Friday at Sound & Gravity was *quite* excellent. Loved every bit I caught of Edsel Axle (which I didn't realize is just Rosali doing an ambient solo guitar thing), Chicago Underground Duo, Hannah Cohen, Jeff Parker, Magic Tuber String Band, Bill Callahan...
Thursday night Sound and Gravity was pretty damn great. I mean any day you get to see guitar played by Nels Cline Steve Gunn, and William Tyler is a pretty good day. That being said, the duo set from Steve Elkington and Nathan Salzburg (first show together in years) beat em all. Of course, the other highlight was the intensely soul-cleansing set from Mary Lattimore and Juliana Barwick. Whoa!
If anything could ever make me feel hopeful about anything that seems hopeless, it will be remembering that Mary Lattimore was born on September 11. The person who makes literally the most beautiful music I've ever experienced.
Getting to wish her happy birthday, tell her she's my favorite, and then see her play (coincidentally #lattimore.20) that'll make my day.
Playing Sound and Gravity in duo with Julianna Barwick.
First night of the Sound & Gravity festival in Chicago, more of a preFest kickoff, really, with four sets in 2 more-or-less adjoining venues. All four were *excellent*:
🔸pedal steel rhythmic ambient with Mute Duo >
🔸intrepid analog synth groove explorations led by Sam Prekop >
🔸more analog synth, but this time cool inward-facing headspace melodic meandering laid down by Jeremiah Chiu >
🔸Finally some good old Malian shredfest from the reliably shreddy Mdou Moctar
neddyo