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As the Complete Mountain Almanac, Rebekka Karijord and Jessica Dessner have written a song for each month of the year – with the help of the latter’s notable siblings in our FEBRUARY 2023 issue of Uncut, available for purchase here.
Jessica Dessner may have some credit for the success of The national. “There’s a long tradition, since we were teenagers, of me playing my brothers music that I think they should like,” says the poet, dancer, visual artist and sister of the band’s twin guitarists Bryce and Aaron. “I remember in the early interviews they were giving credit to their low-key older sister playing stuff and my funny boyfriends coming around
to teach them to play the drums.
When dessner began a collaboration with a Norwegian singer and composer based in Stockholm Rebecca Curryord, it was time for her to return the favor. “In 2018, we were all together on Aaron’s house for Christmas and I said, “Listen, there’s a project I want to tell you about.” I played several demos and both got “the look”. I know the look! Finally, I said, “Do you want to be a part of this?” It just happened organically. Plus there’s an element of a big sister telling the little brothers what to do! It’s rare these days that I do that, but if I can use it, I will…”
It’s easy to hear why dessner the brothers got “the look”. Combining Jessica’s poetry with music and cariord tunes, Complete Mountain Almanac is an intimate, captivating blend of folk, classical and chamber music. Its 12 songs, one for each month of the year, deal with decay and healing, both global and personal.
The project had a long gestation. Friends from the 2000s, Carriage connected dessner in 2016 after struggling with the idea of writing a “climate change record. I thought it would only be instrumental, but I felt it was too abstract, too big to understand. I called Jessica and said, ‘Do you want to try writing something for this project?’ She immediately said yes, and we started emailing back and forth.”
The momentum then stalled for a while dessner processed breast cancer diagnosis. “Rebecca very gracefully left me alone for the most intense part of it,” she says. “At one point she sent me a little note to say that if I wanted to use the project to deal with what I was going through health-wise, she would be totally open to it. I couldn’t commit to anything, but I meant it.
Eight months later, Carriage visited dessner at her home in rural northern Italy. “Jessica gave me this 40-page manuscript called Complete Mountain Almanac and said, “It’s all yours.” She was able to express exactly what I wanted to say, but in a much more personal way. There is a synergy between cancer in our natural world, our attack on ourselves and the essence of a person going through illness, the body attacking itself. She was able to connect these things. I very loosely took what stood out to me, then sent her demos.
Once the schedules were agreed, the songs were recorded in Paris in early 2020, just before the lockdown. Used to working alone, Carriage she put aside her usual ‘control’, except for one rule: “I wanted every song to be done live with just me and the two brothers,” she says. Minimalistic overdubs were added later, along with string arrangements written by Bryce and executed by Malmö Symphony Orchestra, “but the foundations must be alive with all flaws, love and advantage. And I wanted to record it chronologically. “January” is the first record we made together in the studio. This week has been one of the most intense and inspiring I have ever had.”
Carriage plans live concerts with the twins, and she and Jessica are already discussing a new collaboration. “We’re talking about the next one,” he says dessner. “We need some time to let this one land, then we’ll see where we go.”
Complete Mountain Almanac out January 27 via Bella Union.
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