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Balmorhea’s exceptional self-titled 2007 debut was perhaps most appropriately described by the group itself, the back of the case quoting the final line of Seamus Heaney’s poem “The Rescue”: “like water in a dream of thaw.” That poetic sense was infused into the sparse compositions of piano and classical guitar, and it equally underlies the poignancy of their sophomore release Rivers Arms.
The instrumental project of Rob Lowe and Michael Muller, Balmorhea fills out the sound on their second album with the additions of Aisha Burns’ violin, Erin Lance’s cello, and Jacob Glenn-Levin on bass guitar. Much of the beauty of Rivers Arms, like the group’s debut before it, lies in the simple and elegant constructions of the songs that never feel the need for dramatic crescendo or stop and starts that characterize so many instrumental outfits. There is a classical aplomb to the songs, melodies washing in a direct, if intricately intertwining, dance, almost ambient in its minimalism. That’s not to suggest that Rivers Arms is without plot or substance, but rather, like the poetic lines from which the duo seem to draw so much inspiration, deliver impressionistic visions with an openness that allows the listener invest the emotion and meaning, in much the same vein as John Cage or Phillip Glass.
Rivers Arms opens “San Soloman” with field recorded sounds of children splashing in water, which plays under the ethereal intro of piano and violin. The field recordings are perhaps the only unnecessary aspect of the songs, as if Balmorhea feels the need to add context to the compositions (and among the 14 tracks is piece called “Context” that seems to follow a group of French friends on a soundtracked trek into a recital hall and back out onto the streets with church bells chiming). But the melancholic beauty of songs like “Lament” or soft swelling piano on “Baleen Morning,” reprised from their debut with strings, provide enough contextual weight through their complete envelopment of the listener that the foreign sounds only disrupt the magic cast by the album as whole. At Rivers Arms center, “Context” and the continuing track “Process,” a lo-fi buzz of tuning that eventually blooms into gentle guitar lost behind the samples of electronic voices and noises like running though a string of radio frequencies, feel distracting. Yet even so, the passing train that backgrounds “Grayish Tapering Ash” and the rain against the window that opens “Divisadero” are ambiently perfect mood setters.
The interplay between piano and guitar offers the most mesmerizing weave of melodies and accounts for the best tracks like “Baleen Morning.” Yet the twining guitars of “Windansea” and “Grayish Tapering Ash” are equally exceptional, falling somewhere between Ben Chasney and Sir Richard Bishop. The balance of “The Summer” and “The Winter,” the former’s deft picking laid atop the holding drone of the wavering violin pulls, while the latter takes advantage of the complete instrumentation most strikingly. “Barefoot Pilgrims” broods with an autumnal pining before the piano and violin unwind into a racing escape, while “Limmat” builds an aural architecture layering up from the hypnotic foundational pulse of metronomic piano notes and banjo plucks. At 59 minutes, Rivers Arms is gratefully given enough time to develop and breathe. It allows the listener to settle comfortably into the entirety of the album, and once there, it’s a space that you won’t want to leave.
Websites:
http://balmorheamusic.com
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