Record: Salvation is Created by Bifrost Arts

Review by Rev. Kevin Twit who is the Campus Minister with Reformed University Fellowship at Belmont University. Kevin is also the founder of Indelible Grace Music.

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One of the barriers to the evangelical church being taken seriously is her penchant for closing her eyes to brokenness.  We often prefer to live in what Walter Kirn (in an excellent article in GQ a few years back) called "the ark culture."  Kirn, who does not profess faith in Christ, spent thirty days completely immersed in the Christian subculture – only listening to Christian music, watching Christian TV, and getting his news from Christian websites.  He even strictly followed the "WWJE" (what would Jesus eat?) diet.  He describes what it felt like to live in this weird little world for thirty days as being like living on an "ark" desperately trying to maintain the illusion that we are safe and that all is well.  His words need to be taken seriously by those of us who care about Christ and His cause in this world.

As one who feels strongly that the songs we sing have a tremendous role to play in shaping us as believers, I am typically rather discouraged by the latest Christian Christmas albums precisely because they tend to avoid the brokenness that is the context for Christmas, the context without which the true joy is reduced to mere shallow pap.  But the latest release from Bifrost Arts "Salvation Is Created" thankfully presents Christmas joy in its true context.

This is an exquisitely beautiful record.  The string arrangements are lush and creative.  The sonic quality of the recording and the mixing is superb.  But it is not a light sappy project at all – Thomas Kincaid and his ilk had nothing to do with this music, and for that we can be thankful.  Christmas has a context.  Jesus came to save His people from their sins and He came to die.  Christmas can never be fully understood, or its joy truly felt, without remembering both the longing that preceded it and the cross that Jesus was born to endure.

This is a record that aches with longing and invites us to take off our shoes and lower our voices to a hush as we behold the wonder that is Christmas.  I love the absence of bombast in the fabulous arrangements of Isaac Wardell and Mason Neely, and the way the sound envelops you and draws you in.  For those familiar with Bifrost Arts' first offering, ("Come O Spirit") this project is in the same vein, but for me, this project hangs together better as a singular musical offering.  And this is no minor feat, as a number of different vocalists are featured in this project.  Some of the singers will be familiar to those whose tastes run to the more eclectic indie world, but all are great, and well chosen.  The instruments used are mostly orchestral, but the arrangements are fresh and innovative.  These songs, a great mix of traditional songs, more obscure carols, and brand new Christmas music, do not attempt to bowl you over, but work their magic in subtle ways, inviting you to ponder the great mystery of the incarnation. 

I am biased of course, (full disclosure – I have been invited to be on the board of Bifrost Arts, and had the joy of sitting in with the band when they played in Nashville last year), but I absolutely love this project and highly recommend it!  This record is model of the kind of music Christians should be making, full of deep joy and the heartache of longing.