By Brian Earley
The most adventurous music
offers an exchange with its
listeners. Dedicate time and
attention to its often
unpredictable operations, and
receive a return. For me,
when I listen to
The Giant is Awkward, the latest release from
Victor Vieira-Branco’s trio
Bark Culture, the return is
as immediate as it is
sustained. A feeling of
something like exhilaration
in the moment, of following
master improvisers on their
way to a circuitous but
directing truth.
Victor Vieira-Branco is a
vibraphonist and composer who
grew up in Brazil, but spends
most of his time these days
in Philadelphia, that is when
he is not touring with Rob
Mazurek’s Exploding Star
Orchestra or Chad Taylor’s
Quintet, which played Big
Ears this March. With
The Giant, his trio
Bark Culture has its second
release, the maiden voyage
being the acclaimed
Warm Wisdom
from 2024, and is rounded out
by bassist John Moran and
drummer Joey Sullivan.
Together, the trio makes music
that is angular, surprising,
and almost always just off
center. The opening track,
“Palace,” is a representative
example of this. After a
slanted theme marked by what
sounds like finger pounding by
vibes and piano, the music
descends into a deep madness
with Sullivan and Moran
following no particular time
or engaging in any semblance
of functional harmony. But
after several minutes of
gleefully wild chaos, the band
unifies again, rights itself,
and collectively enters a
second set of thematic
material before leaping into
yet one more wall of noise.
I should pause to state that
this release is made
particularly special by the
presence of guest pianist Sam
Yulsman. Yulsman is one of
the engines behind the supreme
madness one finds on this
album, as he smashes and
mashes and slams his piano
keys in the sections I find to
be most adventurous, most
dissonant and wild. He even
contributed a composition, the
second song “Farce,” which,
with its asymmetrical thematic
unison of vibes and piano
leading into surrounded
moments of unhinged sonic
rantings, is right at home on
The Giant is Awkward.
Vieira-Branco is composer of
all of the other works here.
While his compositions are
lovely, the interplay of the
musicians is what makes this
album move from coherent to
something really special.
Drummer Joey Sullivan seems to
me to have a particularly
strong musical relationship
with Vieira-Branco, and the
two are as likely to play
their respective percussion
instruments with mathematical
precision as they are to
respond spontaneously to
sudden snare rolls, cymbal
crashes, or introverted
vibraphone bowing.
And all of this is not to
suggest Victor V-B’s
compositions are not at times
stunningly beautiful.
Listen, for example, to the
penultimate work on the
record, “Panic.” The piece
is quiet, introspective, full
of tenderness and empathy and,
in communicating as much, is
not at all what I expect when
I think of the word
panic. The song
seems almost guru-like in this
way as it flows in and out of
time and traditional harmonies
to moments of collective
improvisation. Panic is a
navigable state here, as
marked by beauty as it is by
its unexpected torsions, but
always as composed and
improvised as the day itself.
The Giant is Awkward
is one of the standout
releases of this year for me.
Its depth of feeling and
spontaneously combustible
surprises find themselves one
minute collectedly astute, and
beard grabbing lunatic raving
the next. For all of this
work’s intelligence and its
musicians technical
virtuosity, there is never a
moment where I feel the energy
is not in service of art or
the music itself. And this is
the adventure Bark Culture
has offered to its potential
listeners with this album:
follow them with attention
and effort, and deep pleasure
manifests along the path with
wisps of transformation
sailing in its sonic
wilderness.
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