【搬运】【译】叉婊Pitchfork评Westerman 2018年单曲《Confirmation》

搬运自：网易云音乐专栏【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）

翻译：Beans_Beans

The London musician Westerman began his career with a few spare, wordy folk singles, the kind of material that sits quietly on a low-hanging branch of Nick Drake’s family tree. With a hand from friend and producer Bullion, he’s since added complications like ticking drum machines and bright, frisky piano. His dreamy new single “Confirmation” concerns itself with the unpredictability of the creative process, and Westerman’s shifting sound and lyrics evoke the drudgery of churning out work in unexpected ways. He wastes hours staring into space and can’t figure out why concepts only spring into frame when he stops thinking entirely. He can be self-critical, too: “Scrabble up the walls/Good job, pinhead, so happy you were born.”

这位来自伦敦的音乐家 Westerman 以寥寥几首字斟句酌的民谣单曲为他的职业生涯拉开了帷幕，而这些素材均取自他只身一人聆听 Nick Drake 时所微微触及的灵感。在朋友和制作人 Bullion 的帮助下，他在后来的作品中增添了些许复杂的东西，如滴答作响的鼓还有明亮、活泼的钢琴。而他梦幻般的新单曲 “Confirmation” 则着重表现了创作过程中的种种未知，Westerman 富于变化的声音和歌词以意想不到的方式唤起了音乐创作历程之中的艰辛。他耗费数个小时静坐在房间之中，疑惑于为何仅有在他完全停止思考的时候才会有灵感涌现，他甚至也在自我嘲讽 “Scrabble up the walls/Good job, pinhead, so happy you were born”。

The arrangement mirrors this theme by mutating as if Westerman is changing his mind in real time. Unorthodox chord changes spring like traps, forcing you to reestablish your footing with each new passage; muted strumming is broken up by clean, silvery sprays of guitar; the second verse melts before it’s finished, overtaken by starry-eyed piano and glittering synth washes. Even with all of these moving parts at work, “Confirmation” never feels busy or chaotic. You spend its final minute appreciating the song’s hook and the elegant, airy tapestry that’s been built around it. It feels like an endpoint, if only for now: it captures a promising writer who’s learned how to take good ideas and warp them into stranger, more sublime shapes.

编曲中便反映了这一主题，它的富于变化正映射了 Westerman 实时涌现的灵感。非正统的和弦走向像连环陷阱一样接连涌现，迫使你需在每一个新段落重新“站稳脚跟”；低沉的弦乐被干净、银白色的吉他声浪冲破；随机的段落在收尾之前便已融化，被星光绚烂的钢琴和明亮闪烁的合成器洗刷接替。即使所有这些活跃的部分一齐发声，“Confirmation” 也从未使人听感忙碌或深陷混乱之中。你将在最后一分钟内欣赏到这首曲子的高亮一笔以及围绕它所编织而成的高雅、轻盈的绫罗绸缎。它想必已达成了极致，哪怕仅是当前：通过它，我们捕捉到了一个前程似锦的作家，他早已能熟练运用他的那些奇思妙想，并将其铸成更瑰怪，崇高的模样。