Tim Brady: Actions Speak Louder
Redshift Records

Tim Brady's three-disc set can be purchased separately, but it's best broached as a single, multi-volume expression of his artistry. Doing so encourages a better appreciation for the remarkable scope of his worldview and abundant gifts as composer, musician, and conceptualist. The Montreal-based guitarist has issued more than twenty releases since 1988, and even the most cursory scan of their contents discloses the polymorphous nature of his output. There are chamber works, guitar quartet performances, orchestral pieces, electroacoustic experiments, and art-song settings, all of which testify to the fecundity of his imagination. Actions Speak Louder might therefore be seen as a microcosm of that output, given that its three parts present, respectively, guitar-centric works, a four-movement concerto for guitar, violin, and percussion, and two ambitious, multi-part works featuring vocalists and instrumentalists. While the listener will likely prefer certain pieces to others, that same listener will no doubt come away from the project amazed by the achievement.

In featuring nearly an hour of solo guitar playing, the opening disc is arguably Brady at his purest, though it also includes a guitar quartet piece performed by Instruments of Happiness, one of his primary ensembles. Though Brady possesses a virtuosic command of the guitar, indulgent displays are eschewed for painterly explorations. Electronics, effects pedals, and a looper are used to extend the instrument's capabilities but never so much that its fundamental character gets lost in the process. In some tracks, patterns assemble to form multi-layered tapestries such that the impression of a multi-member unit is created; elsewhere, Brady generates fields of vaporous texture that resonate with dramatic portent (At Sergio's Request) and shapes guitar glissandos into eerie spirit-channeling (the fourth movement of The Virtuosity of Time). If some moments rise to a near-shriek and others resemble volcanic activity, an extended meditation such as 60% (just water) captures his playing at its most lyrical and touch-sensitive. The interlacing patterns coursing through the third movement of Simple Loops in Complex Times suggest Brady might have a special affinity for the playing of Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp in the ‘80s incarnation of King Crimson. That impression isn't dispelled by Uncertain Impact either when Instruments of Happiness (Brady, Jonathan Barriault, Simon Duchesne, Françis Brunet-Turcotte) likewise gather patterns into an at-times aggressive matrix.

In contrast to the multiple pieces presented on the first disc, the second is given over to Triple Concerto: Because Everything Has Changed, which plays like a single forty-one-minute piece when its four movements play without pause. Performed by Brady on guitar, Helmut Lipsky on violin, and Shawn Mativetsky on tabla and percussion, the work is unusual in its construction, even if it creates the impression of a live improv. Each of the three participants was given orchestral sound files to react to in his home studio; the results were then edited, merged, and mixed to form the triple concerto as presented. The manner of construction utilized might be seen as both a reflection of lockdown-related circumstances and the way music production is being influenced by technology. The soloists—collectively known as Of Sound, Mind and Body—occupy the forefront while the orchestral backdrop shape-shifts around them. One of the major satisfactions afforded by the piece is how different its material is to that on the opening disc, with the organic, high-energy unfolding of the concerto standing in stark contrast to the precisely mapped-out settings for guitar. The differences in timbre between the instruments also adds significantly to the listening experience of the concerto. Further to that, Lipsky and Mativetsky are impactful players who stamp their bold personalities on the performance with an authority equal to Brady's—no one's a passenger.

The final disc's a bit of an outlier, considering that its two works were composed and recorded decades ago, even if re-mixing, editing, and re-mastering were done in fall of 2020. Performed by Bradyworks, the first, Revolutionary Songs (1993), is a six-part song cycle dealing with the impact of politics and revolution from a personal perspective. Texts from revolution-inspired poems are sung in English, French, and Spanish by soprano Nathalie Poulin accompanied by Brady, saxophonist André Leroux, cellist Gordon Cleland, pianist Andrée Baril, and percussionist Marie-José Simard. The second, the three-part As It Happened (1999), is performed by Mirror Image, the chamber ensemble in this case Brady, percussionists Carol Bauman and Richard Moore, and vocalists Kim Enns-Hildebrand and Daria Salemka (sopranos), Anne-Marie Donovan (mezzo soprano, spoken voice), John Tute (tenor), and Michael Donovan (baritone). As It Happened is the more collage-like of the two, assembling as it does voice excerpts from a 1999 radio interview on the CBC's As It Happens into its ambitious framework, the focus of the piece having to do with brainwashing experiments involving shock therapy and drug injections done at the Allen Institute in Montreal during the ‘60s. Brady's expansive approach is fully evident in both creations.

Poulin acquits herself commendably throughout Revolutionary Songs, her voice an effective complement to the instrumental component. Whereas she and Cleland distinguish “When I Return” with lyrical classical expressivity, “Le Nom de Frère” works heavy riffing by Brady into its otherwise elegant design. Don't be surprised if you're reminded of Andriessen and Reich (Tehillim and The Desert Music in particular) on occasion, with the writing suggesting Brady was absorbing their respective works during this period. Intense and even at times manic, the performance is memorable for its multi-faceted design and the conviction with which it's realized. While As It Happened begins gently enough with an introduction of radio voices, challenging, near-cacophonous parts occur within the “Action” movement. Pitched at slightly less abrasive levels are “Reaction” and “Radio Landscape,” though they also include an overloaded moment or two. Not for the faint of heart, the work advances through a series of polyphonic vocal episodes and high-energy instrumental passages over the course of its half-hour run.

In liner notes written expressly for the triple-CD set, Scottish critic Brian Morton recounts how Brady once told him he prefers to “see his work, not as a series of discrete ‘works,' but as work, an ongoing process of unfolding particular ideas and procedures.” Actions Speak Louder aptly illustrates the idea in presenting three volumes that despite their dramatic differences nevertheless contribute to a larger portrait. They aren't the whole story, obviously, though they are significant parts. Regardless of whatever reservations one might have about a particular piece, there's no denying the release is an incredible achievement, especially when experienced in triptych form. The award-winning Brady is highly regarded in Canada, but his accomplishments as a guitarist, composer, and visionary have also been hailed in publications such as Downbeat and Guitar Player. The material presented on this latest statement argues that such recognition isn't unwarranted.

May 2021