02 Mar 2012 — Henning Lahmann
Californian multi-talent
Kevin Greenspon can legitimately be called a regular on these pages, with his own output as well as with his wonderful label
Bridgetown Records, but it's been a surprisingly long time since we've actually featured his music. Anyway, he has just released the tape
Maroon Bells, a six-piece collection of, in his own words, "concise recollections of a very specific set of personal memories", including "those first times you had dreams of disappearing to somewhere new, seeing a city from the mountains, being dwarfed by the skeleton of a skyscraper, and the deafening railroad tracks that threaten that hope of sleeping to dream once again".
Of the two samples that you may listen to below, it is the cassette's title track that struck me as one of the most intuitively yet subtly beautiful pieces I've heard so far from this artist. An enchanting melody slowly unfolds while "Maroon Bells" meanders along gently, building up a calming atmosphere that seems to last forever before it eventually fades abruptly by way of a sudden crumpling noise which surprisingly does not destroy the overall peaceful feeling that just set in. Marvelous.
Maroon Bells is now out on CDr (edition of 100, stamped and in full-color printed jackets) or C20 cassette (edition of 100, dubbed in real-time on chrome tape, packaged with full-color doublesided inserts) via
Bridgetown Records, also available as part of the label's Spring Batch 2012 special package deal.
Kevin Greenspon - Maroon Bells
Kevin Greenspon - Passing the Days
