LEIF VOLLEBEKK : REVELATION

LEIF VOLLEBEKK : REVELATION

Rock And Roll
Southern Star
Peace Of Mind
Surfer's Journal
Moondog
False-Hearted Lover
Elijah Rose
Mississippi
Till I See You Again
Sunset Boulevard Expedition
Angel Child

Label : Secret City Records

Release Date : September 27, 2024

Length : 53:48

Review (Americana UK) : Leif Vollebekk may not be a name that leaps off of the pages of recognition, but the Canadian singer/songwriter has been releasing albums since 2010. With an ever-growing fanbase his star really started to shine with 2017’s ‘Twin Solitude’ and his popularity can now be measured by the fact that his upcoming live tour swings throughout Europe and the UK before returning to the US. For those unfamiliar with Vollebekk’s back catalogue, his new album, ‘Revelation,’ will be just that. Think Ryan Adams with more than a hint of Richmond Fontaine and add some lush orchestral layers into the mix and the result is an album that immediately grabs the attention. There are albums that get their claws into you from the very first bars. It is an otherworldly and unknowable something that reaches its mitts around the senses within seconds of the opening track; something that speaks of riches to come. The culprit here is ‘Rock and Roll’ with its thumping drum riff quickly overlain with gorgeous strings and piano. It is the sort of opening track to make the hairs on the back of the neck stand to attention. How to follow that? ‘Southern Star’ may be a very different beast initially with its minimal piano accompaniment and slower tempo but, as on many of the slower numbers on the album, the constant that is Vollebekk’s vocals and the sheer quality of the artist’s songwriting skills infuse all tracks with the same excellence. Distinctive background harmonies here come from Anais Mitchell and Angie McMahon, adding yet another layer to the mix. If the album dips in pace at times it never fails to engage and there are no missteps, no tracks to skip or kettles to go and boil. What it does contain though are tracks, like that opener, that make the seamless transition from very good to excellent. Pride of place goes to the eight minutes of ‘Sunset Boulevard Expedition’; the best of the best. What starts as a beautifully sung piece of melancholy with repeating piano riff morphs into more of that gorgeous, lush orchestral backing. The song thus takes on a dreamlike quality that, even after its duration, leaves the listener bereft at its parting. The album is described as a meditation on living in an ever-changing present laced with existential doubt, the search for a higher power. Whatever the motivation, Vollebekk, who self-produced and played piano, guitar, bass, B3 organ, harmonica, accordion and Moog synthesizer on the album, has delivered a superb piece of work. ‘Revelation’ is an apt a title as any for an album that deserves a place on those end-of-year lists so beloved by, well, everyone.

