by Ljubinko Zivkovic (@zivljub)
There is a simple way to explain Big|Brave's complex music - speak softly and throw big punches. The trio of Robin Wattie, Mathieu Ball and Tasy Hudson have so far walked the path of their own genre that can be “easily” (or not so easily) labeled as a “true folk metal,” combining folk music sensibilities with a form of drone metal and thick lyricism that asks the listener to give their music and lyrics deep thinking. That musical line was already fully developed on their previous album, nature morte, and on A Chaos of Flowers, their latest effort, Big|Brave take that lineage a step further, confirming that big bravery contained in the band's name.
There are no concessions here, folk melody lines and Wattie's voice are enveloped in dark, brooding, earth-shattering (yes, akin to Earth, with a few steps further) guitars and thumping bass lines. They cool it down when necessary, just to prove their point, as on "not speaking of the ways”. Their form of dark musical cauldron starts the moment "i felt the funeral" opens the album and doesn't desist until "moonset" closes it, yet without repeating a single sound, drone or concept, shifting between volume levels on a moment’s notice when the music and lyrics demand it ("chanson pour mon ombre").
It isn’t just the use of notes themselves that Big|Brave excel at but also those unfathomable spaces between the notes that are usually left to the mastery of jazz musicians. Then, there is Wattie's lyrical concept of the album. Trying to interpolate poetry from artists around the world and across womanhood, intermingled with her own, she notes, "It is a feeling of relatability and even astonishment really, with how these writers of different standings and eras and all being female-presenting, each expressing these seemingly similar intense moments of individual experiences, of intimacy and madness. We're alone, and yet, not." After all is considered, Big|Brave present themselves with A Chaos of Flowers as a strong, individualistic musical force that might not fit the pop charts, but leaves an imprint that simply cannot be erased.