Nathan Salsburg :: “Ipsa Corpora”
Riding high off last summer’s retrospective release of “Hear The Children Sing The Evidence,” a brilliantly melodic manifesto on a couple of choice Lungfish classics that feature friends and colleagues Will Oldham of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and Tyler Trotter, Kentucky-based musician, and historian, Nathan Salsburg returns to the sonic surface with his most recent effort entitled “Ipsa Corpora.” Translating to ‘The Bodies Themselves,’ and clocking in at just under an hour, Salsburg takes his time breathing into the familiar flames of the family campfire that holds this precious artifact of atmospheric proportion together. Lighting the way with liberating laughter, sticky fingers from melted marshmallow, and memories that seem to shoot across the sky like comets of cosmic communication, who have been travelling for millions of years just to say hello, the veteran musician takes us on an emotionally electrified journey filled with meditative melancholy, and a sincere reflection of the times we live in.
“I thought that imagining them as individuals, like characters in a play, could be a useful mnemonic, so I tried assigning an identity to each, poaching from gauzy memories of long-dead relatives. These arbitrary associations failed. The new pieces couldn’t correspond to the old apparitions. They were real subjects in themselves, paradoxically, synesthetically, embodied in sound. I wasn’t happy with this conclusion, but I couldn’t shake it, and as more pieces of the eventual whole revealed themselves over the following months, the effect became like guests arriving: like physical visitation, when the air in a room is ruffled and displaced as a body moves into and through it.”
Photo: Joan Shelley
Photo: Tyler Franz
Building trust with each perfected pause before releasing another flow of notes in real time, “Ipsa Corpora” is calculated and calm like Fred McFeely Rogers teaching tranquility through our TVs during the most fragile moments of the day. While continuing his poetic pursuit of peace, understanding, and creative clarity, the musician effortlessly stirs the shifting sands of our teetering society by iconically introducing lush finger-picking rhythms and countryside compositions, famously found throughout Salsburg's rich and robust catalog. As I listen to this recording, doing my damndest to pull words from the world around me to articulate these sonic sensations mainly felt in my eyes and chest, cold rain from May silently falls from the ancient sky just a few weeks before school lets out for summer break. “Ipsa Corpora” takes the melodies of the macabre and silently severs the connection from one negative feeling to the next. A blissful mode of transportation that radically engulfed the tender essence of humanity, Salsburg invites listeners to embark on an epic journey through the vapors of space and time while simultaneously evaporating into the music’s medicinal mist to ensure spiritual security. Set for release on Philly-based label No Quarter in late June, “Ipsa Corpora” is a southern soothing for the soul if there ever was one, and a fine way to kick off the season most properly.
