Our Tune of the Day is ‘Vestris Lament’ a track taken from London-based guitarist/producer Leo Abrahams and NYC master musician Shahzad Ismaily and their forthcoming collaborative album Visitations, out 3rd April on figureight records.
We have a special love for experimental guitar music and this first taster from Visitations has the promise of many revisits and discoveries with its dreamy improvised off-kilter feel. The figureight label was founded by Ismaily and boasts a diverse roster “set apart by musical and geographical distances, but is bound together in creative and expressive spirit.”
Filmed on various overnight trains in central Siberia when Abrahams was on tour, the ghostly video for ‘Vestris Lament’ perfectly capitulates the track’s slow-building, yet tender sound. Watch it below.
The work of two highly-skilled, highly celebrated musicians, Visitations marks a curious, mysterious, uncanny collection of music, offering a take on guitar playing that snakes and collides with unexpected turns. It encourages – requires even – a deep listening experience, every discordance balanced with harmony, every darkness balanced with light; it is eloquent and subtle in equal measure…
The accompanying press reveals in greater depth some of the influences on the release:
Influenced by the meditative, subtly changing cellular iterations of Morton Feldman and the sonic austerity of early Roy Montgomery, these minimalistic and anti-virtuosic pieces are not easily categorised. Abrahams writes “Visitations represents the sound of two slightly jet-lagged fellow-travellers saying hello to each other, before passing on through.”
There are no easy reference points for such an unusual record. One could point to the advanced technique guitar of musicians such as Loren Connors or Bill Orcutt, but Visitations is not as frantic; and is by design “anti-virtuosic”. One could draw a parallel to the avant-weirdness of Fred Frith and Jim O’Rourke’s freakier records, but Abrahams and Ismaily offer something less confrontational than high-art experimentalism. Connected too is the acute guitar style of David Pajo – his seminal records with Slint and Tortoise, for example – but this is freer than post-rock, unbound from large ensemble or song structure, flowing as an open river…
The LP Visitations is out 3rd April on figureight records.
Pre-Order via Bandcamp: https://leoabrahamsshahzadismaily.bandcamp.com/album/visitations