While the world as we know it is changing rapidly, some things remain happily the same. This untitled, brand new album by the Amsterdam-based singer-songwriter Roos Jonker, featuring her good friend singer-songwriter Dean Tippet, is a good example of old-fashioned crafts that will survive whatever happens. Jonker sounds as if she was touched by an angel, sounding as if she is right there in your room, sitting and singing right next to you, while you daydream away or read a book – you can almost touch her breath and see her soul.
The characteristic approach that is so quietly evident throughout this collection of songs, automatically comes with Dean Tippet, who brings along this extraordinary blend of musical styles and a spot-on talent for the right words at the right time. Add to this the incomparable touch of the gifted producer Eelco Topper, and you’ll have an album like no other. A classic album of sparkling songs, where golden voices and the precise amount of marvellous production might bring to mind the suave beauty of bossa nova, the spark of 1970’s pop and the Qi of minimal music.
This new album is released ten years after Roos Jonker’s debut solo album ‘Mmmmm’ from 2010. Tippet and Jonker also released three records as members of ‘We’ll Make It Right’ (‘In a Cabin With’ in 2009, ‘We’ll Right It Make’ in 2011 and ‘House’ in 2014), and toured Japan following the success of the 2011 album.
There was a short-lived revival in 2012, when Jonker and Tippet started writing a duet-album and even recorded some songs, but life overwhelmed them in terms of making a living, children, love, books and Harris Tweed (or: happiness). Also, the extremely hot summers drained the last available energy; there was no fuel left for creativity and the will to make an exceptional album. Life just took over for a while.
Until 2018, when fellow-musician, producer and friend Eelco Topper joined in to share his many talents (and studio). Being on a creative spree since the release of ‘Tape 1/Tape 2’(2018), with his ‘Felbm’ project, the energetic amateur ornithologist initiated a series of recording sessions with Tippet and Jonker, despite needy kids and no matter how hot it was.
And so it happened that these beautiful songs, possible future classics written by Jonker and Tippet, hatched their hibernation location to be recorded carefully and thoroughly in The Netherlands in 2018 and 2019. To bring us happiness and hope. Not only for the wonderful blue planet that is our home, but also hope for more songs like these. For they ease your pain and switch on the light whenever you’re in the dark. You can’t have enough of that.
Roos Jonker & Dean Tippet will be released worldwide June 26th 2020 by Sonar Kollektiv, with singles launching prior to the album release in March and May 2020.
