A Closer Listen
More albums should be inspired by poems. Music and poetry are so closely related that they form a natural pair, evidenced by Vastness Vastness, whose very title is poetic. The poem was written by Jack Woodbury, teamed here with The Temple and Alter Natural. Reproduced on the band’s Bandcamp page, the poem addresses writer’s block while representing its end. What is the vast vastness? It might be interpreted as the wellspring of inspiration or its opposite: the deep current of nothingness.
While listening to the title track, one can imagine the coalescence of ideas from nothing, the form in the chaos, the primordial whisper. At first there are only loops ~ referencing Woodbury’s poem. These loops tumble and twirl, soothe and console. It’s easy to get lost within them, to surrender to the ambience. But then individual notes that sound like piano or handpan start to surface, tentatively exploring their environment. The saxophone begins to add character and color. Within the vastness, something promising is stirring: an idea, a line, a scene, a character, a plot. At 27 minutes, the track itself is vast. Eleven minutes in, the loops stop and reset, like the end of notes and the beginning of the actual writing. And then, for a brief, glorious period, the sax and drums in full force, the bursting of the dam, the ideas flowing forth, the writer’s block finally snapped. One must ride such waves when they appear, never knowing when the next will surface. The storm passes in the eighteenth minute, the writer’s frenzy over, replaced by a deep internal peace. The loops no longer sound empty, but satiated.
In contrast, “Lullaby” is calm from beginning to end, seventeen minutes of placidity, a calm surface with only light ripples. The artists write that they hope their music inspires “moments of stillness and reflection,” and they achieve their goal. This time, the spaces between notes, which sound like static and passing traffic, are as important as the notes themselves: a quiet dance of sound and not-silence, then silence. As the last loop ends, the heart comes gently to rest. (Richard Allen)
Mon Jul 22 00:01:19 GMT 2024