Rebekka Bakken: I Keep My Cool

She grew up in a small Norwegian village not far from Oslo. But because this was not exactly the hub of the world for Rebekka Bakken, she quickly moved out into the wider world. first to New York in 1994. And after eight years, she finally returned to Europe, where she discovered Vienna as her new home among the metropolises. "Vienna is a very beautiful city, very pleasant and very quiet and calm, even if it is also a big city," says the singer. Rebekka Bakken enjoys this peace and quiet simply because she can regroup and recharge her batteries here. Ever since she released her first solo album "The Art Of How To Fall" in 2003, she has been the talk of the town as a charismatic and sensual singer-songwriter. She ennobles her songs with a three-octave voice that allows her to move back and forth between pop, folk, jazz and R&B with ease and beauty of sound. And with the kind of success that not only pays off for her in sold-out concerts everywhere. For "The Art of How To Fall", she received the coveted Jazz Award from the German Phono Association, which is regarded as a golden record in the jazz industry. And for the follow-up album "Is That You?" (2005), the German specialist magazine "Musikexpress" wrote: "Bakken opens up musical horizons that range from the Midwest of the USA to the magically charged, Scandinavian soul landscapes." As rocket-like as Bakken's career has developed over the past three years, she has worked hard for it. She started out with violin lessons. However, as she developed a preference for singing as a child, she taught herself to play the piano so that she could accompany herself. The break in style finally came in her teens. After singing Norwegian folk and church songs until then, she gained her first experience of funk, soul and rock in local bands. From then on, her path was mapped out and even a degree in philosophy and economics could not dissuade her. And so, in 1994, she took the leap across the pond. "I went to New York to make music," Bakken looks back. "And I got a shock because nobody called me to make me a big star. So I wandered around the city and cleaned my apartment five times a day. Until I realized that if I wanted something in my life, I had to do something about it." Suddenly, the composer and lyricist Rebekka Bakken began to blossom. "I wrote because I enjoyed it. Not because I wanted to show or read it to others, but just because I wanted to 'explore' myself and my thoughts through writing," she says. "It's like I make myself available to the song, open myself up to it. I don't force anything, I just let it happen. Things come to me and I sing them." And so it was only a matter of time before someone took notice of this natural talent. Universal Music offered Rebekka Bakken the opportunity to record her own material. Both on the first album "The Art Of How To Fall" - 2003, as well as the follow-up album "Is That You?" in 2005, she naturally only had hand-picked musicians at her side. "The production of the second album released a lot of energy and gave me the confidence that I could go on as an artist," she said at the time, not so much modestly as reflectively. Just one year later, she has now used this released energy to record her third album "I Keep My Cool" - and has long since found her way as an artist, singer and composer. "An album is a good reflection of myself in the here and now. If I'm not at peace with myself, I feel uncomfortable - I then strive to return to this pole." With this credo, Rebekka Bakken has made it to the singer-songwriter Olympus in just three years. With the two solo albums "The Art Of How To Fall" (2003) and "Is That You?" (2005), on which she used pop, blues, jazz and folk in an intelligently seductive and careful manner to create an above all elegiac and beautiful sound tapestry between her inner worlds and the outside world. However, every album by the Norwegian wonder-siren and Viennese-by-choice is not just an autobiographical seismograph. Each album is also always a new beginning for her. Just like her third album "I Keep My Cool". "I've become clearer about what I actually want to do," says Bakken. "For me, this album is a step forward. Just by working with wonderful people. I just feel incredibly happy. But although it is now even more focused and therefore different from the first two albums, 'I Keep My Cool' is all Rebekka Bakken again." For the eleven songs, all of which were written by her, Bakken was able to rely to a large extent on those accomplished musician friends who could already be heard on "Is That You?". In addition to guitarist Eivind Aarset, bassist Larry Danielsson and drummer Per Lindvall, the well-known Norwegian soundtrack composer Kjetil Bjerkestrand has now joined them on piano and keyboards. And as the icing on the cake, especially in the ballad-like anthems such as "Welcome Home", "Any Pretty Girl" and "You're Crying", Bakken was even able to recruit strings from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, while the Vienna Symphony Orchestra supported the charity song "Everything Can Change". In the songs, Rebekka Bakken once again shows herself to be a poet who can often achieve great effects and tell stories with just a few small, delicate steps. And which - as is so often the case with her - revolve around the theme of all themes: love. Bakken makes it clear in the opening song "We Hit It Again", a smooth R&B gem, how you can simply enjoy the fresh blossoming of love: "It's a song about love - how great it is. Just that first moment when you fall in love and it develops into an exciting game between two people." The forcefulness with which Bakken can then conjure up shared memories is demonstrated one song later. In "Welcome Home", with its slightly Irish breeze, which is magically charged by Eivind Aarset's guitar and in which Bakken's radiant and intense voice simply casts a spell over you and wraps you around her finger. Bakken is not only a singer for all melancholy tones here, she turns "Any Pretty Girl" into an intimate folk ballad and "Love May Seem Hard" into a gentle and slightly jazzy number - which once again underlines how Bakken simply lets her musical thoughts flow from her pen. In fact, Bakken insists that "I've never composed a single bar of jazz. Before I made my first album, I had done a lot of things like pop and funk." And since Bakken doesn't like to be pigeonholed, she can be experienced across her entire spectrum in the songs, almost all of which were composed for the new album. Only "Welcome Home" was written around two years ago and the groovy up-tempo song "Just Having My Fun" six or seven years ago. Bakken does not want to hide the fact that there is a touch of Prince in this song: "Yes, when I heard it later, after I had recorded it, I definitely noticed a similarity to Prince. But I would never say that he influenced me directly. These are songs that come out of me. I want to get to the heart of what I want to express." To do this, she sometimes resorts to Norwegian lyrics, which she translated into English for the robust blues hit "Hard To Be A Loser". And in which Bakken, in the role of a sitter, extends her vocal claws, while Eivind Aarset lets the slide guitar howl and howl. But one song is particularly close to Rebekka Bakken's heart. It is "Everything Can Change", which was written as the official song for the Vienna "Life Ball 2006", Europe's largest charity event dedicated to the fight against AIDS. Bakken: "When I was asked a year ago if I would like to write the song, I was a little skeptical at first: What can you compose about AIDS? And then I heard reports on the radio from people infected with AIDS who spoke so clearly and sensitively about their fate. But they also mentioned how friends' attitudes towards them had changed since their illness. And that's exactly what the song is about: you have to stand by each other, regardless of whether you have an illness or not. You don't have to give anyone advice. You have to love the other person as much as you love yourself." The result is an anthem that gets under your skin - and at the same time is just one of the infinite facets of the exceptional artist Rebekka Bakken.