Brazos

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Grab Hold of What Floats | Brazos

Grab Hold of What Floats by Brazos, released 16 September 2022 1. The Shining 2. A Simple Song 3. Rituals 4. Grab Hold of What Floats 5. Folded Wings Folded 6. Somebody's Listening 7. Fields of Order 8. Far Away From 9. Your Love Gleams 10. The Other Side BRAZOS GRAB HOLD OF WHAT FLOATS Grab Hold of What Floats is the third album from NYC-based Brazos, the project of film composer and songwriter Martin Crane. It’s a breezy, forty four minute stroll through Martin’s jazz and folk infused ruminations on life and death. Written in an intense three weeks of creativity after a seven year hiatus away from songwriting, it traces the ecstatic exploration of reincarnation and rebirth. "I was not in the mode of self-expression, and I hadn't written a song in what felt like a lifetime," Martin says "then sometime in the start of September 2020, I began to wake up in the middle of the night with music in my head." By the end of the month, Martin had written as many songs as he'd written in his whole life. "Something about the stillness of the night set me off. I was living in the country. It was pitch black and dead silent, and I could hear the music clearly in my mind. I wrote it down in my phone without playing or singing a note. This music comes from this place in the middle of the night - a world that's walled off by sleep on either side." Songs like album opener "The Shining" reflect that state. Trapped in a room for a night. Actually, this night is all time but I've got a window to see the shining Blinking with white fireflies the morse code of the sky send me a message that is undying. "I remember writing that, watching fireflies at 3 a.m. while witnessing a hidden world that I normally sleep through. I felt at that moment like I was watching the infinite," Martin says. "The Shining" offers a distillation of Grab Hold's different threads - a soaring melody set to a pastoral waltz under lyrics that explore reincarnation with a conversational ease "we've known them well / through every feeling we've felt / being ourselves / as we trade one form for another". It's a song that offers an easy listen but can be felt and understood on a profound, spiritual level. The album runs the gamut from the mystical grandeur of “Your Love Gleams” to the domestic wink of “A Simple Song”. The titular song, "Grab Hold of What Floats", offers a laconic parable about trauma, Martin remarking “how trauma is a dividing force in life, compelling one to guard life while living it.” Songs like "Rituals" and "Somebody’s Listening" spin through whimsical love songs, while "Folded Wings Folded" on its surface presents as a warm, woodsy song about dreams. However, underneath lurks a darker center. “Folded wings folded is literally the image of folded arms in a coffin. It’s a song about speaking to the dead in the dark and communing with their reincarnated spirits the next day.” But it plays like a confessional singer-songwriter sketching with traditional images of Americana. It’s a stylistic hallmark of the album in general - the edge is there, but it’s hidden. Much of that sleight of hand can be credited to producer Spencer Zahn’s (CREDITS) jazz-centeric focus on spontaneity and performance in the recording. Zahn brought together a stellar group of NYC players Kenny Wollesen (CREDITS), Will Graefe (CREDITS), and Aaron Arntz (CREDITS) and engineer Philip Weinrobe (CREDITS) to record the songs live in 4 days. "I didn't know Kenny, Will or Aaron," Martin says. "In fact, I hadn't played live music in nearly 6 years before our session. But they are some of the best players in New York, and when they get going, it's like sitting on a golden sedan chair." The band didn't record to a click, and Martin sang his vocals live, each song being captured in three or four takes. This old-school recording approach gives Grab Hold of What Floats a lived in feeling similar to classic 70s singer-songwriter records, albeit with slight synth and auto-tuned harmony overdubs. Martin was listening to Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Dory Previn, and Bill Withers in the months leading up to writing, and the raw honesty of Booker T. Jones' production cemented a starting point for the album's sound. Other references include Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rosalia ("the greatest singer who has ever lived"), the poetry of Hafez and Adrienne Rich, The Archers' filmography, Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, the seed supply company Salt of the Earth, Julie London, Ennio Morricone, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. "I was on that naturalistic vibe, and this album feels like a human moment in time, mistakes and all. It slows down and speeds up, it's shaky, it miraculously finds itself and then slips away. Actual live music, music that is made away from machine-based rhythm feels so scarce today, like it's a rare element. I'm just trying to pull some more of it out of the ground." Grab Hold of What Floats will be released on all streaming platforms by Sudden Records September 16, 2022.

Grab Hold of What Floats, by Brazos

10 track album

new album, GRAB HOLD OF WHAT FLOATS, out Sept 16 on Sudden Records

Brazos - The Shining (live) - YouTube

Brazos - The Shining (live)

Grab Hold of What Floats - Album by Brazos | Spotify

Grab Hold of What Floats

Grab Hold of What Floats | Brazos

Grab Hold of What Floats, by Brazos

Brazos - Folded Wings Folded (Official Video) - YouTube

Brazos - Folded Wings Folded (Official Video)

Brazos - The Shining (lyric video) - YouTube

Brazos - The Shining (lyric video)