Donner’s second album, The Van Gennep Gap, is released by Apollon Records on 8 November 2024.
The Van Gennep Gap is a series of vignettes, chronicling impressions from various places and areas in the Grenland area of south-eastern Norway, the home of multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Jacob Holm-Lupo (White Willow / Solstein / The Opium Cartel).
Apart from Jacob, who handles synths, keyboards, bass, guitar, programming and percussion, the album features the following musical guests. Guitar virtuoso Stian Larsen, who also plays with Jacob in the jazz-funk group Solstein, plays lead guitar on two tracks. Trumpeter Jonas Vemork Kilmøy (Maridalen, Helene Bøksle) plays on Grey Skies Over Stridsklev, and Kristoffer Momrak (Tusmørke, Alwanzatar) plays flute on Rose Clouds of Hærøya.
The Van Gennep Gap is a wholly instrumental album that completely holds your attention. It is not an album to be used as background music, it was built to listen to with your full focus, as much as you would a vocal album.
Soliloquy is a haunting piano piece, using delay and reverb almost like another instrument, to let the riffs flow between the deep, low notes. Downtown After Dark ushers in a wider soundscape, adding percussive synth sequences, with Holm-Lupo channeling his inner Tangerine Dream. The percussion is minimal and very effective, letting the keyboards push the song to its conclusion. The track is very evocative and gives off a neon, night-time cityscape vibe.
The 7-11 Ice Cream Trek has bitcrushed drums, and an 80s videogame feeling, with frenetic synths and ice-cool rhythm and lead guitar. A real fun interlude.
Grey Skies Over Stridsklev is a loving tribute to 1980s ECM jazz, and one of the album’s highlights. The strings are aching, and Jonas Vemork Kilmøy’s trumpet sends me back in time to David Sylvian’s career best Brilliant Trees. The heart-breaking piano towards the end ramps up the emotion, with Grey Skies Over Stridsklev fast becoming one of my favourite musical moments of 2024.
I Saw Bright Lights Above the Hills is one of the album’s darkest pieces. Booming drums and a bubbling synth undercurrent pushes to the surface, offering a track that sonically suggests a Nordic landscape battered by heavy, inclement weather.
Truly! is one of the more musically uplifting songs on the album, but features a speech sample that hints at climate change / man-made destruction. A lovely, proggy synth solo adorns the songs mid-section, giving way to a scratchy lead guitar line from Jacob. Kebab Kowboys is a middle-Eastern flavoured piece, that mutates throughout the arrangement. The drum patterns are particularly interesting on Kebab Kowboys.
Image used with the permission of Jacob Holm-Lupo
I love the warning on the sleeve-notes that the recording was made with ageing electronic hardware and that noises may occur. This recording is clearly an AI free product and proud of it!
Kattøya in Rain is decorated with some lovely found sounds, although for a while I thought my roof was leaking, as it was raining whilst I wrote this review. Like a newly resurfaced soundtrack to a long-lost 80s film, Kattøya in Rain is a stunning track, with the end section seeing the rain replaced by liquid synth sounds.
Starring Wings Hauser opens with a jazzy drum lick and smooth guitar lines from Stian Larsen, giving this track a real unique identity, separate from the rest of the album. Mists of Frierfjorden is a beautiful performance, with a slow backbeat and well-mixed piano dancing alongside sumptuous warm synths. Another slowly evolving arrangement, with gentle washes of electronic colour, making this one of the most emotional pieces on the album. The Van Gennep Gap sounds so rich on headphones, with Mists of Frierfjorden sounding at its best with good quality headphones.
Rose Clouds of Hærøya features a guest appearance from Kristoffer Momrak on flute, and I love the tailed reverb and delays on Kristoffer’s playing. The electronic percussion adds a measured pace, and the keyboard backing is more restrained on this, the album’s longest track, weighing in at just under the five minute mark.
Soon a series of Holm-Lupo lead guitar lines take over from the flute, and the arrangement expands to a broader palette, before stripping back down to announce the return of the flute as the lead instrument.
The Van Gennep Gap closes as it begins, with a variation on the opening song. Soliloquy reprise still has the delicious piano line, now backed by strings and a discordant, glitchy effect acting as the beat.
The Van Gennep Gap is a rare beast, a purely instrumental album that keeps your full attention due to the wide range of sounds, songs that constantly evolve, with little repetition of motifs and as I’ve come to expect from Jacob Holm-Lupo, a warm, expertly mixed / produced musical kaleidoscope.
If you like intelligent, emotional and expertly produced music, there is plenty to enjoy on Donner’s The Van Gennep Gap.
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Buy Donner – The Van Gennep Gap from Burning Shed
Tracklist
Soliloquy
Downtown After Dark
The 7-11 Ice Cream Trek
Grey Skies Over Stridsklev
I Saw Bright Lights Above the Hills
Truly!
Kebab Kowboys
Kattøya in Rain
Starring Wings Hauser
Mists of Frierfjorden
Rose Clouds of Hærøya
Soliloquy reprise
Mr Kinski's Music Shack 
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