Tobias Ben Jacob - Refuge (2020)

Tobias started out as part of The Roots Union (alongside Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin) before performing solo and in an acclaimed duo with Lukas Drinkwater. It was a song on the last Jacob & Drinkwater album that started the journey that led to REFUGE. The standout track Shadow on the Sun, from This Old River, was inspired by first-hand accounts of life in war-torn Syria.

The second piece fell into place when Tobias watched Ai Weiwei’s documentary Human Flow, which led him to contact Zekria Farzad (the ‘librarian of Moria’) to learn more about life in a refugee camp. The harrowing accounts began to flow, as did Tobias’s writing. But the album isn’t a journalistic exercise, the songwriter expresses the stories, struggles and triumphs of people who have lost everything through both artistry and insight.

But the accounts also reflect the author. During the writing of the album, Tobias was working six days a week as a delivery driver, then as builder’s mate and a painter to make ends meet. Himself a refugee (temporarily) from his calling and passion. But like many of the stories he articulates on this album, while the circumstances may change, the human spirit cannot be crushed. Indeed, much of the album was written on the road, stopping off in lay-bys to jot down lyrics or to record musical ideas after a 10-hour shift.

The result is an experimental and diverse album. Produced and with significant musical contributions by John Elliott (The Little Unsaid), who brings his experience in alt-folk, electronica and alternative rock to the fore. Weaving a path away from folk/singer-songwriter, the closest comparison (just a hook to help you peg the sound on) is the more recent work of Peter Gabriel. The album has a rich soundscape with electronic elements, found sounds and shades of world music, but always with Tobias’s big-hearted songwriting and vocals to the fore.

It’s a tremendous achievement that the album can be very much enjoyed as well as admired. People’s stories are told with dignity and respect, but above all with honesty. These are humans like you and me who have suffered unimaginably, and who deserve respect and compassion. They certainly don’t warrant the derision and demonisation that certain politicians and parts of the media convey.

The first track A Bird Made Out Of Clay feels like a bold opener, but it’s just the start of an album packed with outstanding songwriting that stops you in your tracks. The story of a reluctant, hazardous journey across the sea in the hope of a better life is counterpointed with the simple image of the gift to a child (the clay bird that gives the song its title). Amid the field recordings, samples and effects, Tobias’s vocals ring out passionate and true.

Appropriately, the opener is the start of a journey which takes us to Honduras for The Caravan, which is more acoustic, but soon broadens out musically with a whistling refrain and a Spanish chorus matching the Latino-tinged melody. Reconciled shifts to Iraq and merges the call of a desperate soul whose Muslim faith is often feared in the West, despite a shared ancestry with Judaism and Christianity: fleeing to Ninevah (‘…these northern skies on the soil where Jonah lies’).

The cry of a Syrian father is related over a haunting electronic figure in Don’t See Much Football Anymore, rising to a sonic crescendo at the song’s conclusion. Ether is pure aural storytelling, weaving the voices of refugees into a disturbing sound collage. Roya is the most Peter Gabriel-sounding track here. It’s a more straightforward alt-rock arrangement that effectively and painfully tells the story of a 10-year-old Afghan girl who didn’t make it across the water to the Greek island of Lesvos. It’s possibly the most affecting song, with (as you can imagine) some very strong competition.

One Grey Morning sounds like a distorted sea-shanty, appropriately enough for a song about longing for a rescue ship to come. Human Flow, which is the most reminiscent of Jacob & Drinkwater, takes inspiration from the aforementioned Ai Weiwei film. It features a ‘girl’s choir’ of Sofia, Lydia, Bea, Phe and Emma. Their beautifully unaffected singing adds considerably to the emotional punch of a song about the unimaginable choices and treacherous journeys that refugees undertake.

Closing the album are White Tulips, a snapshot of bereavement as a Syrian woman reminisces about more tender times with her late husband, and the heartbreaking I Never Wanted To Leave My Home. An appropriately tender and thoughtful end to a poignant and powerful collection.

With the pop world seemingly incapable of producing anything of substance, thank heavens we have a songwriter like Tobias Ben Jacob. These are important and significant songs that deserve to be heard. One of the best, certainly the most emotionally powerful, albums I’ve heard for many years.