BJ Cole and Secondson have announced There is Wonder Here, a collaborative album pairing pedal steel guitar with the Cristal Baschet — a rare acoustic instrument invented in 1952 by French brothers Bernard and François Baschet, played by rubbing chromatically tuned glass rods with wet fingertips. The album is believed to be the first recording devoted to the interplay between the two instruments.
The first track, A Place You Could Never Leave, is out now. It introduces the central dynamic of the album: Cole’s fluid, expressive pedal steel set against the Cristal Baschet’s haunting, otherworldly resonance. Secondson has described the instrument as “an acoustic synthesizer,” capable of moving from delicate, voice-like tones to powerful self-oscillating resonance.
Cole has been one of the UK’s most influential and adventurous pedal steel players for more than five decades with Secondson being one of a small number of musicians working extensively with the Cristal Baschet.
The album began as a long-distance exchange, with Secondson composing and recording pieces specifically for the project before sending them to Cole, who layered pedal steel performances over the material. The two eventually came together in the studio, where improvised performances became part of the album’s final form. The contrasting nature of the instruments shaped the recording process: Cole’s pedal steel was captured in a dense, reflection-free room, while the Cristal Baschet was recorded in bright, reflective spaces that emphasised its natural resonance.
“There were no limits on what we felt the pedal steel could do,” says Secondson. “BJ has always been very open-minded toward experimentation in his playing. At the same time, he preferred a pure pedal steel sound with very little between the instrument and the listener.”
The album was recorded with engineer Thomas V. Westgard. Mixing and mastering were handled by Chuck Johnson.
There is Wonder Here is out September 18th on CD and vinyl via Centripetal Force, with a cassette edition from Geology Records.
Bandcamp: Centripetal Force (Digital/Vinyl/CD) | Geology Records: Cassette