Next week (22nd January) sees the release of Kissing Rosy in the Rain, the Tompkins Square debut from New York City-based guitarist and composer Mason Lindahl. While Lindahl grew up listening to folk and country music in Northern California, his style of playing is largely influenced by minimalism and classical music.
The album was recorded in Oakland, California and Brooklyn, NY with Lindahl’s longtime friends – Jay Pellici (Dilute, 31 Knots, Natural Dreamers) Robby Moncrieff, and Ben Greenberg (Uniform/Hubble).
In the accompanying press for this announcement label founder Josh Rosenthal spoke about how his own tastes in music have been drawn towards a minimalist style – or to quote his preferred words: “staying in a zone“, something he traces back to his love for the music of Terry Riley. It’s a sentiment I totally understand – I find such music induces an inner stillness, something I seem to crave a lot more recently as the world becomes noisier and feels more tumultuous – the likes Karima Walker’s music, especially her most recent album mentioned earlier today here, engages me instantly – and a lot more deeply. While Josh maps his own increasing interest in this field of music to a couple of years ago, he admits that COVID has also accentuated it. Before sharing Josh’s own thoughts below, take a listen to Mason Lindahl’s Outside Laughing from the album Kissing Rosy in the Rain which is out on 22 January 2021.
Josh Rosenthal:
Over the past couple of years, I’ve found myself gravitating towards a certain kind of music. It was happening before Covid, but Covid accentuated it. My interest in this sound probably originates from my love of Terry Riley. It’s not limited to “drone,” or “ambient” sounds. It’s more about an artist staying in a zone, not caring about variation for variation’s sake, content with an artistic statement that doesn’t move from its core. I like that. I also think there’s something courageous about it. Recent examples of “it” are albums by Daniel Schmidt, Kali Malone, Luke Schneider, and Steve Tibbetts’ masterpiece, Life Of, which I wrote about for Aquarium Drunkard – each with its own sonic solar system.
And if you follow Tompkins Square’s catalog, there are some examples of “it” – notably, music by Richard Skelton (A Broken Consort) and Ran Blake. Of course a lot of the acoustic guitar music I’ve released falls roughly into this space as well.
So when my old friend sent me Mason Lindahl’s Kissing Rosy in the Rain, I saw it as yet more serendipity, a sense of things falling into place for a reason – something I have experienced so many times with the label over the past 15 years. First, I love the way it came to me. When I started the label in 2005, I needed a place and a person to help me record stuff. We recorded Max Ochs and Bern Nix in my friend Carter Matschullat’s apartment on St. Marks Place, formerly The Dom, where the Velvet Underground used to play. Carter never sent me any music to listen to until Mason. And when I heard it, I immediately loved it. Something in the Spanish guitar reminded me of Leonard Cohen. There were sonic artifacts all over the recording like little Easter eggs. The music was desperately sad and dark, but somehow uplifting and hopeful. I just loved it.
Mason has done it. He has created his own sonic world.
And it is his alone.
JR
Pre-Order Kissing Rosy in the Rain: https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/kissing-rosy-in-the-rain