Susanne Sundfør and Kit Downes leave only voice and organ

An old pipe organ is not a neutral instrument. It belongs to a building: pipes occupy the walls, air moves through wood and metal, and the nave returns every note. For their new album, Susanne Sundfør and British pianist-organist Kit Downes decided that voice and this particular machine were enough.

They recorded Revelations of Divine Love live in a Norwegian church, using only organ and voice. Sundfør and Downes wrote the music together, drawing the words from the 14th-century English mystic Julian of Norwich. Bella Union will release the album on 2 October; its first single is I It Am.

The 13 titles retain Julian's language: Hazelnut, The Blessed Wounds, All Shall Be Well, Love Was Our Lord's Meaning. These are texts for which silence is not empty space. An organ can occupy an entire church with one chord, so a larger arrangement would not necessarily add grandeur. It might merely add furniture.

Recording live removes several convenient hiding places: the record contains the composition and the building's reply to it. The musicians chose an instrument that could not be carried into a studio. The studio had to come to the instrument.