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Grab Hold of What Floats

by Brazos

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1.
The Shining 05:20
Caught in a room for a night
 Actually, this night is all time
 But I’ve got a window to see
 The shining
 
 Blinking with white fire flies The Morse code of the sky
 Send me a message that is 
Un-dying
 
 Ho hum, it’s speaking in tongues I’m doing my best to hear it,
 This landing of new spirits
 Of new souls and somehow I know
 We’ll meet them in the distance
 We’ve known them well
 Through every feeling we’ve felt 
Being ourselves 
 As we trade one form for another  
 
 A face made of faces Aa name made of names And love is a light that the dark can’t contain 
Don’t hand me a hammer  
I’m not breaking out cause 
I’m not breaking down
  
I know this room well
 I’m a passenger 
Behind his open eye
 In fact
 I just told him to open his mouth 
I just told him to sing out loud
 He showed him how good it can feel to mean it
 
 Ho hum, it’s speaking in tongues 
I’m doing my best to hear it, 
This landing of new spirits
 Of new souls and somehow I know 
We’ll meet them in the distance
 We’ve known them well
 Through every feeling we’ve felt
 Being ourselves  As we trade one form for another  

2.
Simple living I'm what I am I am easing into Being it Being the ladder On which they climb Being the landing From which they fly Being the bold Backdrop of life A simple time Simple living Is what I've got To be surrounded It's quite a lot If they're not laughing They're gonna cry Just make them happy No questions why Steady walk on A steady line A simple time Simple as the stillness of snow Simple as a ripple off a blue sailboat Simple as a glow It's easy to be known A wait is over A weight is on Push it gently A simple job Turn it over It's black and white Keep it rolling By keeping it light Hold it close But not too tight Steady walk on A steady line Being the bold Backdrop of life I guess that means I think I’m fine In this simple time
3.
Rituals 04:45
At the end of every day you come and find me And curl into a ball And kiss me on the cheek to say you love me And then to sleep you go A ritual For us to keep A ritual Of you and me A thought as real as anything I could hold I like to hang on all these rituals We swore on all the meaning that would bind us As if inside a trace We kissed among our gathering of loved ones And then all night we danced A ritual For us to keep A ritual Of you and me A thought as real as anything We could hold We walk a trail Of all these rituals To some I might seem sentimental To me they just seem cold Unable to conceive of this Magic hour sunlight stream that bathes my world in gold Or maybe they just can’t believe That every day begets an open morning Made for an open mind To sing a round on all the rounds before us And truly harmonize A ritual For us to keep A ritual Of you and me A thought as real as anything We could hold Our life aligned on this one ritual
4.
He had 2 lives He had 2 hearts But he was not divided When the lanes crossed In the Black Sea 2 ship collided You got to grab hold Of what floats One soul to one soul You got to grab hold He was a lighthouse With no walls On a bed of yearning His one sound A slow howl Of a lantern turning You got to grab hold Of what floats One soul to one soul You got to grab hold A silver mooned face Looking at you from far away If what will is a wind Then what was is a weight Don't let it bring you down A watchtower His is now To the blue of the water As dots of life Drift through his light And keep sailing onward You got to grab hold Of what floats One soul to one soul You got to grab hold One soul to one soul
5.
Folded wings folded Soft shut eyes dozing Now your mind is open Every path leads to the dark Until knotted and unseen Faintly outlined with stars We disappear into a dream Folded wings folded Curled up like steam An eddy in a deep stream I leave the back door open If you take to returning Behind veil of my screen I leave a lantern burning Folding wings unfolding Like a bird in the night Only the sound of flight A whisper That I can’t see But hear so clearly I woke up in a crazy state As if inside a dream The features of each strangers face I had already seen I felt the essence of my friends In random shopkeepers and kids I heard the laughter of your breath On playgrounds and cafe decks Folded wings folded Soft shut eyes dozing Now my mind is open Oh how my mind is open
6.
