What you need to know about Bruce Hornsby’s Absolute Zero is summed up by how Hornsby describes its first single “Voyager One”- “Steve Reich meets Prince.” Yes, the album is unclassifiable and that’s the way Hornsby wants it. This array of musical contributors attests to it – yMusic, The Staves, Blake Mills, Jack DeJohnette, Sean Carey, the Orchestra of St. Hanks (Frost School/University of Miami), his band The Noisemakers and more. Production comes from Hornsby as well as Justin Vernon, Tony Berg, and Brad Cook. Vernon co-wrote and duets with Hornsby on “Cast-off” and “Take You There (Misty) was written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
The three-time Grammy Award winning pianist, singer, and songwriter has spent a good part of the past three decades composing film scores and much of that bleeds into his inspiration for these tracks. What began to intrigue him were writing components known as “cues,” those comparatively brief passages of music used in films to heighten certain narrative visuals and/or spoken developments. That, and his interest in fiction, specifically the work of Don DeLillo and the last David Foster Wallace, figure into his songwriting. So, there are cinematic moments as well as poetic ones – a difficult challenge for most to pull together cohesively. Arguably, Hornsby makes it accessible although the “cohesive” part requires a few listens to be sure.
Hornsby begins with the title track featuring DeJohnette on drums with a string orchestra as he plays drums, piano and sings. The music creates a rather eerie, cloudy backdrop suitable for these lines in the chorus – “Hey come on, let’s go/down to 273 below/Let’s go sliding down the scale/Way down, down beyond the veil/I’ll be feeling fine at absolute zero.” The oddly syncopated “Fractals” has Hornsby on piano, violin, percussion and vocals with two bassists (Blake Mills and JV Collier) and a drummer for a tune that’s clearly Steve Reich-ian.
”Cast-Off” is one of the most musically expansive tracks, containing, per the credits, elements of “Back Stabbers.” Vernon and Hornsby duet while Sean Carey adds vocals and keyboards as other contribute sax, guitar, and loops. “Meds” rather appropriately has “John Cage prepared piano samples” and “17 or so violins and violas arranged and performed by Rob Moose” for an odd mixture of melody and dissonance. Vernon sings background, echoing some of Hornsby’s lines while Blake Mills is on guitar.
Hornsby just plays piano and sings on “Never In this House,’ accompanied by three background vocalists (The Staves), bass, and a gorgeous single violin in the foreground while horns and strings of yMusic round it out for one of the disc’s most melodic tunes. Parts of the chorus – “Somewhere, some day” may even evoke the early pop star days of Hornsby’s “The Way It Is.” “Voyager One” features three drummers and yMusic. “Echolocation” stands apart as there is no piano but instead has Hornsby playing dulcimer, violin, and percussion joined by Noisemaker Gibb Droll on guitar and Bruce’s son, Bobby, on violin. The complex “The Blinding Light of Dreams” features dynamic performances from The Orchestra of St. John’s and yMusic. “White Noise” is also heavily orchestrated, this time from “The Virginia Symphony Plus One” and has more prepared piano samples that combine to produce, despite the rather obtuse rhythmic changes, ultimately a soothing effect. The closing co-write with Hunter, “Take You There,” may well be the disc’s most accessible tune and it too has many of the elements we’re alluded to: the Cage samples, The Staves, The Orchestra of St. Hanks and yMusic.
Again, this recording is difficult to describe but treasures abound with each new listen, especially in the orchestral sequences.
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Once again, a lot to learn from Bruce, always with rich rewards. This latest project is receiving rave reviews right across the board – well worth your time.