Rosie Westbrook - Always The Sea
Album review by Ian McFarlane
Melbourne musician ROSIE WESTBROOK is a classically trained double bassist – well, multi-instrumentalist really, if you add in guitar, piano, electric bass, percussion etc. For most of her career she’s been content to be part of a rock ensemble, backing the likes of Spencer P. Jones, Sean Kelly, Mick Harvey and, most recently, Rob Snarski and Shane O’Mara. She’s also known for her own soundtrack work and presents live musical settings at art installations. And, if you didn’t know, she played the double bass part on the Australian Crawl hit ‘Reckless (Don’t Be So)’.
Westbrook is something of a well-kept secret as a solo artist, yet her creativity is well worth tapping into. She’s now delivered the final instalment of her instrumental, Oceanic trilogy, Always The Sea, following Wave (2002) and Big As The Ocean (2007). For previous albums, she’s had multiple players contribute yet this time out she only has Sean Kelly (slide guitar on two tracks) and percussionist Thomas Wydler on four tracks. All of which adds to the spaciousness inherent in the music.
The challenge might be attempting to place her in a musical setting or genre. The music is predominantly minor key, then at turns dark, moody, meditative, ethereal, emotional, abstract, cinematic. It’s modern classical, and there are ambient qualities yet it’s not strictly that. ‘Ship’, in particular, strikes me as similar to some of the more meditative aspects of an artist such as Ryuichi Sakamoto. She’s nominated the likes of Jah Wobble, Eno and Tony Levin as some of her favourites, but she’s following her own path. It’s not jazz either but, before I get too hung up on all that genre stuff, the main thing to note is that the music aims straight for the heart.
“Water is where I do my best thinking,” Westbrook tells me. “Walking along the beach. With this album, it’s describing that feeling of looking out over the ocean. I wanted to convey that feeling of expansiveness and endlessness. That’s what I was trying to give people to listen to.”
Opening track, the nine minute ‘Endangered Species Parts 1, 2 and 3’, is the most representative track on offer. All the sound effects – whales, seals, waves – were created on the double bass. Bowed, plucked, manipulated etc. It’s all about the placement of the notes, the intervals, intuitive and expressive in the most generous way.
Regarding the form or structure of the album tracks, the musician says, “On the earlier albums a lot of the tunes worked to song form e.g. verse/chorus etc. ‘Mountain’ (from Big As The Ocean) is probably more in line with what I’ve done on the new album. This time, I deliberately let the process be more organic, without trying to stick to a structure, but let the composition be more instinctual. This is more time consuming because it means you just have to listen as you go, over and over again! This included some ‘surprises’ on various tracks, where you think it’s finished but then something happens again. This occurs in ‘As Far As The Eye Can See’ – the intro sounds like it’s finished but then another little phrase pops up! Also in the track ‘Free’ – it was written to be exactly that, very much letting it just happen.”
Asked if she might explore the more turbulent aspects of the ocean in her music, Westbrook replies, “Um, no. I would if I was asked to, if I had to compose to a storm scene for a film. No, I don’t know why, that’s a good question. I guess I’m not trying to convey that. It was very much trying to convey calm but also emotion. Some people say the music is too melancholy. I don’t think it’s melancholy, to me it’s just emotional. I just wanted to play as expressively as possible. I did give myself a lot of freedom.”
Tracks such as ‘As Far As The Eye Can See’, ‘Shimmer’, ‘Ripple’ and ‘Always The Sea’ leave one in no doubt that Westbrook has achieved her stated aims. Like the strands of a spider’s web, the music here has a way of drawing you in, capturing your heart. If you consider that most rock music is aimed at getting people up to dance, then be sure that Always The Sea is about shifting people’s emotions in effective ways.