Just back from working with Springsteen’s producer Ron Aniello in New Jersey last week, been recording new Guster songs. These shots are from tracking sessions last summer with Ron and Rich Costey at Guilford Sound in Southern Vermont. The sessions last week were my favorite Guster sessions I’ve been on in the 13 years since I joined the band.
Super glad to have been a part of this one.
Regina Spektor’s new album Home, Before and After is out June 24th on Warner. Produced by Regina Spektor and John Congleton.
With Regina on vocals, piano, and keyboards, Joey Waronker on drums, Congleton as multi-instrumentalist, and orchestral arrangements by Jherek Bischoff. I played mustang bass, electric guitar, nylon string guitar, tapes, keyboards, mellotron and processing.
Very powerful and adventurous songwriting, can’t wait for the world to hear.
Thanks to Congleton for bringing me in.
Wishing this album all the best.
TRACKLISTING
01 Becoming All Alone
02 Up the Mountain
03 One Man’s Prayer
04 Raindrops
05 SugarMan
06 What Might Have Been
07 Spacetime Fairytale
08 Coin
09 Loveology
10 Through a Door
New album by The Staves out today on Nonesuch. Produced and mixed by John Congleton. Tremendous humans, songs and musicians. Can’t say enough good things about these people, I love them so much. I played electric guitar, mustang bass, tapes, synths, Mellotron, MS-20, piano, and mandotar. So proud of this one. Cheers to everyone involved.
New Briston Maroney single. Produced by John Congelton. I played mustang bass, electric guitar, 4-track cassettes and Mellotron.
My new album Vanishing Places Vol. 2 Glaciers In Iceland is out today.
It was recorded in Nashville last fall, with additional field recording in Iceland.
Mixed by Brad Bivens, mastered by John Baldwin. With additional contributions from glaciologist Oddur Sigurosson, arranger Stephen Lamb, Sam Smith and Dr. Kieran Baxter.
Two Hundred Fifty Glaciers, is the first piece from my new album, Vanishing Places Vol. 2 Glaciers In Iceland, one of the three commissioned pieces I made for CHANGE, a permanent art exhibit dedicated to examining and expressing response to vulnerable polar geographies.
The album’s worth of music that I made for the installation, incorporates field recordings I made in Iceland, data sonification, pedal steel, electric guitar and tapes.
This piece contains the same number of notes as the number of remaining glaciers in Iceland (two hundred fifty). I limited the harmonic content of the piece to thirteen pitches, each pitch representing one of the thirteen largest glaciers in Iceland. Simple and mutually compatible clusters of notes were recorded to four loops, then played back at different speeds. The thirteen pitches re-combine throughout the piece to form new clusters of notes in an evolving soundscape.
I began by making field recordings in Iceland, then asked for help from glaciologist Oddur Sigurðsson to establish some parameters for the piece. My goals leading up to this project were to expand on some concepts from Vanishing Places Vol. 1 Bears Ears, and to attempt to tie certain aspects of the recording and composition process to the geography of Iceland.
I’ll share more details soon, but this is a project I am very excited to be a part of. Installation on the Endurance will take place in February, 2020 and is scheduled to depart April 2, 2020 out of Svalbard, Norway.
I’m excited to announce that my new record, Vanishing Places Vol. 1 Bears Ears, is available today - one year to the day since I first began this project.
Listen to the album in it’s entirety here.
This album was written and recorded based on a series of field recordings I made in Bears Ears National Monument Utah after it was announced that the Trump Administration would reduce the National Monument by 85% in size — over 1 million acres, opening new mineral and oil and gas leasing opportunities, easing drilling regulations, and rolling back habitat protections for endangered species. The idea behind the project was to travel into wild places currently at risk, record the soundscape, then turn those field recordings into fully realized compositions back in the studio.
I wanted to record the soundscape in Bears Ears before it was changed, so after a few months of planning I packed up my field recorders and flew out to the desert. I first captured the soundscape, then synthesized those field recordings in different ways back in the studio. Those recordings became the foundation for this record, even if they’re now unrecognizable. With James Gadson on drums, and Lars Horntveth on horns and keyboards. The cover artwork is by Larry Bell.
You can make a direct contribution to my project by clicking here.
I finished my new album, Vanishing Places Vol. 1 Bears Ears. It was written and recorded based on a series of field recordings I made in Bears Ears National Monument earlier this year. The idea behind the project was to travel into wild places currently at risk, record the soundscape, then turn those field recordings into fully realized compositions back in the studio. James Gadson played drums and Lars Horntveth contributed horns, woodwinds, and keyboards. The cover artwork is by Larry Bell. Produced by Luke Reynolds. Mixed by Brad Bivens. Mastered by John Baldwin.
