This is a love story.
It’s the story of a girl with a love for life, a guy with love for the power of music. It’s the story of a stand for what must be done, even when that brings pain and hard times; when you keep on because you know there is no end, only journey.
This is the story of Isabelle Dunlop and Mark Henning.
This is the story of Combine The Victorious.
Isabelle, her excitement for every detail of life; each blade of grass or slightest smile. I think of her bravery in stepping into a new medium, and beyond her already burgeoning reputation as a quite wonderful fashion designer. I think of my indelicate initial suggestions to improve her singing, and how she rebounded from the hurt to grow into the charismatic presence she is in Combine and Sex With Strangers. Her voice, often frail, sometimes little more than a breath, retains the strength to reach through the mix and grab the heart with both hands. Elsewhere, she is a shining invitation to just live fully in each moment.
Mark, his mastery, his architect’s grace and finesse, building musical cathedrals in which each of us may find our own meaning and space. I think of his evolution from an early career in Pure and Blisterene, through his own solo recordings, to his current crop of projects, all the time emerging more fully into his own shape and form. It is a fascinating and intriguing thing to watch an artist yield to his potential; butterflies from chrysalids. I think of Mark on a brief visit to our family a few years back, how his belief in his own talent, then constrained by circumstance, created frustration that threatened to pull him apart. This is Beethoven, I thought, or Van Gogh; the struggle playing out before us, passion for a vision strong enough to make us laugh, cry, dance and shout “YES!” at the top of our lungs.
And then there’s Combine The Victorious. It’s not enough, never enough, to say it’s the two of them making music together; too easy an understatement. While Isabelle and Mark are both involved in parallel musical ventures, something very, very special happens when they work together. I sense it as almost a force of nature; when I listen, I see the sun, the moon, the stars and the sea. There is something gravitational to Combine The Victorious, pulling us to their warmth and being; Isabelle, the radiance of the sun, and Mark, the scope and grandeur of Jupiter. As each idea develops, mix upon mix, it’s like watching nature prepare for Spring, readying herself to attract, welcome and envelop us. Effortless, we find ourselves in the unique generative energy between Isabelle and Mark; we’re dancing in a Blue Kitchen, grieving broken friendship when honesty’s Back In Style, or simply holding each other in a warm Embrace.
Yes, this is a love story.
This is Combine The Victorious.
