BIG|BRAVE ANNOUNCE NEW LP, ’A GAZE AMONG THEM’ Their fourth full-length will arrive via Southern Lord on May 10th – watch a teaser for the album here.
“BIG|BRAVE are big and oceanic, their music flowing and crashing like waves…Robin Wattie’s clear, piercing vocals, which occupy an emotional zone right at the point between ecstasy and abject despair.” – Pitchfork
“BIG | BRAVE have somehow made a ruthlessly loud record that is also fascinating, and consistently elegant.” – Drowned In Sound
Since their inception in 2012, BIG|BRAVE have explored terrains of experimental rock with a clear focus on the key principles; space, volume, and raw emotion. The essence of BIG|BRAVE‘s magic has always been the way they balance these dynamics, and particularly how much sheer power comes from the beautifully quiet moments.
The same principles are the starting point for the new album, only the approach is different, beginning with the question “How do we take very little and make something bigger than what we actually have?” vocalist and guitarist Robin Wattie explains further “the biggest challenge was to not do what is easiest. i.e. what we knew worked for the last albums or what is, for us, easy to write. With A Gaze Among Them, Mathieu and I put ourselves through the ringer – I did not want to do what seemed to me to be a ‘logical next step’ in what we could do musically. I wanted to go back to our original concepts and work from there – space, tension, minimalism and voice (finding melody and musicality in pieces that consist of one note for longer than ten minutes, for example) were the primary concentrations I wanted to push.”
Watch the teaser for A Gaze Among Them now on YouTube.
In the process of revisiting their early intentions, BIG|BRAVE have boldly evolved, emerging with a thrilling new body of work that is all at once refreshingly new, explosively heavy, dynamically loud, beautifully minimal, carefully repetitive, and totally and utterly cathartic.
A Gaze Among Them features Robin Wattie (vocals, electric guitar, guitar amp, bass amp), Mathieu Ball (electric guitar, guitar amps) and Loel Campbell (drums) with guest appearances from Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt Zion) on Contrabass and Seth Manchester’s synth overdubs. The album was recorded with Seth Manchester at Machine with Magnets in Pawtucket Rhode Island.
The beautiful image adorning the cover (created by Robin Wattie – see below) further demonstrates that BIG|BRAVE have blossomed.
The trio sound rejuvenated and confident, and A Gaze Among Them is the sound of a band truly honing their craft, and feeling totally satisfied with it. Compelling. Necessary. Important.
Look for A Gaze Among Them to be available May 10th via Southern Lord, and see BIG|BRAVE on tour this spring/summer. More news coming soon.
A Gaze Among Them, tracklisting:
1. Muted Shifting of Space
2. Holding Pattern
3. Body Individual
4. This Deafening Verity
5. Sibling
BIG|BRAVE – on tour:
March 10 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Place *
March 12 Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair *
March 13 Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw *
May 16 Nurnberg, DE @ Musikverein ^
May 17 Berlin, DE @ Spree ^
May 18 Poznan, PL @ LAS ^
May 19 Prague, CA @ TBA ^
May 21 Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat ^
May 22 Antwerp, BE @ Kavka ^
May 23 Lille, FR @ Le Bulle Cafe ^
May 24 Bristol, UK @ Rough Trade – Raw Power Festival
May 27 Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny ^
May 29 Paris, FR @ instants Chavirés ^
May 30 Brussels, BE @ Magasin 4 ^
June 1 Winterthur, CH @ Gaswerk ^
June 3 Wurzburg, DE @ Cairo ^
June 4 Hamburg, DE @ Schute ^
June 11 Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
* w/ Daughters
^ w/ MYDISCO
Artist photo by: Rachel Cheng