Montreal’s Constellation Records is driven by the principle that essential music does not exist for its own sake, it helps us consider our world and respond to its injustices. The release of Palestinian-Canadian guitarist and activist Bilal Nasser’s latest album ‘Every Martyr Is A Universe’ not only embodies this commitment, it adds another dynamic contribution to the vital political/artistic conversation.
Originally schooled in classical guitar since he was 10, Nasser has long channelled this background into exploring the more contemporary and experimental in his compositions. His 2021 debut ‘Where the Orange Groves Grow’ captured his intention “…to sound like a pile-up car collision of all of my hardcore, post-rock, avant-garde and 20th century influences”. The intensely personal ‘How can we say nothing‘ followed in 2024. This sophomore album began as a reflection on memory and family but the devastating invasion of Gaza asked new questions of the music Nasser had planned.
With many of his family being refugees, the Palestinian solidarity movement has long been a part of his life and the catalyst for his enthralling music. ‘Every Martyr Is A Universe’ marks the third chapter and feels like his most fully realised and passionate album so far. It sees a broadening of Nasser’s soundscape with a nine-piece ensemble bringing, strings, horns, piano and drums to his ambitious arrangements. Critically though Nasser’s post rock/post classical confluence is no extravagance, each composition is lean and focused on emotional impact.
The title track is a stunning suite in itself. The piece dawns rather than begins, a slender violin call then tingling harp and guitar chimes. From here a restrained chamber music melody emerges, gliding and ascendant, before urgent string staccato suggests desperation. As that moment fades strummed guitar chords and scurrying notes take hold then succumb for the tuneful main theme returns. Every Martyr Is A Universe doesn’t so much resolve, the track closes with questions hanging. A sudden discordant twist downwards starts a gradual slide into a crumbling electronic drone.
The equally expansive Erasure emerges from this epic opener, bringing its own singular surprises. There’s something Thee Silver Mt. Zion meets Lea Bertucci about the daring contrasts Nasser layers within the piece. Echoing acoustic guitars, whispy shoegaze vocals, gentle fanfares, circling atmospherics and crescendo-core moments are merged with Nasser’s alchemic vision. To close he introduces a minimal guitar/violin pattern while improv drums tumble then gentler new age ripples until Erasure finally bursts into an inspirational orchestral resolution.
There’s a compelling tension which underpins Nasser’s new music, bursts of beauty, spikes of fragmentation and threads of delicacy wriggling through each tune. The poignant liner notes reveal that the Canadian Student Intifada both inspired the album and consequently led to deep self-interrogation of the validity of his art. “What is music worth in a time of genocide” is the impossible question which haunts this recording and generates its emotional intensity.
Even the shorter, less densely arranged tracks on ‘Every Martyr Is A Universe’ make a significant dynamic impact. On the Basinski-esque “And Where They Make A Desert They Call It Peace”, the observations of the late Palestinian author and militant Ghassan Kanafani are transported by an ominous low-tone drown which morphs into a closing choral surge. Nasser’s fretboard agility drives the gently restless Who We Used To Be, a song where the whispering vocals and quivering strings ache with the bewildering tenderness that Bon Iver once conjured. The album’s final piece, Soul Of My Soul, may be the most compact tune here but it makes for a breathtaking conclusion, a lone vocal and violin gliding on the wafting energy of Nasser’s guitar. As other voices join calling “flowers for martyrs, flowers still grow there” the suggestion of hope is brief but overwhelming.
Bilal Nasser’s ‘Every Martyr Is A Universe’ may not pound angrily but it should not be ignored. This is music with a voice that you cannot detach yourself from.
Get your copy of ‘Every Martyr Is A Universe‘ by Bilal Nasser from your local record store or direct from Constellation Records HERE
