Double Infinity

グラミー・ノミネートによって一躍USインディ・シーンの中心的存在になったビッグ・シーフによる2025年最新アルバムがリリース!!

グラミー・ノミネートによって一躍USインディ・シーンの中心的存在になったビッグ・シーフによる6枚目のアルバム『Double Infinity』が〈4AD〉よりリリース。
『Double Infinity』は、グラミー賞にノミネートされた2022年のアルバム『Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You』に続く作品で、ニューヨークのPower Stationスタジオで2024年の冬にレコーディングされた。3人は凍てつく通りを、ブルックリンとマンハッタンの間を自転車で行き来しながらPower Stationの木張りの温かな部屋に毎日集まり、3週間にわたって作業を行った。
ララージ、アレナ・スパンジャー、ケイレブ・マイケル、ハンナ・コーエン、ジョン・ネレン、ジョシュア・クランブリー、ジューン・マクドゥーム、ミケル・パトリック・エイヴリー、マイキー・ブイシャスといった音楽仲間とともに、1日9時間にわたり演奏を重ね、全員が同時に録音しながらアレンジを即興で作り、集団的発見を積み重ねていった。『Double Infinity』は、長年ビッグ・シーフと共に制作を行ってきたドム・モンクスがプロデュース/エンジニアリング/ミックスを担当している。

For their fifth album, Big Thief offered up a sprawling double-LP (Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You) that spanned styles and moods but, like a playlist, consisted almost entirely of structured, melody-forward songs. The album was a hit, marking their first appearance in the Billboard 200 Top 40. The follow-up finds the group stretching out in a different and more surprising way. Their first album to be recorded without founding bassist Max Oleartchik, it finds the remaining trio welcoming in collaborators not only from the Brooklyn indie scene but from the jazz and avant-garde worlds, including the multifaceted Laraaji (Brian Eno), percussionist Caleb Michel (Afro-Cuban All Stars), and, on bass, Joshua Crumbly (Terrence Blanchard, Kasami Washington). While Big Thief are no strangers to sounding loose and live on tape, the resulting Double Infinity is easily their most improvisational album yet, even recasting Adrianne Lenkers voice as a vamping instrument on occasion. Its also their most meditative and psychedelic record yet -- and thats saying something because U.F.O.F. was pretty trippy. This is not to say that it doesnt sound like Big Thief, as theyve at least ventured into similar territories before, and it was engineered, produced, and mixed by longtime collaborator Dom Monks; but there are no counterbalancing indie rock or real folk bops here, and the liner notes credit instruments like tape loop, tablet, drone, and zither in addition to their more standard palette. Double Infinity starts off with "Incomprehensible," a rock song thats both driving and spacy, and guided by a rambling Lenker narrative thats punctuated by echo. That song is followed by another drugged-out psych-rock track, "Words," before "Los Angeles" grounds the set list in less-processed, harmonized folk-rock (singer/songwriters Hannah Cohen, June McDoom, and Alena Spanger contribute backing vocals to the album). With only nine tracks in all, Double Infinity nevertheless feels epic in its own right by the time it passes through the somnambulant, seven-minute "No Fear," a song injected with howling feedback and spectral backing vocals; the jammy Laraaji feature "Grandmother"; the circular anthem "Happy with You"; and the tambourine-accented singalong "How Could I Have Known," which seems to parade, jongleur-style, around the festival site. While Double Infinity is an album more likely to wash over listeners than stick, its collaborative, impromptu spirit has infectious qualities of its own, and its interesting to hear that the band expanded outward instead shrinking with the first departure of a member. ~ Marcy Donelson

ベーシストが脱退し、3人組になったインディー・フォーク・バンド。この5作目は、シンガー・ソングライターのハンナ・コーエンとアレナ・スパンガー、さらにララージら10人程度の固定メンバーで全曲が制作されており、ジャム・バンド的な祝祭感が作品を貫いている。名前を付けられる前段階にある集団特有の、コミューナルな風通しの良さが最高に気持ち良い!
bounce (C)田中亮太