A common theme constantly recurring here is how criminally underrated many of the musicians that I like, actually are - and Carl is no exception. You'd have thought that any self-respecting fusion or quality guitar-based music label would have been falling over themselves to sign him up, although these days it's arguable that remaining independent can often be a better way, but all I'm saying is that this guy deserves the promotion a major label could offer, and would repay it by the truckload. For the uninitiated, the best way of getting into his music is via the "Collection" album, listed first, but the likes of "Escapesilence" and "Blue Faith" are simply gems and totally timeless music.
CARL WEINGARTEN: Hand In The Sand - A Collection 1990-2004 CD
A musical travelogue of the highest quality through the works of one of the finest guitarists and composers around, primarily performed on dobro and slide guitar to give the tracks a feel like no other guitarist's work. Together with 3 tracks and fifteen minutes of unreleased music, this has been lovingly assembled by the artist himself with selections from all of his best works to date. Not only does it serve as the ideal introduction, but it really does serve as an essential listening album in its own right. It opens with the previously unreleased 'Local Journeys', a four minute track that seems to have so much in it, you think it lasts longer, but what you hear are the sounds of upfront Pastorious-like bass, gentle but firm drumming and Weingarten's lead electric slide, rhythmic acoustic and tasty dobro guitar work, all chiming through to create an uplifiting piece and a splendid start to the album's 16 tracks. The three minute 'West Of Austin' follows and reminded me of '6 And 12 String Guitar' era Leo Kottke mixed with almost Garcia-like country tones as exotic percussion, lilting piano and strummed bass all combine with the acoustic and slide guitars to convey the feel of wide open spaces and sun-drenched deserts. Three minutes of 'An Early Fall' is just Weingarten on solo dobro and pure heaven as this mix of chiming, picking and slide guitar tones and chords take you to a beautiful place in time and space, simply gorgeous music. The more brooding, but no less strong or engaging, 'Bone Dog Blues' complete with harmonica, chiming guitars and lilting bass, is equally breathtaking and wondrous, so deceptively simple yet working as a track that, like every piece on here, you know that you're going to be able to play often and never tire of hearing, day or night, sun or rain. With synthesizer and cello filling out the sound, 'Up The Down Slide' revolves around the searing slide and steel electric guitars that produce waves of ascending chords producing a high feel- good factor in the listener as it climbs and climbs with passion and grace. The five minute 'Falline' conveys a more chunky rhythm with an almost Fripp-like slide guitar soaring merrily on top, with an equally Fripp-sounding lead guitar sailing out of the speakers like a slow motion version of the solo from Eno's 'Baby's On Fire' track, and just sensational stuff in this context. The three plus minutes of 'My Beautiful Moon' with delicate but strong bass and percussion, backing Weingarten's classical guitar melodies, scarcely leaves a dry eye in the house. 'Cambodian Waltz' is, as it suggests, more exotic, rhythmically, while the melodic and upfront dobro guitar just slides and slithers over the backdrop of asian-sounding percussion and distant synth - and here, you're still only half way through the album. With a further 8 tracks of equally fine sounding delights, I won't go into detail as I'm sure you've got the picture by now. Suffice to say that, this is a quality guitar album, the sort of album that anyone into gorgeous melodies, stirring arrangements, exquisite, passionate guitar playing that's right from the heart and strong arranging, with compositions that can't fail to move you on an emotional level, this is one of the most gorgeous albums of its kind I've ever come across and I'll be playing it long into the night, long into the future and never once tire of it - I just KNOW that is the case - it really is that good.
DELAY TACTICS: Any Questions CD
From 1984, and now superbly digitally remastered for first-time CD issue, comes the side-project at the time, of guitarist Carl Weingarten, in trio format with Walter Whitney on synths and programming, David Udell on guitars, percussion and keyboards, plus guest Jim Mayer on bass on three tracks. Musically, it's a vehicle for the guitarists to largely let rip on a set of tracks dominated by some searing electric guitar leads, rich synth textures and solid rhythmic programming, with a mix of full-sounding layers, synth leads and emotive guitars that evoke comparisons with the likes of Robert Fripp at one end, and Steve Tibbetts at the other, but this is self-composed, original and highly charged music with passion, grace and fire, that cooks up a storm but never loses sight of the melodic content on 10 tracks that average about 4-5 minutes in length, ensuring that no idea outstays its welcome. As a mix of electronics and guitars, it has some roots in the seventies, but largely in its own invention, sometimes a bit angular, sometimes a bit off-the-wall, but always flowing, never quite what you think you'll get but sounding just fine, all the same.
