FLORAL PORTRAIT’s Self-Titled Debut Out Now
Floral Portrait is a pop project of Jason Bronson and collaborator Jacob Chisenhall. Also enlisted are multi-instrumentalist Freeman Leverett along with a cast of orchestral musicians and friends.
For over a decade now, much of independent and experimental pop has been sequestered to the safety and seclusion of a bedroom, with hushed vocals and reverb-laden instrumentation forming a protective cocoon around the often times solo songwriter.
Floral Portrait is definitely not that.
Born from the creative energies of Jason Bronson, Floral Portrait is a highly collaborative, maximalist recording venture in which friends and former classmates alike utilize a legitimate recording studio to bring his stately compositions to life. Inspired by pop auteurs like The Zombies and The Beach Boys, Jason has crafted ten gorgeous songs like the precociously sweet “Clarissa” and the heart-achingly grandiose “Winter Isolation” that wear their apparent refinement with an inviting, peppy pride.
Some of the more obtuse harmonies in songs like “Spectacle in Paisley Park” melodically bring to mind the Brian Wilson-ad-futurism of modern avant pop contemporaries like Palm or Red Sea. “Sunset Stroll” evokes Girls and the masterful impressionism of Chet “JR” White’s production precision, toeing the line of homage but keeping things more visionary than simply revivalist.
And despite the whimsical and fun nature of the songs, Bronson is dead serious about the craft of his pure pop. More of a composer than anything, he sometimes spends years honing in on the specifics of a song he is creating, ever-learning, testing progressions, analyzing works of the past, and totally restarting to craft a product he finds satisfying enough for himself and listeners alike.
“A gorgeous opus of grandiose orchestral pop. There are an array of influences and touchpoints on the record from early Bee Gees to Burt Bacharach, Harry Nilsson to The Wondermints and High Llamas, even the theatrical Britpop of Pulp and The Divine Comedy, but most obviously ‘60s psych pop, at its essence a meld of Zombies melodies and Beach Boys instrumentation, although even that might be selling short the ambition and grandness at work here — just like Brian Wilson, inspired by Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, added and multiplied new concepts, sounds, and layers to that existing template, Bronson takes his Wilson inspirations and runs with them.” – Deadbeatclub.com
