KEVIN KELLER, Arcadia

An inspiring and full throttle adventurous force in the hybrid new age niche of ambient chamber music since the mid-90s, Kevin Keller’s longtime interest in explorations of death and contemplation of the afterlife are rooted in his loss of a dear friend in his 20’s. It was such an emotionally and spiritually jarring experience that he felt compelled to capture and process his feelings in music – the purest way he can express himself. With the release of his second album Intermezzo (1996), he reached what he calls “a very deep well of creativity and clarity” that he’s been drawing from throughout his three decade-plus career as a composer and recording artist.

Keller explored fresh territory in this musical realm on his magnificent 2024 album Evensong, which was his first project based on vocal music. As I wrote in my review of the album, he “builds the intricate, fascinating universe on plainchants” written by Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess and polymath during the High Middle Ages, creating “spacious, soulful and often infectious rhythmic soundscapes and bold, exciting productions around her plainchant melodies – including her original Latin texts – on four of the eight tracks.

The music expressed the journey from conception to death, with an open ending that could either return to the beginning of the life cycle or take us to another world beyond our earthly death. After its release, Evensong became the score for a full-length ballet by choreographer Maria Caruso, who added great depth to the music. When Keller saw the ballet, he was inspired to compose a sequel. Maria’s program ended with the main dancer disappearing into the wings as the lights faded to black, prompting the composer to ask himself “Where did she go?” He conceived and developed his latest fascinating masterwork Arcadia – his 15th album overall – as the answer to this self-reflective question.

While Keller has always engaged in fresh sonic innovations from album to album using his arsenal of piano, synths and keyboards, on Evensong he added the otherworldly element of live vocals in the sound – a vibe he builds upon with great emotional resonance on Arcadia. For this eight-song cycle (each featuring a Latin subtitle indicating development of its narrative), he brings back the incredible trio of sopranos Danya Katok, Wendy Baker and Katherine Wessinger, while also featuring new lead vocalist Sofía Campoamor, whom he hit it off with after meeting at a monthly music salon in Brooklyn called Soundshop,

Falling in love with her voice and spirit, Keller invited Sofia as not just a vocalist, but a full-fledged collaborator on three of Arcadia’s tracks, in addition to creating demos during the composing process. Keller’s opening up to working with another composer for the first time pays remarkable melodic and harmonic dividends, making Arcadia not just a fascinating post Evensong narrative but a richer, more soulful sonic experience. He introduces the listener to the purity of her ethereal voice, unadorned, for the first 40 seconds of “Arcadia 1: Et vidi caelum,” the graceful, gently lilting opener which launches the narrative in what feels like an inviting ambient dream state.  

From that sacred, free-flowing place of peace, Keller, Sofia and the other vocalists launch a richly textured, sonic surprise filled journey into medieval inspired magic – from  the high spirited, rhythmically joyful fusion of hypnotic synth and percussive vocals on “Arcadia 2: Et nox ultra” to the sweetly soothing lullaby “Arcadia 8: Veni intus,” which offers an angelic vocal caress as the “soundtrack” embodying the feeling of resting in eternal peace. Keller conceived of each piece as an illuminating aspect of each part of a single soul’s progression from a state of quasi purgatory to the promised paradise.

Listeners might want to brush up on their Latin as they absorb the immersive (though still calm) feeling of existential loneliness on “Arcadia 3: Me solumn me invenio”; a state of mystery and fear getting lost in the dark woods on the swirling, piano driven and cello shaded “Arcadia 4: In tenebris”; a welcome state of refuge at a lighthouse on a windy shore on “Arcadia 5: Mare, littus, flammam,” where the contrast of light vocals and tense, dark cello reflects conflicting emotions of being at physical rest but longing for life in the past; and, at long last, the liberation of an escape from this world on horseback on the hopeful, rhythmically dense and intoxicating “Arcadia 6: “In equo fugit.” “She” prepares for her eternal rest in the mythical Arcadia (Keller’s version of what most would call heaven) on the shimmering, possibility filled swirl of trippy ambient synth explorations and operatic vocalizing on the penultimate track “Arcadia 7: Et lux perpetua.”

Along the way, Keller’s vision is enhanced not only by Sofia and the other three vocal greats but the breathtaking individual string colorings of Sarah Zun (violin), Angela Pickett (viola) and Laura Metcalf (cello).  

It's intriguing to note that Keller’s fascinating narrative didn’t fully materialize until the album was completed. The composer started with an idea of what the album was about, but this concept shifted when he listened to the music straight through. He originally envisioned that the whole story would take place in peaceful paradise of Arcadia, but when the music unexpectedly took a darker, more dramatic turn, it lent itself to a more compelling progression from physical death to that idyllic world. It’s as if the soul of the protagonist must go through a final test and cleansing before entering heaven.      

“I believe that there is a universal consciousness that we are all a part of—a consciousness that exists outside of space and time,” Keller says. “Each of us is a unique expression of that universal consciousness, and we each have our own mind and consciousness that is unique to us. When we die, we shed our physical bodies and minds, and we return to the current of universal consciousness that we all came from. For me, that is the afterlife.”