Ayyukansa, ruminative guitar-and-sound-forward music cewa Aquarium Drunkard , wanda ya zo a matsayin "a awesome through line tsakanin Zuma, Marquee Moon and The Days of Wine and Roses", Brian John McBrearty ne mai kwarewa da mai kwarewa da kuma, tare da ta latest album Remembering Repeating, ya ci gaba da ci gaba da hankali da kuma daban-daban zane-zane. Remembering Repeating yi ne na farko na full-length kayan da 44-year-old Philadelphia native ya yi daga wanda guitar ne cikakken ba - - da kuma na farko na kayan kayan aiki a karkashin shekaru. The kayan da aka gina game da m synthesizer ci gaba, tsanani sax, da kuma tsanani, roiling rhythms. A karkashin, shi ne a lokacin da ya son Tortoise ko Natural Information Society ko na kayan aiki na Another Green World. But despite a sense of familiarity and these few touchstones, Remembering Repeating is simply too personal to be anything but unique.

“There are emotions and life circumstances,” McBrearty ya ce, "mai daga cikin al'amari, wannan al'amari ne mafi kyau don karantawa." McBrearty ya fara tsari na kayan aiki Remembering Repeating a gundumar da matsaloli na al'amari da shi, kuma shi ne, mafi kyau, wani kayan aiki don sauri da kuma shi ne wani hanyar domin McBrearty ya ƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙirƙiri.

A cikin kwarewa na cycling, shi ne duk da wannan kuma ba tare da shi. Remembering Repeating <pfseg id="0"> yana da wani alama, amma shi ne wani alama. ( Wannan shi ne biyu na alama da alama, kamar yadda alama na alama, da aka saukar da alama, ya hada da alama.) Yana ƙunshi tare da alama na saxophone –– da aka yi da alama da Matt Douglas na The Mountain Goats – – amma shi ba tare da wani alama jazz. A tsakiya yana da hot waterfalls na David Sylvian-esque, amma ba shi ne wani alama na yanayi. A cikin asali da kuma aikace-aikace, shi ne mai kyau music, wani tsari, amma a cikin alama, shi ne mai alama a cikin shi. "Music yana da wani alama, " McBrearty ya ce. "Music yana da wani alama na alama, amma yana da alama mai

<pfseg id="0">Album opener "Remembering" shi ne, mafi kyau, na farko track McBrearty sa. "Nai ba da aikace-aikace na yi wani album a lokacin da na fara saita da synth songs da za a zama asusun ga wannan lambar. Na kawai so don koyi yadda za a yi amfani da mafi kyau da wani synthesizer da aka samuwa shekaru da suka wuce (a Roland Boutique JU-06)." Opening tare da ci gaba da synthesic akord clusters cewa sauke a lokacin da sax and drums sauƙi ci gaba da resonant space, "Remembering" sa'an nan girma zuwa wani Alice Coltrane-queesquees theme a kan synthesizer, tare da saxophone nuna lilting melody kafin farawa a cikin m yankin.</

“Repeating” follows and demonstrates McBrearty’s uncanny ability to exploit foundational concepts for maximum effect. “First and foremost, I consider myself a composer; whatever instruments I play are in service of the tune,” McBrearty explains. Opening with a bass solo drenched in tape echo, “Repeating” coalesces around a simple half-note saxophone melody played over a jaunty beat and McBrearty’s descending, syncopated synth lines that sound straight out of a Tangerine Dream soundtrack. While the original melody repeats, the melody is then duplicated and displaced by a quarter note; the saxophone is eating its own tail. Literally “Repeating” in real time, Douglas takes the concept and runs with it—layering sax and flute and weaving the theme of repetition into his improvisation.

Collaboration is a key part of McBrearty’s musical practice and Remembering Repeating includes two short interlude tracks that are credited to all three musicians. “Burning” combines a haunting theme written by Douglas, drum improvisations from Jewell that are compressed into sheets of metal, and atonal synth loops that swell into focus at the very end of the track. “Floating,” meanwhile, was inspired by an unlikely source. “That tune was me attempting to replicate the sound my tea kettle made as it was heating up,” McBrearty reveals. Based on sustained synth tones that literally float between the notes C and C#, “Floating” presents a brief trip into the heart of darkness. Douglas switches to soprano sax for an eerie and sinister melody, while Jewell adorns the sonic space with bowed cymbals and bells.