DELAY TACTICS: Out-Pop Options CD
Trio composed of electric slide guitarists Carl Weingarten, electric guitarist Reed Nesbit and synths musician/rhythms programmer Walter Whitney. On this album, they stick to playing ten shorter peices of instrumental guitars-dominated music, yet pieces which, by virtue of the sheer wealth of musical layers, textures, rhythms, melodies and soundscapes on display, not only seem to last longer than their state running times (a good thing in each case in terms of this album) but cover so many musical ideas. You have passages of rhythm-free squalls of electric guitar textures and synth effects, richly layered cloud-like guitar/synths interplay over solid electronic drum rhythms, mantra-like drums under steaming slices of electric guitar fuzz and soloing, Frippertronic style cosmic passages, and more, on a really excellent album that will have you hooked for the duration as track after track goes through a myriad music dimensions.
CARL WEINGARTEN: Laughing At Paradise CD
For the first time on CD, and with a much improved digital sound quality, as well as a track recorded for the original album that never made it, this sounds even more contemporary now than it did over ten years ago when first available from me as a tape-only release. Recorded over a three year period, it is such an enjoyable album since nearly every one of the thirteen tracks features a different style of music within its structured frameworks. The opening track is gloriously fluid with guitars, violin, cello and synth weaving a melodic and exotic pattern over background sequencing and producing a wide-open slice of listening that flows to perfection. 'The Dove And The Snake' revolves around a cascading sequencer line that rises and falls with a sinuous synth line weaving another exotic-sounding musical tapestry all around and above the delightfully cascading rhythms, a strong yet unobtrusive river of bass depth running along in electronic fashion underneath. The eight minute 'Storm Watch' features Weingarten on synths with more of the cascading rhythms only this time more stretched out and an almost echoed effect but still that mesmerising languid, warm quality to its cyclical wanderings. The short 'The Ghost Dances' is the first of several equally short tracks that feature just guitar and synth or even just guitar and effects, this time acoustic guitar and a beautifully melodic piece that's somehow so solid at the same time. 'Somber Geese' features that upper register cyclical sequencing and this time over the top weaves a sinuous sax lead and warm guitar chords, with a neat resonant bottom-end bass giving even more depth to the proceedings - wonderful. The six minute 'Circle Flight', the track that appears on this album for the first time, is just sequencing and this time has the effect and to a degree the sound and feel of a peal of church bells, and it's positively inspirational, going from loud to quiet and back, almost percussive at times and gradually moving more towards the sound of vibes and marimbas as much as bells - amazing! Madagascar, at six minutes, is similar only here with a more obvious rhythm, more bass-inclined, with an Oldfield style, electric bass rhythm running underneath from the bass guitar, while on top the hypnotic rhythm and repeated electric guitar patters follow along each other in close harmony, the whole thing spiralling higher and higher, in almost Glass/Riley fashion, but with a totally unique identity. Three further group-played and three solo short tracks follow, all in a similarly tasty vein, and the result is a quite stunning album that sounds really like no-one else in this field, is a delight to hear, a pleasure to enjoy and one that will always sound fresh and full of feeling. An archive classic and no mistake.
CARL WEINGARTEN: Redwood Melodies CD
CARL WEINGARTEN: The Acoustic Shadow CD
Just out, two new guitar classics for the 90's. Produced on commission for the Muir Woods National Park Service in the USA, "Redwood Melodies" is an exquisite 44 minute collection of gorgeous instrumentals featuring acoustic ballads and blues for dobro, slide and classical guitars. With occasional accompaniment, the music is reminiscent of Leo Kottke's vintage "6 + 12 String Guitar" CD in parts, but overall this is a brilliant CD of acoustic guitars compositions full of melody, feel, warm atmospheres and not a less than excellent track on the CD. "Acoustic Shadow" is not just an acoustic album but is 65mins of rich, cross-cultural, sonic landscapes with the guitars and electronics joined by percussion, synths, flutes, pedal steel, cello, guitars and electronic processing to create a magical 18-track CD of absolute heaven as the guitars/synth backdrops, glissando-style tapestries and soaring, shimmering, cascading, melodic, spacey, rhythmic, full-sounding instrumentals travel, float and surge through your head conjuring a variety of welcome moods, described in the press release as "World music with a science-fiction edge". Two masterful, essential CD's by one of the 90's most talented guitarists/composers.
