Description
In the Falling Dark is the seventh studio album by the Canadian singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bruce Cockburn, released on True North Records in 1976, manufactured and distributed by CBS Canada. The album was recorded September-November 1976 by Ken Friesen at Eastern Sound in Toronto, Canada; with Gene Martynec producing for True North Productions.
The quickly growing label Island Records picked up In the Falling Dark for international distribution, which got the record noticed in Europe, particularly Italy, and in Japan, and it circulated in the US as well. It was Cockburn’s first record to chart in the US, reaching number 191 on Cashbox Magazine‘s album chart.
With every album he released during the first half of the ’70s, Bruce Cockburn continued to evolve and show signs of greatness, and with his seventh, In the Falling Dark, he makes good on these promises. As a whole, this record trumps anything that its predecessors had to offer, almost to the point where it’s difficult to imagine that it followed the release of Joy Will Find a Way by only a year. The sound that was merely suggested on his previous recordings is fully realized here: check out the flute and trumpet interplay on the jazz inflected instrumental «Giftbearer», the hypnotic «I’m Gonna Fly Someday» with its irresistible flute, horn, and voice line, and Fred Stone’s flügelhorn on «Silver Wheels». Furthermore, the songwriting is without a doubt his most consistent; «Lord of the Starfields» and the evocative title track are the pinnacle of his Christian mysticism, whereas the aforementioned «Silver Wheels» is one of his keenest social observations to date. There’s still the occasional slide into the sort of hippie-ish sentiments that have plagued his recordings from time to time, but even at its most mawkish, there’s a sweetness and warmth to the material. His first U.S. release since 1972, In the Falling Dark may not have made Bruce Cockburn a household name, but it did mark his emergence as an important artist. [Brett Hartenbach, AMG]
CD re-issue, 2002
This re-release is a handsome repackage complete with pristine remastering, cardboard slip case, exhaustive and insightful sleevenotes and not one, not two, not three, but four bonus tracks to accompany the 10 generously lengthed recordings which originally constituted ‘In The Falling Dark’. This is acoustic music of extraordinary breadth and subtlety, not the folk-style sound of his early ‘70s pre-conversion recordings (Bruce came to faith in 1974) but a form which brought jazz (listen to Kathryn Moses’ delightful flute on «Little Seahorse» or the completely crazed avant guard fluegelhorn of Fred Stone on «Silver Wheels»), African music (catch the vibe of «I’m Gonna Fly Someday») and classical (be spellbound by the delicate guitar stylings on the instrumental «Water Into Wine»). I can imagine the singer/songwriter’s conversion creating the same kind of intrigue and interest in his homeland as would happen in the UK today if, say, Badly Drawn Boy had suddenly found faith and demonstrated the fact with his music, as here, overflowing with references to the riches that God had heaped upon him. The album opens with «Lord Of The Starfields». Bruce once commented about the song, “I was trying to write something like a psalm.” He succeeds. Another standout is the fourth of the bonus tracks «Dweller By A Dark Stream» which conveniently bookends the album with a song Nicholas Jennings describes in his sleevenote as a “moving ode to the Universe Maker’s son.” There are some tasty instrumentals on this set with the newly added «Untitled Guitar» joining «Water Into Wine» and «Giftbearer» confirming Bruce’s place as one of pop/rock’s GREAT guitar virtuosos. Another bonus track «Red Brother, Red Sister» is a damning indictment of Christianity’s oppression of aboriginal people, while «Gavin’s Woodpile», which years later gave a popular Cockburn website its name, is an in-your-face denouncement of mankind’s selfish destruction of the environment. I’ll finish with another quote from the Jennings sleevenote. “It’s a landmark album, one that announced Cockburn’s arrival as an important songwriter. But it’s also a generative recording, planting the creative seeds that come to fruition fully on the subsequent studio albums ‘Further Adventures Of’ and ‘Dancing In The Dragon’s Jaws’. With its compelling songs and majestic sweep, ‘In The Falling Dark’ is the perfect place to discover the impressive range of Bruce Cockburn’s artistry.” [Tony Cummings, Cross Rhythms, January 2003]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/in-the-falling-dark-deluxe-edition/303505285)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Lord Of The Starfields” – 3:22
A2. “Vagabondage” – 4:17
A3. “In The Falling Dark” – 4:50
A4. “Little Sea Horse” – 4:30
A5. “Water Into Wine” – 5:30
Side Two
B1. “Silver Wheels” – 4:41
B2. “Giftbearer” – 4:39
B3. “Gavin’s Woodpile” – 8:00
B4. “I’m Gonna Fly Some Day” – 4:02
B5. “Festival Of Friends” – 4:38
Note: Simultaneously released on 8-track tape, cassette, and 12-inch vinyl LP by True North Records with the vinyl edition housed in a gatefold jacket. Later re-issued on CD. The album was remastered and re-issued as a Deluxe Edition CD by True North Records in 2002 featuring four bonus tracks; “Red Brother Red Sister” (4:16), “Untitled Guitar” (8:46), “Shepherds” (7:15), and “Dweller By A Dark Stream” (4:18). Jewel Box with Paper Slipcase includes booklet with lyrics. Available at Bandcamp: https://brucecockburn.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-falling-dark
http://cockburnproject.net/
7 August 2014 -“I felt Bruce was making a special record and we wanted a special cover” says manager Bernie Finkelstein about the process of choosing the artwork for Bruce Cockburn’s 1976 album In the Falling Dark.
When all was said and done, two striking photos were chosen – both by skilled and renowned photographers. The front cover, a stark black and white portrait of Cockburn, was shot for the album by graphic designer, artist, and award winning photographer Arnaud Maggs. The back cover was an impressionistic, evocative highway sunset photo by “the father of Canadian photojournalism”, Ted Grant.
At first glance, the portrait of Cockburn on In the Falling Dark doesn’t seem particularly remarkable. It’s a memorable image, though, and in the end that’s the mark of a well-executed shot. Cockburn looks at the camera with a steady gaze, conveying an honesty as well as a certain mellow intensity. He seems to be saying “I’m a casual guy, but also a serious artist.” The portrait was intended to front an album that was, in a sense, a reintroduction of Cockburn as well as a statement that said this was something new and different for the artist – a “this is me now” collection of songs. It would be his first record to be issued in the U.S. since 1972, plus True North knew they had what was perhaps the strongest album of Cockburn’s career to that point.
As the decision wasn’t made to feature a portrait on the front cover until this album, there’s a good chance the back cover photo would have been used for the front instead if it was a year or two earlier. Ted Grant’s photo is a perfect match to the album’s title, as darkness begins to fall with the sun’s descent behind the distant mountains. The photo is moody, full of late afternoon solar-soaked contrast and deep, varied shades of gray and black. It also ties in with the record’s “Silver Wheels”, a song about highway travelling. Schoales, Finkelstein, and Cockburn thought the photo was so appropriate that they also used a cropped close-up of it on the inside of the original vinyl gatefold album.
In the Falling Dark would be Cockburn’s biggest album thus far and the first to chart in the U.S. Well reviewed at the time and since, The Allmusic Guide notes the album “marked his emergence as an important artist.” At the time his most band-oriented album, it also found him about to make a musical transition when some cuts on his following studio album, Further Adventures Of, started taking things in a more rock direction. Falling Dark’s combination of Maggs’ photo – portraying Cockburn in an image addressing his audience directly, and Grant’s – which gave a visual accompaniment to the album title, have now become inseparable from the music. [ ~ from Music To Eat, written by Rob Caldwell].
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