Is there a musical work of art more perfect than the Great American Songbooks? Maybe so. But Isabel Santol loves these songs more than anything else – songs from the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s. For decades, millions of others have loved these songs too, in which inspiration, poetry and artistry are wonderfully united. Songs which have plumbed the emotional depths of love for generations and which are still recognized as holding true, must be good. Whoever has loved, knows what lonesomeness, unfaithfulness, betrayal, secrecy and hate mean - but also joy, warmth, trust, parting, forgiveness and new beginnings.
For millennia, these feelings and experiences have been a part of music. But that does not mean that Isabel Santol has to sing these songs like they have been sung for decades. In “Lover Man”, “That Old Feeling”, or “Darn That Dream”, when Isabel Santol sings these age-old feelings with heart and soul, she does not retain the old arrangements. Along with Heimo Trixner, guitarist, and Stephan Maass, drummer, she radically revised her favorite songs. The songs were reduced to their very basic recognizable core -- and now shine anew -- with subtle effects on the electric guitar, sensitive accents added by the drummer and of course, the voice of Isabel Santol, which oscillates between erotic coolness and seemingly melancholic worldly wisdom. The solemn rhythm pays tribute to musical pieces which deserve to be heard one more time. It is a work of love – indeed, it is “Love Recordings”.
Harald Justin, Jazz Journalist, Vienna
