Leif Vollebekk - Revelation

The 11 tracks on 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.

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.