Reliquarium: Future Hymns from the Ancient World

Description

Reliquarium: Future Hymns from the Ancient World is a studio album by the American singer and songwriter Kemper Crabb of ArkAngel fame, independently released in 2010.

This album isn’t for everyone. The instrumentation is amazing, from traditional instruments like guitar, to eclectic and ancient instruments I can’t even pronounce. If you know and love hymns, the classic melodies are still there, but the presentation is entirely new and creative. The sound is medieval, sounding like a mix of Celtic and Middle Eastern musical forms with an aggressiveness derived from more modern sources. ‘Reliquarium’ opens with the hymn, «This is Our Father’s World», and at least three of the songs, «Holy, Holy, Holy», «Just as I Am», and «On Jordan’s Stormy Banks» embrace such levels of minor-chord fervor and dissonance that many listeners may think they accidentally put in the new Radiohead CD. Accessible, yet endlessly artistic, Kemper Crabb offers up an album that stands toe-to-toe with his classic release, ‘The Vigil‘, while exploring some new territory that threatens to inject real life into the moribund world of hymn re-imagining. [Shawn McLaughlin, Christian Musician, May/June 2011]

This is Kemper Crabb’s brain on music. This Episocpal Priest/Rock Star (The Vigil, Atomic Opera, Cademon’s Call)/Theologian whose monthly column in HM magazine are a must read opens his brain here to post-reformation music. There is a lot of Bible belt music rolling around up there – «Near the Cross», «There is a Fountain», «Just as I Am», «Rock of Ages», «Nothing but the Blood». There are a lot of multi-versed, word rich, theologically sound stuff like «Holy Cubed» (Holy, Holy, Holy), «O How Firm a Foundation» and «This is my Father’s World». But most of all, there the instruments. Boogle Tube, Cittern, Celtic Harp, Oud, Theremin, Chanter, Crummhorn, Bombarde, Kellhorn, Harmonium, Kalimba, Melodica, Bouzouki, Echo Harp, Bowed Psaltery, Harpe de Judah, Djembe, Udo, Pepinique, and on and on and on, plus more recognizable stringed instruments such as guitar, mandolin, violin, cello and obo. Obo????

And what does Kemper do with this plethora of sound? He creates soundscapes, Irish reels, meditative moments and trippy sub-tracks for the rock-rib lyrics he delivers in that distinctive high tenor voice of his. The listener is left with the over-all impression that modern praise & worship should really should make more room for the classics.

Equally important as the lyrics and sound is the cause. This is a fund-raiser – his first – for his father’s ministry, Servants of the King, http://www.servantsoftheking.org, a remarkable organization that builds orphanages, schools, leprosoriums, hospitals and churches in India and Africa.

Buy the album. It’s full of original takes on great music, for a great cause. [Linda LaFianza, The Phantom Tollbooth, 2011]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/reliquarium/452307935)

CD tracklist:

01. This Is My Father’s World – 5:29
02. Near the Cross – 6:15
03. Holy 3 – 7:13
04. There Is a Fountain – 7:05
05. Just As I Am – 5:56
06. Rock of Ages – 7:42
07. O How Firm a Foundation/Perichoresis – 7:32
08. Nothing But the Blood – 6:20
09. On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand – 8:25
10. Come Thou Almighty King – 5:02