#32: Someday You Will Find Me
Premiere from NYC Laptop Jazz Duo YAI + German American Primitive
Welcome back to another thrilling, chilling installment of the Ambient Audiophile. Summer is winding up and overall it's been an amazing one. We spent a heck of a lot of time outside swimming in lakes, climbing mountains, laying on the beach and jamming to jams. I will say I miss hanging around record shops and playing records (I’m far too beat at the end of a long summer day to get into a session most of the time) so I look forward to the briskness of Autumn to indulge in those wonderful outlets.
But there is always, of course, music playing. I’d say I’m 85 percent content with my digital playback and the addition of the Schiit Urd for CDs has been nothing short of a revelation. I’ve been grabbing cheap discs off Discogs, replacing a lot of what I had in high school & college that either got tossed or given away over the years. A lot of 2024 was revisiting this music I loved when I had no or very low fidelity and getting so much more out of it.
One highlight is the early 90s AAD mastering of Fleetwood Mac’s 1973 album Mystery to Me that has barely left the Urd at all this summer. Man that thing might be the best sounding compact disc in my collection at the moment. I lost my American vinyl pressing of it somewhere along the way but would love to compare it one of these days because that shiny little thing is so nicely balanced and nuanced, I can’t see it being beat.
But most of my time is still spent finding and listening to modern music. It’s insane how much good stuff is out there if you’re into the sounds of contemplation and exploration. Technology has screwed so much of music culture but the access and interconnectivity it affords to likeminds is priceless. So thanks for being here!
Also, Oasis’ second album is really good. It’s the only one I ever heard and I’m fine keeping it that way but I’ll listen to that more than anything Nirvana put out.
I was very pleased with the flow of the latest episode of The Trailhead (ep. 144). I feel it struck a nice balance between soaring psychedelic rock, acoustic rambles, electronic meditation and accessible experimentation. Highlights in set one include Barry Archie Johnson’s gorgeous piece from his forthcoming VDSQ debut Fortune’s Mirror, Frunk29’s outer space jangle, and Jordan Christoff’s stratospheric searching.
Set two starts with a roar from the Minneapolis project Cassini. Featuring wonderful guitarists Matt Beachey and Steven Palmer, Cassini are making some amazing choogling psychedelic rock. Think Hawkwind’s first album if there was a lot more flannel being worn. Yeah, it’s that good. Their debut LP is out now and I really hope they’re working on the next one because the underground needs more of this.
And then we have the big jam of the week in the form of a gloriously wandering take on ‘Dark Star’ by Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders. Recorded at the recent Deep In the Valley Festival and aided and abetted by Sunburned’s John Moloney and Ron Schneiderman along with saxophonist Wednesday Knudsen, this jam is nothing short of stunning with every player locked in and spinning together and out into the universe.
Listen to the show here and check the rest of the playlist below.
The Trailhead 144 Playlist:
1. Gray/Smith - Verrazano Tile - Heels in the Aisle (Blank Forms, 2024) 00:00
2. Pat Keen - Devisadero - I Saw a Bug (Island House, 2024) 02:16
3. Matthew De Gennaro - Wasn't It You? - Fireflies (Soft Abuse, 2024) 05:06
4. Barry Archie Johnson - Lumbering Through - Fortune's Mirror (VDSQ, 2024) 10:13
5. Justin Sweatt - Rising Star - North Texas Electric (Aural Canyon,2024) 14:56
6. Frunk29 - Savan - Drifting Horses (Not Not Fun, 2024) 22:16
7. cloudsound - popol gene (spool pool) - nucleus cosmos (Fluere Tapes, 2024) 25:23
8. Jordan Christoff - Magnetism - Divination Systems (Pyramid Blood, 2024) 34:39
9. James Bernard - Californian Swells - Only Now (Quiet Details, 2024) 45:14
10. Cassini - Statesboro Day - The Cassini Promise (Self, 2024) 1:04:00
11. Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders - Dark Star - Deep In The Valley, Red Hook, NY, 8/10/24 (NYC Taper, 2024) 1:12:45
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I’m very pleased to bring to you the first Ambient Audiophile World Jam Premiere!
I really enjoy connecting listeners with artists they may not have heard about and, not gonna lie, it feels extra special to be the one to pull the curtain off a jam for the first time.
For our inaugural unveiling we have a piece from NYC duo YAI.
‘Silver Chord’ is taken from the group’s forthcoming release Sky Time. Out on September 6 via Los Angeles’ AKP Recordings, it is the duo’s third release since 2021 and it finds David Lackner and John Thayer employing a wide array of woodwinds, synths, percussion and programming to create some of the most idiosyncratic and outstanding music I’ve heard this year.
Clocking in at just under 3 minutes, ‘Silver Chord’ starts with lofty trilling, shimmering and streaking for a beautiful and serene scene. This woodwind heaven splits open about halfway through the piece to make space for a dubby, slow and low rhythm to creep in. Lee Perry never got to mix up any artists for the ECM label but YAI get us close to that improbable and extremely interesting, heartfelt warm space.
Check out the new jam below and preorder the album on Bandcamp.
I’m not sure how Alexander Moeckl got on my radar but I’m super happy to have received a new album from him this week.
The German artist has just self-released Desert, his third album of solo instrumental acoustic guitar music. I’ve only been able to get through it once so far but it is immediately apparent that it stands with his stellar previous releases—both of which have beautiful privately pressed vinyl editions that you should seek out immediately via the elusive Randstock label.
If melodic and buoyant fingerstyle is your thing, you need to get on the Moeckl train immediately as he just seems to effortlessly summon the best of the blues. There’s no wheel reinvention with Moeckl, just a dedicated/minimalist take on American Primitive that says its piece and moves on.
Yes both on Mystery To Me and the slight nod to Oasis.
Big ups!!!! Thx JC!!!!!