In contrast to the short interludes, “Unfolding” is Remembering Repeating’s extended centerpiece, and a mission statement summarizing McBrearty’s compositional interests and achievements. Cinematic, beautiful, and patient, “Unfolding” slowly reveals layer-after-layer over the course of 9+ minutes. Beginning with interlocking synth lines repeating a cluster of notes within the same octave, McBrearty deftly adds and subtracts harmonic and melodic elements on synthesizer throughout the first half of the tune, creating a heady stew that fans of Bitchin’ Bajas’ twisted synth explorations, or the repetition of Bing & Ruth, will surely appreciate. “I was coming up with idea after idea after writing the initial riff that provided the foundation for ‘Unfolding,’” McBrearty says. “It was stream of consciousness, pure creation, but the real songwriting came months later when I arranged and mixed the various parts to form a cohesive whole.” Nearly 5 minutes in, a cymbal swell anticipates the entry of Douglas’ tenor sax, drenched in warm reverb and floating over a laid-back and absurdly in-the-pocket groove courtesy of Jewell’s drumming and McBrearty’s bass playing.

The A and B sides of Remembering Repeating both close with tender, heartrending pieces to conclude their respective journeys. Side A closer “Believing” is a balm for the soul and a testament to the power of sound. At the intersection of John Coltrane’s “Central Park West” and The Beatles’ “Sun King,” the song offers a healing force that is rarely captured in recorded music. Meanwhile, the final song of the album, “Receiving”—and the only piece to feature McBrearty’s (lyric-less) vocals—is a visceral portrayal of grief that ends with catharsis as Jewell’s drums and Douglas’ tenor sax swirl and envelop in the climactic final moments.

Though Remembering Repeating ya dacewa tare da kyau, McBrearty ya nuna cewa da shekaru da suka wuce, ya zama "dabbin da yaushe game da fasaha." Ko da ya ce da music ba tare da fasaha ko kwarewa. Har ila yau, McBrearty's relationship to music ya nuna wani yanki shift na ƙarfi zuwa "duba wani mafi girma mataki, samun daga cikin hanyar da kuma ba ka damar intuition ka tafi." "My music is about expressing and achieving spirituality, a matsayin sakramenta, communion with the eternal ... there are many ways to express it," ya ce.

Ba da wani mataki, za a yi so, ba tare da cewa wani abu.

McBrearty ne mai ban sha'awa DIY musici da aka tsammani da ƙananan tsari a matsayin mai ban sha'awar da chief songwriter na daban-daban banki da kuma, karshe, a karkashin na'urorinsa. "Ina da wani tsari na dubawa David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' a cikin radio a cikin mota a gaban, "McBrearty gamsu, " kuma daddy ya ce tare da dubawa cewa Bowie shi ne wani shape-shift artist wanda music da persona da aka canza a karkashin shekaru. Saboda haka, wannan kwarewa na ci gaba da hankali, ci gaba da sha'awar da ku yi da wani abu, shi ne wani kwarewa da na dubawa kafin kafin ka fara wani na'ura. "</pfseg>

McBrearty ta music ta tafiya ya fara a kan matsala a matsayin dalibai a cikin NYU ta sayar da jazz bincike shirye-shirye. A nan ya samu Remembering Repeating contributor, Matt Douglas, as well as Love Beyond Measure Records co-founder Anthony Pirog (DC-based cellist Janel Leppin—and collaborator on McBrearty’s last album—is also a co-founder of the label). The sympatico between Pirog and McBrearty was apparent upon first meeting and after graduating they co-founded the bombastic and all-too-short-lived instrumental rock band New Electric, which issued only one EP in 2005, toured extensively in the mid-Atlantic, and could be considered the spiritual antecedent of Pirog’s current jazz-punk outfit The Messthetics featuring Fugazi’s Brendan Canty and Joe Lally.

In all of McBrearty’s musical endeavors, improvisation is the through-line. From a month-long weekly residency at Lower Manhattan’s Knitting Factory in the early aughts to participating in a guitar ensemble rendition of Julius Eastman’s “Gay Guerilla” (part of Bowerbird’s first of its kind Eastman retrospective) to the interlacing, angular dual-guitar attack of now-defunct Philadelphia jammers Mesmeric Haze to the panoramic and kaleidoscopic synthesizers of Remembering Repeating, McBrearty has consistently demonstrated an affinity for exploration on the fly. “I take a broad view of improvisation,” McBrearty explains. “It’s not just jamming and soloing. I’m often improvising when I’m composing, which is largely how the building blocks of Remembering Repeating were formed. I can improvise when I’m arranging or mixing a song. For me, it’s all about listening to what I hear within myself as well as outside of myself and synthesizing the two.”

From synthesis to synthesizers. A repeating, cycling of sound.

McBrearty’s expansive view of improvisation takes center stage on his twice-monthly radio show Improvised Solutions, which airs on Northwest Philly’s Germantown Community Radio. With more than 20 years playing in the Philly music scene, the radio show offers McBrearty a different way to interface with the music community after having shared the stage with the likes of Kinloch Nelson, Elkhorn, One Eleven Heavy, and even The War on Drugs (when they were still playing small clubs).

Love Beyond Measure Records is a label founded by life partners and musicians Janel Leppin and Anthony Pirog as a home for their favorite artists as well as for their own work. They are proud to present the superb work of Brian John McBrearty, Remembering Repeating, as the inaugural release on Love Beyond Measure Records.