Post-rock
There are days when you fancy a nice, well-made vegetable broth. Something light. In case one of those moments strikes you, a good option is to listen to “Narrative of a Nervous System”.
Michael Peter Olsen is primarily a cellist who has worked and toured with bands like Arcade Fire and The Hidden Cameras. He’s also known for his work on several soundtracks for the Canadian Film Centre.
What he offers us is a relaxed work for those moments when you need a bit of introspection and zero harshness. So, in the right mood, this simple, unpretentious album does exactly what it sets out to do. Nothing to frame on the wall, but something made with genuine taste.
We open with “So Far So Good”, with a cello playing a low pizzicato ostinato, joined by a second cello playing a variation on that line in a higher register. Ambient chords and electric-cello melodies come in, shaping this soft composition — calm and delicate.
“Biorhythms” introduces percussion elements and an electric-guitar accompaniment while melodic lines and a discreet vocal chorus develop. It seems the band Zoon took part on this track. Nothing beyond the guitar scratching gives away any real compositional contribution, though.
It’s fairly curious how the electric cello is used like an arpeggiated guitar on “Terms of Desertion”, wrapping around the main melody, also played on that same instrument. In the background, various arrangements develop to create a pleasant atmosphere.
“Murmurs”, on the other hand, evokes the instrumental compositions David Sylvian made in the eighties, until Màiri Chaimbeul’s harp and various strings come in, which, through the use of a minor pentatonic scale, end up giving it a certain oriental flavour.
The piece “Muscle Milk” shows off the composer’s more classical musical language, but electronically filtered with rather psychedelic intentions that give this short track a special charm. We then return to a much more contemporary style on “Sweet Meet”, though with the arrival of Owen Pallett’s violin it still shows off that classicism and, above all, both performers’ calibre. A gorgeous track that transports us to moods we could compare to Jerry Goodman’s compositions.
On “Feel to Heal”, on the other hand, we reach an almost rock-like language, given the composition’s insistent rhythm, while some melodies develop that carry a certain “frippertronics” feel in the closing section. It certainly does become repetitive and clashes a bit with the album’s main line, though the change of register is welcome.
And the change is even bigger on “Sweat Equity”, though this time it succeeds. It was composed in collaboration with Alaska B, another Canadian composer for film and video games. On this track, a whole series of Chinese percussion instruments transport our imagination to the very Wuhan region that, before the city became known for Covid-19, was famous for its gongs and cymbals (chas, bo naos, etc). The arrival of new string and percussion instruments shapes a track that elegantly leads us to the main motif, marked by the power of the string rhythm and the closing dissonances that unleash an impressive, wonderful chaos. An auditory delicacy for percussion lovers.
The end of this record revisits the calmer, more relaxed ideas on “It’s Complicated”, which, without being the album’s best composition, rounds it off melancholically and delicately.
Writer: David Sàez