Emiliana Torrini: From Iceland, Stripped Down

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Jon Bergman

Emiliana Torrini.

Jon Bergman

If you're a Lord of the Rings dork like me, you might know the voice of Emiliana Torrini and not even realize it. That's her voice on "Gollum's Song," which plays during the closing credits of The Two Towers. But Torrini's talent goes much further than just a song on a movie soundtrack. In the U.S., she's released three soft-spoken yet confident and moving albums, including her latest, Me and Armini. She's also co-written songs with Kylie Minogue — one of which, "Slow," was a No. 1 hit.

Torrini's honest and beautiful voice, her constantly improving songwriting ability and her willingness to experiment across musical genres all help make her an artist worth following. In this session, Torrini stripped away the minimal but lush production of her music, leaving just her voice and Ian Kellett on acoustic guitar. Even in their sparest form, her songs still have a magical quality.

"All these songs are up there somewhere. You just have to pull the balloon down, pop it," she told me as she sucked in the air.

Listen to the previous Favorite Session, or see our full archive.