Words by Justin Turford
Modern classical music is perhaps something we should pay more attention to here at T&L if this shimmering new album from Rumpistol is anything to go by. Award-winning Danish producer, film composer, electronic musician and pianist Jens B. Christiansen is Rumpistol and ‘ISOLA’ is his seventh solo album, and my word, it is utterly charming. Mentioned in the same breath as composers such as Nils Frahm and Max Richter and adored by Laurent Garnier and Gilles Peterson amongst many, Christiansen is two decades in as a musical craftsman and it shows - this is an album of rich emotional power and supremely-crafted beauty.
The album title ‘Isola’ means ‘island’ in Latin and shares the stem of ‘isolation’, something most of us have experienced recently and also something that Christiansen sought after a stress-related burn-out in 2018. This moment sparked a change in the musician and in the way that he created and lived, a need for connection and grounding. It would appear that this record is the balm that his soul required.
Where to begin here? One can acknowledge his vast experience as a composer for film, theatre, video games etc and assume that this record is to be the soundtrack for one of these visual practices but whether this occurs or not, as a standalone musical entity, ISOLA is a work of great intimacy with moments of impressionistic orchestral grandeur and tender, even pastoral jazz expression.
Did I mention he can write instantly memorable melodic lines? The album is full of them, haunting, touching, that film composer’s skill at harnessing a singular colour to evoke a mood, a happening, every immersive piece evoking a memory (who’s memory?) of sorts. Considering he is known as an electronic musician, this record sounds profoundly organic and this is because this is an album of human interaction. Christiansen may have solely composed the majority of the record but a communion of players made it. Alongside his own multi-instrumental contributions, he has harnessed the adept skills of several talented guests - Danish jazz stars Emil de Waal on drums and Jonathan Bremer on upright bass, Tobias Elof on ukele, classical vocalist Nina Smidth-Brewer and folk singer Jullie Hjetland alongside the sublime strings of Line Felding and Maria Jagd and lap steel guitar player Kristian Hoffmann. Together they have woven an album of deep calm and serene reflection.
To me, ‘Gniben’ sits like a distant musical relative of the superlative deep house classic ‘Deep Burnt’ by Pépé Bradock - the strings on the Christiansen composition reminiscent of the way Bradock sampled ‘Little Sunflower’ by Freddie Hubbard, arcing the strings loop into a devastatingly melancholic hymn. A tenuous comparison perhaps but ‘Gniben’ is one of the standout songs on the album for me, with its hypnotic marimba, hazy lap steel guitar and wordless vocals just instantly grabbing me by the throat in the same way that Deep Burnt still does. ‘Skibbruden’ is another melodic masterclass, and one where Christiansen’s gifted use of electronic manipulations really mesh beautifully with the towering strings and accordion. Dusty brushwork and sparse upright bass gently swing behind the lovely piano work from Christiansen himself, gently urging me to walk outside to nature.
Like that wonderful pianist, composer and electronic musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, Christiansen understands space and pacing as methods of conveying emotion and he possibly makes it work best on the captivatingly sedate ‘Løvfald’. An achingly sad barroom anthem raised from its knees by the most gorgeous strings and chord changes. When Nina Smidth-Brewer’s vocals soar in, I am in rapture.
I’ve commented on the more song-like tracks but there is so much more on the album. Tracks like ‘Mangrove’ sit as mood pieces, the cinematic soundscape sound that he does so well, and the neo-classical hymn ‘Memento Mori’ is a showcase for Nina Smidth-Brewer’s towering voice while the fractured ‘Slumre Sløjfer (Lullaby Loops)’ has the ethereal folk stylings of Jullie Hjetland embedded within its tranquil drones.
‘ISOLA’ is a seductive record with moments of startling beauty and charm. This isn’t cutting-edge soundtrack work from a composer skilled enough to create that if he wished, this is humanistic and earthy and sounds like a gentle and much-needed path to recovery. 8.5/10