MARK OLSON & INGUNN RINGVOLD : MAGDALEN ACCEPTS THE INVITATION

1. Pipestone I Won't Be Back
2. You'll Find The Morning
3. Excelsior Park
4. Christina Hi
5. April In Your Cloud Garden
6. 31 Patience Games
7. Children Of The Streetcar
8. Silent Mary
9. Elmira's Fountain
10. Black Locust

Label : Fiesta Red Records

Release Date : June 5, 2020

Length : 36:03

Review (Americana Highways) : This is the 3rd collaboration of the husband-wife team of former Jayhawks’ Mark Olson & Norway’s multi-instrumentalist Ingunn Ringvold. The 10-track Magdalen Accepts the Invitation (Fiesta Red Records) – drops June 5. The LP explores their adventures, experiences with nature, & visits interesting places. Many songs set in a modal sense of the distance between notes & harmony will be for some a little taxing for others a unique musical journey. The tunes are not written in a commercial sense, nothing is cut & dry or simplistic. These are musicians who attempt to convey their sense of reality with an emphasis through music & by way of sophisticated involvement. Whew. “Excelsior Park,” takes place at an old amusement park & is compelling yet not quite as stinging as Golden-Carrillo’s “Fire in New Town” with its intricate counter-vocalizing (Fire in New Town LP). Perhaps Annie Golden’s soaring vocals & Broadway experience is her advantage. But Olson & Ringvold has acute inspiration & spirit in abundance. The song, well-written & performed finds their voices mingling nicely like ice cream & chocolate syrup. Even better is their dynamic in “Christina Hi!” While some lyrics lean toward the hippie-poetry of the Woodstock era they don’t descend into nostalgia or silliness. Together, they wisely keep the music/arrangements at a high, enduring level. Fortunately, their lyrics aren’t too vague. Escape from reality, live in your imagination is the point of “April In Your Cloud Garden,” & “Silent Mary” are mindful of the 1969 husband-wife group Fat City. Bill Danoff & Taffy Nivert later went on to commercial success & wrote hits for John Denver. If a pair of ears are looking for fiery solos & foot-stomping music this is not the place. But if it’s captivating songs with a strain of seriousness, a potpourri of adventure worn with a sweeping gown of melody is – this is the place. “Children of the Streetcar,” is sprightly in the tradition of the Mamas & the Papas, Spanky & Our Gang & Richard & Mimi Farina. So, while some tunes maybe a walk down a nostalgic path of style – the songs are fresh & invigorating with a positiveness not often heard today. One thing is for certain – it’s not sugary sweet cereal. Olson & Ingunn maintains a balance of pensive, stirring moments. Minnesota’s Olson (acoustic/electric guitars/Spring Tree & Dulcimer) is predominantly a self-taught musician familiar with alternate tunings & 2-part unison vocalizing blended into harmony. Ingunn, from Norway, (Mellotron/Chamberlain/tambourine & Qanon) writes the string arrangements. Other musicians include Lewis Keller (bass/drums), Danny Frankel (percussion), Alexander Lindback (drums on “You’ll Find the Morning”), & Ruben Pozo (Electric Guitar on “April in Your Cloud Garden”). At best the CD is relaxing & delivers 36 minutes of peace in a topsy-turvy world. It did for me.

Review (Glide Magazine) : Magdalen Accepts the Invitation is the third album from husband and wife team Mark Olson (founder of The Jayhawks) and Norwegian singer/songwriter multi-instrumentalist Ingunn Ringvold, recording as they typically do in the isolation of the desert, not far from their desert home in Joshua Tree, California. Imaginations run wild here but much of it is based in real life experience, ranging from a roller coaster in a long-closed Minnetonka amusement park to a fossil collecting canoe trip to a deserted pizza joint in South Africa. These are past adventures for each and/or shared adventures as a couple. It was a different approach for Olson who usually drives a track right through to end but found himself tampering with these several times to ensure everything fit the way he (they) wanted in their signature chamber folk-pop desert infused sound. The two play most of the instruments with contributions from just a few others on select tracks. Ringvold was proud to bring a unique arsenal of instruments including the Armenian Quanon, the Mellotron, and djembe drums while Olson not only plays guitars but also the dulcimer. All original tracks were done on a Nagra field recorder, which is a key to the unvarnished sound. Olson did analog engineering while she handled the digital. Award-winning producer John Schreiner did the mixing and mastering as he did for Spokeswoman of the Bright Sun. Although Olson is ten or more albums removed from the Jayhawks at this point in his career, those qualities that stamped him there – unique tunings, two-part unison singing that dissolves into harmony, and an inherent gift for melody remain. Ringvold has a naturally beautiful voice, has released four solo albums on her own in addition to the three with Olson, and brings interesting string arrangements and a flair for unusual instrumentation. As with Spokeswoman of the Bright Sun. the music and vocal harmonies are eminently accessible, floating so gently and melodically. There’s an economy to the songs that seem to flow naturally to the next, almost like a classical piece. Let it flow like a travelogue, although overall sound stays in a languid, textured mode, almost as if belying the excitement of some of these journeys or the places themselves. Olson provided notes of each. We’ll give you a flavor for a few of them. Pipestone I Won’t Be Back – Pipestone Minnesota is a town made of Sioux Quartzite buildings from the Catlinite Pipestone quarry location nearby. We visited the Pipestone National Monument on our way home from a tour one year and continued on a two-lane highway along the Niobrara River through north Nebraska where we canoed and collected fossils. Excelsior Park – The old amusement park on Lake Minnetonka. It represents danger in some ways because of the scary high rollercoaster and the house of mirrors. My Dad was from a farm and this was not a place he was ever going to take us. If we wanted to go on rides it would be after a daylong excursion to the animal barns at the State Fair. 31 Patience Games – I wrote this in South Africa where Ingunn and I were married. We were there two separate times for six months total. We ended up in the mountains in the only hop-growing region of the country. It was foggy with lots of wild animals and streams and amazing people. It was really nice and sometimes we went to the beach. I saw the biggest crane in Africa flying over our cabin way up high in the air. So many memories. If there is a time of a person’s life that is the best — this was it for me. Elmira’s Fountain – Here is a song Ingunn and I started in Vanadzor, Armenia about a real fountain where we would meet our host, Elmira. She would take us to Orthodox churches and cool parks. This song made the album because of the positive hopeful energy I feel about the lyrics and also the idea of drinking out of wild rivers. We would stop and drink from springs in the mountains but drinking from rivers would require another step on our part. We swam in Lake Sevon, which is very deep, cold and somewhat dangerous, but sinking in the sand by the water’s edge worked for us The latter is one of the best songs for the vocal harmonies and its brisk tempo relative to the others. The context and stories behind the tunes in many cases, are more interesting than the songs themselves. The couple stayed with what they felt was a successful formula from the predecessor. So, if you liked that one, you’ll enjoy this as well. While this is clearly a relaxing listen, it’s often too dreamy-like, made a bit more interesting by trying to follow along with the lyrics which are in the jacket, which in true Olson fashion are a bit weird, but thankfully slightly more accessible (due to his notes on each song) this time.