Ten Sorrows by Jakob Rehlinger

“In exploring grief and loss as creatively and thoroughly as it does, 𝘛𝘦𝘯 𝘚𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘴 feels visionary and enlightened.”
~ Dominionated.ca

𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐀 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍

While my mother, Linda Rehlinger, was in palliative care in 2018, I processed my emotions by holing up in my basement studio and improvising on my Yamaha electric piano. Those improvisations became “Linda In The Garden”, her garden being her sacred space. I recorded a raw version, literally in tears, straight to digital 2-track which can still be found on Soundcloud, though with reeds added in 2020. In the weeks following her death I performed the piece live twice, once in Guelph and once in Toronto. Since then I’d been meaning to do a proper recording of it which would more accurately translate the blossoming garden of sounds I heard in my head as I improvised. This version was recorded in 2021.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐆𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐅

These pieces were commissioned by Trent Radio 92.7FM, Peterborough, for a 15 hour on air (and online) event in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic titled VIGIL. The broadcast/stream took place on the 2020 Winter Solstice, December 20th at 4:36pm to December 21st 7:46am. The titular “nine stages of grief” which I based the works on are similar to the more well-known “five stages of grief” but, in my opinion at least, are more nuanced and certainly reflect my own experiences with grieving more accurately. They don’t need only apply to the loss of a loved one, but possibly the loss of something you held sacred or even our lost dreams for a better future.

The Nine Stages of Grief:
1 Hope — Tormented Hope
2 Anxiety — Anguished Apprehension
3 Depression — Angst-Ridden Sadness
4 Denial — Confused Rejection
5 Pain and Guilt ­— Agonizing Self-Blame
6 Anger and Bargaining — Bitter Resentment
7 Acceptance — Practical Relief
8 Depression — Second Round of Sadness
9 Reverie and Revival — Renaissance

𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐒 — 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐃 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇, 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐌, 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍, 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖

While working on Nine Stages of Grief and Linda in the Garden, I became in increasingly intrigued by the many-faceted nature of sorrow and how we humans have musically expressed it over the years in the form of laments, threnodies, dirges, and good old jazz and blues. There are infinite sorrows in our world, but these are the handful that rose to the surface when I sat down in my studio to write.

Jakob Rehlinger works in many genres. This account spotlights his music as a composer / improviser working in the nexus of ambient, jazz, kosmische electronics, electro-acoustic, new age, and more recently, orchestral works.