CARL WEINGARTEN:Pandora's Garage CD
CARL WEINGARTEN:Living In The Distant Present CASS£5.99
'Pandora' features 11 tracks recorded over a ten year span and consist of visionary works for progressive space guitar, dreamlike and imaginative. 'Distant' opens with Fripp-like electric guitar runs with echoed notes eventually joined by tinkling percussion and strings-sounding synths all of which coalesce to maximum effect. Track 2 is similar only with a greater electric guitar presence but quite spacey as vast musical melodies swirl around your head. Throughout the tape you hear a wide range of swirling, hypnotic rhythms that form the backbone of the music as subtly changing lines of richly textured guitars and synths chime away on top.
CARL WEINGARTEN/JOE VENEGONI:Critical Path CD
On the guitar front, the talents of Mr Weingarten have gone unnoticed by too many people for far too long and we're here to rectify that. This is the sort of album that you might imagine coming out of the Fripp stable as the soaring electric guitar has echoes of the great man, only here the guitar layers are used to more melodic although just as dynamic effect, some of the lead work spiraling gloriously to the heavens. Venegoni plays hammer dulcimer and autoharp and provides and excellent and delicate melodic/rhythmic counterpoint for the ringing guitar tones of Weingarten as the compositions move along and develop, mostly mid-paced, the rhythms coming from bass and occasional percussion as an underlying current rather than actual beats. Overall the mood is one of magical proportions with the soaring electric guitars and tinkling dulcimer/autoharp working well with eah other to produce the right balance of textures and atmospherics, but always melodic yet never gooey, the guitar lines shining like a light in the dark as they rise ever upwards on what is a very beautiful and highly underrated instrumental album, very relaxing but always interesting and evocative.
CARL WEINGARTEN: Blue Faith CD
I've played this four times now, before I even approached doing a review, not because it is difficult - far from it - but because it is such an amazing album, mere words just don't do it justice. You have to experience it, dive in and allow its heady delights to enter every fibre of your artistic soul. It's the sort of album that transcends categorisation, and the sort of album that deserves to be a best seller across the so-called developed musical world. Composed, played and guided by guitarist, Carl Weingarten, it proves to be so much more, with a guest list that includes the likes of Dan Reiter on cello, Joe Venegoni on percussion, Kat Epple on flute, Michael Manring on electric bass, Barry Cleveland on guitars and percussion, and many more. As a result, every track has a different flavour, a different sound, a different approach, but with a cohesive flow and feel to it all, a sense of heart and deep emotion that runs throughout. Like the Wollo album below, you could imagine much of it appealing to fans of the ECM label, but unlike that album, this has even more layers, sounds, interactions of instruments, multi-melodic qualities and dynamics. Whether acoustic or electric, the guitars are the stars, but the effect is dramatic, in many places conjuring images of Steve Tibbetts if you need a reference point, while elsewhere the qualities are more relaxing. All the tracks have a structure, a sense of melody a full sound, even in the most tranquil moments, and the quality of production and sound quality overall, is positively masterful, allowing you to hear every note and chord in crystalline clarity. From blazing furnace to warm emotive textures, this is an album of guitars, keys, percussion, bass, led music with assorted additives from flute, cello, trumpet, pedal steel, piano and violin that make the album such a masterpiece. A track-by-track, blow-by-blow account is not the issue here - this is a complete album of classic music that is timeless, for any occasion, and quite, quite awesome, as well as totally riveting and enjoyable listening. Pleasures in music don't come much better than this.
