"Want you to know that I’m just grief and lust / Thought I could live without but your / Name fills my mouth..."
A cello is a magical instrument. The timbre, the sinewy beauty feels like a living breathing entity. It's tonal quality from pluck to spiccato to bowing always feels exquisitely physical yet ethereal, potently present yet transportive. Listening to the intimacies and vastness of "Carbon & Dust" by Portland's Twin Bridges, the project headed by singer songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Zach Gerzon, feels like post rock bent with indie folk and contextualized through gothic noir orchestrations. Gerzon's artful vocal countenance, a high registered croon, vulnerable, self aware and able to interact with the staccato presentation feels so theatrical, cinematic.
I am utterly surprised in the way that Gerzon 'picked up' the cello. From liner notes:
[Zach is a self-taught cellist with a background as a multi-instrumentalist playing punk, country, and bluegrass on guitar, bass, and drums. At the age of 17, he became obsessed with the cello after hearing songs by Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s. He eventually purchased a student model cello, and learned to play through watching YouTube tutorials, and teaching himself how to read bass clef. Along the way, Zach developed a personal approach to the instrument which includes looping and effects pedals; playing the cello on its side and strumming it like a guitar; and utilizing traditional techniques such as pizzicato and bowing.]
AND
[Twin Bridges started as a solo project, but it has evolved into more of a band setting with Zach’s gifted circle of musician friends contributing to live shows and recordings. The cast for Fertile Ashes includes Zach on cello, lead vocals, and engineering; Kylie Mcdermot on trumpet; Julia Michel on clarinet and saxophone; Chris Lazerek on bass clarinet; Jeff Kuhns on bassoon; Margaret Wehr on violin; and additional vocalists Lindsay Clark, Erisy Watt, Jeremy Ferarra, and Chloe Serkissian.]
"Carbon & Dust" is from the band's upcoming album "Fertile Ashes" and I look forward to stepping into the maelstroms and voids of sound.
“These songs explore what can feel like an impossible task, overcoming grief from loss, trauma, and failed relationships,” says Gerzon. “Making this album helped me let go of things I held onto for so long. I found a lot of hope in the Fertile Ashes songs.”
-Robb Donker Curtius
https://www.instagram.com/twin.bridges/
Twin Bridges’ Zach Gerzon found solace in writing songs on a cello after experiencing the sudden passing of a parent and enduring romantic heartbreak. The tonalities of the instrument lent his darkly melodic indie-rock a beautifully haunting resonance that can be heard on his band’s emotive and cathartic debut, Fertile Ashes. The 8-song album’s first single will be the wistful, “Carbon & Dust.”
“These songs explore what can feel like an impossible task, overcoming grief from loss, trauma, and failed relationships,” the Portland, Oregon-based artist says. “Making this album helped me let go of things I held onto for so long. I found a lot of hope in the Fertile Ashes songs.”
Twin Bridges’s melancholic aesthetic is the result of fusing classical and chamber music’s instrumentation and musicality with folk and indie-rock. The band’s music is sonically aligned with artists such as Andrew Bird, My Brightest Diamond, Takenobu, Kishi Bashi, and Arthur Russell. To date, Twin Bridges has issued the 2019 single “Clover & Honey,” and Fertile Ashes’s first single, “Come Out / On.” This single has been featured in blogs such as Hot Lunch Music, The Sounds Won’t Stop, No Transmission, Podcart (UK), and Last Day Deaf. “Come Out / On” has also earned widespread exposure through appearing on several Spotify playlists, and in French media outlets.
Zach wrote the music for Fertile Ashes during a transient period in his life when he drifted around New Mexico and Colorado before settling in Oregon. The awe-inspiring nature of these states is reflected in his songs. The album’s intimate production aesthetic reflects its earthy creative journey. Songs were tracked in a bevy of vibey loft and barn settings with Zach engineering, producing, arranging, and writing parts on cello for many other instruments.
The cinematic new single, Carbon & Dust, features dreamy vocals, composed melodies brimming with a yearning musicality, and an intriguing arrangement all tied together by a snappy groove. This song epitomizes the album’s general theme of wading through grief and heartbreak to finally achieve equanimity. Here, Zach recounts a dialogue with a deceased love one that he experienced while dreaming, and the song’s lyrics express an aching resignation. He sings: Want you to know that I’m just grief and lust / Thought I could live without but your / Name fills my mouth. The song’s animated video by filmmaker Durnis visualizes the grey area the song was written in through using dream-like animation that tells the story of a ghostly presence re-living tragedy and walking into the great beyond.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/twin.bridges/
Twin Bridges’ Zach Gerzon found solace in writing songs on a cello after experiencing the sudden passing of a parent and enduring romantic heartbreak. The tonalities of the instrument lent his darkly melodic indie-rock a beautifully haunting resonance that can be heard on his band’s emotive and cathartic debut, Fertile Ashes. The 8-song album’s first single will be the wistful, “Carbon & Dust.”
“These songs explore what can feel like an impossible task, overcoming grief from loss, trauma, and failed relationships,” the Portland, Oregon-based artist says. “Making this album helped me let go of things I held onto for so long. I found a lot of hope in the Fertile Ashes songs.”
Twin Bridges’s melancholic aesthetic is the result of fusing classical and chamber music’s instrumentation and musicality with folk and indie-rock. The band’s music is sonically aligned with artists such as Andrew Bird, My Brightest Diamond, Takenobu, Kishi Bashi, and Arthur Russell. To date, Twin Bridges has issued the 2019 single “Clover & Honey,” and Fertile Ashes’s first single, “Come Out / On.” This single has been featured in blogs such as Hot Lunch Music, The Sounds Won’t Stop, No Transmission, Podcart (UK), and Last Day Deaf. “Come Out / On” has also earned widespread exposure through appearing on several Spotify playlists, and in French media outlets.
Zach wrote the music for Fertile Ashes during a transient period in his life when he drifted around New Mexico and Colorado before settling in Oregon. The awe-inspiring nature of these states is reflected in his songs. The album’s intimate production aesthetic reflects its earthy creative journey. Songs were tracked in a bevy of vibey loft and barn settings with Zach engineering, producing, arranging, and writing parts on cello for many other instruments.
The cinematic new single, Carbon & Dust, features dreamy vocals, composed melodies brimming with a yearning musicality, and an intriguing arrangement all tied together by a snappy groove. This song epitomizes the album’s general theme of wading through grief and heartbreak to finally achieve equanimity. Here, Zach recounts a dialogue with a deceased love one that he experienced while dreaming, and the song’s lyrics express an aching resignation. He sings: Want you to know that I’m just grief and lust / Thought I could live without but your / Name fills my mouth. The song’s animated video by filmmaker Durnis visualizes the grey area the song was written in through using dream-like animation that tells the story of a ghostly presence re-living tragedy and walking into the great beyond.
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