"fruit cut moon love / water over fire..."
The whimsical, psychedelic vagabond tropicalia of "New Signs" from Kirikiriroa, New Zealand based folk musician Brandon De La Cruz’s forthcoming new album "Blue Irises in Hologram", warbles and sonically shuffles like a 60's mellotron in reverse or a vintage calliope on a steam propelled air ship. There is a trippy amalgam of things happening. Loving the acoustic guitar plucks and De La Cruz's vocal countenance that feels drawn between sleepy dreaminess or chill inebriations, maybe drunk on an elixir or nature itself. The mood is movement as a necessity, like a shark that has to keep going to sustain life. A wanderlustful high or a pure life force, "New Signs" feels like the proverbial breath of fresh air.
"New Signs" maybe iteration by iteration has been a long time coming (or going).
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[Initial recording for this song took place at the artist’s shared studio at Never Project Space in Kirikiriroa, New Zealand from May-September 2022. The track’s arrangement was subsequently developed through use of samples taken from Mississippi Records’ releases, a label De La Cruz worked for while previously living in Portland, Oregon.
‘New Signs’ was written eight years ago as an experiment while the artist took part in Matt Meighan’s Songwriting as Truth-Telling workshop in Portland.
Describing his approach, De La Cruz said, “While I write I’m usually hyper-focussed on fitting words to a story or feeling. With ‘New Signs’ I bypassed my mind's lean toward narrative and instead reached out for sounds that felt right.”]
‘New Signs’ was written eight years ago as an experiment while the artist took part in Matt Meighan’s Songwriting as Truth-Telling workshop in Portland.
Describing his approach, De La Cruz said, “While I write I’m usually hyper-focussed on fitting words to a story or feeling. With ‘New Signs’ I bypassed my mind's lean toward narrative and instead reached out for sounds that felt right.”]
-Robbert Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/brandontdelacruz
https://brandonthomasdelacruz.bandcamp.com/album/blue-irises-in-hologram
Brandon De La Cruz is a folk artist whose lyricism is uniquely shaped by his interest in mythology, ceremony and RH Blyth’s translations of Japanese haiku. He grew up in the suburbs of Southern California's Inland Empire and has lived and performed regularly in Portland, OR, Berkeley, CA and Aotearoa. De La Cruz’s work has been featured on RNZ’s Bookmarks, as well as Flying Out’s Live Sessions. He has supported such renowned performers as Simon Joyner and Tom Brosseau. His previous records were inspired by the works of Rilke, Joan Didion and Ovid, while his last album, Two Kilos of Blue, drew from local and personal images, and was showcased through performances at Camp A Low Hum, Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tāmaki and Futuna Chapel in Wellington. His forthcoming record, Blue Irises in Hologram, is comprised of eight songs born out of a wide range of episodes including a ten-day silent Vipassana retreat, neighborhood-spanning lockdown walks through Auckland and an afternoon spent in Simyrn Gill’s immersive recreative art installation, Maria’s Garden.
Brandon De La Cruz, Kirikiriroa, New Zealand based artist, folktronica, folk, acoustic dreams, psychedelic, freak folk, indie rock, new album "Blue Irises in Hologram", new single "New Signs",
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