Music, as an art form, supposes to bring joy in people's life. Of course, there are different ways that one's joy gets expressed, either through an openly aesthetical way, like dancing, laughing or smiling, for example or in a more pensative, soulful one, where people would absorbe lyrics and music within a song, using them as a healing tool to bring serenity in their lives.
Whoever had the opportunity, like our website, to follow closely the artistic rise of a collective like Thorbjørn Risager And The Black Tornado in the last 15-plus years, must have realised by now that every time the Danish band releases a new record, that is a moment of true joy, for any respectable music lover.
Since their first ever release, dated 2004, the band has increasingly made a formidable reputation of themselves initially in their country of origin, Denmark, the rest of Scandinavia and countries like Germany, until gaining worldwide success through the release of their 2014 album called Too Many Roads, where their irresistible combustion of R&B, Soul, Blues and Funk projected Risager to the attention of thousands of fans around the globe.
Through an impressive series of studio albums that followed the release of Too Many Roads, among which we'd like to mention highly inspired and equally successful albums, from a commercial perspective, like Change My Name (2017), Come On In (2020) and their latest one Navigation Blues (2022), Risager and The Black Tornado have kept on pushing themselves in creating albums that would, on one side, respect the roots of genres whilst still applying their trademark sound, while, on the other end, exploring new sonic alleyways where they'd feel they could still be recognisable either through the unmistakable, deep and soulful of their leader and frontman's voice or through the power and dynamism of their Horn and Rhythm Section.
With a new album due to be released in few days and called House Of Sticks, Risager and TBT have, once again, pushed their musical boundaries in such an impressive and forward-thinking fashion, through the 10 brand new tracks included in the record, an authentic window to the soul of each individual band member of this stratospheric octet.
Perhaps more now than they have ever done before, Risager & Co. have dressed House Of Sticks with some new and exciting musical elements, integrating their trademark blend of R&B, Blues and Soul with snippets of Rock, Roots, Calypso, Folk and even Synth-Pop, which bring into the 10 songs included in the album an extra added value that makes perfect sense, both with each of the songs' lyrics theme and also the will of the Danish band to add further growth to the already opulent sound of Risager and The Black Tornado.
Then, there is the leader, Thorbjørn Risager, a singer-songwriter and guitarist that becomes an authentic vocal chameleon on each song, putting his own personal and distinctive mark on every tune with such intensity and natural, almost effortless strength, especially, in our view, on songs like the album's title-track, Light Of Your Love and We'll Get By, among others.
The Black Tornado are and they have been for years, now, one of the most extraordinary live and studio collectives worldwide and the overall sound that they delivered on House Of Sticks is no exception. It's already remarkable the fact that each member of this fabulous collective is a highly skilled multi-instrumentalist per se, but when you then put all of them together, either on a stage or in a studio, there are very, very few bands around able to create the same Wall Of Sound that Thorbjørn Risager And The Black Tornado are able to put together.
House Of Sticks is another formidable chapter in the history of one of the best sounding collective that Denmark has produced in the last half a century. The Band That Brings Joy is back!
House Of Sticks is due to be released on 31st January 2025 via Provogue / Mascot Label Group