Eli Winter – The Time to Come
Blue Hole Recordings – 25 May 2019
There is a quiet assurance to this debut solo guitar instrumental album from twenty-one-year-old Eli Winter that belies his years. Although the first influence that sprung to mind when listening to The Time to Come is Daniel Bachman, Eli’s playing has less of the metallic urgency that is so recognisable in Daniel’s work. In fact, as this set plays out, it sometimes leans slightly further away from the Takoma mould and towards the Windham Hill recordings. Indeed, there are hints of William Tyler‘s Goes West in here alongside William Ackerman and Jack Rose.
‘Sunrise Over the Flood’ begins the album with a patiently picked line that gently undulates and subtly develops over five minutes; so deliberately paced is this piece that we hardly even hear a bass string ring out for the first couple of minutes, which makes the plucked low note all the more effective when it is introduced. In fact, as this piece unfolded, it reminded me quite strongly of Sarah Louise‘s ‘Evidence of a Bear’, from her solo VDSQ album, especially when Eli adds drama towards the end, with a fingered bass line and double plucked top strings. ‘Woodland Waltz’ is a more straightforward tune, with a more typical thumbed bass line from the American Primitive tradition. The melody is a delight, however, and at three minutes this is a joyous little number that contains none of the hidden melancholy of ‘Sunrise’.
‘Oranges and Holly’ is another sweet song that carries on the energy of ‘Waltz’, with a strong melody line and rambling bottom strings that give this one a very light feel and evokes the outdoors in summertime very nicely. On the flip side is ‘Knock it Out’, the only electric guitar piece on here, a tune as industrial as the previous two were bucolic. There is still fun to be had here though, with Eli’s dextrous moves on the higher strings giving the piece plenty of life. It is a clever move putting the electric track in the middle of the set and thus breaking up the acoustic monopoly, but I would still like to hear this one done acoustically, perhaps as a bonus track somewhere along the line; the droning notes and meandering qualities of the music would transplant nicely to the wooden box.
The title track is the whopper of this album, coming in at fifteen minutes, over twice as long as the next biggest. This is a denser composition that invites the clearest comparisons to Daniel Bachman so far (although there is also some Basho in there), with Eli’s fluid and solid picking technique reminiscent of Bachman’s long pieces on his most recent self titled album. ‘The Time to Come’ is a piece of music to lose yourself in, with the melody looser and the playing freer sounding, having more time to open up and stretch itself. Also similar to Bachman is Eli’s ability to shift the tempo of the playing seemingly at leisure, or perhaps reining himself in and preparing for the next stage of the piece. It is indeed a song that morphs and changes many times throughout, almost like an improvised piece of playing, and it never outstays its welcome, instead, it keeps us guessing and interested for the whole time.
The same could be said for The Time to Come as a whole, it being a strikingly confident and deliberately paced debut album that ends beautifully with the twelve-string song ‘Live Oak Standing in the Rain’, a rich and bold piece of playing that will undoubtedly be a great one to hear live. It further confirms Eli as a talent far beyond his years and a guitar player to watch; if this set is any indication, there will be many more great things to come from Mr Winter.
Order via Bandcamp (Digital/Cassette)
Live at The Random Tea Room in August 2018 (filmed by Jesse Sheppard)
Photo Credit: Press image by Jana Hunter