Photo by Charlie Visnic
Go Forward In Flames will release their debut album, Liminal Spaces, on October 23. The first song from it, “Kusare-en,” is out now. The title comes from the Japanese idea of a bond that has soured but remains difficult to escape. The song sits inside that tension: knowing a relationship has become harmful while still feeling pulled back toward it. It is a useful introduction to a record built around similar kinds of contrast.
Across Liminal Spaces, quieter passages regularly give way to something heavier, while other songs arrive already moving at full force. The band describes the title as referring to the spaces between those extremes, particularly on tracks like “Beneath the Lake” and “Boatman’s Obol.”
Go Forward In Flames grew out of a long musical relationship between guitarist Jason Hensley and Daniel Johns, who plays Bass VI and baritone guitar. The two had played together in different projects around Southern California and eventually started writing again with the fairly simple aim of making music with loud instruments without losing the more restrained parts they were interested in.
Drummer and mellotron player Jesse Nason joined after running into the pair at a Godspeed You! Black Emperor show. They had crossed paths before, both as musicians and people in the crowd, but this time it led to the three of them getting into a room together.
Much of Liminal Spaces was recorded in small batches across their home studios, with the album’s final song recorded live at Nason’s studio in Long Beach. The arrangements stay deliberately sparse, leaving room for individual melodies, textures and long trails of delay while keeping the recordings close to how the trio actually sounds live.
Nason mixed the album, with Joe Bozzi handling mastering at Bernie Grundman Studios.
“Kusare-en” is out now via Bandcamp, YouTube and streaming services.
