TUPOLEV
– memories of Björn Bolssen
(CD,
Valeot)
In an interview on mica website two
protagonists of Tupolev
said, that they don’t think many people understand their music, which
later on caused a little discussion on the topic of what the phrase “to
understand music” may mean. I tried to follow the discussion, because
being almost completely illiterate in regards to music, I thought that maybe
it would help me. It didn’t. If you live with the same situation as me,
then aside from offering to start a self help group, I can also assure you
that this album is definitely not only for people who claim to be able to
“understand music”. “memories...” also works on a very visceral
level, late at night as well as in the shining sun. The effects may be more
ephemeral, but that depends on the circumstances as well. The only thing you
need is time to be able to concentrate and the ease to listen. And I mean
really listen.
Is it complicated music? In my opinion, not
at all. If you have an open mind and a set of ears to match it is not
complicated at all. Tupolev expand their musical context constantly, from a
basis that once included postrock (or post-post-rock, as I read somewhere)
and structuralism to modern classic, minimalism, glitch and field
recordings. And I think they don’t care where their ideas come from,
either. They hone them and work on them, let them grow, feed and water them,
pamper them, throw them out if they don’t fit, but carefully compose their
music. They still call them songs, but it is hard to tell, probably they do
so, because they don’t like to call them tracks.
They also take their time, both in writing
their music and in playing it. “garlic” takes over four of its seven and
a half minutes before the echoy guitar (think Marc Ribot playing Badalamenti
in a romantic setting but on a new, expensive guitar rather than his hold 5
$ piece), the harmonica and violin set in for the first hunches of a melody.
And then drift away again a few moments later. Mostly they avoud a steady
rhythm, except for a slow swagger that dangles along peacefully as a drunken
sailor on a moon light night. Things not being played are just as important
as those that are played. Sometimes they merely hint at playing. That sort
of thing. And other matters that distract you while the songs take their own
course through the fields of your mind and end up somewhere and you have no
recollection how you got there. (Maybe “understanding music” means to be
able to draw a chart to find your way back, hm, I don’t know if that
helps, if you have no intention of turning back anyway.)
The piano is the main backbone of Tupolev
it seems. Guitar and drums and additions move in flowing circles in and out
of the spheres of the songs, but the piano, albeit its meandering and
non-disclosive playing, disregarding the way it moves around melodies and
not alongside, is the place the music revolves around. “A scale of gaps”
is a nice example of this – and the title a nice hint of what the music of
Tupolev is about: holes – with the drums and guitar avoiding steadiness as
much as possible, the guitar even drawing itself back to a mere hum of the
amplifier during the song, while vocal samples set in though mixed to the
back. But it is the piano of Peter Holy everything returns to. Electronics
seem to be a little understated on this release, or I mistook them for
something.
Another instant of music metatalk is
“nothings gonna happen”, where after a short intro the only singing
instant of the whole album turns up and ends after a few short lines in the
words “nothings gonna happen”: Not too much surprise there, but a
ringing disclaimer (even if somewhat late in the album for a disclaimer) for
a claim made to the music by the players. A wrong one, actually, because
even if it seems that one of the main musical interests of Tupolev is to put
the metamorphosis of freezing or pausing into notes, a lot of things happen,
sometimes all at once. In this way “memories of Björn Bolssen” is a
fine instance of music able to fuse time in different increments. But now we
are starting to get into the realms of theoretical physics and there my
friends, I am an even worse guide than in matters of music. The four people
of Tupolev are probably way better.
