The Persistence of Harmony
Listening Post 354. Einstein, Dalí and Descartes walk into a bar… No, this isn’t the full story of Blaumut’s fifth album but it suggests the ambition, gravity and splendor of the 10 songs that peruse the relative positions of heavenly and earthly bodies in real, surreal and fictional terms, from an eternal we-sing-therefore-we-are viewpoint. Seriously playful, the Barcelona-based band has always seen entertainment as synonymous with thinking. With Olimpica í Primavera (Olympic and Spring) they focus on how humanity adapts to altered landscapes, like the one bequeathed to us by a pandemic. (The album title and cover image of a racer at the starting block are meant to represent a vigorous new start.) Launching off the group’s trademark folk-rock-chamber music platform, Xavi de la Iglesia’s lyrics challenge as they soar, embracing images and concepts rare in popular song: The universe aside, there are no black holes here, but there are cavities in the fabric of time and a hole in our pillows where dreams hide. Blaumut asks many questions, but their metaphysics go down like fine wine shared in elusive light. In Ficció (Fiction, video 1), they ask how two independent souls can plan a single trajectory together; while El riu (The River, video 2) questions whether one who has never seen a stream can truly understand water. Futility competes with free will in the enigmatic El que vull (What I Want, video 3). La teoria (The Theory, video 4) starts inside a telescope, searching for normal skies and pondering distant “disasters and less consequential things.” And in Atles (Atlas, video 5) an ocean at the bottom of a glass portends a couple walking home together. Olímpica i Primavera is an exploration of bonds global and personal in a cosmos to which only Blaumut has the coordinates—unless you happen to stumble into the right bar. (U98 Music)
Blaumut: Olímpica i Primavera
Xavi de la Iglesia: Vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming
Oriol Aymat: Cello
Vassil Lambrinov: Violin
Manuel Krapovickas: Bass
Toni Pagès: Drums: Percussions
Related posts. Blaumut: Equilibri, Listening Post 135, January 29, 2018. https://worldlisteningpost.com/2018/01/29/blaumut-equilibri/
Blaumut: El Primer Arbre del Bosc, Listening Post 9, August 27, 2015. https://worldlisteningpost.com/2015/08/27/blaumut-el-primer-arbre-del-bosc/
Ficció / Fiction
Lyrics & music: Xavi de la Iglesia
(From the Catalan lyrics)
I was a half, and that’s all I knew/You were so close in language and verse
To sensing heat at an external point/I wasn’t you, nor were you me
Before looking, we understood why/Before feeling, we sensed one another’s skin
Do you believe in fiction? A crucial premise/I wasn’t you, nor were you me
Since I focus on order and facts/How do you get through doors and over edges like they were nothing?
You were a half and made the first move/We’ll come back to curiosity later
We found the key hidden in a sock/I wasn’t you, nor were you me.
I can adapt to any reversal
But how dare you be the piece I needed most.
Invisible trajectories in a natural cycle
Across two endless beaches we run barefoot
While the sun sets in our arms, we make sparks.
Do you believe in fiction? A crucial premise/I wasn’t you, nor were you me
El riu / The river
Lyrics & music: Xavi de la Iglesia
Evening has fallen, shadow by shadow, on your garden/You eat the pomegranates you pick just for me
I can no longer see if there are branches or roots/If it is a forest or a cage of stars
All the answers in a language I can’t write/Fall like pianos, crashing on your chest
And maybe I’ll save some chords/You are in the shade of the most twisted tree
How do you describe so many images from such a broad plan/Summoning your war as you might bury an ax?
And you can only swear that you’re alive/You want to understand water without seeing the river
I don’t know how many steps separate you from your body/Inside, the wetsuit is full of grass, nests and dust
It’s so simple this green cycle/Like a wall, it only falls when it’s harmless
How can you appreciate the mountain with horizontal thinking?/How hard it is to let your guard down when the slap is high?
And you can only swear that you are alive/You want to understand water without seeing the river
How do you describe so many images from such a broad plan/Summoning your war as you might bury an ax?
And you can only swear that you are alive/You want to understand water without seeing the river
El Que Vull / What I Want
Lyrics & music: Xavi de la Iglesia
He made that face?Of not revealing even a trace of expectation
to limit the impact of, I don’t know, what do I know…/of a broken promise
Do you see this move?/It’s what we all expected from you.
And the prosecutor looks at it/and nods and nods.
And me… and me… at my age/My impulses are under control
I have a manner that sways your vanity/But then I do what I want.
If air is weightless/How much does a simple “you should” weigh on us?
Religions aside, I say amen, yes, amen/and everyone lives happily.
Toast to defeat, my friends/Let the cups explode at our feet
Like profane expressions on our fingers/Let our deeds go up in smoke.
And me… and me… at my age/My impulses are under control
I have a manner that sways your vanity/But then, I do what I want
La Teoria / The theory
Lyrics & music: Xavi de la Iglesia)
Inside the telescope there is night/There are disasters and less consequential things
I have two ways of sleeping?In one I look at you and in the other you look at me
Behind the curtain the wind blows/Undressing the Milky Way.
The sequence of events is so strange/It embraces everything and I wonder
In a solar system like mine/I distill modern physics
Among so many orbits I long to see a normal sky/And to think how distant and abysmal it all is
Inside the telescope: a faint light?Minotaurs, centuries of storm
I have patience for a moment/And my field of vision widens
“I think, I draw, and therefore I believe”/That’s the theory
The sequence of events is so strange/It embraces everything and I wonder
In a solar system like mine/I distill modern physics
Among so many orbits I long to see a normal sky/And to think how distant and abysmal it all is
Atles / Atlas
Lyric & music: Xavi de la Iglesia
The last drop falls/Making circles in my glass
They spread out like waves/and I see myself in the ocean.
But I’ve fallen on top of an atlas/Crashing into a city
It hurt me, left a mark/Nothing that can’t be cured
We’re between here and nowhere
Even if it’s trivial, we meet to walk home together.
I track the age of trees/in every ring I see
I’m a meridian, I’m a coordinate/I’m what I think I should be.
On a map full of lives/of plant delusions
I see stars, seas, pools/I see a quarterly VAT
We’re between here and nowhere
Although it’s trivial, we meet to walk home together/We are between push and pull
Although it weighs on us, we meet and begin drawing the maps
And you smile at the atlas photo
We greet the people who are watching us/I still think of you
I still know who you are/I remember details from other lives
I’m not into science/I won’t burn in the fire
We are between here and nowhere
Even if it’s trivial, we meet to walk home together/We are between push and pull
Although it weighs on us, we meet and begin drawing the atlas
And you smile at the atlas photo.