Damon Albarn – The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows
Music Suggestion
The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows is the third solo album of the English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the frontman of the rock band Blur and as the co-founder, lead vocalist, instrumentalist, and songwriter of the band Gorillaz.
The album’s title is derived from the poem “Love and Memory” by John Clare.
The nearer the fountain
Love and Memory by John Clare
More pure the stream flows
And sweeter to fancy
The bud of the rose,
And now thou’rt in heaven
More pure is the birth
Of thoughts that wake of thee
Than aught upon earth.
The album was supposed to be an orchestral piece inspired by the wonderful natural landscapes of Iceland, which has now become the second home of the English artist.
But during the pendemia it was expanded as a full length album, where we find a Damon Albarn inspired as never before as a songwriter, with pieces of world and electronic art music, also inspired by trips to Uruguay, Iran and Devon.
I took some of these realtime, extreme elemental experiences [of Iceland] and then tried to develop more formal pop songs with that as my source. I wanted to see where that would take me. Sometimes it took me down to Uruguay and Montevideo. Other times I went to Iran, Iceland or Devon. With travel being curtailed, it was kind of nice to be able to make a record that put me strangely in those places for a moment or two.
Damon Albarn
You were gone, the dark journey there
The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows
Leaves no returning
It’s fruitless for me to mourn you
But, who can help mourning?
Polaris
Polaris
Watching the embers fall
On to sublime boulevards
Medicating
Joining the saline to start
The inspection of the lines
The tower of Montevideo
The Tower of Montevideo
Has many rooms
Some of them are empty
Since I left you (since I left you)
Standing in silhouette
By the long window
Drinking coffee and scrutinized
By the black cat
Just like the beauty and chaos of the natural world to which it serves as its soundtrack, The nearer the fountain, more pure the stream flows lucidly documents the emotional flow of the human condition analyzed from a window on the world.
I went through a dark moment while writing this record, but it led me to believe that a pure source may still exist.
Damon Albarn
On the record, Damon Albarn presents himself as a storyteller, between orchestral arrangements, intimate melodies and more electronic sounds.
A genuine, sincere and hopeful piece of work, to be listened to and listened to again to get to know the British artist and oneself better, immersed in dreamlike and distant natural landscapes.
