Big | Brave – A Chaos of Flowers (Review)

Big | Brave are a doom/drone band from Canada and this is their seventh album.

New Big | Brave, so soon after last year’s Nature Morte? I’ll take it! If you’re unfamiliar with this remarkable band, check out that record immediately, (and 2017’s Ardor), and then dive into the 40 minutes of material we get on A Chaos of Flowers.

Big | Brave once again demonstrate an easy mastery of their chosen musical medium. The band craft music that displays a talent for using minimalistic composition to create maximum atmosphere. As I’ve opined in the past, for a rough overview of the Big | Brave sound, mix together bits of acts such as such as Nadja, Khanate, Monarch, The Body, Lingua Ignota, and Julie Christmas, and you’ll be in the right sort of a stylistic area. However, I’ll also throw in a reference to Earth, as A Chaos of Flowers is more understated, drone-based, and subtle than its predecessor, itself no stranger to these characteristics. There is less overt power on show, and more restrained undercurrents. This makes for an album that works its wonders over time, pulling the listener ever closer into its alluring embrace.

A Chaos of Flowers is a wonderfully affecting collection of diaphanous tracks that speak of a band with a keen connection to their art and what makes it so compelling. A thick, luxurious bass sound underpins much of the music, threading its strands together with consummate skill and winding presence. This is firmly embedded into the foundations of the album, allowing everything else to blossom wholesomely around it with haunting intricate breadth. There’s a rich delicate beauty to the music that delivers a fragile excellence, shimmering, pulsing, and gracefully gliding across the hypnotic album with a droning intensity.

A Chaos of Flowers works as a companion piece to Nature Morte, while also exploring a different facet of Big | Brave’s work. This is music to fall deeply into late at night.

Very highly recommended.