Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Nathan Salsburg & Tyler Trotter - “Hear The Children Sing The Evidence” :: No Quarter
From reality’s seemingly perfected perspectives via the slightly dimmed windows of any moving vehicle going anywhere and everywhere simultaneously in some Kerouac fever dream, resides this momentary idea that we’re all somebody. And it’s through this muted collection of reversed engineered thought that allows us to explore passionately through some wicked zeitgeist circled by roaming vultures, while we summon the hysteria of man to question his place in this world. Where mantras repeat their blissed out verses through a melancholic meditation of soothing sounds released from lips that conjure spring and summer in an effortless motion projected from a fingerless hand waving goodbye and hello. With singing streets of magical disorder and comforted mania that include tours of whiplash via the frequented nerves from a bending stem, a wrestled feeling of fruitful exploration between digitized dogma and dilapidated direction, feeds the mind a buffet of circuitry cuisine.
It’s been nearly two decades since Baltimore’s most legendary outfit Lungfish has released anything, or played together for that matter since announcing their indefinite hiatus back 2005. A band with miraculous magic and soaked sutras of poetic power, Lungfish were amongst some of the most unique and truly groundbreaking bands of their time. While leaving behind an incredibly gorgeous body of work for past, present and future listeners, its original members Daniel Higgs, Asa Osborne and John Criest have all gone on to start other various projects throughout their careers and its safe to say that the symbolic spirit of Lungfish has officially been reincarnated with the new release from the great minds of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Nathan Salsburg and Tyler Trotter entitled, “Hear The Children Sing The Evidence” on No Quarter Records. A heroic journey with vacationed verses from the curated cranium of Higgs himself, the trio single handedly captured precious lightning in a bottle with these recordings and have done a wonderful, poetic justice to the rhythm and revelation of a band we all love and adore.
Oldham on Higgs —
“Each time through a single word might all of a sudden blossom. He puts things together with intentionality, so the more you embody them, the more they reveal and reward”
“Hear The Children Sing” and “The Evidence” are two tracks pulled from the classic Lungfish albums,“Pass and Stow” and “Love Is Love” that take on this absolutely breathtaking practice in unparalleled patience and rhythmic prayer. The project was initially inspired by Salsburg when he would perform “The Evidence”, a song he taught himself early on, to his newborn daughter at the time. Acting as a singular repetition provoking calming rest, the lullaby eventually took on a life of its own and Salsburg found himself bringing friends and colleagues Tyler Trotter and Will Oldham in on his compelling idea of communicating this particular ascetic to the classic tunes. Further accompanied by friends and family; Zak Riles on banjo, Ned Oldham on electric guitar and Poppy Jo Oldham and Talya Salsburg on vocals, “Hear The Children Sing The Evidence” would come to life with its sprawling instrumentation, impeccable arrangements and Oldman’s angelic vocals in such a fearlessly way that it makes these recordings a romantically stunning listen from one side to the other.
