The principles of the process and the act of processing are rooted in concepts of motion. To build or assist in the building of anything is an art of praxis and the swift brushstrokes of precision that moves across the landscape and portraits of the canvas and/or blueprint. The connections we make take bloom in communication, shared bonds found through common threads of creativity, the developments that grow over the course of a couple’s walks and runs, the actions and events that bring us both together and the incendiary conflicts that drive us apart. The shadow play of the inner consciousness offers a barrage of narratives and musings; a cacophony of varied emotions, affections, ambivalence, anguished and unfulfilled (and often unexpressed) dreams. All of this and more are movements, from the bubbling of the mind’s own brain activity to stories of love, loss and visions scattered across the expanses of sentimentally charged sands.

Cue the flickering shine from the embers of Burns Bright, the new record from Photo Ops via Paul is Dead Records. The awaited and lauded album from Los Feliz, LA by way of Inglewood, Nashville tunesmith Terry Price is a record of moving meditations delivered like a morning awakening to a world in a state of perpetual change. Price delicately blends acoustic forward tones and strums with subtle atmospheric overtures supplied by analogue electronic accents. Lonesome Los Angeles skyline musings mesh with Nashville suburban nostalgia that blends it all together with thoughts of reflections on the faces and places that have left indelible impressions. Burns Bright is an album pop hymnal showcasing modern day American primitive folk cycles that ponder moments of meaning, connections made, connections lost and the curiosity of what happens next in the chapters of our perpetually moving lives.

Photo Ops awakens to new nights and new days. "Stand in the Shadows" basks in a vulnerable reluctance of a world rediscovering its own identity, where Price gently orchestrates the feeling of watching the sun rise over a bleary-eyed LA. Memories of seasons and former special bonds kindle the fuzzy feelings found on "When I Think of Tennessee", to the hard reckonings of bittersweet departures adorned in glimmering chords that arpeggiate elegantly on "You Must Not Need a Friend at All". "The Dream is Done" gallantly carries forth in the break-up aftermath of embarking and embracing the uncertainty, as "Voices Together for the Day" sing forth an earnest pop prayer of hope and endearment in a world in need of song.

Terry Price revels in the power of love and tenderness, leaving open a door for the possibility of an everlasting beauty and growth that gives and gives in perpetuity. This can be experienced on the heart melting ballad "If You Call I'll Answer" to the candid warmth of "Carol" before returning to the scrapbooks of keepsakes from the times in Price's Ingleside neighborhood on the smile and sway of "Bury Me in Nashville". Thoughts on loved ones and family scattered across the multiverses ring out with the truths of love in absentia on "Odd Christmas", concluding with the postlude of grace that dearly loves and lets go on the reverent resonance of "When You See Something Beautiful in the World". Burns Bright is a songbook spanning across the pivotal points and places of import, delivered in a modern understated rustic symphony ode to solitude, ceremony, sanctuary, serenity and more with the utmost sense of sincerity.

Terry Price provided some exclusive reflections on the nature of light & life and the candle flickering cadence of Burns Bright:

Walking through my new neighborhood after someone tried to break into our old apartment, I started to feel a breath of fresh air. I listened to the Zombies’ Odyssey and Oracle for the first time in many years and sensed a break in the chaos when we swore in a new president. The contrast of being alone for so long, then being around friends, family, anyone really, felt so palpable that it seemed almost the same thing as going out into the sun and having to cover your eyes after being inside for far too long. In our new apartment, we had a view of the city and mountains that let me look at thousands of people from a distance while still being pretty isolated. And since the future seemed even more unknowable than ever before, the past came to light much more often and much more intensely.

I tried to write about all of these feelings honestly. Melody has always been my way of coping with the world. A mysterious force that my mom showed me as a kid through hymns, lullabies, oldies, 70s and 80s adult contemporary music — and that I’m always trying to get to. I see that soulful expression everywhere and I just want to participate in it and share with anyone that needs it.

Photo Ops’ Burns Bright will be available on vinyl April 28 via Paul is Dead Records.