Based on the 2004 Swedish Film As It Is In Heaven, this is pop composer Fredrik Kempe’s beautiful freshman musical. Released in 2018, this Stockholm production has added to Sweden’s selection of fine, fine musical work over the decades. This album has been on my regular rotation for a few months now, and I find there to be something pure and, for lack of a better word, heavenly about Kempe’s score.

The album is rich in soaring, choral backdropped, major keyed ballads. The opening number, Den tid jag har, is a simple preview of the soaring melodies we are yet to experience. The song Gabriella’s Song was, with great reason, taken from the original Film’s soundtrack. I always appreciate a nod to the original piece of work (please see: the use of Yann Tiersen’s music in the 2019 Amelie Munich Production), and this song fits right into the score without the slightest off-set. The line “Jag vill känna att jag lever,” or “I want to feel alive,” and specifically the word “känna,” with a consonant/vowel cluster I physically cannot pronounce, gives me frisson every time I hear it.

In the song Stjärnorna (“Stars”), we are literally taken to the sky, and Kempe’s flying melody and beauty of Malena Ernman’s voice holds our hands as we ascend the musical staircase to heaven. As the melody holds steady, we are lifted into another realm entirely when the key changes and Ernman hits notes that I did not know were possible to hit with such force. This song is thrilling to me, and I love the details in the piano, staccato melody, background singers, and tone of the singer, all to artistically dot the sky with stars. This song, for me, is the melodic climax of the entire Score.

This Swedish work is an obvious celebration of life and music. Kempe’s loyalty to the original spirit of the film is impressive and honorable. Gabriella’s Song, and Så som i himmelen itself, gains a home among the Swedish likes of Chess and Kristina från Duvemåla, forever a favorable representation of Swedish Art and Music.

For reference, here is the wonderful Helen Sjöholm singing Gabriella’s Song from the original film: