Le Ren/Brick Road
Len Ren
Morning & Melancholia // Royal Mountain Records
Grieving..... not a fun word, let’s face it. It’s a cycle that one goes through when they experience a profound loss. The loss can be many things as well ....a job, a friendship, marriage, a pet, or someone who was near and dear to you. Grief doesn’t hold any prejudice. Chances are you have experienced it in some way, shape or form throughout your life. If you haven’t experienced grieving... consider yourself very lucky.
Montreal’s Lauren Spear crafts Folk/Americana under the name Le Ren. Her debut EP, titled Morning & Melancholia is a haunting, heart wrenching encounter and somehow utterly soothing. It’s a memoir of mourning, and healing that was born out of the loss she experienced. This album was a way for her to release and perhaps have some closure. What really takes me by surprise is how Spear plays and sings these songs without the slightest quiver in her voice. She has the inner strength of a Goddess to not completely breakdown and cry while performing these songs.
”How to Begin to Say Goodbye” features warm vocals and harmonies. Spear really puts it out there. Her heart on her sleeve for all to see and how powerful that is! It made Grief sneak up on me and hit me with a tsunami wave of tears.
”If I Had Wings” has me full on balling my eyes out. Her words are like those I think anyone grieving could relate to... “I’d be heaven bound so I could see your face once more” and “I’d finally get a chance to make it right by you” . All too often we’re left with regrets of things we wished we said or done. All the more reason to say I love you today because tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone.
“The Day I Lose My Mind” is a beautiful traditional country waltz, I can’t decide whether to dance to or cry in my beer... maybe both? Haunting harmonies gives it depth. Is that steel guitar I hear? Sure gives it an added layer of flavour and emotion. When I’ve been knee deep in grief there was nothing more comforting than country music. For it reminded me of growing up and the comforts of home.
I feel I was meant to hear and review this album. Listening to it was a way for me to process, to release, and to move forward in my own journey through grieving. This EP is healing, on many levels, not only for me but for so many other people as well. Thank you for this gift Le Ren. One thing I learned in my grief was to never miss the chance to say ‘I Love You’ because tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. You may have lost someone you loved but they never left your side. You have an angel watching over you. Live Big and Love Big!
Love Always,
Green Noreen
Brick Road
Songs Of Peace And Happiness // Independent
Recently I have found myself listening to a lot of 808-heavy hip-hop and a lot of punk and metal as well. I would say that these genres are comfortably within my wheelhouse and that rampant “know-it-all-ism” can only be deterred through non-interest on the part of the poor individual I have trapped at a party (how inconsiderate of them- I mean, of me).
Pardon the following blanket statements, but this heavily-programmed hip-hop and punk/metal that has been recorded directly into computers with amp simulators (I’m not delving into the tube vs. amp sim debate, if it sounds good it’s probably good) gives this music a sense of immediacy, as if the band is right on the other end of your headphone. Old rock bands use to experiment with placing drum-sets in echo- filled rooms, or having multiple microphones placed everywhere. Songs Of Peace And Happiness by Brick Road, perhaps due to the way it was recorded, has me really hearing (feeling?) the room it was recorded in. I may just be revealing my own ignorance of jazz music, but it seems that this space between performer and listener is necessary to unveil the elaborate soundscapes that are truly euphonic and at times quite psychedelic.
Ethan Bokma, the brilliant mind and improviser-extraordinaire responsible for this music, has quite the legacy of involvement in improvisational jazz bands. I tracked down tunes from bands he has been involved with in the past (such as Heavy Beak, or Holy Drone Travelers) and it was a dive down a musical rabbit-hole and through different genres of saxophone-heavy jazz music. Heavy Beak is more hard bop (I think), while Holy Drone Travellers’ music was more akin to Songs Of Peace And Happiness. I felt I owed it to Bokma and to his fine album of improvisational jazz to fully prep myself before even attempting to write this article. I don’t know jazz as well as I’d like—we all know fans of a genre of music who either fail to explore past the ‘big-names’ of the genre or who latch onto a single album and continually talk about it while never exploring more of the genre (me. I am describing me. Hey speaking of which, have you heard the albums Miles Davis and Marcus Miller collaborated on in the 80s?).
The album itself is comprised of 6 songs that vary in length from 2 and a half minutes to almost 27 minutes – more than one side of an LP. This impressive collection of tunes is best enjoyed one after another; I have listened to the album as solo songs and all the way through and I must say that the soundscape is best enjoyed as if you were embarking on some kind of journey. It’s through longer sustained periods of listening that I found myself floating away (despite the fact that I was at work many times while listening to the album, slamming vegetables and fruits onto display tables) and beginning to anticipate the changes in build-up and release. As the description of the album states, “I couldn’t just throw a bunch of tracks together and call it an album”; Bokma respects us as his audience and respects his own musical ideas as well. What we have here is a concrete album that flows, creating album-long moments of building and releasing tension.
“It’s Sunny In The Morning” builds up for nearly 8 minutes, releases some tension in an incredibly subtle way, and then continues to build until the end of the song. You can’t be thinking of the time or watching the seconds tick away on your phone as you listen. This may sound silly, but this album is best enjoyed like an album – slap it on and sit back.
“Drone For Puppies Big And Small” is a particularly beautiful track – the organ in the background holds the eponymous drone, before being overtaken by droning saxophone. In my mind I could see the puppy, first walking carefully as a baby to the flicking tune of the music before growing into a beloved family pet, lounging next to owner in the twilight of its life. I’ve always felt that instrumental music that doesn’t take its time getting to its destination is thinking music, or music that makes you feel creative. In this case, I definitely felt Peace And Happiness.
A sole cover song, a rendition of Lymbyc Systym’s “Rest Easy / Age Kindly” closes the album. A reoccurring saxophone motif and a building soundscape are euphoric treats for the ear. I had never heard the original song before; comparing Bokma’s rendition to Lymbyc System provided a bit of insight into a) what the artist is influenced by outside of saxophone-playing legends such as Coltrane, and b) what the artist considers important to reproduce in the track. The main motif of the song is changed from orchestrated music to Bokma’s saxophone, and it somehow (to my ears) became a more intimate piece of music. Perhaps I feel this way because I have spent 45 minutes listening to the album by the time it closes; all I know is that I immediately rewind the song because 3 minutes is such a perfect length—short enough to keep me wanting more and just long enough to fully allow my mind’s eye to start forming images.
- Alex Bennett
