Terje Gravdal is one of the most reviewed artists in NMC and that’s for a reason, namely that he holds an opinion on a wide range of subjects, many of them political and socio-economic, and he’s invariably got something to say that demands your attention in a way that your average politician doesn’t.
He has just released his fourth EP – or it might be his fifth; he’s prolific and I’ve lost count!
This one is called ‘The Dreamer’ and the sample track I chose is ‘No broken adult’, a power ballad both instrumentally and musically.
Often I get a heads up on the meaning of a song from Terje but in the absence of one here I’ll hazard a guess that what he’s intimating is that to avoid rearing ‘a broken adult’ and to ensure that his soul “remains free” the parent ought not to raise him in his/her/their own image and definitely must not draw them into their own entangled failures or in his own words “to keep them there” (in that broken space).
In fact not to rush them to adulthood at all rather to let them acquire wisdom at their own pace.
In all probability it is a philosophy that probably works well in the mountains of south-central Norway and Terje’s assertion in that it will work in an Oslo suburb as well if you put your mind to it.
Musically, it builds slowly but surely and ultimately majestically with pounding, almost military drums and what might be a didgeridoo, and is written as to tell a coming of age story, as if the subject is on the edge of adulthood and stands there as an exemplar of how to raise a child in a way that best prepares it for the world.
It ends on a long, reverberating note and I couldn’t help but compare it with the track “I will have language” on Auri’s recently released album ‘III – Candles and beginnings’, which is the story of (a) birth in four sections from the sperm swimming against the tide to seek out the egg, to conception, to gestation and to the moment of birth itself, that moment being captured in an almighty final chord.
It perhaps might seem strange to contrast Terje with the lush, layered, chamber alt-pop/rock of the erudite Finnish/British trio but they are singing from the same hymn sheet, creating images that stick in your mind and conveying a sense of both profundity and wonder.
Vocally, he’s chosen to use his Lee Marvin baritone for this song. There’s nothing more appropriate for a storyteller and he ranks amongst the very best.
(Continues after the Spotify link)
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