Pilgaard wanted these women’s stories to be heard, and “A Woman’s Voice” gives them a place.
April Records
Emma Pilgaard – Vocals; Rahel Talts – Piano (except track 5); Hilda Nordkvist – Double Bass (except track 5); Patrycja Wybrańczyk – Drums; Viktoria Søndergaard – Vibraphone (Tracks 2, 5, 6); Ida Brinch – Trumpet (Tracks 2, 4)
Emma Pilgaard sings with the directness of a folksinger, but she can phrase a melody like a jazz singer. You hear her mostly in the mid range, where she can be conversational, dreamy or quietly insistent. When she pushes her voice higher, it’s usually because there is something in the story she wants you to hear.
Pilgaard is a Danish vocalist and composer, and A Woman’s Voice is her third album, following In My Garden in 2024 and Waiting Game in 2025. The album grew out of her interest in the lives of eight women from Danish history. Their stories touch on artistic freedom, motherhood, love, independence and worse. Rather than simply recounting their lives, Pilgaard turns them into song. She also put together an all-women band to bring those stories to life.
Rahel Talts is a jazz pianist who can accompany a singer without getting in the way, then turn around and play improvisations that become some of the album’s highlights. Her lines can be fluid and playful, with single notes from her right hand falling over full chords from the left. On “My Mother,” she seems to play off the ringing sound of her own notes, while “Through the Gloom” finds her hitting the keys harder, driving the song forward.
Drummer Patrycja Wybrańczyk is a different kind of presence. Sometimes you barely notice her. Then a beat or a fill catches your ear and you suddenly realize how much she has been doing underneath the song.
On “Above Expectations,” Pilgaard sounds cheerful and conversational, almost as if she’s telling the story to someone sitting across the room. She scats over Nordkvist’s talkative bass before Talts slips back underneath her with another of those graceful, playful piano solos.
On “Hidden Melodies,” Ida Brinch’s trumpet has a timbre surprisingly close to Pilgaard’s voice. Trumpet lines weave between vocals while Viktoria Søndergaard’s vibraphone shimmers around them. Pilgaard wrote the piece in remembrance of Else Marie Pade, a pioneer of electronic music, and the vibraphone’s ringing notes reference the soft sine wave movements often found in Pade’s music.
“Mistress of the Air” remembers a Danish silent-film actress and stunt performer who found freedom in flying through the air at a time when women were expected to stay within narrower boundaries. Søndergaard’s vibraphone fits perfectly here; her delicate notes ring out and hang high in the air.
The stories aren’t always easy. “Through the Gloom” deals with Denmark’s eugenics policies in the early 20th century, when women could be forcibly sterilized if they were deemed feebleminded. Pilgaard sings the story plainly, letting the sadness come through without making the music gloomy.
The album closes with the lovely “We Can Be Lonely,” a reflection on sculptor Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen and the tension between love and personal freedom. Nordkvist’s deep, woody bass sounds beautiful next to Pilgaard’s voice, while Talts’s piano notes dance around them.
Pilgaard wanted these women’s stories to be heard, and “A Woman’s Voice” gives them a place.
