Turning

Tethered against the current

None of it can hold

None of it can hold

Tethered against the current…

Turning…

Tethered against the current

Turning

Tethered against the current

None of it can hold

None of it can hold

Tethered against the current…

This album offers a series of pieces recorded a few years ago. On listening to them recently I was struck by how well they stood up musically and equally by how poorly produced the recordings were. I took this opportunity to re-mix and re-master them to the standards of what I can do now.

Everything about music, any art, is a moving target. We do what we can with what’s available to us now.

One thing I learned from editing my own writing over the years is that there’s nothing like time to put some distance between what we thought we were doing and what’s actually there to work with.

This has been helpful in this instance.

What strikes me about these pieces is the way they hold some kernel of what North Atlantic Blues means to me. The way my particular response to what music can be has a certain shape, resulting from the confluence of cultures joined by the North Atlantic. How they hold a shared relationship to pain, grief, loss, what we term Blues.

The cultures I’m referring to are both indigenous and transplanted. They’ve all had their original natures put under tremendous pressure by Modernity. They’ve all found in their shared and mutually recognized approaches, sounds, origins within places now degraded beyond recognition and hobbled by destructive hatred; a certain shared bond. They’ve also been the source of the greatest living vitality within music today.

Music grows out of voice. Human voices are capable of speech.

These pieces and the poem above hint at how I may find a way to integrate voice in all its aspects into my work.

I hope you get some enjoyment from this album.

The Tide Always Turns

Tethered to the Bell

Towards Iberia

Turning, Guitar Duet

Tethered Against the Current

Buy it on Bandcamp!

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