Pastor Steve’s recent review of Bifrost Arts: Salvation Is Created…

Bifrost Arts is “a sacred music non-profit that exists to enrich the church and engage the world with beauty and truth.” A variety of musicians are involved including like Sufjan Stevens, Isaac Wardell, Derek Webb, The Welcome Wagon, Denison Witmer, and J. Tillman among many others.

Salvation is Created is the new Christmas album from Bifrost Arts. It’s their second album, following the release of Come O Spirit!Anthology of Hymns and Spiritual Songs Volume 1.

I love this Christmas album. The overwhelming feel of this CD for me is haunt. It’s dark. Don’t let that scare you away! It’s unique and beautiful. Song list…

• O Come O Come Emmanuel – Instrumental lead-in to the album. Anticipatory. Eager.
• Joy Joy!!! – Best song on the album. A spooky, Advent lullaby written by Isaac Wardell based loosely on a 17th century French tune. Wow. Just gorgeous. Download/listen here.
• Bring the Torch Jeanette, Isabella – Originally published in 1553 in France. Two milkmaids stumble across Jesus as they go to milk their cows. They run to town to gather people to come, quietly, and see the Christ child sleeping (more at Wikipedia). Sufjan does a lo-fi version of this on Volume II of his Songs for Christmas. Many other versions are out there. This is the best I’ve heard. Simple and lovely.
• O Little Town of Bethlehem – Traditional lyrics with a curious arrangement. Not a favorite for me, but should raise an eyebrow. Still fits the style of the album.
• Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence – 4th century. The haunting continues with this wonderful old song. Rich text…

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand
Ponder nothing earthly minded, For with blessing in His hand
Christ our God to earth descendeth, Our full homage to demand.

• O Come, Messiah, Come – Isaac Wardell song. Simple, acoustic strums and harmonies. A piano humbly joins in. The last 45 seconds seems to be a musical interlude prior to Silent Night.
• Silent Night – So familiar. Yet so different. It’s Silent Night at the prom during the slowest of the slow dances. Some Motown in there somewhere. Played just after “Earth Angel” at the Enchantment Under the Mistletoe dance.
• Out of Heaven – Derek Webb and Evan Gregory sing a combination of lyrics from a 1678 song and Isaac Wardell. In the middle there’s a gathering of sounds, a mingling, much like the unfathomable coming together of God and man in Christ, which is the theme of the song.
• Veiled in Darkness Judah Lay - As mysterious as it sounds, there’s a haunted house sound in the background. Have to hear it. I think the musicians may have been listening to a slowed down version of The Munsters theme song just before recording. Anyone else hear that? It’s way cooler than I make it sound. Trust me.
• Salvation is Created – A chilling falsetto building into “Hallelujahs,” strings, jingle bells, drums, and voices. A great capstone.

This album is about letting the imagination run to the manger scene, and contemplating the theological and practical realities of God made flesh. Sometimes these realities are captured by marionettes in muted colors on a dimly lit stage. Sometimes they are found in the march of wooden soldiers who never show their faces. Sometimes they are expressed in a solemn dance. This is music more inspired by Tim Burton than Frank Capra. It’s the subversion of Christmas as we know it, and it’s wonderfully dark.

All of these songs are quite singable in their own way, though at times (Silent Night, for example) not as much as in the traditional versions. With candles lit and friends gatherd ’round, I think these songs will make your Christmas more thoughtful, meaningful, and lovely. I’m sincerely thankful for folks like Bifrost Arts who are making winning efforts to restoring beauty and truth to songs we can sing together. And through this album in particular, they help restore the melody of Christmas to sounds of mystery and awe. A sound found in our Scripture but too often missing from our Season.

May your Advent season be haunted by this beauty. Spread it around.

• Buy Salvation is Created for $9.90 at Amazon
• Read more about Salvation is Created at Great Comfort Records
• Christianity Today: Turning the Gospel Ship Around about why Bifrost Arts exists
• Download it on eMusic
• More Bifrost Arts at MySpace, Twitter, Facebook
• Relevant Mag review

Daniel Renstrom’s new Christmas album, On The Incarnation, released on 10.29. It’s eight songs selected and written to encourage worship and not merely good seasonal feelings. This is a theology-minded Christmas album. Reflective.

First let me talk about a few Christmas staples on the album. “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” is joyous and upbeat. The popping strum of a mandolin colors this song folksy and fun. Love it. “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” surprised me. I’m used to it being a collective, jolly sounding song like at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life. Daniel offers a beautiful, quieter, more contemplative version. Just great. “Angels We Have Heard On High” has an updated, worship band feel to it. I’m not a musician and I don’t want to explain this wrong, but it seems to have a minor key worked into the song that isn’t in the traditional version. That tweaks the feel of the song which I think is pretty cool. “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” is a short, music-only song leading into Daniel’s song, “Rise and Fall.”

The new songs written by Renstrom are excellent. The album begins with “His Company,” calling us to sing because Jesus is our Immanuel…

Who has believed
This message we have loved
Invisible God, came in flesh from above
Mighty, wonderful God, Prince of Peace
Bringing sight to the lost, calling us to sing

Join oh join the angel melody
God with man is pleased to dwell
Sing confess, with all His company
Jesus our Immanuel

“Rise and Fall” will likely be the most recognizable song off the album. It’s the most curious sounding. I can’t listen to it without cranking up the volume and bass. What a great reminder, missing in the consumer Christmas world as well as too often in our churches, that the birth of Jesus wasn’t just about joy. It threatened those who oppose. Here’s the whole song…

The dawn of the light
Is breaking tonight
At the birth of this dangerous King

And shepherds and kings
Bow down and sing
At the birth of this dangerous King

Many will rise and fall
At the birth of this King, the birth of this King

Those who oppose
Stumble on this stone
The birth of this dangerous King

But many will hear
Believing in fear
Will hope in this dangerous King

“Comfort Ye” has a more traditional sound. It starts acoustic and quiet with a hint of a rising and fading ambient sound behind it, eventually leading to the mountaintop of music and lyric that deserves exclamation points…

Immanuel / God with us / Son of God / Hallelujah

But the worshipful conclusion above doesn’t come without a recognition of our responsibility to the world. It’s preceded by…

In Christ we know hope for the hurting
In Christ we know love for the lost
In Christ we know no other one can save

The short, closing song is “Divine Messiah.” It’s a simple, short and quiet piano song expressing a longing for Messiah.

The truly great thing about On The Incarnation is that it doesn’t repel you when you are not in a Christmas season mood. It’s a gift from Renstrom that we can hear it outside the season and still enjoy it. I played the album for the kids in the car on the way to Louisville two weeks ago. Four songs in they said, “Are you sure these are Christmas songs?” The answer is yes, in the best sense.

On The Incarnation will make a great addition to your music library. You may want to give it as a gift to a Christian who needs to get beyond “Winter Wonderland” or a non-Christian who needs the Gospel.

The lyrics and chord charts are available for free. Download the album for $7.12 at Amazon.

Today we learned a new song at Doxa. It’s called “Refuge” and it’s from Sojourn Community Church’s new CD, Over the Grave.

I can’t find audio or video of the song online, but you can get the lyrics here. Soon you should be able to download it at iTunes and Amazon, but not quite yet. For now you can buy it directly from Sojourn.

More new songs from Sojourn coming in the weeks ahead, including “We Are Listening” and “Only Your Blood” (listen to both of these for free at MySpace).