychedelic violins, and Kate Bush-like chanting.

Anneli Drecker has released a solo album Tundra (2000) and the singles Woebegone and All I Know.