Seattle singer-songwriter Damien Jurado takes narrative journey

Damien Jurado didn’t initially set out for any of his albums to follow a narrative arc. Over the course of his last three records, the Seattle singer-songwriter has told a loose, impressionistic story of self-discovery and spiritual reawakening during a long cross-country expedition.

“It just sort of happened, naturally and progressively,” Jurado said. “It was nothing that was planned. … It all just sort of happened on its own. It wasn’t until I started writing the third record, sitting with the first song for about a week or two, that I realized I was on to something else, on to part three. Instead of fighting it, I just accepted it.”

Jurado, who performs at the Bartlett on Friday, began this gradually unfolding story on 2012’s “Maraqopa,” which is named for the mysterious, otherworldly town that Jurado’s drifter protagonist stumbles upon. 2014’s “Brothers and Sisters of the Eternal Son” follows the same character as he infiltrates a commune, and this year’s “Visions of Us on the Land” ties up the saga as our hero embarks on a journey back to his starting location.

“It’s exciting, and it gives something for the press to write about and the fans to look forward to. It’s a win-win situation,” Jurado said. “But the story’s happening on its own. I’m not forcing the hand. All I’m doing is writing down whatever the muses are telling me to write down. It’s almost like dictation for me.”

Although it continues the narrative continuity of the albums that came before it, “Visions of Us on the Land” is more sonically adventurous than its predecessors. Jurado says he’s lately been concerned with creating “musical atmosphere,” and he and producer Richard Swift employ plinking pianos, shuffling drums and swirling guitars to tell a story through sounds.

“I’m into the idea of soundscapes as a form of music,” Jurado said. “That comes from a lot of things: my love for ambient music, for natural environmental sounds, my love for soundtracks. There’s a real soundtrack element that I’m bringing to my music these days.”

Jurado’s recent tours have been intimate acoustic affairs, but he’s currently touring with a backing band for the first time since 2012. The songs on “Visions” are dense and intricately arranged, shifting in tone and style throughout the record: They resemble the sun-dappled psychedelia of Donovan one moment and the haunting acoustic balladry of Nick Drake the next.

“The music’s continually changing, but that’s its own animal,” Jurado said. “I’m so separate from it. It’s coming from me and it’s a part of me, but it isn’t exactly a boat that I’m steering. I am definitely progressing – I know I am, because I hear it – but how have I changed as an artist? I think I’ve become freer. I’m living more with the idea that art is freedom.”

That sentiment is reflected in this elliptical collection of songs, which find Jurado’s unnamed protagonist desperate for new surroundings (“Why sit around and wait to die?” he wonders on “Lon Bella”). The same could be said of Jurado himself, who’s still pushing himself to innovate 20 years into his career.

“Artists put too many limits on (themselves), and I think that bleeds over into the personal,” Jurado said. “Life is so damn short, why not just take it to 10? And if you’re going to 10, might as well go to 15 or 20.”