The 11 tracks on Leif Vollebekk’s Revelation combine narrative lyrics and many one-take lead vocal performances with cinematic arrangements, gorgeous sonics, well-placed space and lush...
The 11 tracks on Leif Vollebekk’s Revelation combine narrative lyrics and many one-take lead vocal performances with cinematic arrangements, gorgeous sonics, well-placed space and lush orchestration. Vollebekk’s Revelation songwriting process was inspired by an exploration that began with Carl Jung’s I Ching and continued into the science of alchemy and the mystery of the divine. The final result is at once organic, earthy and celestial, with themes of nature -- water, astral constellations, mortality – woven into a meditation on living in an ever-changing present laced with existential doubt, the search for a higher power.
“During the pandemic lockdown, I was drawn to biographies and books about science. I guess I was looking for something to ground me,” said Vollebekk. “When I read Carl Jung’s ‘Dreams, Memories, Reflections,’ I was taken aback that he wrote so freely of having premonitions in his dreams and by his fascination with alchemy. When I read about Isaac Newton’s life, I discovered that this man of science secretly practiced alchemy in his own laboratory and looked for signs of the apocalypse. The more I read, the more otherworldly all these great scientists were. Dmitri Mendeleev said his breakthrough for the arrangement of the elements came to him in a dream. Is it really that different from Paul McCartney hearing ‘Yesterday’ in a dream?"
Recorded at both Sunset Sound and Dreamland in Woodstock, New York, Revelation is both spiritual and down-to-earth, from the heavens above to the oceans below, a product of more than two years in isolation, picking up a partner and a family along the way, using the time to take astronomy, tend to his garden, build furniture, study alchemy, and ponder his long-term future. “It was like being able to retire in my 30s while I could still enjoy it,” Leif says. The album was mixed by Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, Arctic Monkeys, Tracy Chapman) and mastered by Greg Calbi.
An artist’s artist with many colleagues as admirers, Vollebekk – who self-produced and played piano, guitar, bass, B3 organ, harmonica, accordion and Moog synthesizer on Revelation – compiled an impressive supporting cast that speaks to the caliber of musicianship and feel of the recordings, including legendary drummer Jim Keltner, notable steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar (Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Rod Stewart), and revered bassist Shahzad Ismaily. His other album collaborators included artists Angie McMahon and Anaïs Mitchell on background vocals.
