BPMoore - What Remains Of Us

A Closer Listen

This is a profound album, and one that will fill your heart. BPMoore, an English composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, has brought together musicians from all over the world to explore What Remains Of Us after we die, and their collective efforts have produced something that will remind you of what really matters: connection with others.

Having spent many years working in primary and secondary schools in London, Moore has a deep sense of the importance of service to community and, true to form, this album is utterly, wonderfully, ego-free. Twenty-five musicians came together to create music with a purpose that is profound in its mundanity: it is an incitement to cherish the people around you, for that is what makes life worth living.

Amongst the many collaborators is musician Chiara Dubey, who speaks the words that open the album’s first track, which themselves arose from a conversation between Dubey, Moore and poet Arji Manuelpillai. They are worth quoting in full:

I guess that’s the whole thing with life. We’re searching, constantly digging, for a question or an answer. The ultimate answer to the ultimate question. In this galaxy, on this tiny spinning rock, you’re just a heart as big as a fist pumping, and all of those organs working all day and all night to the point where they don’t and that’s it, death. We crumble to dust. We don’t think of money, the house, the car. We leave the clothes, the phone, we’re just gone, and all those objects are sold, given away, broken down.

So what’s the point? I once saw a bus driver leave his bus just to help someone to another bus across a busy road of traffic, and there was something about watching it, all of us from those small windows, like an audience observing kindness unfolding all over the street, like we were watching spring blossom blooming from  a tree, as if all of the world for a moment had figured it all out.

So that’s it, I guess, and that’s what remains of us, these real connections, these memories that are left in people’s hearts. Did you make strong ones? Did you build on them? Did you nurture them? Because they need time and love and attention. Every single friend, lover or family member you gave a crumb of your love to, they will be the sole keepers of what remains of you when you go, and that’s all that matters, I think.

Moore is a serious music fan with wide-ranging taste. Part of his creative process is taking the time to get to know in depth the music of musicians he admires, then writing to them and exploring whether a friendship is possible. This album is the fruit of some of those deep creative relationships. There are too many to name individually, but we’ll list a few below: listeners who are looking for exciting new creative work will find the credits list of this album to be a great resource.

Among the many important collaborators is Maciej Sadowski, who co-wrote many of the string quartet arrangements that make this album soar. Three vocalists contribute: as well as Chiara Dubey named above, there’s also Annasara Lundgren and Karen Vogt. All are worth checking out.

We generally avoid music with vocals on A Closer Listen but in the Deluxe version of the album, linked below, Moore includes instrumental versions of all ten tracks, which gives ample opportunity to sink into the richness of the arrangements. We said it before: Moore is a master arranger, and that is evident here.

Also included in the Deluxe edition are Moore’s early demos of each of the tracks, which allows us to uncover what each collaborator contributed, an opportunity for us to engage in some enjoyable “Song Exploder”-style musical archaeology!

Dubey returns at the end of the album to ask us:

And what if that was the last cup of tea you’d ever have? What if that was the last walk in the park? Or the last words you’d ever say to a loved one? Would you feel things differently?

In the hectic of our confused lives, it is so easy to lose track of these things. Thank you, BPMoore, for reminding us. (Garreth Brooke)