Rebekka Bakken would be the first to admit that people don’t talk about her music as much as they listen. The three-octave singer-songwriter is known as an “Anti Drama Queen”, a person who is both a restless soul but also at peace within herself. She is constantly pondering and appeasing people, but she doesn’t like them making a fuss about her art or herself. She says that music is more important than me. “I love to bring everything to life through my music. It’s not a big deal. Hearing is feeling, it is living when it comes to this emotional performer. Perhaps it’s because her songs are so beautiful and meaningful, and her melodies so beautifully spoken, that there is an immense curiosity to discover what they mean. The fifth album from the Norwegian singer is her fifth. She was previously a resident of New York and Vienna, but now lives on a Swedish horse-farm. The twelve songs of “September”, which were produced in close collaboration in Kingston, New York with Malcolm Burn, are one of the most beautiful and Country-influenced song-albums. These songs about love, life and misery, which are some of the oldest topics on the planet, are beautifully sung and played with a great deal of passion. Their sound is already so original and unique that even the three covers of songs by Bruce Springsteen and Jane Siberry fit perfectly with Bakken’s new compositions. This music touches on many levels. Rebakka Bakken said that communication is more than just words. The title of September and the melancholy it evokes are related to “the beginning, the end of all that” according to Rebekka Bakken. “Because last year, I was able to see the world and live through my father’s eyes, and I was able to be there in September for him, I also had to deal with a lot of things in mine. Although very few things were meaningful after that, the ones that did had so much life that they made me feel more alive than ever. That helped me get rid of all the useless stuff I had accumulated over the past summers and springs. It was strange to lose interest in my work for a while. I didn’t feel like music could satisfy me or my senses of an occupation as much. Within a few months, she had written exactly the songs that expressed her emotional universe: the gentle title-track, the pop-loving “Driving” and “Girl Next Door”, as well as the lyrical “Mina’s Dream” and the mid-tempo-melody, “Never Been To Paris”, as well as the filmic episode about “Innocent Thief”, as well as such beautiful love-songs, like “Strange Evening”. She also found songs by other songwriters and completely re-worked them. She recalls that the boy she borrowed the tape was very mean and tough. “I was scared that I would have to face my last hour. I told him that I had damaged his tape. He just shrugged when I did, and said, “It happens.” I was relieved to finally tell him that I had ruined his tape. Rebekka Bakken traveled to his Kingston studio, New York in February 2011 to begin recording “September”. She was accompanied by Gail Ann Dorsey, Bill Dillon, and Bill Dobrow, an amazing group of American musicians. I felt so relaxed during these recordings because these musicians really felt and expressed my musical world. Rebekka Bakken said that the most amazing thing about the album was the fact that she plays the piano herself. “I didn’t think that this would ever happen,” Rebekka Bakken says. She sings and plays her own music which she composed on the piano. This allows her to express herself in a free, unrestricted way. She consciously uses the double negative to say that music cannot be prevented. It’s impossible to make it work if you try. Music can help people think less. This is evident in “September”, a nearly one-hour-long journey that spans a wide range of emotions. It’s especially effective when you listen to the music and don’t talk too much about it. from http://www.universal-music.de
