From exile, Grow man

Wovenhand - Blush Music

Blush Music is in no way a departure from their self-titled debut, but, in fact, a re-imagining of it.  Ultima Vez sought after Wovenhand to create a soundtrack for one of their productions, Blush, in Europe.  Ultima Vez was founded in 1986 as the company and organization of choreographer, director and filmmaker Wim Vandekeybus.  Since its foundation, Ultima Vez has intensively developed its activities as an international contemporary dance company with a strong base in Brussels and Flanders.  You may have watched some of the excerpts from the production during this week.  It is quite interesting and like nothing I, personally, have seen before, but I rather enjoyed the parts that I was able to watch.  This was an exceptional opportunity for Edwards because he and his band were already more popular in Europe than they ever were in America, so this seemed like a positive step for the band.  In developing the soundtrack, Edwards decided to revise portions of Wovenhand’s first album as part of this soundtrack.  He brought back songs “Aint’ No Sunshine,” “My Russia,” “Your Russia,” and “Story and Pictures,” for the production music. 

With these songs he extended their length and added more atmospherics, including sound effects, voices, etc., and more instrumentation so the songs sounded more full and theatrical.  He then created new pieces to act as instrumental and narrative transitions.  The music flows like a Russian novel, new complexities found with every encounter and deep theology that is extolled in narrative form.  For a musician who clings so strongly to the Christian faith for his inspiration and salvation, it is quite encouraging to see how his music is of heightened interest in a continent that is, by all intents and purposes, post-religious.  Not only that, but that he would be the choice for the music behind a contemporary dance production.  All of this attests to the force of Wovenhand as a band and that if Christians make good music, in the first place, then people will listen and they will find it engrossing. 

The only real weakness I found on this album, after repeated listens, was the track, “Snake Bite.”  One of the transitional instrumental tracks, this one takes little too much from a John Cage in its willingness to be fine with random noises (almost, but not quite, chaotic) noises from instruments as the bulk of the “music” for the track.  Its not so much that it doesn’t serve a purpose or that it needed to be taken off the album, but that it gives nothing to the listener who is not hearing it in the context of the overall visual production.  Within that context, it may very well be purposeful and useful.  This is not necessarily the case if taken within the cosmos of the album in and of itself.  The rest of the songs are unmistakably Wovenhand which shows that they can re-imagine their own work in a way that is different from the original, yet does nothing to detract from their own musical legacy.  This is an incredibly complex album and one that truly shows the intricacies of Wovenhand’s music.  However, because it is tied to a visual production, it suffers the same as most other soundtracks in that it loses meaning, at times, outside of his visual counterpart.  However, there is plenty of room for new meanings to be developed apart from the visual production as well, which is why this will, still, be one of my favorites of the year. 

Apocalyptic Rating: 8 out of 10 (Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer)

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