Justin Wright - Modular Winter
Montreal cellist, composer, and arranger Justin Wright recently released “Modular Winter,” a new single from his debut LP, Music For Staying Warm, on First Terrace Records.
Justin Wright
Since we don’t receive much classical music to review at Rawckus, it’s a big deal when we do because we’re passionate classical aficionados. Thus we welcomed “Modular Winter” with open arms.
Wright describes the birthing process, “Modular Winter,” began as an experiment with different approaches to composing. The idea was to have a set of short, repeating patterns that could be arranged in any order and go on for any length of time. I then wrote free-flowing melodies to play on top, following the instructions – enter whenever you feel. Initially, I had about five or six patterns, but whittled it down to my three favorites and settled on a more permanent arrangement for the song.”
He goes on to say that the first half of the track was written after the second half, and was inspired when Wright observed a man and a child visiting a cemetery in Banff. The man was there to pay his respects before a tombstone, while his child, clutching a balloon, skipped about having fun. The juxtaposition made an impact on Wright’s sensibilities, who returned to his studio to translate his emotional response into music.
Marvelously wrought, “Modular Winter” delivers subtle, nuanced flavors both charming and delicately, elegantly profound.
Something of a prodigy, the arts journal Cult Montreal christened Wright the “ever-present Mile End string king,” while journalist Lisa Sproull labeled him “Montreal’s busiest cellist.” In 2018, Wright performed with Common Holly on their U.S. tour, including eight feature performances at SXSW, followed by touring Europe with David Gardner’s Orbits, followed by still another tour of America with Common Holly.
Wright really is “omnipresent,” opening for Johann Johannson’s Place-des-Arts concert, and sharing the stage with Colin Stetson, Hauschka, Mount Eerie, Bing & Ruth, and Devon Welsh, along with two residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
“Modular Winter” opens on gentle, gliding tones rife with frosty textures and deliciously misty colors. The gorgeous amalgamation of strings, cello and violin, infuses the tune with tantalizing wisps of recollection, simultaneously immanent and transcendent. The alluring austerity of the harmonics along with the exquisite leitmotifs, suffuse the music with an elusive beguiling familiarity, near yet at the same time distant.
Marvelously wrought, “Modular Winter” delivers subtle, nuanced flavors both charming and delicately, elegantly profound.
