BC SONGWRITER JORDAN KLASSEN SET TO RELEASE SECOND LP WITH NEVADO RECORDS, JAVELIN, OUT FEBRUARY 19.
Take a stroll down a Vancouver street, and see who joins you with the new video from Jordan Klassen for upcoming album single “Baby Moses”, available to watch today courtesy of Clash Music. The song itself is an outwardly beautiful track whose sumptuous, uplifting arrangement conceals some self-lacerating, bared-soul lyrics. “Baby Moses was a song I wrote looking back at my twenties and wishing that I'd known then what I know now,” says Klassen. “Truly Rod Stewart-esque. I wanted to be honest about my disappointment, but also humble enough to not just blame everyone else for my own shortcomings.”
Javelin is an album that rewrites history. Due out February 19 on Nevado Records, these ten songs, among the most confidently and imaginatively arranged Jordan Klassen has ever recorded, engage the past, reassess recollections and impressions, turn failures not into successes but lessons for the future.
Sonically, Javelin is a mixing of ambient and rhythmic elements, from the ebullient African percussion of “St. Fraser” to the heavily reverbed vocals of closer “Smoking Too Long.” Klassen found inspiration—a patron saint, of sorts—in an unlikely figure. “The record is a nod to the ‘90s New Age music that I grew up with,” he says with a slight chuckle. “My mom was really into Enya, and I wanted to explore some of those sounds in a very modern way. I wanted to really embrace ethereality.” It’s not hard to hear echoes of “Orinoco Flow” or “Caribbean Blue” in the soft-focus thrum of “Miles,” even the delicate overlay of instruments on “We Got Married,” even the whispered valedictory of “Smoking Too Long.”
The follow up to 2013’s acclaimed Repentance, the album sees Klassen depart from the eloquently spare folk of its predecessor, adding ambient and rhythmic elements to vivid Technicolor arrangements in what is his most vibrant and vital album to date.
On the recommendation of James Vincent McMorrow Klassen recorded Javelin at Sonic Ranch studio in Tornillo, just outside El Paso in Texas. He produced the album himself and plays almost all the instruments. The songs on Javelin spring from hard experiences—namely, from Klassen’s struggle with depression and his mother’s diagnosis with breast cancer, now thankfully in remission. Despite the fears and despairs that motivated these songs, there is always a kernel of hope illuminating the music from the inside.
JAVELIN TRACKLIST
01 Glory B
02 Gargoyles
03 No Salesman
04 Baby Moses
05 Miles
06 We Got Married
07 St Fraser
08 Delilah
09 Light In The Evening
10 Smoking Too Long
EUROPEAN TOUR DATES
Jan 29 - Liverpool, UK @ Arts Club
Jan 30 - Manchester, UK @ The Ruby Lounge
Jan 31 - Cardiff, UK @ The Globe
Feb 2 - Bristol, UK @ Thekla
Feb 3 - Brighton, UK @ Komedia
Feb 4 - London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall
Feb 6 - Amsterdam, NE @ Paradiso (Upstairs)
Feb 8 - Berlin, DE @ Privatclub
Feb 9 - Copenhagen, DK @ Ideal Bar
Feb 10 - Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervik
Feb 12 - Stockholm, SE @ Debaser Ballroom
Feb 13 - Norrköping, SE @ Where’s The Music Festival
Feb 14 - Malmö, SE @ Malmö Live
Feb 16 - Madrid, ES @ El Sol
Feb 18 - Barcelona, ES @ Barts Club
Feb 19 - Zaragoza, ES @ Las Armas
Feb 20 - San Sebastian, ES @ Le Bukowski
Feb 29 - Munich, DE @ Milla
Mar 1 - Cologne, DE @ Studio 672
Mar 2 - Hamburg, DE @ Kukuun
JORDAN KLASSEN ONLINE
NEVADO RECORDS
