The unconscious is a wonderful, frightful thing. Delving deep into it may change the power to change our lives, but the majority of us would rather avoid meeting those ideas with the same intensity that we’d like to avoid a plane crash.
Pop stars, and the people who write their songs and compose their careers, know this. Pop music strives really hard, first and foremost, to avoid creating discomfort, even if for a brief moment, in the lives of its customers. But what good does this do?
Lebanon post-rock group Ghaymē make instrumental music that, at its best, challenges you to detach from reality for a short while and take a swim out into the oceans of your unconsciousness. Approach “Live at Gaumont Art Lab” with bravery, and you may be surprised by what you find out there, and of what Ghaymē’s music has the power to reveal.
And since that’s quite a mission to take on, Ghaymē, just like an actor fighting to find the best line to suit a story, opts to improvise its material. Listening to the four songs that make up this 32-minute record, one gets the idea that the mood is used as the compass on this exploration rather than static musical formulas.
Discomfort is not just tolerated, but should be welcomed. Most of the sounds seem to resemble the irregular patterns of some harsh mountain landscape. “Cracked Glass and Molten Wax,” the opening track, feels like the strenuous hike up that mountain.
Pop music this is not, and the song formats are meant to steal your attention and keep focused on the sounds. “Reoccuring Memory” with its delay-favouring lead guitar lines seems designed to induce recollections of past traumas, while “Faithful Despair,” with its use of abstract, resonant sounds, could well be the painful treatment for those.
Where does it all leave us? If the band gets its way, it will fearlessly navigate our subconscious. If you’ve made it this far, the closing track, “Go Touch Some Sourgrass Instead of Innerbliss”, is not the happy ending that you’re looking for, but one more shock to the system.
Can you stand to look at yourself in the mirror after this? Have you uncovered some of yourself while working through this 32-minute live set? Ghaymē’s members certainly hope so since it feels like this is what they’ve been doing as well. A smooth ride is no guarantee here!
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