The title, nature morte, is the French term for still life paintings whose literal translation is “dead nature.” Big | Brave colour the songs of nature morte with unease, creating an air of beauty in decay, chords suspended in contemplative stillness. Robin Wattie’s experiences structuring lyrics and song forms on The Body and Big | Brave’s Leaving None But Small Birds informed her work on nature morte, creating stories that, like many folk tales, are at once specific and universal. Wattie’s voice manages to be commanding and vulnerable with impressive range and intimacy. Even her gasps carve their way through the tidal crash of Mathieu Ball’s distortion wail and the pummel of Tasy Hudson’s drums. The momentum of nature morte conjures the image of a beast collapsing beneath its own weight before resiliently staggering upright to thunder onward. Big | Brave convey heft from silence as deftly as they do from swaths of feedback and distortion to cathartic ends. “Distortion is key,” notes Ball. The three members recorded primarily live over the course of a week at Machines with Magnets with Seth Manchester, pushing the potential of their instruments beyond expectations. For each song, the trio’s songwriting and attention to detail deliver its simple but devastating emotional power.
