In the Swiss city of Winterthur, a residential tower is under construction that will, when completed, set a record with its height.
It won’t be anything like as tall as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa; at 100 meters in height, the Swiss building will be barely 12% as tall as that one. The title that Winterthur’s tower (intriguingly named “Rocket & Tigerli”) will hold is the world’s tallest wooden building.
The Rocket & Tigerli will be made with a relatively new technology called “cross-laminated timber” – CLT for short. The technique involves gluing together large planks of wood in a way that is a bit like plywood, but on a much larger scale. The method leads to buildings that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but much cheaper and less energy-intensive to build. They are also exceptionally sturdy, and because of the material, they get the cute nickname “plyscrapers.”
I’m not here to go into detail about the benefits and challenges of CLT (if you’re interested, CNN did a long piece about the technology in 2020 and there are videos that do a good job of explaining it) but I do like the fact that this new way of building is using one of architecture’s oldest materials. I think it shows that the way forward is sometimes to take a quick loop back around to where you’ve already been, just to see if you can do it better.
Bryan Rahija’s music put me in mind of wooden skyscrapers for a few reasons. Yes, his 2021 LP was titled Timber, and yes, he’s from the American northwest, one of the most magnificently forested parts of the continent. But there’s also something about the sonic quality of the songs on that album – skillfully crafted, solidly structured – that brings to mind lumber. One song feels like a heavy, oak table. The next feels like a moss-covered wooden treehouse. The record is a forest.
This one, my favourite, is the album’s plyscraper. Soaring but modest, it would fit nicely into the skyline of a small city in northern Switzerland.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. Rahija’s playing reminds me a bit of the artist we featured all the way back in week 14, in that he sticks pretty precisely to the song’s tempo, other than a slight slowing down in the final bars. This metronomic playing gives the song a confidence and stability that feels comforting.
2. The guitar’s E string is tuned all the way down to a C, and there’s a heavy, foundational, tree-trunk-type of strength in the way it rings out on that low note.
3. At first listen it appears to be an acoustic guitar by itself, but midway through the track some other sounds sneak into the background; just some synth pads and effects, perhaps, that give it the shine of a fresh coat of varnish.
Recommended listening activity:
Gliding across a hardwood floor in your socks.
Buy it here.
The post Week 629: “Everywhere But Up” by Bryan Rahija appeared first on Beautiful Song Of The Week.
