Besides changing the world, the pandemic also altered the shape of music recording. Affected by both, Gabriel Birnbaum responded by recording on an old, little-used four-track tape recorder; the initial result, Nightwater, was released in 2020. Now, a second helping, Nightwater/all the dead do is dream, has been released. What it illustrates is just another facet to a man who, besides being the frontman of Wilder Maker and a songwriter, is also an ambient Tascam explorer, printmaker, saxophone player and arranger. That’s only a partial list!
Beginning in 2020, Birnbaum started doing something he’d never really done before, recording at night. That shift changed his focus as well as the sorts of material he would work on. At the time, he said about Nightwater, “The nocturnal nature of it, along with the fact that I never listened back to the tracks until the whole tape was full, made it feel like a dream.” With this second volume, the dreams continue, even though the lockdown has ended.
Gentle tones of electric guitar weave in and out with a subtle rhythm while a keyboard joins with the melody to create, “I ordered a beer that never came“. A little sax work also adds to the joys of this track. Getting inside your head, the melody feels right at home, comfortable but not worn out.
The beginning to “at some last call spot” feels almost like a needle hitting the record before the sounds emerge. What follows are two chords of the piano, followed by a wobbly guitar that begins to splay out what could be Beatle-ish melodies softly shaping the still night air. It’s a bit like listening in on old recordings from the ’60s when the recording world was limited to four tracks of tape. If you wanted to do more, you’d have to bounce two tracks together to make room for more tracks.
While Birnbaum seems content with the restrictions of that format, more often than not, he seems liberated by the limitations. What he puts to tape are the moments that matter most. “they are going to move the stars so that they spell out the truth about us” works because it doesn’t answer the question. Made up of four different keyboard tracks, it seems to slowly lay out answerless questions. There are shifts in the colour, yet by the end of the piece, there are still no solutions.
Keyboards wobble in places by design as they lead to larger frameworks like “something happened that seemed to point at me like an arrow”. A guitar enters, playing a bass run that seems to work its way toward the middle strings; there are even hints of sax that circle the scene before things run out with a bit of what sounds like an acoustic guitar.
This may be a low-key affair, but it’s never without energy. Birnbaum knows how to keep listeners interested. Fascinating in its simplicity while constantly shifting focal points, with Nightwater/ all the dead do is dream, Birnbaum creates worlds that are the perfect antidote for whatever the day has brought.
Bandcamp: https://gabrielbirnbaum.bandcamp.com/album/nightwater-all-the-dead-do-is-dream-2