Bruno Green “The Blue Void Trilogy” (Hasta Luego Recordings 2006)

Triumphant trilogy is Americana at its best

It is a significant achievement of this trilogy that though it is ambitious in its scope and execution it remains an intimate and humble experience. There are no grandiose statements, no bombast, no attention is drawn unduly towards it, no great claims are made for it - is on a human scale and it is intensely humane. Musically you can separate the three discs:the first, ‘Horse Mood,' has previously been released and reviewed on this website and it has the maverick ambition and craft of Sparklehorse. He is joined on the second, ‘God’s Country’ by Pascal Humbert from 16 Horsepower on bass and the Morphine drummer Billy Conway - here the sound is sharper and less personal, as though a prototype has been taken and built by experienced craftsmen. The third still contains Conway but he is joined by musicians from the Boston Table Top collective and the result is more of a return to the folkier sound; there is workshop dust still on these recordings. Put them all together and you get a journey across America, a bit like Sufjan’s 50 states projects condensed into 95 minutes.

‘Horse Mood’ is full of gentle strums, swirls of pedal steel, the songs full of images of nature and despite their electronic style seem like a natural part of the landscape. Things move calmly; organically the songs are somewhere in the deep brush of folk in a clearing where it borders with country music, genres unimportant, they just exist, with gentle instrumentals swaying like a wild meadow full of natural colour and movement - parched vocals and naked banjo join together and pedal steel sounds like a hymn. There is the backwoods genius of Mark Linkous and the grizzled world play of Howe Gelb in these songs: they have that sort or presence, swelling and subsiding as easy as breathing, uncommon noises co-existing happily, details sketched where nothing is too polished. These are celebrations of nature in miniature, a glimpse that reveals insects at play - sunlight rain, horses, cattle, people, a playground where saws sing and birds twitter, where the weather is changeable and dominates the landscape.

‘God’s Country’ starts with much the same theme as ‘Horse Mood’ - the mood is different, there is more rhythm and propulsion, and the guitar too sounds anything but natural as it squawks and bends, but this is more of an elegy than a celebration. There are themes of death and loss, of things coming to an end, the music slapping rather than caressing, more dust bowl than nature's bounty. Surfaces are hard, lines straight - we’re moving towards urban spaces, the music more mechanical, electrical, the Arcade Fire’s country cousins coming to town, banjo dueling with electric guitar, backing vocals removing the solitary from the equation. This is more of a collective effort; harder, sparser and prone to catching fire.

The main difference found on ‘Father & Son’ is how it feels much warmer than its immediate predecessor - the guitars are softer and less brutal, the drums less precise, and here it seems a more social record, more generous in tone. You can sing-along at times; it is the sound that has reconciled the two previous themes and sounds. He also moves from major themes around nature to songs that are more personal in nature and that address that other universal theme, love. Here again it is handled with loving care - there is a spiritual and musical warmth that flows through the songs. Things do turn towards the second half where death becomes a central motif, the music loses the warmth and replaces it with a more funereal sound, and Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ is ingested and becomes part of the narrative like a snake swallowing a mouse. As we reach the end we return to the beginning to another version of the opening song from ‘Horse Mood’ and so we come full circle, which is an entirely fitting ending to this song cycle.

This is an excellent and important work and one that neatly sums up all that is good about Americana.

Date review added:  Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Reviewer:  David Cowling
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Related web link:  Artist Website