José_González Credit Malin Johansson
That the overcast port town of Gothenburg, Sweden — home to container ships and melodic death metal — also produced a musician like Jose Gonzalez is proof that “heavy” comes in more shades than graphite and black.
This indie-folk troubadour can be as dark and forlorn, in his way, as any of Gothenburg’s grimmer musical exports. It’s just that González employs different elements: a quiet pop tenor, moody lyrics and a tactile, heart-tugging style of nylon-string guitar.
Combined, they create the emotional undertow of “Vestiges & Claws,” Gonzalez’s new album, and his first in eight years as a solo artist. After a long time out of the wilderness, so to speak, working with his band, Junip, and pitching in to a major movie soundtrack (2013’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”), González has returned to a kind of solitude.
“Vestiges & Claws,” like its predecessors, derives power from the man-alone quality that makes González sound like a global itinerant — a busker you encounter on a train platform in any world capital, painting his surroundings to a standstill with hushed, observant songs.
Even at his most crowd-pleasing, as an astute selector of covers, González picks and interprets with a feel for depth and weight: “Heartbeats,” the vibrant, desperate-sounding dance track by The Knife, also of Gothenburg; “Teardrop” by the total-immersion trip-hop artists Massive Attack; and the dire beauty of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
The originals and covers don’t lose heft by being cast as voice-and-guitar pieces with minimal additional accompaniment. (Gonzalez is touring with a band that gives his live set more of the texture of his recordings.)
The influences that bleed through also demonstrate how genre, today, is less a distinct product of place and time than a busy intersection of multiple currents. Indie folk, in González’s hands, draws together assorted people and aesthetics — Nick Drake, Jo„o Gilberto, post-punk, electronica — and yes, with a palette that varied, the effect isn’t entirely heavy-hearted.
Jose Gonzalez plays a free show at 7pm Monday, Sept. 28 at the Hollywood ArtsPark, Young Circle Park, in downtown Hollywood. Brooklyn-based duo Luluc (originally from Australia) opens. Visit rhythmfoundation.com or call (305) 672-5202 for information.
~ Sean Piccoli
