We all fall back on seasonal music. Whether the soundtrack(s) to our youth, compositions that mimic the weather, or selections which wrap around us like clothing, it’s the one function of music most can agree is universal. It’s almost spiritual rather than emotional in this regard, for music evokes a “feeling” that goes beyond happy, sad, or nostalgic. It’s in our bones and can’t be shaken. This truth has long been at the heart of Seth Chrisman and Nathan McLaughlin’s work in its many forms. But together on Olivebridge, it’s almost practical in its application. It feasts on those seasonal touch points, but also taps into what makes them uniquely personal. We all experience autumn similarly (a preamble to winter in its many iterations), but what is the essence of autumn and how does it apply to our daily motions as the season plays out? It’s how the lengthy compositions of Olivebridge unfold and reshape among the steely guitar and solemn drones. Olivebridge longs to “feel” something, but it also “feels” familiar. It speaks on a cellular level, asking wordless questions to create a musical Rorschach to get to the bottom of what “seasonal” truly is. Why do we need a momentary summer interlude in the midst of winter — is it to remember warmth is coming, or to thaw a chilly soul that is beginning to turn as white as the snow outside? Why do we need the energy of spring in the molasses throes of an amber autumn? When an album forces you to determine true answers to myriad questions, you face them. Though answers that can be fully comprehended do not lay within Olivebridge, the mechanism to understand our spiritual attachment to seasons can begin to be formed.
More about: Nathan McLaughlin, Seth Chrisman
