Chris Lippincott : Angel In a Jetstream
Chris Lippincott, like a lot of Nashville musicians, is versatile on opposite sides of the mixing board. Over the past decade he’s done studio and production work for country and blues artists like Maggie Koerner and Josh Hyde, often as a hired hand on pedal steel, which he also plays in John Mailander’s Forecast, an unusual group even for Nashville, their sound best described as new age instrumental post-bluegrass. Which provides scarcely any context for the number of records he’s created as a composer of his own, the likes of which seem thousands of miles from the stages and studios of Music City. With albums such as 2021’s Repose and 2024’s Wishing With the Rain, Lippincott built spacious yet immersive soundscapes that often felt like stark cinematic soundtracks, with subtle shades of Stars of the Lid and Radiohead (and given that he’s cited Jonny Greenwood as an influence on his compositional approach, that’s hardly a coincidence).
Following a series of solo recordings as well as collaborations with Alicia Enstrom and David Williford, Angel In a Jetstream presents some of Lippincott’s most breathtaking work to date, building his gorgeously composed prior records with one that levitates in the blurred space between contemporary classical and post-rock. Though composed primarily of instrumental pieces with either solo piano or chamber arrangements, its grander, pop-curious moments bring to mind an artist like The Album Leaf or their onetime tourmates and collaborators Sigur Rós, particularly “Here I Am With You,” its high-pitched vocal at times a dead ringer for Jónsi amid a drum machine that resembles a brushed technique, and the emergence of a climactic rise of strings.
Most of the pieces throughout Angel In a Jetstream are less dramatic, moving and evolving at more compact scale and not at such a vast distance, but with a similarly powerful emotional impact all the same. The minimal string arrangement of “Grace” evokes something greater but maintains its humble shape, cello and violin engaged in a mesmerizing harmony, while “To Be Held” breaks that promise open with just a few additional elements, namely the subtle patter of drum machine against gentle strokes of piano and strings that evokes A Moon Shaped Pool–era Radiohead. But even a relatively stark piece like “Coming Down” feels climactic, at once meditative and active, mysterious yet hopeful.
In addition to “Here I Am With You,” Angel In a Jetstream features one other song with vocals, “When Something Turns to Peace” in which Lippincott harmonizes stunningly with Maya de Vitry over a gentle backing of piano and strings—and, in a rare moment here, the pedal steel that Lippincott’s often provided for other artists. It’s the song that leaves the heaviest impact even though its touch remains gentle and light, and yet it’s hard not to be drawn back into the depth of the more oblique instrumental pieces, particularly one like “Shivering,” which eventually builds its rhythmic component into something more like neoclassical IDM. The skill with which these pieces are recorded and performed speaks to Lippincott’s background as a studio hand, but the subtle details and melodic beauty throughout Angel In a Jetstream showcase both the meticulousness and sense of emotional weight behind his compositions.
Label: Self-released
Year: 2026
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