Here We Are Now
Jimmy Behan brings forth an exploration of the present moment and the impermanent nature of existence. Sounds and melodies form and unfurl before dissolving and morphing into something else, as they pass through time from one moment to the next. The shapes and sounds of nature, various eastern philosophies, the writing of Fernando Pessoa and the art of Georgia O'Keeffe all provided additional inspiration. It's my first work using a modular synth set up, which helped me work in broader strokes with less emphasis on decision making. The album is dedicated to my dear old cat Loley, who passed during its making. JB Jan '22.
Credits: Mastered by Seán Mac Erlaine.
Tracklisting:
- Rising Road
- For Dancers Only
- Blue And Green
- The Happy Koi
- Disquiet
- Surface Tension
- Loley's Dream
- The Art Of Letting Go
- Cosmosis (Your Stars)
- Here We Are Now
Jimmy Behan
Based in Carlow, Ireland, Jimmy Behan's work blends acoustic and electronic sounds to explore the meeting points of present and past, random and regular, real and imagined.
Reviews
Music Won't Save YouJimmy Behan's sensitive gaze on the natural world ideally contemplated from his window returns to manifest itself after a long period of silence in the ten tracks collected in “Here We Are Now”, composed and realised precisely in a condition of physical and interior isolation. The volatility of time and the recombination of acoustic and electronic sounds are the essential elements of the placid soundtrack for lonely home days shaped by the Irish artist through his delicate palette.
Warm electronic frequencies and single notes are left to hover for a long time, changing shape and assuming harmonic contents with extreme naturalness that transmit sensations of a sweetly melancholy intimism, only for short stretches entangled in spirals of slight tension. Behan's “Pan-American” nocturnes are however largely muffled and reflective, offering hints of environmental purity, sublimated in a suspended stillness, to be savoured like every moment, like every single note.
* disc of the week from 3 to 9 January 2022
Link to original review > HERE
A Closer Listen
If the pandemic prompted some people to reach for their duvet and binge Tiger King, then it also sparked a creative burst in others. Take up knitting, finish that novel, write that album, and so on. We’ve observed the phenomenon of ‘lockdown albums’ for many months now, with musicians producing work at home and releasing it via independent channels. Here We Are Now is Jimmy Behan’s first album since 2009, and we suspect that it was the pandemic, as well as a new modular synth set up, that prompted his return.
Here We Are Now is a warm, welcoming album that confidently bursts into life with “Rising Road” a foghorn blast of swirling synths that quietens down to allow a guitar to add a hint of colour. Following that is a sequence of understated pieces, with a sense that Behan is easing himself back into the musical world. The later tracks are not overly fussy or complex either, but there is a broadening of the arrangements, and the background sounds grow clearer the further we go. Birdsong provides the backdrop to “Loley’s Dream” dedicated to Behan’s cat (and cover star), sadly no longer with us, no doubt dreaming of chasing birds in pussycat heaven. The lovely “Cosmosis (Your Stars)” reverses the technique of the opening track, with the swaying guitar pattern being swept away by billowing synth.
Despite the long gap between records, Behan does not throw a mass of pent-up ideas onto this album; he has the discipline to stick to one theme rather than fly off in numerous disparate directions. As we would hope for an ambient album, he keeps it simple and engaging. It is worth noting that he has released an EP recently, but those two tracks date from 2008. Whatever caused this break of over a decade, it’s good to have him back. (Jeremy Bye)