Review (Exclaim) : For some artists, the songwriting muse visits through acts of conscious collaboration. For Leif Vollebekk, the solitude of the Covid-19 pandemic crafted a link between artist and subconscious. A few inner conversations with philosophers and scientists helped too. "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," Vollebekk shared in press materials surrounding Revelation, his follow-up to 2019's New Ways. "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." A multi-instrumental, Juno and Polaris prize shortlisted artist, it didn't take long for Vollebekk to compare this creative process to musicianship. "Is it really that different from Paul McCartney hearing 'Yesterday' in a dream?" he pondered. Somewhere in the time of solitude Vollebekk described as "basically two years of retirement," Revelation began to manifest. A time of creative productivity, one that he embraced after over a decade of creating records and touring, Vollebekk welcomed the silence by building his own recording studio, tending to his garden and spending time with companions found in books, records and dreams. The uncanny creative process might lead some musicians down a path of cerebral and obtuse creative output. But Vollebekk's latest album features the same familiarities that earned him accolades on New Ways, 2017's Twin Solitude and his 2010 debut, Inland. Cozy vocals and a driving piano ground each song in Vollebekk's signature folk style, while relatable and at times simplistic lyricism brings accessibility to music that came to Vollebekk through a process of complexity. The album's opening track, "Rock and Roll" hints at the inter-textual inspiration that repeats throughout the album. The song came to Vollebekk in a dream that featured the late American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. A tragic accident took the life of the 30-year-old Buckley in 1997, when he drowned while swimming in the Mississippi river. Fully clothed, Buckley entered the turbulent and unpredictable waters, backstroking while singing the chorus to Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." Fellow musician Keith Foti watched in horror as a passing boat created a surge of water that rolled towards the shoreline, submerging Buckley. His body was found a few days later in a tangle of branches, floating on the Wolf River. The lyrics on "Rock and Roll" echo Buckley's death: "In the water of a sacred place / See your reflection yeah, I see your face / And I know that all will be erased if I touch it" Vollebekk sings. "I'm on a boat and I'm right at sea / There's no captain but maybe, the captain is me / And you've got your hand laying on my knee / And then I wake up." The dream-like scenario is emblematic of themes that continue on the album, in which Vollebekk is in direct and indirect conversation with musical and creative men of both the past and present. On "Rock and Roll," it's unclear whether Vollebekk is the creator, or simply the conduit of a force greater than himself. The influence of Buckley's musical talent and the curious circumstances surrounding his death are both present, cultivating a sensation where there are no boundaries between our dream state and awakened consciousness. Vollebekk is master of both realms, seamlessly integrating inspiration and collaboration with artists both dead and alive. Echoes of country influence are present on the album's second track, "Southern Star," which feature a wistful pedal steel and plucky guitar strings. Still, the ever-present piano and intimate lyricism give the song a feel that is distinctly Vollebekk. On the track, he unfurls a conversation with a secondary presence, one that he longs to be intimate with. "And I climb that northwest passage / I look the master in the eye / When I am confused and confounded / I search for you in the sky" Vollebekk calls, striking up a conversation with the stars themselves that serves as a stand-in for a personal relationship. In a subdued chorus, Vollebekk ponders higher themes, the omnipresent philosopher. "Faith in the morning after / Wait for the time to come / Say that love won't come easy, just know who you are / Baby you're my southern star" are backed by American singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell's melting vocal harmonies. Towards the middle of the record, recurrent themes of water begin to unravel. Ambient waves usher in album highlight "Surfer's Journal," the most autobiographical for Vollebekk, who walks through each movement required when successfully surfing the turbulent waves. "Stood up too fast / Drop and move / Switch the back foot now curve up into / Then the lip hits me, I'm down and I'm under and I'm caught inside / It's not my time to ride" he coos. The song moves from literal to figurative as Vollebekk explores the inner workings of his own consciousness, echoing the self-reflection that comes from activities that bring one closer in step with nature. Piano keys drive a rising crescendo that unravels throughout the track's near six-minute runtime. Vollebekk brings the analogy together with a drum beat that connects the experience with his intimate relationships. "Energy downwards and I'm crouching / Energy downwards as I ride the waves / Energy downwards and I'm flying / Energy downwards whenever you're close to me / You're nose to nose to me / Everything flows to me / I've got blood in my clothes for thee" he sings, speaking less to himself and more to a present, yet still absent, other. The song is an outline of how the physicality of an act like surfing can connect one with the body's most basic functions. Disparate percussion and country-twang guitars are also featured on Revelation's seventh entry, "Elijah Rose." Speaking to the seven-year-old Elijah, the song explores strained father-son relationships and the steps necessary to begin healing these wounds. On the near eight-and-a-half minute long "Sunset Boulevard Expedition," themes of reflection and intuition are repeated. In these entries, the album becomes mantra-like; it's unclear if Vollbekk's vocal phrasing is storytelling or manifesting as a form of self-meditation. Within this meditation, the ocean, waves and water are constant forces that act as conduits for deep self-reflection. "Sometimes I go down to the ocean / Sometimes it comes to me / Sometimes I cross the sea" sings Vollebekk. Through his relationship with nature, we see visions of Vollebekk watching the constellations, playing his music to sold-out shows, and conjuring spirits of great minds of the past. This contemplation is at the heart of Revelation, an album that serves as a kind of magnum opus for Vollebekk. "The world is now so dreamlike / My dreams are now so lifelike / Tell me now what does it seem like / There's no surer path to madness / Oh baby, if you had this / You'd realize that I might be the butterfly / Dreaming of the man who wrote this" Vollebekk contemplates through spoken word, backed by a distant harp at the end of "Sunset Boulevard Expedition." The image shimmers, a mirage in crystal clear water that sparkles before it disappears in a crash of waves. It's in these images that Vollebekk's subconscious is both amplified and reconstructed.

Review (Tinnitist) : The Edited Press Release : “The 11 tracks on Leif Vollebekk’s Revelation combine narrative lyrics and many one-take vocal performances with cinematic arrangements, gorgeous sonics, well-placed space and lush orchestration. His 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 L.A.’s Sunset Sound and Dreamland in Woodstock, 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) 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 — 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 revered bassist Shahzad Ismaily. Other collaborators included Angie McMahon and Anaïs Mitchell on background vocals. Vollebekk is an acclaimed singer-songwriter from Ottawa who now resides in Montreal. He has sold-out headlining tours across North America, Europe and Australia. His first release Twin Solitude was a breakthrough album, earning a Juno nomination and gathering over 60 million streams. His followup New Ways confirmed his undeniable talent and surpassed Twin Solitude in streaming.”