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CD
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CFK 031CD
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Largely written following the traumatic arrival, three months early, of her first baby, Rebekka Karijord's Mother Tongue is comprised of eleven extraordinary songs tracking her experience with uncommon honesty and unshrinking courage. Like a collection of short stories, Mother Tongue chronicles the events surrounding her pregnancy and the agony of nearly losing her daughter, but it's much more than an album about childbirth. Mother Tongue is about instinct, about belonging, and about finding one's own emotional language. "I never know what my records are about until they're almost done," Karijord admits in a typical display of candor. "It´s like a subconscious collecting process, shooting arrows into the dark and then getting out there to see where they have landed. This time, however, it was a bit different." The album was recorded in Hawaii, Stockholm, and Oslo during 2015-2016, and produced, arranged, and edited by Karijord with help from Elias Krantz as technician, co-producer and mixer. Other contributors include Mariam Wallentin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums), Linnea Olsson, and Nina Kinert (vocals), Jacob Snavely (bass and electronics), Christopher Cantillo (drums), Joe Williamson (upright bass), and regular contributor Anders Scherp (drums & tuned percussion).
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CFK 030LP
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LP version. Largely written following the traumatic arrival, three months early, of her first baby, Rebekka Karijord's Mother Tongue is comprised of eleven extraordinary songs tracking her experience with uncommon honesty and unshrinking courage. Like a collection of short stories, Mother Tongue chronicles the events surrounding her pregnancy and the agony of nearly losing her daughter, but it's much more than an album about childbirth. Mother Tongue is about instinct, about belonging, and about finding one's own emotional language. "I never know what my records are about until they're almost done," Karijord admits in a typical display of candor. "It´s like a subconscious collecting process, shooting arrows into the dark and then getting out there to see where they have landed. This time, however, it was a bit different." The album was recorded in Hawaii, Stockholm, and Oslo during 2015-2016, and produced, arranged, and edited by Karijord with help from Elias Krantz as technician, co-producer and mixer. Other contributors include Mariam Wallentin (Wildbirds & Peacedrums), Linnea Olsson, and Nina Kinert (vocals), Jacob Snavely (bass and electronics), Christopher Cantillo (drums), Joe Williamson (upright bass), and regular contributor Anders Scherp (drums & tuned percussion).
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CFK 010CD
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Norwegian singer and composer Rebekka Karijord's We Become Ourselves is arguably the finest work of her career to date. Recorded with Tobias Fröberg at Stockholm's Gig Studio, the arrangements are genuinely exceptional, filled with organs, boys' and men's choirs, piano, guitar, drums, and Karijord's fierce, striking vocal delivery. "I wanted to make a love album first, circling around my relationship to men," she explains. "I wanted it to be a romantic, huge, physical, and powerful record, yet stripped and raw, with its flaws on its sleeve. I wanted to make an album about 'life and death': heartfelt and serious." Its initial framework was constructed with only a drummer and guitarist, ensuring that -- beneath these imposing arrangements -- the songs remain simple. "My challenge is always to dare to hold back," Karijord says. "I record layer upon layer and then peel away most of it before mixing. I also recorded a real organ in a church in Norway, and a lot of the dark sub-frequencies you hear are foot pedals, the darkest notes on that organ. I absolutely adore that organic bass sound." The album's centerpiece is "Use My Body While It's Still Young," a song built upon a bedrock of vast, tribal drums. Karijord's vocals are potent and yet unafraid to display subtle, bewildering hints of vulnerability in both her delivery and lyrics. We Become Ourselves hints at a wide range of influences including Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Moondog, and Robert Wyatt. "Prayer" is a stripped-back affair that slowly develops through the understated employment of a male choir, which reappears on the growling "Save Yourself" alongside a boys' choir as moving as that of Talk Talk's remarkable "I Believe in You"; the delicate, nimble nature of "Multicolored Hummingbird" belies a melody that lingers long and heavy, while "You Make Me Real" is so gentle as to barely exist. "Oh Brother," meanwhile, is a sensitive lament that aches with both sadness and optimism, and the title-track is distinguished by harmonies reminiscent of Sinéad O'Connor's debut, The Lion and the Cobra. If "romantic, huge, physical, and powerful... yet stripped and raw" were Karijord's goals, then she has more than surpassed them. With We Become Ourselves she has crafted a record of unforgettable, eerie magic as moving, epic, and peaceful as the Norwegian landscape in which she was raised.
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CFK 010LP
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LP version. Norwegian singer and composer Rebekka Karijord's We Become Ourselves is arguably the finest work of her career to date. Recorded with Tobias Fröberg at Stockholm's Gig Studio, the arrangements are genuinely exceptional, filled with organs, boys' and men's choirs, piano, guitar, drums, and Karijord's fierce, striking vocal delivery. "I wanted to make a love album first, circling around my relationship to men," she explains. "I wanted it to be a romantic, huge, physical, and powerful record, yet stripped and raw, with its flaws on its sleeve. I wanted to make an album about 'life and death': heartfelt and serious." Its initial framework was constructed with only a drummer and guitarist, ensuring that -- beneath these imposing arrangements -- the songs remain simple. "My challenge is always to dare to hold back," Karijord says. "I record layer upon layer and then peel away most of it before mixing. I also recorded a real organ in a church in Norway, and a lot of the dark sub-frequencies you hear are foot pedals, the darkest notes on that organ. I absolutely adore that organic bass sound." The album's centerpiece is "Use My Body While It's Still Young," a song built upon a bedrock of vast, tribal drums. Karijord's vocals are potent and yet unafraid to display subtle, bewildering hints of vulnerability in both her delivery and lyrics. We Become Ourselves hints at a wide range of influences including Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Moondog, and Robert Wyatt. "Prayer" is a stripped-back affair that slowly develops through the understated employment of a male choir, which reappears on the growling "Save Yourself" alongside a boys' choir as moving as that of Talk Talk's remarkable "I Believe in You"; the delicate, nimble nature of "Multicolored Hummingbird" belies a melody that lingers long and heavy, while "You Make Me Real" is so gentle as to barely exist. "Oh Brother," meanwhile, is a sensitive lament that aches with both sadness and optimism, and the title-track is distinguished by harmonies reminiscent of Sinéad O'Connor's debut, The Lion and the Cobra. If "romantic, huge, physical, and powerful... yet stripped and raw" were Karijord's goals, then she has more than surpassed them. With We Become Ourselves she has crafted a record of unforgettable, eerie magic as moving, epic, and peaceful as the Norwegian landscape in which she was raised.
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CFK 018CD
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Music for Film and Theatre provides a gorgeous, frequently lush experience. It's one to which Swedish musician/composer Rebekka Karijord herself often accurately applies the label "ambient": within the repetition of tracks like "Madrigal," "Salhus," "Migratory Birds" and "Morula" there's an undeniable Eno-esque quality, though inevitably Karijord moves in different directions from the godfather of the ambient movement. Elsewhere there are other comparably experimental excursions: the angelic choral vocals and Arvo Pärt violin of "Nowhere Home," the ethereal, mystical "The End," and "Kjaere Gud," which conjures up the remarkable ghosts of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. There are also airier tracks, like the placid, moving, yet strangely tense "Snö," the gentle piano strains of "Waltz for Norma," and "Anchor Boy," as delicately melancholic as anything Danish singer Agnes Obel has delivered. There will be more to come, too. Now that Music for Film and Theatre has been compiled, Karijord is currently working on a further three film projects, and has also begun work writing for her next album. For the time being, however, Music for Film and Theatre is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy another mesmerizing side to an extraordinary artist's talents.
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