J. R. Bohannon – Dusk
Figureight Records – 1 November 2019
Earlier this year we reviewed J. R. Bohannon‘s lovely Recôncavo EP, a newly extended mini-album put out by Phantom Limb records and built with a slightly looser structure than his brand new full-length LP. Where the EP started with ‘Under the Friar’s Ledge’, a piece of music with a distinctly improvised feel, Dusk, which at seven tracks and thirty-eight minutes is still a concise piece of work, jumps in with ‘Reflections of an American Dream’, a far more tightly structured and melodic tune.
Although pretty much a solo affair, with added drums from Greg Fox on one track and double bass from Luke Stewart on two, the production of the album has focused on a rich sound, with Bohannon’s guitar parts double-tracked in parts, cleverly fleshing out the lines while maintaining the sense of a solo guitar record. Indeed, the added warmth from the subtle slide behind the finger-picked guitar part brings a feeling of joy and optimism to ‘American Dream’ that continues into second track ‘St Etienne’. In the intro here some of the guitarist’s Latin tastes creep in before the tune gallops off under a tightly thumbed bass-line and some sweetly shifting melodies. Reminiscent of Chuck Johnson’s solo acoustic work, particularly on Crows in the Basilica, Bohannon eases things up in the mid-section and rambles around for a minute or so, before bringing his disciplined finger-style playing back to finish the tune. It certainly suggests a musician in a well-honed groove.
Elsewhere on ‘For Jina’, the playing is slower and looser in structure, with a slide guitar line and picked bass notes rubbing along beside subtle electronic bleeps and buzzes. It is music more akin to the EP, but, when paired with the more tightly composed pieces, works very well in suggesting the versatility on show that sets Dusk apart from a ‘normal’ solo guitar record. ‘Paradise Kentucky’, coming in straight after ‘Jina’, is one such well-organised piece, with the thumbed bass not putting a foot wrong and the picking demonstrating more of the guitarist’s significant skills in this broad American Primitive field. That said, Bohannon again stops mid-point here and has a little play around with the tune before jumping back into the core arrangement. It is a style Daniel Bachman has also used in past work and it just seems to make the song less predictable and more entertaining for it, while suggesting a guitarist with creativity, flair and self-confidence.
Dusk is certainly a rich and varied album that appears to have been considered for a long time. J. R. Bohannon is a musician with a developed career, having played in bluegrass and folk bands, indie-rock and ambient music outfits, as well as having studied Latin and Greek musics. These influences pepper the set, particularly on two key tracks ‘A Continuous Harmony’ and final track ‘The Sorcerer’s Hand’. The former is just about the longest here at seven minutes and, with Stewart’s double bass adding depth and texture, creates simultaneous ambience and drone music with a dense repeated finger-picked guitar line. With subtle bowed sounds somewhere in the background helping add to the rich sound we discussed, this piece, sticking for the most part to its eponymous continuous harmony, is one to get lost in. However, possibly the best of the lot comes at the end and is an improvised song with added bass and drums. ‘The Sorcerer’s Hand’ is another longer piece, only just falling short of seven minutes, and it begins with the sort of improvised bit of playing you would want to keep hold of, before the low strings and drums come in to really kick the tune to life. At this point the Latin and Grecian influences can really be heard, with Bohannon’s guitar playing moving down the fret board to create some higher lute-like sounds, which shape the rest of the tune. It perhaps showcases this player’s depth of musical knowledge and his prowess best of all across the set, which is high praise, because it doesn’t fail for a moment in its run time to fully engage and entertain the listener. In fact, Dusk could soon be considered one of the more important contemporary instrumental acoustic guitar recordings, and J. R. Bohannon a key player in the genre.
Dusk will be available digitally and on limited vinyl. Pre-order from Bandcamp
Photo Credit: Tariq Kidwai