PRICE:
$17.00
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
About Love And Loving Again
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
TR 468CD TR 468CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
10/30/2020

Christian Kjellvander's new solo album, About Love And Loving Again, undeniably feels like a big record. The seven songs on this gently unhurried long-player are allowed to build and meander, make unexpected turns, or even pause to look over their own shoulder before moving on, four of them ending way beyond and one just shy of the seven-minute-mark. It comes as a bit of a shock then to learn that this sound that ranges from almost-silence to unbridledly expressive, widescreen hugeness was created mostly as live by a minimal three-piece line-up in a Stockholm studio basement: Per Nordmark on drums; Pelle Anderson on a Fender Rhodes, a Prophet 5, and a Korg Prologue; Christian Kjellvander on vocals, guitars and whatever came to hand, adding just a touch of bass at the end of two songs. It was May 2020 when this trio congregated, a time, of course, when all of Europe was under strict lockdown, with the famous exception of Sweden. About Love And Loving Again is the sound of Christian Kjellvander waving goodbye to the converted old chapel out in the Swedish wilderness where so much of his music of previous years was written and recorded, "Baptist Lodge" that lends its name to the opening song. The song's evocative lyrics contrast the image of an iconic American car with another stand-out line that finds the singer at the outer edges of Sweden. "Cultural Spain", probably the most tightly written and arranged song on the album, was finished following a mad dash across the old continent back to Sweden, just as borders were being closed in all the countries he passed through. Like a lot of this record, its semi-abstract lyrics are full of complex sexual politics. You don't need to be a celebrity sleuth to realize that much of About Love And Loving Again is deeply autobiographical. In fact, the goddess in the opening song is none other than his current partner, Swedish singer Frida Hyvönen, who also sings backing vocals on "Cultural Spain" and took the cover photo of Christian. Meanwhile, from "Actually Country Gentle" unmistakably alludes to the recent ending of his 13-year marriage. Crucially, Christian Kjellvander describes a world that is much bigger than his private self, and yet there is a vulnerability. As an artist who is "constantly trying to look under different stones," Christian Kjellvander has learnt to rely on instinct rather than intention.