Christina Perri may be collecting up a new ‘Jaar’ of hearts. It’s time for your new post!
Pictured: Nicolás Jaar busy making new music in his studio (2019) (Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty)
Good Morning! I am Jacob Braybrooke and, as per usual, I’m writing about your daily track on the blog, because it’s still routinely my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! One musician who has certainly been keeping himself very busy, when confined to Lockdown, is Nicolas Jaar, a Chilean-American electronic music composer, who released two whole albums this year. “Cenizas” was released in late-March, and “Telas” followed up in mid-July. It marked the end of a 4-year gap since the release of both of his last two albums in 2016, but the odd release strategy is fairly atypical of Jaar’s work, as this is a recording artist who has very much become well-known for releasing an enormous number of ambient experimental compositions via his own independent label, Other People. Some of Jaar’s most experimental endeavors include a five-hour live improvisational concert at MoMA PS1 in 2011, and his score for the Palme d’Or-winning feature film, Dheepan, which was directed by Jacques Audiard and released in 2015. He’s kept prolific over the years for being one half of Darkside (a duo with Dave Harrington) and performing two album’s worth of material under the moniker of Against All Logic. “Cenizas” was released in late-March, and it gained a unanimously positive critical reception, scoring 86/100 on review aggregation website Metacritic to signal for “Universal Acclaim”. One of the most popular tracks from that record was “Faith Made Of Silk” – Let’s stream it below!
The climactic conclusion to an almost hour-long album, “Faith Made Of Silk” tends to lean deeper into contextual themes and atmospheric tones than his more immediate work on 2011’s “Space Is The Only Noise and 2016’s “Sirens”, despite it still qualifying to be one of the most beat-driven and lyrically decipherable compositions on the recent record. This provides the rare instance of a song for the Drum riff-age to lead the way, with chiming melodies and fragmented sequencing effects creating a darkly harmonious, chiming ambience. Jaar’s specific lyrics are also the clearest on the record, as Jarr vocally layers a cautionary tale of finding weakness in the descent to uncertainty, which feels very timely of the rougher Covid-19 situation at the time of the album’s release at the end of March. He desperately adds: “Look around, and not ahead/You have nowhere to look/A peak is just the way towards, A descent” to remind listeners of his philosophy in how the act of leaving an emotional hardship or darkness behind, is not necessarily about refusing to acknowledge that it may not ever return, as the grief is still left behind. Somewhere within the ethereal qualities, however, is a contextual glimmer of hope. A gasp of relief can be audibly heard in Jarr’s voice, and a slightly more melodic and beat-driven instrumental points towards a future of peace. I hate to use the word “Grounded” to describe the qualities of the atmosphere, because the term feels to have become dramatically over-used in media reviews and promotional interviews in recent times. Albeit, in this case, I think it’s true. The Drums provide the only real sense of melodicism, but these sections, in the texture, feel harmonious and optimistic enough to carry the rhythms and patterns forward with a driving force. I understand that it can pften be very hard work to really “get into” such a richly layered and enigmatically ambient record such as this at times, and I think a lot of perseverance and co-operation may be required from a more passive or casual audience to fully understand what Jaar is melodically toying around with, but I think it makes for a rewarding payoff in the end, and the energy of trying to “crack the mind” of a melodious tinkerer such as Jaar is often a part of the enjoyment. It’s not typically my kind of bag when it comes down to personal preference, but it’s well-developed and intriguing technically, with intricate layers of Bass and quiet elements of Power-Electronics lurking around every corner of the soundscape. I will be repeat listening in my own efforts to “crack the mind” for myself.
Pictured: Cover Artwork for “Cenizas” (Album/LP) (Released on March 27th, 2020) (via Other People)
Thank you very much for reading my new post! As always, I’ll be back for another daily musing tomorrow. We’ll be continuing to catch up with some of the under-the-radar releases of the year so far, as we take an in-depth look at the, unfortunately, overlooked new album from a female-led British lo-fi indie punk 4-piece outfit who formed in Brighton in 2015, and describe their own sound as “Slacker Indie”. The band’s frontwoman appeared on an episode of Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable on BBC Radio 6Music as a panelist and their latest album has recently been shortlisted for this year’s Mercury Prize. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/
One Track At A Time 