Track By Track: Grand Salvo

PADDY MANN recounts chasing down both the musical and narrative sides of Grand Salvo’s ambitious sixth album, ‘Slay Me In My Sleep’

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]

‘The old woman and the boy’

The snake eating its own tail.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - The old woman and the boy by grandsalvo

‘She woke at three with a thumping heart...'

This is an overview song from the old woman's perspective; all references being pretty vague and nonsensical at this early stage, though. The first of many two-chord songs from the album. With two-chord numbers you have to either lock into the repetition or try and make it sound like it has more going on. I tried the latter here.
The date in the title has a special significance.
The first half of the album was recorded with Nils Frahm in his home studio in Berlin. I didn't know many people over there, but one of the few musicians I did know was a saxophonist [Pablo Juanes]. Although not an instrument I'd normally think of using, it ended up suiting the song quite well. I added the baritone sax back here: it’s a monstrous-sounding instrument and works like no other as a staccato attack.
Originally this song had a long and very busy outro. After hearing me singing the outrageously high harmonies for this song, Nils' housemate later confessed with typical German frankness that it had "sounded really awful."

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - She woke at three with a thumping heart.. by grandsalvo

‘She was also watching on the occasion of his first break in...'

This song is the scene-setter. The three characters are introduced, as is the garden and the house where the present-day stuff happens. The combination of the title and the lyrics pretty much map out the story and motivations. I wanted to keep these early, explanatory songs pretty short, so I overlapped lyrics in the chorus to save space.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - She was also watching on the occasion of his first break in by grandsalvo

‘She quietly makes her way down the stairs as he rummages away in the room.’ & ‘She stands in the dark for a long time.’

The first break in business and a cool reminder of the old woman's mortality. More moon references. The thing about the cat drinking the moon comes from old European folklore.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - She quietly makes her way down the stairs as he rummages away in the room. by grandsalvo

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - She stands in the dark for a long time. by grandsalvo

‘Two cups sit on the table, the kettle is on and the bread is toasting...’

This song was needed to bridge the gap between the creepy and desolate atmosphere of the previous song and the excitement of newfound love. This is the third time the woman collapses, I suppose from some kind of love-surge-induced heart attack. She falls once in each act, in the reverse order in which the falls occurred. It was important to have things pulling and pushing time-wise, leading in both directions at once.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - Two cups sit on the table, the kettle is on and the bread is toasting by grandsalvo

‘He raises her gently into a chair...’

This is where the old woman really starts to move back into her past and, as things start to overlap, the song follows her and it becomes quite joyous and excitable. The boy is linked to the sun, hammering away at the star-crossed-lovers theme. Nils' amazing piano and celeste playing in the second half contrasts pretty tellingly with my efforts in the first half, although it does make the transition more effective.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - He raises her gently into a chair by grandsalvo

‘They sit facing each other at the kitchen table...’

This, as well as track 10 [‘With the photograph…’], is supposed to be a kind of flashback, or a revisiting of the old woman's past through washed-out images or indistinct scenes. Like in films where the camera zooms in towards a thoughtful face, only to dissolve into a scene of soft-focused reminiscence with a flowery harp arpeggio. (Coincidently I made poor Genevieve [Fry], the harp player, repeat this clichéd effect quite a few times throughout the record. In fact, it was pretty much all she got to play). I felt the dynamics needed to really flatten out here too. The piano on this track was recorded in a 10th-century castle. The take was interrupted right near the end by a maid entering to collect some hors d'oeuvre trays.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - They sit facing each other at the kitchen table... by Mess+Noise

‘"What's that in your pocket?" "A photo" "Of who?" "I don’t know"’

I wrote the first incarnation of this song when I was 17.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - "What's that in your pocket?" by Mess+Noise

‘With the photograph lying between them...’

This is the second ruminative/trance-like track, this time from the perspectives of the boy, the first love (the photographer) and maybe the boy as an old man, all kind of vaguely mulching over the old woman's story. These songs are very important in that they should suggest the histories and the great weight of the past lives of the characters much more effectively than the narrative-focused ones. There are lots of references to bells. I liked the idea of a struck bell representing the old woman's falling so violently in love, and how it resonated through her life.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - With the photograph lying between them, she tells him her story by grandsalvo

‘The boy's story of his faithful family dog.’

This song I thought perfectly suggested the boys limited understanding of death, and the old woman's fear of dying alone and unloved, and maybe even the tentative hope that she now had someone. I like the parallel of her spirits rising like the dog’s in a last youthful surge before the end.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - The boy's story of his faithful family dog by grandsalvo

‘The story of May 20th, 1929.’

I didn’t want the reason for the abandonment to be clear. Betrayal, suicide, mental breakdown, war, family, a combination of disfigurement and martyrdom are all options. This song, like a lot of the others, changes character and becomes softer and dreamy at the end, as the perspective leads back into the ballroom and the first night they met.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - The story of May 20th, 1929 by grandsalvo

‘How, three days later, she wandered heartbroken and ruined...’

Originally the old woman was going to become a nun after her heartbreak, and live in an abbey for years before fleeing from the Nazis to Australia (hence the pointed reference to the Hills Hoist in track 3), or at least there was going to be more evidence of this in the telling. It happened, trust me. The mountain village scene was inspired by a really similar midnight procession in a tiny town in the Italian alps that I found myself a part of: completely silent apart from a wonky and mournful amateur brass band leading far ahead unseen. Something to do with Easter, I think.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - How, three days later, she wandered heartbroken and ruined into a mountain village by grandsalvo

‘The lament of the regretful ghost.’

This is a strange one in terms of the narrative. It’s perhaps what the photographer would have felt had he lived, or maybe it’s the boy grown old like the woman. I couldn't decide and so it’s vague and a little muddy.
More European folklore and superstitions.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - The lament of the regretful ghost by grandsalvo

‘She asks him to pack her a bag for hospital...’

This scene in the garden is what the entire thing grew out of; in a way the story developed to justify this scene.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - She asks him to pack her a bag for hospital by grandsalvo

‘He leads her by the arm in the old manner out into the music...’

This is when the old woman is completely drawn into her past, back into the night she fell in love. Although not spelt out, I imagine the boy dressed in the man’s suit.
The two lovely German ladies [from Quartet New Generation] who played the recorders on this track were unbelievably good musicians. They turned up with a couple of suitcases full of recorders. Baroque, contemporary, Renaissance, sopraninos, sopranos, altos, tenors, bass, sub-bass, ebony, rosewood, boxwood and maple – and then suggested combinations of wood, style and range that they thought I would like. Quite mind-blowing.

[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Grand Salvo - He leads her by the arm in the old manner... by Mess+Noise

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‘Slay Me In My Sleep’ is out now through Preservation/Inertia. Grand Salvo will launch the album at Paddington Uniting Church in Sydney this Friday (Aug. 31), Black Bear Lodge in Brisbane on Sept. 2 and Melba Hall in Melbourne on Sept. 9. Read Kate Hennessy’s review.

Listen to ‘Slay Me In My Sleep’: