Wino Wednesday: Wino & Conny Ochs, “Traces of Blood” Live in Lille, France, 03.18.12
A lot of songs are memorable in the sense of making you go, “Oh yeah, that one.” Far fewer are haunting. It’s much rarer to have a track dig into you and implant itself in something primal in your emotions. When it comes to the early-2012 Heavy Kingdom (review here) collaborative album from Scott “Wino” Weinrich and German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs, there were a couple genuinely haunting songs. “Dark Ravine” comes to mind, as do “Somewhere Nowhere” and “Traces of Blood,” the Ochs-led melody of which might be the record’s most affecting.
I suppose you could argue in favor of others in that regard, but for the product of a duo, “Traces of Blood” offered perhaps the loneliest moment on Heavy Kingdom. No doubt a big part of that stems from Ochs taking the fore on vocals while Wino hangs back, but other cuts like “Labour of Love” and the semi-plugged “Vultures by the Vines” had arrangements that seemed almost bombastic in comparison. “Traces of Blood” was quiet, fragile, and the darkest moment the twosome would provide until side B’s “Here Comes the Siren.” As we see in the clip below taken from the Wino & Conny Ochs European tour in support of the album, while Ochs is handling the guitar progression and the vocals, Wino adds atmospheric depth via the e-bow, vibrating strings giving off a subtle hum throughout that’s almost like synth but immediately familiar all the same.
Rumor came through a while back of a second Weinrich/Ochs album in the works. Wino‘s schedule for much of 2013 having been tied up in reunion appearances with The Obsessed and ongoing Saint Vitus touring (I’m certainly not about to complain about either), I don’t know when they might get to putting material together for a follow-up to Heavy Kingdom, but hopefully sooner or later it happens. Particularly as a follow-up to Wino‘s solo acoustic debut, Adrift (review here), it expanded Wino‘s breadth as a performer and though he’s had a longer career, he seemed to revel in learning from Ochs as much as writing songs with him. I’d enjoy a chance to find out where their collaboration might go from there.
Enjoy “Traces of Blood” and have a great Wino Wednesday:
