Bruce Hornsby teams up with yMusic for classical crossover project

You might have missed it. But Bruce Hornsby — the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter whose hits include “The Way It Is” — recently teamed up with ever-experimental ensemble yMusic to put together the album Deep Sea Vents as BrhyM. It’s the classical crossover event of the season.

How could something like this happen? How do they even know each other?

Most importantly, how do they sound so good?

It turns out, the two forces got together after an encounter in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, as they explained in a recent interview:

For those who follow Hornsby, the Big Grinning Geek has a history of experimentation. Since making his money with “The Way It Is,” he’s used his position to play, in the largest sense, with the possibility of music. He toured with the Grateful Dead. He’s had a bluegrass period. He’s had an experimental jazz period, where he played with Branford Marsalis. In terms of genre, Hornsby’s attitude is all-encompassing. (Hint: Marsalis returns for this album.)

yMusic joined Hornsby for another music festival. Eventually, he would feature them on his 2019 album, Absolute Zero, along with a few tour dates. By the end, the artists got the sense that they gelled.

Hornsby has never made an album with a classical ensemble before. yMusic also was in uncharted waters. In fact, it’s the first time the chamber group has recorded an album of its own compositions.

What gives Deep Sea Vents its character? The album is, per the opening track, “a lone mariner” sailing the open sea. That loneliness, however, is never claustrophobic. Rather, it is grand and playful. The cinematic scale of the album comes, at least in part, through its origins in Hornsby’s film cues for acclaimed director Spike Lee.

Not every piece was cut from such rarefied cloth. Some were like the tune “Platypus Wow.”

Even if the album — or the musicians or the listeners — can be thought of as a “lone mariner,” no one is ever out to sea by themselves. Not even when they’re alone! To quote one of the several literary inspirations of BrhyM, Moby-Dick: “All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks.”

The same applies here in the lines of influence. Hornsby and yMusic have brought plenty of inspirations along.

The album spans all things aquatic and ranges from hilarious to abstract philosophical. Genres fade in and out like the ebb of waves, from trip hop and funk to hymnals and pizzicato plucking. Check out a few of the more rambunctious tracks: “The Wake of St. Brendan,” “The Wild Whaling Life,” and, of course, “Deep Sea Vents.”