I got lost in this dream Somebody’s listening An audience of one A show that’s never done And so I sing out loud My secrets and my doubts Shadows of which I shout To stage flowers raining down You’ve got to give all you contain You’ve got to throw yourself away You’ve got to leap with joy and pain To be remade again On vapors then you’ll glide Through atoms you’ll collide As new strands form and twine A column of new life Are you ready? Are you ready my greatest friend? Ready for someone to be... Always listening? Ok Then Let’s be what they’re listening for
7.
Picking up the pieces Can be difficult for me Some are in my hand Others out of reach None are made to measure All a different size That's why, first chance I get You know I'm gonna fly To the fields of order Through the rows and rows Where you work with the sunlight And the green that grows Might break your back but At least you know There’s still a place in the world where you Reap what you sow I don’t know how it works I just know what it does And so for all this power gained There is a knowledge lost Deepest roots hide humble Growing into the earth That's why, by and by, I'm dreaming of the dirt To the fields of order Through the rows and rows Where you work with the sunlight And the green that grows Might break your back but At least you know There’s still a place in the world where you Reap what you sow Hard to think of a stranger Time than now Live in such abundance And yet I feel a doubt Endless possibility Only drags me down So you know where I’m gonna go While I can still get out To the fields of order Through the rows and rows Where you work with the sunlight And the green that grows Might break your back but At least you know There’s still a place in the world where you Reap what you sow
8.
birthday to birthday what a year can window what a year can consume what a year can bloom make a wish I know you came from wishes come true and as a wish can make you so a wish can take you Way away Far away from how does it feel to go to the brink and come back? to get called and show up to look it in the eye birthday to birthday like a jungle campaign Like a levitation Like you’re riding waves from Way away Far away from birthday to birthday there’s a fire burning the smoke is thick it takes a lot to breath but you seem to be breathing so I’m gonna just find your favorites delicious time to savor on the day that made you like we’ve always done like we’ve always done like we’ll always do Way away Far away from Birthday to birthday Through the deepest black hole What kind of diamond Can a day turn into? When you’ve left completely And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy And my life is busy (And an alert comes on my phone)
9.
I’m still inside the shadows The hunter and the catch Though you are not beside me Your love Protects Alone in open water The stars too dark to see But I know where I’m going Your love Gleams Your mind is like a carpet Your thoughts are like the fruit I’m eating as I’m laying In your love’s Room How can I forget you Now that I can see? I call it a wonder Your love leads me A lantern flickers shadows Soft across a face Your body is but one form Your love Takes
10.
Nighttime comes Before sunset We fall asleep to twilight How strange it feels To never see The darkness of the other side Talk to me In my dreams Paint with shades I can’t unsee Fill the halls Of empty time Shield me from The other side We’ve had friends Begin and end But all who leave Come back again They’re not gone they're just on a ride traveling round the other side The other side Of you and me The bones the blood The skin you see Into a song One day we’ll climb To drift into The other side

about

BRAZOS
GRAB HOLD OF WHAT FLOATS

Grab Hold of What Floats is the third album from NYC-based Brazos, the project of film composer and songwriter Martin Crane. It’s a breezy, forty four minute stroll through Martin’s jazz and folk infused ruminations on life and death. Written in an intense three weeks of creativity after a seven year hiatus away from songwriting, it traces the ecstatic exploration of reincarnation and rebirth.

"I was not in the mode of self-expression, and I hadn't written a song in what felt like a lifetime," Martin says "then sometime in the start of September 2020, I began to wake up in the middle of the night with music in my head." By the end of the month, Martin had written as many songs as he'd written in his whole life. "Something about the stillness of the night set me off. I was living in the country. It was pitch black and dead silent, and I could hear the music clearly in my mind. I wrote it down in my phone without playing or singing a note. This music comes from this place in the middle of the night - a world that's walled off by sleep on either side."

Songs like album opener "The Shining" reflect that state.

Trapped in a room for a night.
Actually, this night is all time
but I've got a window to see the shining
Blinking with white fireflies
the morse code of the sky
send me a message that is undying.

"I remember writing that, watching fireflies at 3 a.m. while witnessing a hidden world that I normally sleep through. I felt at that moment like I was watching the infinite," Martin says. "The Shining" offers a distillation of Grab Hold's different threads - a soaring melody set to a pastoral waltz under lyrics that explore reincarnation with a conversational ease "we've known them well / through every feeling we've felt / being ourselves / as we trade one form for another". It's a song that offers an easy listen but can be felt and understood on a profound, spiritual level.

The album runs the gamut from the mystical grandeur of “Your Love Gleams” to the domestic wink of “A Simple Song”. The titular song, "Grab Hold of What Floats", offers a laconic parable about trauma, Martin remarking “how trauma is a dividing force in life, compelling one to guard life while living it.” Songs like "Rituals" and "Somebody’s Listening" spin through whimsical love songs, while "Folded Wings Folded" on its surface presents as a warm, woodsy song about dreams. However, underneath lurks a darker center. “Folded wings folded is literally the image of folded arms in a coffin. It’s a song about speaking to the dead in the dark and communing with their reincarnated spirits the next day.” But it plays like a confessional singer-songwriter sketching with traditional images of Americana. It’s a stylistic hallmark of the album in general - the edge is there, but it’s hidden.

Much of that sleight of hand can be credited to producer Spencer Zahn’s (CREDITS) jazz-centeric focus on spontaneity and performance in the recording. Zahn brought together a stellar group of NYC players Kenny Wollesen (CREDITS), Will Graefe (CREDITS), and Aaron Arntz (CREDITS) and engineer Philip Weinrobe (CREDITS) to record the songs live in 4 days. "I didn't know Kenny, Will or Aaron," Martin says. "In fact, I hadn't played live music in nearly 6 years before our session. But they are some of the best players in New York, and when they get going, it's like sitting on a golden sedan chair." The band didn't record to a click, and Martin sang his vocals live, each song being captured in three or four takes.

This old-school recording approach gives Grab Hold of What Floats a lived in feeling similar to classic 70s singer-songwriter records, albeit with slight synth and auto-tuned harmony overdubs. Martin was listening to Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Dory Previn, and Bill Withers in the months leading up to writing, and the raw honesty of Booker T. Jones' production cemented a starting point for the album's sound. Other references include Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rosalia ("the greatest singer who has ever lived"), the poetry of Hafez and Adrienne Rich, The Archers' filmography, Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, the seed supply company Salt of the Earth, Julie London, Ennio Morricone, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

"I was on that naturalistic vibe, and this album feels like a human moment in time, mistakes and all. It slows down and speeds up, it's shaky, it miraculously finds itself and then slips away. Actual live music, music that is made away from machine-based rhythm feels so scarce today, like it's a rare element. I'm just trying to pull some more of it out of the ground."

Grab Hold of What Floats will be released on all streaming platforms by Sudden Records September 16, 2022.

credits

released September 16, 2022

Recorded Sept 1-4, 2021 at Figure 8 Recording

All songs by Martin Crane

Producer: Spencer Zahn
Guitar: Will Graefe
Bass: Spencer Zahn
Drums, Vibes: Kenny Wollesen
Piano: Aaron Arntz
B3: Erik Deutsch
Guitar, Vocals: Martin Crane
Mixer: Andrew Lappin
Engineer: Phil Weinrobe
Master: Shawn Hatfield 
Creative Director: Pepi Ginsberg
Photography: Melanie Akoka
Design: Femke Campbell
Stylist: Andy Reiff

copyright 2022 IOMCOI MUSIC LLC (BMI)
2022 Sudden Records

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Brazos Brooklyn, New York

Grab Hold of What Floats - 2022

Saltwater - 2013

Phosphorescent Blues - 2010

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