Martin Saint returns with “Endless Bridge,” a self-released single that reaches back to a song he first recorded with Citylake in 2017. The Montreal singer-songwriter has since moved through The Ember Glows and into his solo work, releasing Seekers and continuing to write under his own name. “Endless Bridge” arrives from considerably earlier in that history, re-recorded with Julie Abel on piano, Frank Bones on drums and Jack Vignavong on bass.
There is a strange contradiction at the centre of that decision. “Endless Bridge” is concerned with release: a relationship passing through tenderness, distance, separation and eventually the possibility of forgiveness. Saint, meanwhile, has kept the song with him for almost a decade. He has carried it beyond the band that first recorded it and chosen to give it another life under his own name. Letting go, in this case, does not seem to mean erasure. Some things are released by returning to them after enough time has passed to understand what they still mean.
Saint sings from that distance rather than trying to recreate the urgency of an earlier moment. His baritone stays low and measured, with a slightly worn edge that keeps the performance grounded even as the lyrics reach toward larger ideas of love, faith and renewal. Abel’s piano is one of the gentler elements in the arrangement, answering the vocal and guitar without turning the song into something overly ornate. Bones and Vignavong keep the rhythm steady beneath it. The result is straightforward, with Saint’s words remaining at the front.
The lyrics move through memory in fragments: beginnings under snow, time passing, two people separating, and the uneasy work of reaching a point where love no longer requires possession. Saint has described “Endless Bridge” as about as close to a love song as he is likely to write, and that hesitation suits it. Affection is present throughout, but so is the knowledge that loving somebody does not guarantee that two lives continue in the same direction.
Saint has said that this performance reflects where he is today and how far he has travelled since writing the song. The same words are now being sung by someone with another decade behind them, and that distance changes what they carry. What once belonged to the immediate life around the song can now be approached with the knowledge of what came after it.
That relationship to older work also appears in Saint’s recently published Under The Full Angry Moon, a collection of lyrics, short poems and drawings accompanied by QR codes leading back to recordings. Saint is currently bringing pieces from different periods of his work into new contexts, allowing older words and songs to sit beside the person making music now. “Endless Bridge” is one of those pieces, except here he has stepped back inside it and performed it again.
There is something personal about choosing this particular song to reclaim. Its first recording belonged to Citylake and to the period in Saint’s life that produced it. Nearly ten years later, he still recognizes enough of himself in “Endless Bridge” to sing it again under his own name. The circumstances around the song have changed, but the song itself has remained worth keeping.
Written and arranged by Martin Saint, “Endless Bridge” features Saint on vocals and guitar, Julie Abel on piano, Frank Bones on drums and Jack Vignavong on bass. The track was recorded by Saint and Bones at Martini Lounge, Indica Studio 24 and Studio Pacifique, with assistance from Olivier René de Cotret. Bones mixed and mastered the single, while cover photography and design are by Ursa Minor.
“Endless Bridge” is out now, self-released by Martin Saint on October 6.
Under The Full Angry Moon book
