PREMIERE | The Fourth Wall, 'Return Forever'
Gathering around the table together with The Fourth Wall; photographed by Lisa Haagen.
The search for joy, freedom and prosperity is at the core of all diasporas. In the flight from oppressive regimes, dictators, catastrophes, instabilities, world events and the like there are countless sacrifices untold. The personal belongings that get lost in the fray, the former family homes that then become occupied and the loved ones that get left behind in the maelstrom of confusions and madness. The way to the new worlds offers new dreams. New beginnings. New problems. The pangs of memory permeates the consciousness in the wake of new experiences. In the reconciliation of these antiquated photo books that line the archives of the mind, the desire is to find new degrees of joy. In making a certain peace with the past, new threads of joy can be found through these generational lineages that bring us to the present day.
These motifs are central to the new album from Portland-based band The Fourth Wall as they present Return Forever. The talents of bandleader Stephen Agustin with Kasey Shun, Chris Lau, Kendall Sallay, and Andrew White; the group presents a cycle of songs dedicated to the pursuit of perpetual jest and a transcendental level of happiness. Agustin draws from his family's own histories from Korea and the Philippines respectively, specifically a story involving a close relative that left behind her daughter when she moved to the United States. The poetry of forgetfulness concept is the groundwork for the album that strives to understand the intricate lineages and complicated challenges of assimilation and identity and all the conflicts that lie therein. Return Forever is an adventure into the eternity of the stars, entertaining the eternal return that can be found in observing the cycles of life that repeat themselves and discovering the traces of joy that connects us all.
The curtain lifts on "Interrupts the Dream" that sets the stage for Return Forever. The reaches of reality rocks the tranquil states of slumber, rolling seamlessly into the stranger in a strange land angst of "Never a Part", searching for something/someone amid the thunderous clouds of the unknown on "Turn to You". The sentiments and search for solace carry over on "Can't Lose That Loss" that measures the burdens gained alongside coping with the loved ones that got left behind amid the global migrations that make up our individual histories. "Darkness of Heart" slowly rises upward like a fiery phoenix towards the heavens, seeking reprieve and redemption from the tortured thoughts that keep the mind up late into the early hours of morning.
The desire and need for joy blooms and burns brightly on "Grain by Grain", finding that elusive upper echelon of ecstatic tranquility on "Only the Joy" that shines like a pearl of perfect Pacific sun soaked pop. With a nod to Spinozism, "Conatus" thrives with an uplifting feeling of running through fields of grain, flowers, amid the fauna with a sentiment of irrepressible exuberance and joie de vivre. Return Forever closes with the explosive energy of "No Daggers" that sends out a loud and sincere message of goodwill that revels in the joy of being. That energy throughout the record is so palpable that Stephen and company send out a sonic statement of happiness and love to be heard and felt by all for all time.
Having a pint with The Fourth Wall; photographed by Lisa Haagen.
Stephen Agustin of The Fourth Wall shared some privy insights on the inspirations and personal histories that informed the new record:
Return Forever is a collection of nine songs inspired by a recent exploration into my immigrant family’s history. A second generation immigrant myself, I often felt in between identities. At some point in my adult life, I began wondering about my own heritage that I felt alienated from and started asking questions I had never thought to ask. Exploring this history brought forth some surprising and heartbreaking stories.
For instance, in one memory, a five year old girl, born during the Japanese occupation of Korea, gets lost wandering away from home, never to be reunited with her family again. In another memory, a mother immigrating to the US makes the impossible decision to leave her newborn daughter to her unfaithful husband and his lover, fearing the repetition of her own fatherless past.
This was all part of a history too painful to recall and so, willfully silenced. There is also an additional motive behind this erasure. The forgetting of the past is presented as a gift to future generations in the hopes that new forms of joyousness not possible in the old world could be grafted onto a blank slate. However, a question that runs through the record is whether or not the promises of the new world remain unfulfilled. Can one truly ever start over? Even so, do some of the tensions of the past (failed marriages, financial struggles, political instabilities) repeat themselves, albeit in a different time and setting?
Hanging about with The Fourth Wall; photographed by Lisa Haagen.
Though the album deals with lost histories resurfacing, it also references the difficulty of articulating this past. Aside from grief being a barrier to these recollections, language and cultural discontinuities distort and fragment these narratives. The past returns, but the impossibility of a past returns also.
Much of the thematics of memory in Return Forever may be steeped in tension and strategic repression, but I was also trying to write about the pursuit of joyous memory as well. The motor driving all of our transformations is a search for a love so bright that it returns forever.
The Fourth Wall’s album Return Forever arrives March 15 via DevilDuck Records.
Catch them on the following live dates:
March
15 San Francisco, CA | Great American Music Hall
16 Los Angeles, CA | The Echoplex
22 Portland, OR | Revolution Hall
23 Seattle, WA | The Crocodile