At some point in high school, I sat in math class and learned about something called an “asymptote”.

In case it’s been a while since high school math: an asymptote is a line on a graph that a curve approaches, but never touches. The distance between them gets closer and closer to zero, but never actually becomes zero. It looks like this:

As a rule, I wasn’t often bowled over by math news. But the idea of two lines that could approach each other until infinity and never touch seemed – to my teenaged mind at least – both ludicrously impossible and tragically poetic.

The real-life example most often cited is the “hot drink cooling down” example: as a hot drink cools down, its temperature approaches, but never equals, the temperature of the room in which it’s cooling down.

I know: weird.

While you let your mind get blown by the idea of two things getting closer and closer but never touching, please enjoy this great little song “Closer” by James Bryan.

While I was struggling to comprehend asymptotes in a 1990s Canadian high school, James Bryan was doing double-duty in two successful Canadian bands. And those bands could hardly have been more different; one was a thoughtful ballad-prone rock group named after a quote from Plato, the other was a cartoon jokepop duo named after a brand-name drug.

James Bryan was somehow guitarist for both, and now creates beautiful finger-picked acoustic music under his own name.

What makes this a beautiful song:

1. It doesn’t get showy like some finger-picked music does, but little flourishes like the one at 0:48 hints that Bryan does have significant skill.

2. It sounds like he’s playing over himself using looping software, but he’s not; he’s just working in the melody while continuing to play the chords underneath.

3. Just when you think the song structure will repeat until infinity, it proves that it’s not an asymptote by ending on a very satisfying major chord.

Recommended listening activity:

Waiting (but not infinitely) for your drink to cool down.

Spotify.

The post Week 807: “Closer” by James Bryan appeared first on Beautiful Song Of The Week.