More than ever before, humans need to make a serious effort to abandon the artificial lights of our living rooms and step outside to spend time with the lambent eyes of the stars. While technological advances grant us stunning images of planets, galaxies, and more, to be studied night or day, our own personal backyard view of these distant gems grows more and more obscured as light pollution spreads across the sky. For many around the world, it takes an excursion just to witness a fraction of the constellated wonders glistening each night above our heads.
On May 13th, Rumpistol released his ninth full-length album, Nebula, an ode to our relationship with the mysteries of space. Released by The Rust Music, Nebula was created as “a testament and a love letter to the waning awe that the Space Race (and its implications) imbued amongst the many peoples of the world, while also being designed with an implicit focus on the results on stage.”
Read below to learn more about this multidisciplinary musician and embark on a journey into the sidereal sound waves of his most recent creation.
The Composer
Rumpistol is the solo project of Danish composer, producer, and keyboardist Jens Berents Christiansen. After a stint playing keys and guitar with the band Magtværk, Rumpistol made his initial impact on the world of electronic music in 2003 with the hypnotic downtempo IDM of his self-titled album.
At times dancey, introspective, peaceful, and haunting, always blurring the lines of clear genre distinction, Rumpistol’s release history showcases a sense of experimentation that has proven itself as much at home in the dark calm of a seated theater as it is in the flashing frenzy of a club. Each album and EP marks the evolutionary patterns of a producer unafraid to appropriate seemingly disparate parts and pieces of inspirational threads into the new creative territory of his design.
PC: Mads Fisker
Aside from electronic production, Christiansen has also been active as a composer for film, theater, and dance scores, and has been a key figure in the world fusion group Kalaha, a four-piece band that blends jazz improvisation with Afrobeat funk rhythms for a lively output of dance-heavy instrumentals.
Rumpistol’s last three albums–After the Flood, Isola, and Going There–seem to have been driven by the producer’s dream-like take on minimalist neoclassical composition, narrative soundscapes that entrance listeners with arrangements of pastoral piano, tranquil accompaniments, and ambient sound design. Given this focus, Christiansen most often performs these days with a live ensemble, an experience which has yet to make its way to the United States.
With Nebula, the producer seems to have established yet another new synthesis of his many stylistic trends. Incorporating collaborative instrumentation from a range of strings, woodwinds, percussion, and keys, Rumpistol has developed a fresh sonic narrative to explore our relationship–past, present, and future–with the inscrutability and allure of the worlds outside our own.
A Look Inside
The album opens with “Ascension,” where a single note draws its cosmic echo to a disorienting thatchwork of mounting synths before breaking into a realm of space rock as prog-like percussive patterns and minimal saxophone, reminiscent of Pink Floyd, carry the launch to its conclusion.
With “Stargazer,” concentric tinkerings remind us of early Rumpistol. As peaceful woodwinds overtake the initial wonder drift, a tribal drum scheme emerges layered with time-warp psy synths to lead us waltzing into dissolved boundaries of light and flesh, where we become the stuff of stars.
Definitely one of the danciest tracks on the album, the eponymous “Nebula” begins with a pendulous pizzicato over distorted transmissions. Epic synths build into buoyant zero-gravity shifts and movements of mandalic weave as listeners morph into celestial fish to swim through the ephemeral beauty of a dying star.
“Pale Blue Dot,” inspired by a famous photo shot in lunar orbit during the Apollo 8 mission, holds sway from start to finish with an airy embrace of ethereal piano, refractive harp ripples, and the sweet prodding of subtle drums and sporadic upright bass fingerings. There’s a sense of distance and familiarity throughout, like watching a loved one recede in the rearview mirror as you take off into the unknown, wondering if you’ll ever meet again.
At seven minutes and fifty seconds, “Above The Horizon” is a compositional gem and a sonic vessel worthy of patience, attention, and awe. Atmospheric distortions of electropulse disruptors mingle with echoic layers of instrumental halcyon to produce the effect of “breaking through,” an interstellar journey of emergence, witness, bafflement, grace, as a careful emotive rhythm unfolds and listeners suddenly find themselves suspended speechless in full view of the Great Beyond.
The sixth track, “Celestial Awe,” is like a slow dance with the stars. Encompassing drum patterns guide the track into triumphant woodwinds and a powerful combination of strings, while keys weave throughout, both gentle and mischievous, dancing like Pan on a moonlit hill.
“Alpha Centauri,” which takes its name from the closest star system to our own, begins with an eerie, serpentine crawl. Resonant textures build to a peaceful break into open space before mystery engulfs, and an exhilarating instrumental breakdown closes the final minute of the track.
