Profound
Profound is the title of Brattleboro, Vermont, singer-songwriter Ruth Garbus' third studio album for Orindal Records. Listeners of the songwriter's deeper catalog know Garbus' work not only for its minimal melancholy but for vibrant, literate lyrics that take stock of the sludge that fills our psyches and oceans. But on Profound, Garbus is admittedly happier. She is also more self-assured in her music and her place making it. On the opening track, aptly titled, "I Think I'm Ready Now," Garbus sings, "In the pink of your surroundings you can let go of shame / The lemon drops of failure all dissolve / And the sick of sweet pretending just a veil of gauze." Profound begins and ends with Garbus weighing what it means to be a woman in her forties. At age forty-four, she explains that as her hormones change, she experiences what she calls "the cyclical yearn of 'extinction burst' fertility." On the first track, the aforementioned "I Think I'm Ready Now," she's "as relaxed as a woman can be when she's filled with blood." And at the same time, on the final luscious pop track "Tall Face," she leaves listeners, singing that her "luxurious wrinkles wind like a vine" around her "tall face." In this way, Profound is a portrait of an artist who is comfortable with who she is and ready to explore who she might become. Garbus has earned her Profound title, yet remains searching—for answers to life's big questions, to find her style and her sound. She credits much of the development of Profound to collaboration with her Trio (Nick Bisceglia and elie mcafee-hahn), a Piano for Songwriters class she took with School of Song, and vocal coaching from Junko Watanabe at the Brattleboro Music Center. Under the auspices of Watanabe's instruction, Garbus learned music by the French Romantic composer Gabriel Fauré, singing it in its original French, but she translated two of these works—"Clair de Lune" and "Nocturne"—for the album. Profound was recorded at the home studio of Garbus' longtime friend and collaborator Kyle Thomas, aka King Tuff, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont to quarter-inch tape along with Nick (guitars) and elie (keyboards). Profound builds on a deep history of musical participation and collaboration; Garbus has played in Earth Flower, a trio with avant-garde LA saxophonist Sam Gendel and inventive Toronto percussionist Phil Melanson; Gloyd, an experimental improvisational quintet super-group; and in the more distant past in Vermont freak-folk band Feathers and freak-pop band Happy Birthday. Through collaboration, Garbus seems to always be pushing her songs, her voice, and her musicality further. The continued adaptation of drum machines, keyboard, and creatively processed guitar bring Profound to new sonic heights. Garbus conjures a happy-go-lucky guy who grabs his "sunscreen bottle" and puts on his "pinwheel hat" to go to the beach in her perhaps most contented song to date, "Sunny Summer Guy." "And I was just fucking happier and those two songs are really happy songs," Garbus recalled, describing the emotional break for “Tip of the Hat to Yellow Fleur” and “Sunny Summer Guy,” something she credits in part to starting life-changing medication for depression and anxiety. "Creatures listen to the small guitar / Gentle and magical yet avant-garde," Garbus sings on "Tip of the Hat to Yellow Fleur," an upbeat love song to her longtime partner, fellow visionary Brattleboro songsmith Chris Weisman, over a slick vintage drum machine and vibey distorted keyboards. Here, Garbus muses: "Is there a way to prove that love is real / Lab coats and microscopes say yes." This playful pondering is just as rich as Garbus' spellbinding melodies and complexly moving chordal changes that create the ingredients for a sound that is, in fact, "gentle and magical yet avant-garde."