His eighth studio album as a soloist,
Wild Hxmans is singer/songwriter
Christian Kjellvander's first to arrive after the 2016 U.S. presidential and U.K. Brexit elections. Though not overtly political, his lyrics address intimate encounters, separations, and forces of good and evil, in international settings across open borders. Expanding his delicate, poignant songcraft and arrangements in subtle ways, he arrives at a more epic, ominous sound without deviating too far from
Wild Hxmans' consistently elegant predecessors. The album opens with the over-eight-minute "Strangers in Northeim," a track that begins with two minutes of eerie, ambient strings and synths and irregular, distant percussive sounds, like a film score for a tragic setting. When
Kjellvander's cautionary baritone finally enters, it's to emphasize "Take only exactly what you need." Light jazz drums enter shortly thereafter on the words "The road the long/But silence is longer." It eventually morphs into an atmospheric rock, electric guitar solo and all, before fading out on a dull howl. He follows that song with the nearly ten-minute "Curtain Maker," which is also explorative, if more melodic and rhythmic. The album moves into a more forceful rock beginning with "The Thing Is" midway through, part of a three-song span that acts as an anxious, sonic climax before winding down on the sparser "Faux Guernica," a song inspired by a road trip through northern Spain with his son. However, the album never breaks out of its haunting, deeply reflective state. A searching set with not one but three tracks that run over seven minutes,
Wild Hxmans only extends
Kjellvander's well-established legacy as an affecting, often engrossing artist. ~ Marcy Donelson