Eric Andersen Brings Shadow, Light and Song to Albert Camus

 The best artists among us are those who choose to live collaboratively with creative expressions that inform their own work. The songwriter who draws from the deepest wells of art, poetry, literature, theater, and philosophy manages to transcend the limitations of pop culture.

For veteran singer-songwriter, Eric Andersen this has been true for decades. In the case of the suite of songs that make up the 2014 release,  Shadow and Light of Albert Camus, the result is a richly defined song-cycle that illuminates the life work of the great French-Algerian 20th Century philosopher.  For Andersen the rewards and treasures found discovered in the work he has put into this album are many as he eschews popular songwriting modes in favor of the deeper poetic pursuit in the blood and bone of his own creativity.

As Andersen moves through his sixth decade of a life in song his intention and artistic clarity is as strong as ever. In the past he has dwelt and collaborated with Beat authors, rock-poets and some of the finest folk singers and songwriters of our times. But, with this 2014 album, Andersen has forged new ground as a vital songwriter who draws new insights and original associations informed on his project by modern philosophy. But, this is something that is confined to academia. In his hands, Andersen has made Camus relevant to our everyday lives, as current as the unrest in today’s headlines.

If Andersen’s original path began in the early 1960’s seeking the relevance found in the role of a folk-singer and songwriter -a role played out to near perfection by his friend, Bob Dylan-then a half-the century later-he has become the poet-prophet without effort, as though the work has been waiting to be completed. But, it is not an external, societal or political transformation that Andersen has been writing about all these years. He took a road that differed completely from Dylan, as a keen observer of the beauty, rage and truth found in individual moments of life. His narrative is deep within the skin of the present made universal through lyric-poems.

Eric Andersen’s vision is of a personal transformation, which has been expressed in song from the first time he picked up a guitar. An example can be found in his classic, “Thirsty Boots.” While others were singing and preaching about the Civil Rights Movement of the 60’s with a righteous attitude, Andersen’s lovely and enduring song view of the topic is one of compassion and empathy. While others were singing about groups of people and social movements, Andersen’s words felt as though they were speaking to weary individuals on the road to freedom.  

This is where his artistic road, which departed from Dylan and other singer-songwriters years ago, finds a stream of kinship with the philosophy of Albert Camus.

For this album, Camus-who was active from 1935 until his early death as a result of a car accident in 1960- has provided a vehicle for the deeper truth Andersen has always sought through his lyrics and hauntingly simple melodies. Camus was always a hard to catagorize rebel philosopher-usual he classified as a existenitalist philosopher, similar to Sartre, a charge he denied  throughout his work. For this album, each song of the quartet is based on one of Camus’ classic works of fiction including, in album order, The Plague(The Song of Denial), The Stranger(Song of Revenge), The Rebel(Song of Revolt), The Fall(Song of Gravity). For the listener who is not interested in reading up on 20th Century philosophy, the songs stand alone creating a canvas of story through song and spoken word that is compelling and engaging.

The opening song, “The Plague,” is the ultimate anti-gospel song that chronicles Camus story.  Unlike the Curtis Mayfield inspirational song, “People Get Ready,” the Camus-call for readiness is not for a ‘train-a-comin’ to take us to heaven, but for the apocalypse of pending disease and death. However, Andersen’s melody, phrasing and lyrics reflect an urgency, a holy call to embrace the loss that is coming. The paradox of Camus that Andersen captures so purely on this album is the tension between the inevitable, unescapable coming doom that can only be confronted with a defiant sense of optimism. If this is so, then “The Plague,” is the first chapter as Andersen gives song to Camus’ novel of one of the history plagues of Oran, which serves as a comment on the human condition.

The next song-chapter is “The Stranger,” which gives the feel of the wakefulness that comes in the aftermath of disaster. It’s most reminiscent of times of reconstruction after today’s senseless acts of violence, beginning in modern times with 9-11, but washing up at our collective feet in today’s headlines in the wake of the civil unrest in the streets of Charlotte. The stranger walks the defeated land, undefeated in his spirit, as love is struck in ‘hot revenge.’  In Andersen’s delivery there is a mesmerizing sense of movement toward destiny that is met with the rage that comes from injustice.  

The third song, “The Rebel(Song of Revolt) is the most accessible of this collection for reasons beyond the up-tempo and anthemic nature of the song. Andersen takes us on a journey into the heart of the philosophy Camus, who was most often identified as an Absurdist. For Camus, life was meaningless and ultimately leads us all to despair. But, rather than surrender to defeat, his central philosophy was to rebel against the meaningless and ironically, this is where the true value of life is found for the great thinker. As brought to life by Andersen, the meaning is there for the listener as well. Andersen manages to channel this philosophy into song with a constant refrain, “Rebel! Rebel! Rebel!” against all of the negative forces that press in on us. It is a song that echoes and reverberates through the current civil and political climate, when faced with injustice, the individual has a obligation to rebel. Camus, however, was not a revolutionary. He was not a political activist. His rebellion was one of the spirit that transform from within. Like Pete Townsend(“Won’t Get Fooled Again”) and John Lennon(“Revolution”), revolution as a social-political movement was absurd in that it only produces more tyranny and power mongers. Again, the releveance of this can be seen in daily headlines and the election season of 2016. Andersen’s execution of this song expertly illuminates this truth.

The final song on the journey is a kind of post-script following the passion of “The Rebel,” which, within the context of the novel published in 1956, takes us through the confession of the novel’s main character, Jean Baptiste Clamence.   It’s the longest song on this brief collection.  A moody, engaging instrumental keeps pace with Andersen’s intimate whisper as he channels Camus’ character. This is the same ground once walked with humorous intensity on Dylan’s homage to T.S. Eliot on “Desolation Row.” But, the tone here, like the novel, is sober and insightful as the character surveys his life’s journey. Again the songwriter has managed to work his way under the skin of the song in his lyrical narrative. It’s not so much a stream of consciousness as it is a tide that pulls us gradually with its gentle force.

As a significant singer-songwriter who has contributed so much to the art of song through poetic reflections, Eric Andersen, has again, made what will be a landmark album. Few songwriter’s have attempted to give wings to a major cultural figure whose influence was felt so many years ago.  No one has done so as successfully as Andersen with these four songs as he explores, penetrates and points the way to individual hope and triumph over despair. If anything, this is the strongest light and richest treasure Andersen delivers to us on his journey through the heart of Camus.

Shadow and Light of Albert Camus is far more than the sum of its parts especially in a world of music where the EP format is frequently regarded as minor. There is nothing minor here. To the contrary, even the packaging, which is in vinyl and compact disc, presents beautifully concived portraits of Andersen on the front cover and Camus on the back.

As Andersen moves into his next project, a series of songs with lyrics by literary great of the 19th century, Lord Bryon, on a new album titled Mingle with the Universe, it becomes clear that Eric Andersen’s new affinity for being of musical service to figures who are in danger of being forgotten in today’s shallow world, will continue. Albums like this are a service to us all, really, as we continually reach for meaning in a world that is as troubled as it was 50 years ago when Andersen began and a near-century ago when Albert Camus first put pen to paper.