{"id":11458,"date":"2025-10-23T16:33:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=11458"},"modified":"2025-10-25T11:33:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T16:33:20","slug":"cosmos-patricia-brennan-near-far-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/cosmos-patricia-brennan-near-far-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking to the Cosmos: A Conversation with Patricia Brennan on \u2018Of the Near and Far\u2019 (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For eons, humanity has looked up at the vastness of the night sky in wonder. The pinholes of light shining through the darkness evoke feelings of comfort and familiarity, even as things seem so distant and mysterious. The stars leave us facing some of the greatest existentialist inquiries: Who am I in the broader picture? How did I get here? What else is out there? Interestingly, as we advance towards answering some of these lingering questions, yet more emerge. The Voyager 2 spacecraft has gone further into the depths of space than ever imaginable. By ingenuity and sheer luck, the probe is a little under thirteen billion miles away from Earth. An impressive feat, no doubt, but a mere drop in a vast sea when you consider that it is equal to only about nineteen light hours in a universe with a ninety-three billion light-year radius. And then there are the lines of thought only infrequently explored, like what is the connection between music and the cosmos? This is where Patricia Brennan\u2019s Of the Near and Far<\/em> (Pyroclastic, 2025) shines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brennan is one of today\u2019s most compelling compositional voices. Her septet\u2019s Breaking Stretch<\/a><\/em> (Pyroclastic, 2024) dominated the year-end lists when it was released, appearing not only on our site<\/a> but also on the Francis Davis Jazz Poll<\/a>, El Intruso\u2019s annual survey of international music journalists<\/a>, and even taking the designation of Downbeat\u2019s Album of the Year<\/a>. But when she\u2019s not revolutionizing the vibraphone and marimba, Brennan is an amateur astronomer. And that hobby lies at the crux of Near and Far<\/em>. Looking through her telescope, she mapped certain constellations and converted her findings into pitches. These pitches then – often incorporating things like the shape of a constellation, its namesake, and its mythos – into songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brennan is hardly the first to express their admiration of the area outside our planet\u2019s gravitational bounds to music. Gustav Holst trekked around the planets in our solar system. Sun Ra saw space as a place to escape the racism of his surroundings. Pink Floyd meditated on interstellar chaos. Often, however, those depictions are inherently built upon our cultural perceptions of space, not scientific reality. Brennan does something wholly different. In effect, Of the Near and Far brings the vibrant luminosity of the stars down to earth. It finds a way to make the constellations\u2019 existence in a region outside of sound a sonic reality. In so doing, Brennan exposes connections between the objects that fill our skies and those that fill our ears. Connections too deep to ignore or write off as mere happenstance. Why are the maps of constellations so well integrated with musical structures? Is it purely a function of mathematics? Is it that both reflect a divine creator? Philosophers, scientists, and theologians could debate these topics for generations, but as Brennan\u2019s work proves, the existence of such connections is undeniable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To explore further, the vibraphonist-marimbaist assembled a hearty crew. Under the conduction of Eli Greenhoe the hazy auras of string quartet (violinists Modney<\/a> and Pala Garcia, violist Kyle Armbrust, and cellist Michael Nicolas), jazz combo (pianist Sylvie Courvoisier<\/a>, guitarist Miles Okazaki, bassist Kim Cass, percussionist John Hollenbeck) and electronics (Arktureye) pull one another into a shared orbit, with the leader\u2019s masterful mallets and compositions propelling each. The result is pieces that build on the sheer power of the ensemble\u2019s size to rocket not only beyond the genred origins of the music\u2019s influences but towards entirely new terrains. One can read Brian Kiwanuka\u2019s review<\/a> for a more thorough breakdown, but suffice it to say, it is a work of beautiful movement. Moments on the album – particularly on \u201cAquarius\u201d – make the listener feel as if they are weightlessly floating in the air. \u201cLyra\u201d is an elegant tour through a field of light. The closer, \u201cWhen You Star Into the Abyss,\u201d flies through a black hole into an alternate dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, Of the Near and Far<\/em> is more than just the latest expedition of a great composer surrounded by gifted artists. It is a record that shoots for the creative stratosphere and safely lands listeners bold enough to join the voyage into the great beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PostGenre: One thing that is really cool about Of the Near and Far<\/em> is how, listening to it, there are moments where you feel like you are floating in space.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patricia Brennan: I am so happy to hear that. Whenever I put out a new album, I always get nervous about how it will be received. That is especially true with this one. Because it is so different from Breaking Stretch, I wondered how people would receive it. And I hear you when you say it feels like you are floating when you listen to it. Especially on \u201cAquarius,\u201d I get the same feeling too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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