Video: Ethan Gruska, ‘Event Horizon’

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Ethan Gruska (Photo by Josh Rothstein)

Ethan Gruska’s 2017 solo debut “Slowmotionary” was a work of fragile beauty, a collection elegant songs driven by minimal piano or acoustic guitar, with Gruska’s serene vocals crafting gentle miniatures about family and love. The widely praised album earned Gruska comparisons (by peers, not by journalists) to the likes of Brian Wilson, Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks and Jon Brion.

Two week ago, Gruska — who first came into the spotlight as one-half of the sibling duo the Belle Brigade — announced that his second album “En Garde” would be out Jan. 24.

Featuring appearances from Phoebe Bridgers, Moses Sumney, Lianne La Havas and Blake Mills and co-produced by Tony Berg, “En Garde” finds the songwriter expanding his sonic boundaries and continuing to play with song structures. The lush, painterly “Event Horizon,” unveiled today, is exemplary, an electronic pop song that is not.

“‘Event Horizon’ is probably my favorite on the record,” Gruska says. “My wife is a Kurt Vonnegut Jr. fan and told me to read ‘Sirens of Titan;’ that sci-fi influence is in the song. It’s also my homage to more jazz-influenced hip-hop like Kendrick Lamar, one of my favorite current artists.

“It’s about being in a room with someone and not being able to put your finger on what they’re thinking, and the relationship between that and an event horizon, this pull where nothing can ever get out as what it really is. And yes, I know it’s also a movie from the ’90s; I looked at the DVD cover while making the song and decided I will never watch it. But I honor it.”

Both “Event Horizon” and the first song “On the Outside” arrive with videos directed by Danica Arias Kleinknecht and filmed in Wyoming.

Of the album as a whole, Gruska syas: “I was dealing with a lot of intense, emotional stuff while making this record, and I wanted my more aggressive and unruly sides to come out a bit more. The last record showed my vulnerability, but I wanted this record to be vulnerable in a different way. I’m not a tough person, I’m a softie-but on a deeper level this shows a little more humor and the side of me that’s sometimes fronting with hardness. It’s good to be multi-faceted and to not hide your intensity.”

||| Watch: The videos for “Event Horizon” and “On the Outside”

||| Previously: “Reoccurring Dream,”