Exposé print issues (1993-2011)
Donner — The Van Gennep Gap
(Apollon Records AP, 2024, CD / LP / DL)
by Henry Schneider, Published 2025-01-18
Donner’s second album, The Van Gennep Gap, is named after the Dutch-German-French ethnographer Arnold Van Gennep, the “father of liminality.” And you may ask, what is liminality? Liminality is the state of ambiguity or uncertainty you experience as you transition from one stage to the next. It could be as simple as moving from being asleep to being awake, or it could be as complex as moving your residence from one place to another. Donner has composed twelve musical vignettes that chronicle their impressions of various locales in the Grenland area of South Eastern Norway where multi-instrumentalist Jacob Holm-Lupo (synths, keyboards, guitars, bass, percussion, samples, and loops) resides. While it is primarily a solo effort, Jacob enlisted help from guitaist Stian Larsen, trumpeter Jonas Vemork Kilmøy, and flautist Kristoffer Momrak to flesh out some of his compositions. Musically the tracks range from delicate tone poems to upbeat urban funk. There is a subtle underlying political message about climate change and pollution, but that does not get in the way of the listening experience. I found “I Saw Bright Lights Above the Hills” to be the best track, with “Starring Wings Hauser” to be the opposite. As an aside, Wings Hauser was a TV actor on 90210, many cop shows, and soap operas over his long career. Overall, The Van Gennep Gap is an improvement over Donner’s 2020 debut album Hesitant Light.
Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases
Related artist(s): Alwanzatar (Kristoffer Momrak), Jacob Holm-Lupo / Telepath, Donner
More info
http://donner.bandcamp.com/album/the-van-gennep-gap
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