A Song For Friday: Big Numbers

A rangy new project from Richard Aufrichtig becomes something wonderful

Aug 10, 2024

When I interviewed Richard Aufrichtig on my podcast in February, he told me about his new band, Big Numbers, formed with two friends he had met after moving to Taos, NM, and getting a slot on the local radio station, KNCE 93.5. The “multigenerational power trio,” consisting of Richard on bass and vocals, Scott Randolph on electric guitar and vocals, and Peter Halter on drums and percussion, just put out their first (and only?) album and it’s a beautifully expansive thing.

While the sound of Big Numbers is sparer and more relaxed than some of Richard’s earlier music, either as Ocean Music or under his own name, it’s certainly closer to that rock sound than last year’s mind-blowingly brilliant electronic Dylan cover.

Ocean is a perfect example of what Richard is getting up to with Halter and Randolph. A simple drumbeat opens the song, with delicate acoustic and electric guitars intertwining and the bass pushing everything along while making the occasional aside. Richard’s vocal enters, with Randolph harmonizing, riding a line between conversational and commanding, singing two poetic verses starting with this one:

I never thought that I’d ever be caught in the rain again
I never dreamed I’d be the queen of the ball
Walking around, feeling the sound in the summer wind
I never dreamed I’d be the queen of it all
Now I walk tall and I see all
Of those walls I was holdin’
I was gone like the ocean.

He makes it sound so easy. An instrumental interlude follows, with guitars talking back and forth in rhyme and the album’s secret weapon announcing himself. I’m talking about Benjamin Lanz who performs as LANZ and is known for his work with The National, Beirut, and Sufjan Stevens. Lanz mixed the album and added “just the right amount of tasteful horns into the mix to fill out the craggy edges of the trio’s compositions,” as Richard puts it in the liner notes. Listen to Ocean below and hear it all come together for yourself.

After the interlude, we get one more verse:

Tell me the truth
Have you become something wonderful
Finding a way, holding the sky in your arms
Shining the light, seeing the stars from the catacombs
Waiting for someone to tell you they did you no harm
Now they walk tall and they see all
Of the planets in motion
They were gone like the ocean

The rest of the album explores similar territory, with the lengthy opening and closing tracks allowing the trio to explore some spacier textures and stretch out. All they ask of the listener is to trust them: while the impact may not always be instant, there will be an impact.

I think the world of Richard as a person and as an artist. If this is your introduction to him, it’s a great place to start and I hope it compels you to listen more or delve into the whole oeuvre. Let me know if you do!

AnEarful

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