Aaron Martin – Worried About The Fire (Review)

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The cello is arguably the most diverse of stringed instruments, offering depth and moody basses to convey doom and foreboding sounds, while still maintaining the ability to transmit music of hope and immense beauty wrapped in a rich melancholy.

Over the last year the experimental, modern classical scene has been treated with a healthy body of cellists with David Darling lending his talents to Dakota Suite’s “The End of Trying,” Hildur Gudnadottir releasing “Without Sinking” on Touch and Danny Norbury’s “Light In August” all some of the highlights

Returning in 2010 for his fourth solo album, Aaron Martin, the Australian born, Kansas based multi-instrumentalist, releases “Worried About The Fire,” an album certain to be noted in this year’s collective of cello recordings.

Originally conceived as the soundtrack to a short film, the album is actually a deconstruction of previous solo and collaborative recordings, meshed together with electronic sounds and post production processing.

It is an album that slowly lures you in. Starting with downright dark, hypnotic drones, “Albee” is an unnerving opening laced with subtle string sounds over a looping humming of noise. It’s a track that offers no clues as to what will follow, and indeed the set-up of harmonica, banjo, organ and bell sounds that feature on this album throughout bring an ambiguity to the overall sound.

If Aaron Martin does have a trademark amongst his ongoing expansion of sound, it is with his layered, loop-based compositions. The first hint of this is on “Open Knife” a beautifully detailed cello composition showcasing the full range of delivery of the instrument.

Open Knife

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“Water Tongue” allures the listener, highlighting the depth of sound Martin evokes from his cello playing, with the warmth of his slow low notes juxtaposed with fast rhythms as his bow scatters over the higher ones.

While these tracks perhaps define the Aaron Martin sound, and are indeed the most accessible to listen to, the album is rich with very dark, often unsettling music that never detract from the album’s overall composition.

A standout track perhaps is “Beaver Falls” which builds slowly from a layering of strings and wind sounds to launch seamlessly into a cinematic scoping of cello. It conveys images of chases through forests (at least with me!), and exemplifies what this album is all about.

Mastered by 12k label head Taylor Dupree, there is an intimate sound here, and often one can picture themselves being in the same room with Aaron Martin as he joins all his music together. Overall the crafting of each track is reflective of the album as a whole and just as Martin has been able to successfully layer a multitude of different instruments, “Worried About The Fire” stands as a meshing between darkness and light; proving chaos can exist in the most graceful surroundings. – Review by Josh Atkin

Track List:

Albee (2:46)
Ice Melts Onto Fingers (2:58)
Open Knife (3:32)
New Brighton (3:22)
Water Tongue (3:48)
Wires of Glass (3:35)
Reed Tunnel (3:13)
Marked in Dust (2:48)
Blue Light (3:18)
Beaver Falls (3:12)
Making Rope out of Eyelashes (3:10)
Sixth (4:37)

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