Richard Edge’s Elements of Nature
I watched a clip from an old interview with Quincy Jones recently. In it he says, “Birds did not imitate flutes, it’s the reverse. Thunder did not imitate the drums, it’s the reverse. The elements of nature are the most powerful force there is.” It’s a resonate reimagining of the old idiom “art imitates life.” In this case, it’s art imitating the natural world.
And when I listen to Richard Edge’s new instrumental album, Vespers, I hear what Jones is saying.
Taken as a whole, Vespers is a jagged dreamscape, a folk-punk trance driven mostly by a 12-string acoustic guitar. There’s unpredictability embedded in each song, often stirred by sudden bends, fluttery picking, and punkish attacks on the strings.
But when you listen closer to each individual track, the elements of nature begin to shine through. The clearest example is the percussion on the album-opener “Wall Flowers.” In the midst of a beautiful and bent acoustic guitar, there’s a pattering. A tympani, maybe. It’s the sound of horse hooves on the ground, both steady and anxiety-inducing. It adds to the inherent swirl of the song and grounds the listening experience in nature. Overall, the song shifts your sense of place and situates you on a prairie canopied with murky clouds — it has a truly transportive quality.
This quality permeates the remaining eight songs, too. The instruments and arrangements evoke storms ripping, river water flowing, animals calling out, and more. It’s an earth-sound in a modern moment when we, as a broader society, continue to degrade and destroy earth. Which is why, I believe, the record offers so much beauty and tension.
The elements of nature further emerge during the last two tracks — “Edith’s Mink Cape” and “Blues for Herb.” It’s on these songs where Edge introduces new elements, including strings (courtesy of Julia Blaire), saxophone (Jake Crowe), and more auxiliary percussion. I hear bird warbles and whirs and wind. I hear a painful reality that exists within glittering creeks and soothing trees. What do you hear? I encourage you to listen and have your own experience and reflection. See where the music takes you and what it might mean. Stream below.
