Evan Caminiti - West Winds

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5...according to our Phil on Thu 15 Jul, 2010.

I loved this guy's last album on Digitalis so I quickly nabbed this so I could be first to check it out (I can be terribly sad/super lame sometimes depending on which side of the continent you're from). I didn't even know this beast was coming out. Well exciting! Evan is half of Barn Owl who have signed to Thrill Jockey now and he makes these amazing desolate sounding soundscapes. He somehow manages to straddle the remarkably difficult thing of making music sound full and interesting whilst being very sparse. It's quite remarkable and 'West Winds' is probably the best and most mature work I've heard by him. There's some amazing feedback and drones on here... the music just takes you to another place. It's well special. It makes you feel like you're in a desert and (to me) it sounds like the last sounds you hear in your head before you pass away. Yeah that's pretty bleak but I guess the album is kinda bleak.... Bleak but beautiful. At times it's a bit like a darker version of the Paris, Texas soundtrack. A breathtaking listen from start to end. Includes download code for you's with portable ears.

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limited edition of 600 copies.

evan caminiti is a guitarist full of big ideas and even bigger sounds. currently known as one-half of the san francisco bay area avant droners barn owl, caminiti has spent a great deal of time the past few years playing and recording gorgeous solo explorations focused primarily on the guitar, but, when need be, accented by additional instrumentation. following several prior releases, caminiti’s abilities have been honed to the razor sharp point of his new lp, west winds. three lobed recordings is proud to present this album, caminiti’s most mature and meditative to date.

west winds is a discourse on solitude and cosmic exploration set primarily to an open tuned guitar. it is a logical successor to caminiti’s strong, large(r) scale solo debut, psychic mud shrine (digitalis, 2009) and calls to mind roy montgomery, hex-era earth and popul vuh. the album is the result of caminiti’s six-month long focus on each song’s form and musical composition. over that span of time, caminiti assembled and came to know each song intimately, constructing a series of strong structural bases. that knowledge permitted him to record the final takes accentuated by numerous potent improvisational flourishes as heard on west winds. this long-form approach of adding chaotic, off-the-cuff elements to such long-crafted tracks is basically the opposite approach to that which is used within the context of barn owl. through its contemplative tone, west winds is the perfect soundtrack to your next night alone in the literal or figurative desert.

the album opens with the bold and transcendent “night of the archon” (click herefor a downloadable preview). caminiti coaxes a sustained wash of shimmering tones from his guitar that conjure the impression of heat illusions appearing just over the horizon on a long, straight, and otherwise abandoned road in the dead heat of summer. hazy and dreamlike, “night…” magically helps the listener lose track of time and space, and its close to nine-minute running time seems like mere moments slipping through the hourglass. once fully established, this hypnotic tone and mood is so pervasive throughout west winds - from the piano accents that punctuate “westward sun” to the desolate and lonely echoes of “dust” – that the listener certainly does not have to listen too hard to tell that caminiti has generated a full and complete thematic exploration that is undoubtedly cut from whole cloth. “black desert blooming” soundly closes the album in a din of bowed guitar that slowly gives way to sparse, understated notes. evan caminiti’s west winds is a bold and cohesive statement from a young artist already capable of recording greatness.

west winds is pressed on czech vinyl and housed within a spiffy mutli-colored silkscreen jacket bearing new artwork from caminiti. the album will be accompanied by a download coupon for DRM-free MP3s of the album.

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