Thanks for the Soundcloud link Kez, I'm really enjoying this. Onto third track so far, sounds a bit like The Band. Sadly not available on emusic in UK or I would have downloaded. Yet another from Amazon, I suppose!
This must have been a Jonah recommendation at emusic
Update - really enjoying this. Yes it was a Jonah rec, in fact his pick of the week last week
Outstanding new album by multi-reedist Landrus, who plays bari sax, bass clarinet, bass flute, contra alto clarinet, and bass saxophone for this session. Orchestrated, but with a deft restraint that imbues the music with a quiet chamber jazz sound at times. The ensemble includes Nir Felder on guitar, Frank Carlberg on piano & Rhodes, Lonnie Plaxico on basses, Rudy Royston on drums, Mark Feldman and Joy Hermann on violins, Judith Insell on viola, and Jody Redhage on cello. Ryan Truesdell conducts. Music that inspires with an epic nature. Melodies crafted with the precision and beauty of stained glass. Harmonies that invite the listener to just sink into them. One of those albums that, once listened to, gives the sense of having travelled very far distances from your seat by the stereo.
Acoustic guitar instrumental album - Listening to full album stream on Merge Records website since seeing it listed on a couple of 'best-of-2013 LPs so far' lists...
For a relatively young man, Nashvilles William Tyler has seen a fair bit of action in his time as a musician.
Hes perhaps best know as a decade-long sideman for Lambchop, Bonnie Prince Billy and The Silver Jews, which gave him limited room to show off his exceptional talent as a guitarist while letting him tour and record with kindred spirits who share his interest in a certain strand of Americana. Since then hes released his solo debut Behold the Spirit: a discourse in six and twelve string guitars and a look at myths and legends, ostensibly a folk record that led to whispered comparisons to the great John Fahey (William, I promise thats the only reference Ill make to that artist) but also to current fellow travellers such as Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance. On second album Impossible Truth Tyler looks again to the past for inspiration, but this time the more recent past.
The album finds a post-Carter USA under the microscope. Tyler was born in 1980 as a new America took shape under the Reagan Administration, and alongside those changes a series of books inspired the music found on this record: Barney Hoskyns Hotel California and Mike Davis The Ecology of Fear (two books about the sunshine state, that take extremely different looks at a disintegrating society), but also Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, a look at the devastating effects of land and water development policy on western USA, and James Kunstlers The Geography of Nowhere which speaks of how the countrys desperation for advancement led to the death of community. Its a certain brand of nostalgia, sure, and Tyler is certainly fascinated by the late 70s and early-to-mid 1980s but focusing on those aforementioned influences means its definitely not a romanticised version of the period. You might think itd be hard to create a song cycle about the decline of the American empire on whats a purely instrumental (and almost completely guitar-based) record, but over the course of 54 fascinating minutes Tyler takes us completely into that world without any disconnect, on a brilliant journey into the recent past.
Opener Country of Illusion is a bluesy beginning, with Tyler operating between intricate finger-picking and short, punchy strumming that goes from British folk to US country music and back again, then the stirring Geography of Nowhere has a pattern that echoes Paint It Black in its flamenco melodies. Cadillac Desert is a beautifully hopeful track that shimmers with pedal steel as it builds and fades across six minutes of inspirational playing; this track and the following We Cant Go Home Again with its barrelling folk riffs recalls David Pajos work as Papa M on his excellent Live From a Shark Cage record. It shares an urge to reference then deconstruct the past, turning something old into something fresh and new, and it succeeds beyond all expectations. The latter track is joined by A Portrait of Sarah in being a solo showcase for Tylers stunning virtuoso playing: its been a long time since Ive been so enraptured by solo guitar, and time seems to bend and shift while listening to these passages of music. Six minutes seem like two, and a record that lasts for nearly an hour seems to pass by in the space of an album of ten three-minute pop songs now thats full immersion in someone elses world.
The crowning glory of all this is the ten-minute closing track The World Set Free. On this, Tyler begins with simple acoustic patterns before building with electric guitar, pedal steel, then brass and some spluttering drums as a melody appears out of the haze. It moves from undoubted gorgeousness to a squalling psych rock conclusion and never once outstays its welcome.
Impossible Truth seems made up of melodies, chords and patterns that have always existed, whether its now, the 70s and 80s, or even earlier. What William Tyler does is reach back into the past with complete honesty, and by doing so hes able to create new and exciting sounds from the social, political and geographical changes of a particular period. Hes a towering talent, not just as a guitarist, but as great American storyteller. - from thelineofbestfit.com
Thanks for putting me on to him. I only had one other track of his off a Tompkins Square sampler. Made me think of some of those great old Windham Hill guitar players i listened to as a kid & it got me looking to see what else Don Ross has been up to. He's a terrific player.
PS. I believe I love everything that ends with an extended sigh.
Thanks, Across The Ocean was the highlight for me, but for some reason I just couldn't get into the Prairie Of The Dirt E.P. I may have to try that one later when it doesn't have to compete with the massive thunderstorm that's underway right now.
Comments
Thanks for the Soundcloud link Kez, I'm really enjoying this. Onto third track so far, sounds a bit like The Band. Sadly not available on emusic in UK or I would have downloaded. Yet another from Amazon, I suppose!
- Yeah !
Kora and banjo. Nice.
Lazersonic - Aquaplane
This must have been a Jonah recommendation at emusic
Update - really enjoying this. Yes it was a Jonah rec, in fact his pick of the week last week
I liked the last album so much I've downloaded their previous recording.
Acoustic guitar instrumental album - Listening to full album stream on Merge Records website since seeing it listed on a couple of 'best-of-2013 LPs so far' lists...
Fabio Orsi & Pimmon - Procrastination
Andere - Waking Life
I love to slip into the ether, thanks.
Thanks for the heads up. I'd like to think it's because of him I started the experiment.
Thanks for putting me on to him. I only had one other track of his off a Tompkins Square sampler. Made me think of some of those great old Windham Hill guitar players i listened to as a kid & it got me looking to see what else Don Ross has been up to. He's a terrific player.
PS. I believe I love everything that ends with an extended sigh.
Low key, contemplative Jazz from Brazil. Free.
Music by David Crowell
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 28, 2012
&
Thanks, Across The Ocean was the highlight for me, but for some reason I just couldn't get into the Prairie Of The Dirt E.P. I may have to try that one later when it doesn't have to compete with the massive thunderstorm that's underway right now.
Jari Pitk
Lawrence English - For / Not For John Cage
A perfect time for mushrooms with all this rain.
Tasogare: Live in Tokyo - Minamo, Sawako + Hofli, moskitoo, Solo Andata & Taylor Deupree
Still raining....
Sohrab - A Hidden Place
Ps. this was excellent
Rosy Parlane - Willow
&
Jessamine
ps. enjoyed them all especially Pt3
Tarentel - We Move Through Weather