I've listened to Jeff Bjorck's latest instrumental piano album, This I Know: Ancient Hymns of Faith, several times over the last month or so. While this veteran artist's lovely renditions of classics such as "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" haven't yet failed to set a mellow, meditative mood, this collection of 15 tracks (nearly 75 minutes total) somehow turned even more poignant and alive during a recent Sunday afternoon car trip through central Connecticut.

Passing through the snow-covered New England landscape as the sun shined upon huddled neighborhoods, gray smoke exiting chimneys and tall church steeples casting long shadows across bare trees, Bjorck's music was akin to a time machine. I found the emotion of his playing (and even more crucially, the very rustic, timeless quality of his tone and composition) filled my mind with images of the countless people who've worshiped to these hymns over the centuries. Passing by Thomaston I wondered what it might have sounded like inside the town's Covenant Church during its first Sunday service in 1890 as the founding congregants heard the opening strains of "Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling"---then only a decade old. Bjorck's melodies come about as close as you can to answering such questions.

Given this album's considerable evocative qualities, the highlights are unsurprisingly numerous: There's the incredibly gentle interpretation of "Fairest Lord Jesus" in which Bjorck easily drifts in and out of the familiar melody, offering pleasant flourishes and a beautiful high-to-low cascading coda; Bjorck deftly captures the hard emotions of "It Is Well with My Soul" (the lyrics of which were penned by Horatio Spafford in 1873 after he lost his four daughters in a shipwreck), beginning the tune quietly with single, reverberating notes before the melody builds and Bjorck plays the Yamaha C7 grand with greater and greater strength, and then returning to a thoughtful, meditative place as it closes---a well-done musical reflection of the wavelike feelings that so often follow tragedy; perhaps my favorite track is "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," as Bjorck finds a wonderful dissonant note in his introductory phrasing that immediately invites me into the sweetness of the hymn; the fitting end to "This I Know" is a lullaby-like, upper-note version of "Jesus Loves Me"---and while not an ancient hymn, it smartly sums up the music and deep theology of the hymns Bjorck interprets here (and don't forget its memorable lyric takes its place in the title of this album).

Other pluses that must be mentioned include the artwork---especially the graphics on the disc itself (created originally by Bjorck's late father) and the very apropos stained-glass window depiction on the cover---and the detailed liner notes that not only introduce listeners to the history of these hymns, but also help us get to know the composer and his faith that gave wings to this project in the first place.

This I Know: Ancient Hymns of Faith is indeed timeless---but don't let that fact dissuade you from immediately letting it enrich your present reality.