This exciting double release from New York-based Lily Tapes and Discs sees Hour guitarist Michael Cormier-O’Leary drop his first recording of solo piano improvisations, and JR Samuels follows his ace Hand Like God with a new set of guitar songs, enhanced by MIDI expression. Samuels’ playing here sees him leaving a lot of space in the music and, on songs like Leader Clears the Lunar, add minimal digital touches to repetitive guitar lines. Raw Feed is more reminiscent of his earlier work, with loose picking backed by playful MIDI notes and electronic hums. Awful Ballroom adds a more sparkly electronic sound to a bright and rather lovely guitar part, with soft reverb adding character.
The final song, Prodilection, is the album’s longest at eight minutes. It blends deeper, richer nylon string playing, bringing to mind Mason Lindahl’s Kissing Rosy in the Rain, not for the first time, with discordant frayed picking backed by subtle, swooping electronics. Like on the rest of the album, the playing is patient and considered, but Samuels’ taste for improvised music gives this a certain unpredictable energy, making the album something altogether more stimulating, even after the first listen when it’s all unknown.
The same could be said of Michael Cormier-O’Leary’s set of spontaneously composed solo piano songs, played to a soft backing of wind on a blustery day of recording. There is an immediate sense of the organic about Michael’s playing, with the microphone close enough to hear the keys hitting the wood and the natural reverb from his notes allowed to linger like ghosts.
The resulting combination has a quite ramshackle feel in places: halfway through Side 1, the notes cluster, and the clicks and clacks can be heard as much as the music. It lends the sound a candour that is quite irresistible, and Michael’s playing shifts from Bill Orcutt levels of clashing notes to windows of pure beauty and space within a few seconds.
Like with JR Samuels’ playing on Spasm, Cormier-O’Leary is happy to allow space into his sound and often leaves room where a note could go, a move that brings a sense of warmth to the music, especially when it comes after a run of freer, more experimental music. However, possibly the most enchanting part of the set comes at the very end of Side 2, when what sounds like altered strings swirl in and all but flood the piano. It is a piece of creativity that is beautiful in its incongruous nature and sums up the imagination and ability of these two diverse, exciting musicians.
Order JR Samuels’ Spasm – https://lilytapesanddiscs.bandcamp.com/album/spasm
Order Michael Cormier-O’Leary’s Heard From The Next Room – https://lilytapesanddiscs.bandcamp.com/album/heard-from-the-next-room