Kristoffer Gildenlöw, founding (and ex) member of Pain of Salvation, returns in 2024 with his fifth album, Empty, the official release date being 8th February. He is a class act, and this is a high-class album, a joy to listen to and even at this early part of the 2024, is bound to reach many “best of” lists at the year end.
There is great beauty here. There is a core orchestral feel to it. The whole album is instantly accessible, yet with repeated listening gives up more secrets and feelings, surely always the mark of quality music. Gildenlöw plays multiple instruments, but also has a nice range of guests to help him realise his musical vision – you can see more of this in the official short video I have embedded below. Released via New Joke Music, distributed by Dutch Music Works, you can find out more, and order, at Empty | Kristoffer Gildenlöw (bandcamp.com)
So, twelve pieces of music to discuss and enjoy. It is a theme based, as opposed to concept, album. We start with the shortish introduction, Time to Turn the Page, lyrically a song which strikes me as being a commentary on the facile nature of celebrity. A distinctly bluesy guitar and bass support a sad, mournful vocal before halfway through we get a blast of open yearning rock, with the first of many corking guitar solos. A beginning which leaves you earnestly salivating for more.
The End of the Run follows and strikes me as being similar in theme to the opener, perhaps dealing with those ghastly reality “music” or “talent” shows which fill the television schedules on a Saturday night, shallow needs for empathy, and strangers sharing filtered lives of emptiness. The violin at the start is quite beautiful alongside a pretty keyboard loop which underpins the piece. Gildenlöw treats his words with the utmost respect vocally, tuneful yet mournful, subtle yet powerful. The guitar solo is one of those hair-raising moments, oozing with depth and feeling and I like the underplayed synth passage at the end.
Harbinger of Sorrow has had an advance video release, and this is embedded below. Cracking fun with the Harbinger as some Nosferatu figure visiting a young woman who has fallen ill, her loved ones praying for a miracle. Gildenlöw shows a talent for the operatic (such rock music set to the dramatic is enjoying a very welcome revival now) in his voice and writing. As the inner soul of the woman meets the Harbinger, the track starts to come alive, the guitar especially setting the scene. The woman makes a pact, in return for fifty years of life, “no more, no less”, when she will take his hand. We see her life passing by with those momentous moments, the difference being that she, unlike us, precisely knows the time of her passing. At the end, she has aged, the eternal one has not. This will be a highlight of the year. It is a deeply intelligent piece of music examining the nature of life and mortality, and providing a very good reminder, in these Marvel superhero CGI dominated days, of the expressive power of film without voice.
He's Not Me is also interesting, dealing I believe with most of us who know that these are very challenging times, but fail to stand up for right against wrong, against narcissistic power, and ultimately never free in our self-imposed chains. It has the blues at its very core, something you imagine being played to the undercurrents of working humanity in bars across the globe, the slide guitar especially powerful setting the scene. Some of the licks are so soulful, and the vocal harmonies are an important part of this piece in the mix. Very good, very moving, powerfully evocative.
Black & White is a catchy track which I also think harkens back to the glory days of classic filmmaking. There is a strong latter-day Floyd influence in this, including the female voice accompanying the main male vocal and certainly a lovely guitar solo born of Gilmour.
Down We Go is a metaphor for the climatic change impacting upon many communities across the world. A longer track over seven minutes, the vocals are deliberately weary, reflecting the tiredness and powerlessness we all feel in modern life. The voices and guitars are simply haunting, and kick start the thought process of the listener, the quiet intensity utterly striking as it builds and builds. After a brief pause, there is a guitar solo which can only have you gawping in wonder at the speaker, simply gorgeous as it also builds to a crescendo of sound and emotion. If there is a better solo this year, it will have to be a damned special one.
Turn It All Around talks of greed and how inseparable we are from those who lord it over us. The short violin burst at the start weeps in this short, but complex track, operatic and orchestral rock creating a wall of sound.
Means to an End strikes me as a paeon to aging and regret at what price is paid for so-called success. It is another track which would fit nicely into a modern classical piece, with piano and strings creating that sense of loss so well before a guitar solo which reminds one of Knopfler at his most expressive takes the track into a different and more intense phase.
Beautiful Decay talks about escaping small town blues, perhaps thinking about the dreams of youth which easily turn into disappointment or despair. I, for one, am very glad I live in such a quiet place, away from the hustle and bustle of city life and politics, and one should be careful what one wishes for sometimes. There is an exceptional Americana bassline underpinning this track, stunning mandolin bursts, some wonderful vocal harmonies, Hammond Organ creating a soundscape in a song which packs an incredible amount in four minutes.
The Brittle Man is a very short piece, deeply reflective and rather humbling in its lyrical and musical depiction of us, this is a track which could quite easily be depicted as chamber rock.
Saturated talks to me of a society of individuals who consume far too much, exchange our demons for currency, and pay the ultimate price in the death of the soul (and, I believe, in the ultimate demise of our modern society. I feel a change coming). The voices and keys bring us a sense of that demise, searching for the perpetual adrenaline hit modern society craves, but which brings no life satisfaction whatsoever. There is a lovely guitar solo accompanying the deceptively lively keyboards.
We finish off with the title track, which is the longest here, just short of epic length. It is another very reflective piece, aching with regret and the fact that humanity never seems to learn. It has an extended introduction which is a bit of a melting pot of Floydian and Tree brooding music. There is some anger in Gildenlöw’s voice on this as well as a deep sadness at our emptiness. The final four minutes are simply beautiful in the musical regret at the modern human condition, the guitar especially crying at us, the pulsing bass concentrating the mind, the organ overlaying, before the guitars pull at our heartstrings crying out for change.
Empty is, I believe, pretty much an essential purchase, an album which grabs you from the first listen and then refuses to let you go. Very highly recommended.