Anyone familiar with the writings of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. will recognize the name of the album’s eighth track, “Tralfamadore,” a fictional planet of beings who exist in “all-time” that makes appearances throughout the writer’s work. This track is driven by a light, easy piano riff, tickled with playful reeds, and feels like the first welcome breaths of a decompression you didn’t know you needed.
Co-written with pianist Yana Couto, “Silver Seed” is a slow-building capsule of bliss. If any of the tracks on this album convey the overwhelming feelings of grace that are possible upon realizing and accepting our minute, short-lived place as Earthlings in the grand expanse of the cosmos, it is this one. Close your eyes and take it all in: the oneiric bounce of a lone astronaut watching the effulgent tail of a comet peel through space toward a destination we can only imagine.
As we come to learn, the destination reached is little more than a launching point for one’s next adventure. With “Air Born Again,” we head back into the depths ourselves. Paced drums and wandering synths evolve into an electronic warbling, a helical transition, as scattered late-night sax wails carry the song of humankind into a waiting, welcomed abyss, the vast mysteries of space no different than our own.
The Ensemble
While Rumpistol is the composer for all tracks on this album, it’s worth mentioning the talented team of collaborators who worked with him to bring these dazzling tracks to life:
Sven Dam Meinild – Flutes, EWI, bass-clarinet, clarinet, saxophone
Maria Jagd – Violin & viola
Emil de Waal – Drums, percussion, bowed metal
Helene Tungelund – Celtic harp
Anders Stig Møller – Bass on “Ascension”, “Stargazer”, “Celestial Awe” & “Alpha Centauri”
Nicolai Land – Upright bass on “Pale Blue Dot” & “Silver Seed”
Anna Roemer – Guitar on “Ascension” & “Silver Seed”
Yana Couto – Piano on “Silver Seed”
Dísa – Vocals on “Nebula”
What’s Next
Stream Nebula on your favorite service today, and check out The Rust Music for a special edition vinyl pressing of this masterful album.
For those of you stateside yearning for the live experience, Rumpistol will be playing two rare shows in the US in the coming weeks, first at Two Moons Music Hall in Denver with Bandito Jones on May 22nd, followed by an official album release party at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn on May 23rd with Malakai and a special downtempo set from Entangled Mind.
Find tickets here. If you’re anywhere near these cities, you will not want to miss this chance to see Rumpistol in action.
More than ever before, humans need to make a serious effort to abandon the artificial lights of our living rooms and step outside to spend time with the lambent eyes of the stars. While technological advances grant us stunning images of planets, galaxies, and more, to be studied night or day, our own personal backyard view of these distant gems grows more and more obscured as light pollution spreads across the sky. For many around the world, it takes an excursion just to witness a fraction of the constellated wonders glistening each night above our heads.
On May 13th, Rumpistol released his ninth full-length album, Nebula, an ode to our relationship with the mysteries of space. Released by The Rust Music, Nebula was created as “a testament and a love letter to the waning awe that the Space Race (and its implications) imbued amongst the many peoples of the world, while also being designed with an implicit focus on the results on stage.”
Read below to learn more about this multidisciplinary musician and embark on a journey into the sidereal sound waves of his most recent creation.
The Composer
Rumpistol is the solo project of Danish composer, producer, and keyboardist Jens Berents Christiansen. After a stint playing keys and guitar with the band Magtværk, Rumpistol made his initial impact on the world of electronic music in 2003 with the hypnotic downtempo IDM of his self-titled album.
At times dancey, introspective, peaceful, and haunting, always blurring the lines of clear genre distinction, Rumpistol’s release history showcases a sense of experimentation that has proven itself as much at home in the dark calm of a seated theater as it is in the flashing frenzy of a club. Each album and EP marks the evolutionary patterns of a producer unafraid to appropriate seemingly disparate parts and pieces of inspirational threads into the new creative territory of his design.
Aside from electronic production, Christiansen has also been active as a composer for film, theater, and dance scores, and has been a key figure in the world fusion group Kalaha, a four-piece band that blends jazz improvisation with Afrobeat funk rhythms for a lively output of dance-heavy instrumentals.
Rumpistol’s last three albums–After the Flood, Isola, and Going There–seem to have been driven by the producer’s dream-like take on minimalist neoclassical composition, narrative soundscapes that entrance listeners with arrangements of pastoral piano, tranquil accompaniments, and ambient sound design. Given this focus, Christiansen most often performs these days with a live ensemble, an experience which has yet to make its way to the United States.
With Nebula, the producer seems to have established yet another new synthesis of his many stylistic trends. Incorporating collaborative instrumentation from a range of strings, woodwinds, percussion, and keys, Rumpistol has developed a fresh sonic narrative to explore our relationship–past, present, and future–with the inscrutability and allure of the worlds outside our own.
