Providing the ideal entry point for neophytes and an intoxicating aural high for the faithful, Damien Jurado’s new opus extends the hot streak ignited by 2012’s “Maraqopa” and its 2014 follow-up “Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son“. Cut once again with label mate and super producer Richard Swift at the latter’s National Freedom recording facility in rural Oregon, “Visions of Us on the Land”, out 3/18 on Secretly Canadian, completes the tale of an individual who has had to disappear from society in order to discover some universal truths.
There was no grand scheme to make a trilogy at the outset. Exuberantly prolific, its creator simply wanted the first record to be “a quick snapshot,” says Jurado. “Maraqopa is this peaceful place I can go to in my mind. A little bit psychedelic, but you’re not using substances. The brain is such a powerful thing. In that uncharted territory I was able to tap in and find this place. Which was called Maraqopa. Similar to the fictional towns in television or books.”
Maraqopa, the album introduced a character – deliberately unnamed, intended to represent anyone feeling that way – who stumbles upon the titular locale then gets into a car crash… which only frees him further. “Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son “picked up the narrative after the accident, in a commune inhabited by Silver Timothy, Silver Donna, and Silver Malcolm. “Visions of Us on the Land” journeys further into the subconscious mind, a symbolic road trip spotlighting the people and towns that our central figure and his travelling companion, Silver Katherine, encounter upon leaving the commune. Hence the capitalized track titles, alluding to real American locations refracted through one’s third eye in the rear view mirror. Like all great art, it’s about life and death and love and freedom. A sonic map with no set destination, revealing more with each ride.
Listen to “Exit 353”
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