Hush & Rust is Cinematic Country, Dream Lounge, Quiet Roots.
Think: T-Bone Burnett goes on a midnight drive with David Lynch.
Dark yet delicate; sparkling yet worn; sweet, yet perhaps at times even a little unsettling.
Collaborators sweet T and brilliantfish filter their creative expression through the lens of collective experience to re-envision 11 songs on their debut album – These blue dreams – as soundtracks to films never made.
The album is lush yet grounded. Haunting, often heart wrenching, without ever becoming sentimental, the melancholy laced with a hint of irony that never gets clever. sweet T‘s voice is intoxicating, at once worldly and vulnerable, naked but guarded. It floats above a rich sonic landscape beautifully scored by brilliantfish and elevated by the exquisite guitar work of veteran musician-producer Cam MacInnes.
Husband and wife collaborators brilliantfish and sweet T are as much a happy accident as they are an inevitability. Music is the heartbeat of their story. They fell in love over Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood in a percussion ensemble as teenagers but divergent desires drove them apart in their early 20s: sweet T to become a mother and writer; brilliantfish to pursue a career as a drummer, singer-songwriter, producer and performer. Reuniting in their 40s, the soundtrack of seduction this time was one of brilliantfish’s own recordings – and it proved even more potent than the drums of adolescence. After years travelling separate roads, they had finally found their way back home.
In October 2014, sweet T ventured into her husband’s studio with a secret dream and secret gifts that sparked an unexpected musical partnership. It started as a Christmas gift for Sweet T’s dad: a few classic country duets she had sung around the campfire growing up. brilliantfish agreed to a simple recording: some standard backing tracks, basic two-part harmony, a burned CD. They were both in for a surprise.
Instead of just covering the songs, brilliantfish re-imagined them, creating stunning original arrangements that are often drastically removed from their traditional and classic roots. And sweet T, with virtually no singing experience, discovered a voice that puts all of the world’s beauty and betrayal together in one terrible, tender place.
The gift was a huge hit with sweet T’s dad and everyone who heard it. But as the pair’s enthusiasm for their project grew, so did their song list and their vision: from a one-off burned CD with a couple of country songs, to a fully orchestrated, 11-track debut album.