A Look Inside
The album opens with “Ascension,” where a single note draws its cosmic echo to a disorienting thatchwork of mounting synths before breaking into a realm of space rock as prog-like percussive patterns and minimal saxophone, reminiscent of Pink Floyd, carry the launch to its conclusion.
With “Stargazer,” concentric tinkerings remind us of early Rumpistol. As peaceful woodwinds overtake the initial wonder drift, a tribal drum scheme emerges layered with time-warp psy synths to lead us waltzing into dissolved boundaries of light and flesh, where we become the stuff of stars.
Definitely one of the danciest tracks on the album, the eponymous “Nebula” begins with a pendulous pizzicato over distorted transmissions. Epic synths build into buoyant zero-gravity shifts and movements of mandalic weave as listeners morph into celestial fish to swim through the ephemeral beauty of a dying star.
“Pale Blue Dot,” inspired by a famous photo shot in lunar orbit during the Apollo 8 mission, holds sway from start to finish with an airy embrace of ethereal piano, refractive harp ripples, and the sweet prodding of subtle drums and sporadic upright bass fingerings. There’s a sense of distance and familiarity throughout, like watching a loved one recede in the rearview mirror as you take off into the unknown, wondering if you’ll ever meet again.
At seven minutes and fifty seconds, “Above The Horizon” is a compositional gem and a sonic vessel worthy of patience, attention, and awe. Atmospheric distortions of electropulse disruptors mingle with echoic layers of instrumental halcyon to produce the effect of “breaking through,” an interstellar journey of emergence, witness, bafflement, grace, as a careful emotive rhythm unfolds and listeners suddenly find themselves suspended speechless in full view of the Great Beyond.
The sixth track, “Celestial Awe,” is like a slow dance with the stars. Encompassing drum patterns guide the track into triumphant woodwinds and a powerful combination of strings, while keys weave throughout, both gentle and mischievous, dancing like Pan on a moonlit hill.
“Alpha Centauri,” which takes its name from the closest star system to our own, begins with an eerie, serpentine crawl. Resonant textures build to a peaceful break into open space before mystery engulfs, and an exhilarating instrumental breakdown closes the final minute of the track.
Anyone familiar with the writings of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. will recognize the name of the album’s eighth track, “Tralfamadore,” a fictional planet of beings who exist in “all-time” that makes appearances throughout the writer’s work. This track is driven by a light, easy piano riff, tickled with playful reeds, and feels like the first welcome breaths of a decompression you didn’t know you needed.
Co-written with pianist Yana Couto, “Silver Seed” is a slow-building capsule of bliss. If any of the tracks on this album convey the overwhelming feelings of grace that are possible upon realizing and accepting our minute, short-lived place as Earthlings in the grand expanse of the cosmos, it is this one. Close your eyes and take it all in: the oneiric bounce of a lone astronaut watching the effulgent tail of a comet peel through space toward a destination we can only imagine.
As we come to learn, the destination reached is little more than a launching point for one’s next adventure. With “Air Born Again,” we head back into the depths ourselves. Paced drums and wandering synths evolve into an electronic warbling, a helical transition, as scattered late-night sax wails carry the song of humankind into a waiting, welcomed abyss, the vast mysteries of space no different than our own.
The Ensemble
While Rumpistol is the composer for all tracks on this album, it’s worth mentioning the talented team of collaborators who worked with him to bring these dazzling tracks to life:
Jens Berents Christiansen – Pianette, würlitzer, synthesizers, programming, cembalo, guitar, percussion, recorder
Sven Dam Meinild – Flutes, EWI, bass-clarinet, clarinet, saxophone
Maria Jagd – Violin & viola
Emil de Waal – Drums, percussion, bowed metal
Helene Tungelund – Celtic harp
Anders Stig Møller – Bass on “Ascension”, “Stargazer”, “Celestial Awe” & “Alpha Centauri”
Nicolai Land – Upright bass on “Pale Blue Dot” & “Silver Seed”
Anna Roemer – Guitar on “Ascension” & “Silver Seed”
Yana Couto – Piano on “Silver Seed”
Dísa – Vocals on “Nebula”
What’s Next
Stream Nebula on your favorite service today, and check out The Rust Music for a special edition vinyl pressing of this masterful album.
For those of you stateside yearning for the live experience, Rumpistol will be playing two rare shows in the US in the coming weeks, first at Two Moons Music Hall in Denver with Bandito Jones on May 22nd, followed by an official album release party at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn on May 23rd with Malakai and a special downtempo set from Entangled Mind.
Find tickets here. If you’re anywhere near these cities, you will not want to miss this chance to see Rumpistol in action.
Featured Photo: Mads Fisker
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