| Jazz |
Dalia Valančiūtė, One or Two Things: A Warmer, Bolder Sophomore Turn
Lithuanian-born, Copenhagen-based vocalist Dalia Valančiūtė has spent the past few years quietly building a name for herself on the Danish jazz circuit, singing regularly around town with the same trusted musicians and picking up national radio airplay along the way. Her sophomore album, One or Two Things, released digitally on 29 May 2026, is the sound of that steady groundwork paying off: a more confident, more rhythmically alive record than her 2023 debut Open the Door, and a step further to the next album which will be then a knockout.
Recorded at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with her longtime quartet – pianist Laurits Høgel, bassist Mariusz Praśniewski, and drummer Jesper Lørup – plus guest spots from saxophonist and flutist Christian Holm-Svendsen and trumpeter Malthe Kaptain, the album leans on the kind of easy chemistry that only comes from years of playing together. And this shows in the phrasing throughout: nothing here feels rushed or oversung, and Valančiūtė’s storytelling instincts, praised since her debut, remain the record’s clearest strength.
Dalia does not cheat. She presents herself as she is and allows the sensitivity of her voice to remain audible. In doing so, she returns to one of the foundations of jazz: emotion does not have to be manufactured when it is already present. She is clearly a highly accomplished vocalist, but what remains with you is not the technique itself. It is the emotion that survives underneath it.
The 12-track program mixes well-loved American songbook fare with a handful of other choices, plus one personal touch: “Vėjas Man Pasakė,” sung in Lithuanian, which threads Valančiūtė’s roots directly into an otherwise English-language set. It’s a small gesture, but an effective one. It doesn’t feel like a token detour, and it gives the record a personal centre of gravity which the rest of the track list quietly orbits around.
Where the album is most persuasive is in its looser, groove-driven moments, where Valančiūtė sounds genuinely playful rather than simply competent. In my opinion, as I don’t usually review digital recordings, I feel the voice is a little too prominent within the quartet’s interplay, which is in fact one of this band’s real strengths, and this means it doesn’t always get the space it deserves. It’s probably a mix choice rather than a performance one (probably due to the fact it’s a digital release), and maybe a different mastering choice for a CD or vinyl would unlikely have let more of the interplay through.
None of this derails the record. One or Two Things is a well-sung, well-played, and lovely to listen to and does what a good sophomore album should: it shows real growth without overreaching. It’s not the kind of album that reinvents anything, and a few tracks pass by more comfortably than memorably, but as a portrait of a singer settling into her own voice, backed by a band that clearly knows her well, it’s a genuinely satisfying one.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, September 11th, 2026
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Website https://daliavalanciute.com/
Musicians:
Dalia Valančiūtė – vocals
Laurits Høgel – piano
Mariusz Praśniewski – bass
Jesper Lørup – drums
Christian Holm-Svendsen – saxophone / flute
Malthe Kaptain – trumpet
Tracklisting: 12 tracks – 52:03
1 ·On A Clear Day
2 ·Maybe You’ll Be There
3 ·Oh! Look At Me Now
4 ·In The Still Of The Night
5 ·Once I Loved
6 ·Vėjas Man Pasakė
7 ·Nobody Else But Me
8 ·Polkadots and Moonbeams
9 ·It Isn’t So Good, It Couldn’t Be Better
10 ·Try Your Wings
11 ·This Time The Dream’s On Me
12 ·Too Late Now