Sometimes our own personal journey equips us in such a way that we discover we were internally asleep to a consciousness that had been held captive like buried treasure. At the bottom of our heart, deep beneath the tattered waves of endless emotion lies a sunken ship waiting to arise from the depths. As we awake from the dream of this new-found discovery, the invisible ropes no longer hold us down. Gravity cannot keep our ship from sailing. We have escaped from a hidden layer of silent shadows, from a great barrier.
Great Barrier’s new EP Let It Sink In is truly a heart-felt demonstration, a deep breath of exhaled emotional freedom. Each track is a personal piece of self exploration, a chronicle of new awakenings. Jackson Firlik, the master-mind behind this amazing solo project, is an incredibly adept singer-songwriter-musician. Having both self-performed and produced this EP, one can not help but recognize that the music is in a class of it’s own.
To explain the name behind the music, Jackson said:
If you’re wearing some stiff suit in an office all day, being told to ‘act professional’, are you really being who you are? To me, at least, the great barrier is whatever obstacle is put up, unwittingly, which prevents your true self from showing through.
When asked to describe this beautiful collection of the process, the emotions, the experience of his personal journey through the making of this project, Jackson replied:
Looking back now, I can see that it’s been a lifetime in the making. The album loosely chronicles what I feel like was (and still is) a gradual awakening in my life. I’m still not entirely sure what I mean by that, but I think that’s part of the process. Most of the actual writing took place over the past year, with the exception of “Wake”, which I wrote my junior year of high school. I did everything alone, including all the recording and production; not because I’m opposed to working with other people, but I felt it was necessary for this particular project. Sometimes I would literally be running back and forth between hitting ‘record’ and playing in the studio, and although that may not be the ideal way to produce an album, I think it resulted in a raw, human touch that suits my style of music.
Dream Weaver, the first song on the EP, sets the stage for an enchanted voyage on a spacious sea of perfectly poised poetic waves. Jackson encourages the listener to taste the salt of lyrical purity, to indulge in the expanse of unexplored emotion, to let go. ‘You don’t have to cut the rope, You know we’re all just blowing smoke, But dreamweaver, I’d breathe easier’ lulls Jackson. And one will breathe easier after having been exposed to the unique world of aqueous rhythms that rise and fall as light reflects a subtle lecture from Jackson’s well-watered soul.
Heavily influenced by Radiohead, Jackson shared:
Their music (Radiohead) has an indescribable quality to it, almost as if it simply radiates out of nothingness, without being pulled or pried at by a human mind. ‘Uncontrived’ is the closest I can come with a word. I would say that I strive to create that quality in my own music, but then I think I’d be missing the point.
In regards to lessons learned, Jackson admits:
Don’t force anything. If an idea hasn’t come to you yet, don’t bother trying to create one with your mind, because it will never be as inspired or seem as honest as something that comes from beyond the mind. I’ve encountered this countless times while writing and producing, having to put something aside indefinitely when the inspiration just isn’t there. Although it can feel like ‘giving up’ at times, I think it always turns out for the better.
Let It Sink In is exactly what I would recommend you do with this EP. It is an atmospheric adventure, like echoes playfully dancing amidst a hidden crevasse. There is something epic about Jackson’s arrangement of sound. It is quite cinematic. I would not be surprised to hear Great Barrier music in film over the next couple of years as it would pair well with visual storytelling.
Two thumbs up to Great Barrier. Let It Sink In is unquestionably a tremendous work of audio art. Tremendous.
Genre: Indie/Alternative
Location: Miami, Florida
http://goo.gl/eUwlDy
