"After a misspent youth / The hammer came down / I gave up my grudges / I nipped them in the root..."
The space rock beauty and artful dissonance of "The Fabulous Truth" by Brooklyn, New York based composer / multi-instrumentalist / vocalist Eve Essex is a lot of things. For whatever reason, upon taking this surreal ride I thought of iconic director David Cronenberg and his body horror 1981 film "Scanners" or maybe more specifically, the music for that film crafted by the legendary Canadian composer / conductor Howard Shore. It is likely because some of Eve Essex's sonic vision here (for me) has a kind of late 70's / early 80's proto punk-esque take on things. The orchestrations feel at war with themselves, the track featuring guitarist jenghis who masterfully shapes his metal rock fusions and stretches and bends notes into animalistic places as a counterpoint and anchor not only against wonky drones of sound, edgy percussions, what feels like vintage electronica and, of course, Essex's power keg vocals that feel like they come from another realm, maybe exorcised at times more than artfully sung.
There is also what feels like a purposeful haze over the sonics that is hard to describe, like gauze in front of a camera land it shifts the sounds into a memoric place or other world essentially and creates a different relationship between the vocals, the darkly poetic lyrics etc. I thought of Bauhaus in terms of this contextual framing of sounds.
You’ll come down
Oh the fabulous truth
You’ll come around
What is a want
I’m addicted to your security
How can I not be a burden to your needs
How can I not present my identity
A view to the past is also a path
FROM LINER NOTES (bracketed):
[Her upcoming album "The Fabulous Truth" treats genre with a freewheeling attitude, and Essex’s confident sound is augmented by musicians including guitarists Luke Moldof, and downtown New York music legend Peter Zummo on trombone and euphonium. Intimate lyrics—confessional in tone, literary, striking in their bold mutations of classic songwriting genres—are contrasted with brooding compositions that evoke long journeys across vast landscapes and continents; wagon trains and ship voyages taken in pursuit of a new life, the view from a satellite orbiting the Earth at high speed.
The Fabulous Truth is an album about freedom and boundaries, intimacy and security, raising questions about who you let into your life and why. It’s out June 21st via Soap Library.]
AND:
[Drawing on influences as diverse as trip-hop, outlaw country, kosmische, spiritual jazz, avant-garde classical, and—yes—musical theater, Brooklyn’s Eve Essex sets jewel-like portraits of rebellion against a velvet-black background of stormy electronics and uneasy minimalism.]
AND MORE:
[Eve Essex is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn, NY. She performs with woodwinds and voice, accompanied by instrumental ensembles, and by arrangements that use synthesizers, drum machines, live processing, and other sounds. Her work slides easily from structured electronic pop to open-ended melodic improvisation and big-band arrangements. She has scored film soundtracks, written music for installation and performance art, and explored prog, jazz, and electroacoustic ideas with groups including The Fabulous Truth, Das Audit, and a host of other collaborations. Essex’s debut solo album, Here Appear, was jointly released by Soap Library (cassette) and Sky Walking (LP) in 2018. In the summer of 2024, she will be Composer In Residence at Crosstown Arts in Memphis, TN. As a featured instrumentalist, she has contributed to works by The God In Hackney, Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra, James K, Kevin Kenkel, Liturgy, Colin Self, Mike Shiflet, UCC Harlo, and Peter Zummo, among others.]
I can only imagine a LIVE concert by Eve Essex and what it must be like. Besides Bauhaus, artists like
Anna von Hausswolff, Einstürzende Neubauten, Laurie Anderson come to mind in terms of artistic perspectives, attitudinal similarities and the fact that they are all artful weirdos and I love weirdos.
The Fabulous Truth releases on June 20, 2024 via Soap Library in digital, cassette, and LP formats — a first for the label. Cassettes are accompanied by an embroidered patch that mirrors James JA Mercer’s cover artwork.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://eveessex.bandcamp.com/album/the-fabulous-truth
https://www.instagram.com/seevexes/
https://twitter.com/seevexes
The Fabulous Truth is an homage to the anti-hero — an eight song suite that explores moral ambiguities, life in the shadows, and the possibility of escape from social expectations. The second full-length album by composer and multi-instrumentalist Eve Essex, The Fabulous Truth is both an ecstatic paean to liberty and an intense look at the psychological prices paid for seeking independence in an unforgiving world.
Drawing on influences as diverse as trip-hop, outlaw country, kosmische, spiritual jazz, avant-garde classical, and—yes—musical theater, Essex sets jewel-like portraits of rebellion against a velvet-black background of stormy electronics and uneasy minimalism. Intimate lyrics—confessional in tone, literary, striking in their bold mutations of classic songwriting genres—are contrasted with brooding compositions that evoke long journeys across vast landscapes and continents; wagon trains and ship voyages taken in pursuit of a new life, the view from a satellite orbiting the Earth at high speed. The Fabulous Truth is an album about freedom and boundaries, intimacy and security, raising questions about who you let into your life and why.
Eve Essex is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn, NY. She performs with woodwinds and voice, accompanied by instrumental ensembles, and by arrangements that use synthesizers, drum machines, live processing, and other sounds. Her work slides easily from structured electronic pop to open-ended melodic improvisation and big-band arrangements. She has scored film soundtracks, written music for installation and performance art, and explored prog, jazz, and electroacoustic ideas with groups including The Fabulous Truth, Das Audit, and a host of other collaborations. Essex’s debut solo album, Here Appear, was jointly released by Soap Library (cassette) and Sky Walking (LP) in 2018. In the summer of 2024, she will be Composer In Residence at Crosstown Arts in Memphis, TN. As a featured instrumentalist, she has contributed to works by The God In Hackney, Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra, James K, Kevin Kenkel, Liturgy, Colin Self, Mike Shiflet, UCC Harlo, and Peter Zummo, among others.
Eve Essex, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, singer-songwriter, Brooklyn, alt rock, fusion rock, electronica, avant garde, experimental, new album "The Fabulous Truth",
Eve Essex, composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, singer-songwriter, Brooklyn, alt rock, fusion rock, electronica, avant garde, experimental, new album "The Fabulous Truth",
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