After natural disasters, there are those spots where lifeforms begin to spring up; those are the spots that interest Mutual Benefit’s Jordan Lee, the places where life begins again, Growing at the Edges. The moments where the conditions for rebirth occur have become a lifeline for him. Amongst the death and decay, life regenerates and with it are the conditions where change can occur. Despite the horrors of the past, tiny blades of green emerge, much like the music Lee has created.
Growing at the Edges opens with the soft flourishes of a piano. Little by little, other instruments enter, building a gentle spot where the death fades away. “When our hopes like the embers/ If these winds could fan them/ Could we remember/ How it feels to dream again?” That question frames the entire album. And, like so many things, the places for rebirth aren’t right in the middle. This is a collection filled with subtleties.
Moments build and shift, from single notes, chords emerge, fanning the flames and making moments that at points verge on something epic before other shades materialize. Songs are linked by instrumental pieces, many with string arrangements shaped by the violin and viola of Concetta Abbate. She has found a way to merge chaos and calm within those arrangements for Lee. Especially on Beginner’s Heart, where his lyrics reflect the uncertainty in the moment, “Though my heart can ache/ When its wide awake/ I still want to hear it’s song.”
Some albums move in ways that one tends to expect. What Lee has done is something quite different. At those points where you think you know exactly what to expect, surprises fill the air. Just when the electric piano might play out in Season of Flame, the path changes, and an acoustic piano begins an arpeggiated section that trails out to just a piano before rebuilding with horns and strings. There’s no sense of randomness about this; instead, it is a choice to lead things away from the norm.
Lee, with the help of co-producer Gabe Birnbaum, chooses contexts that head in the direction of the jazz and classical music he has been listening to over the past five years. When Birnbaum’s sax enters the mix on Wasteland Companions, there are notes of Van Morrison dating back to Astral Weeks. Instruments don’t overpower each other; the mix finds ways to blend in the bliss at the moment whenever a sense of doom begins to dominate the proceedings.
Gentle yet searching, yearning yet hopeful, Growing at the Edges always seems to hold out hope despite how grim things can feel. Mutual Benefit holds onto the hope that the darkness will lift, just as birds seem to know that spring will come again.
Bandcamp: https://mutualbenefit.bandcamp.com/album/growing-at-the-edges