CARL WEINGARTEN: Escapesilence CD
I have loved the music of and extolled the virtues of this guitarist/composer for over ten years and he STILL remains one of the most underrated musicians in the world today, even more remarkable for the fact that his music has a potentially very wide audience cross-section appeal. His previous album, 'Blue Faith' is one of those albums of such class and quality that it practically defied categorisation, the sort of quality output that would have received absolutely ecstatic reviews in such esteemed journals as The Times, Independent or Guardian. But, still ploughing a musical furrow in a parallel universe between Terje Rypdal, Roy Montgomery, John Fahey and Elliott Sharp, only way more accessible than anything they've put out, he now turns in a brand new studio album, and it is total and complete musical heaven, a work of pure genius.
Largely electro-acoustic, it features Weingarten on dobro, ebow, classical and slide guitars, Brian Knave on drums, percussion and harmonica, Michael Manring on bass and ebow, plus guest appearances on selected tracks from Robin Bonnell on cello, Robert Powell on pedal steel, Alex de Grassi on guitars, Joe Wenegoni on percussion, Barbara Else on classical flute, Rosa Koire on saxophone and Dan Reiter on cello, each one on one or two tracks. With an average track time of four minutes apiece, the music is largely acoustic and the composition and playing are out of this world, all of them being so immediately accessible yet so stunningly beautiful as to defy belief. It's just fantastic as the strains of acoustic, slide and dobro guitars, bass and occasional drums, not to mention the other assorted textures used sparingly for effect according to track, combine to take you onto an altogether higher spiritual plain, for this is music to which you just let yourself go, even though it is full of tunes, melodies, traditional structures and layers. The slide and dobro guitar work throughout are just sheer magic, producing a warm, fuzzy glow in the listener at the very sound of them, that sort of feeling you can't possibly describe yet constantly seek, a feeling that can only be obtained from music that's as full of emotional splendours as this album illustrates to perfection. Not really jazzy or traditionally acoustic or new age-y or anything like that - this is far too good to conform to all of that stuff - experience it, enjoy it, take it all in and be spellbound, for it is THAT good, possible the best acoustic-based album - hell, one of the best albums, period.... - in the world right now. Sensational.
WEINGARTEN-ORMISTON-NEON: Submergings CD
The first eleven minute track is like Fripp & Eno's 'No Pussyfooting' with added layers from electric guitar and synths, featuring the trio of Carl Weingarten, Gale Ormiston & Phil Neon, but still very much sounding like the two tracks from that classic album. 'Transitions' at twelve minutes is all performed by Weingarten on classical and electric guitars, synth, voice and loops, and is a very cosmic, textural piece but with the added bonus of a wonderful set of classical melodies stuck right at the heart of the music around the five minute point to give the spacey music a wholly new dimension and feel, before reverting to the sea of cosmic splendours just after the six minute point. 'Jonah' at nearly eight minutes, is different yet again, with Ormiston on synth and Weingarten on loops and delay, this time being a much more cyclical, electronic sounding piece that comes across as a mix of Phillip Glass +Fripp & Eno, as themes and layers loop and revolve to hypnotic effect. Finally, the fifteen minute title track features the trio on the first track and is more like something you might have found on the pioneering early seventies guitar/electronic albums by the likes of Heldon, Alain Renaud, Illitch and similar, as a veritable sonic soup of synths, guitar textures and loops create an almost icy environment that is, at the same time, quite spellbinding.
+ you should also have a listen to the two CD's by one of Weingarten's musical friends and whose music is also of a similar stature:
BARRY CLEVELAND: Volcano CD
From one of the most underrated guitarists and composers around today, this album stands as a testament to his immense talents as composer, player and arranger, with a seriously strong set of instrumental tracks that are propelled by the stunning rhythm section of Michael Manring on bass and Michael Pluznick on drums and percussion. It opens with a sprightly piece of almost South American influenced music, sounding a bit like a souped up answer to parts of Jade Warrior's 'Way Of The Sun' album, with resonant deep electric bass, strident congas and percussion, stirring electric guitar and lead melodies from flute and EWI, the whole thing strong and instantly enjoyable for all its five minutes. The pace decelerates a little for the near six minutes of 'Tongue Of Fire' and here there's a more Middle Eastern ambience to the whole thing with chunky African sounding drums and percussion, chiming electric guitars, deep strong bass, and leads from clarinet, acoustic guitar, EWI and cymbalom, all combining to produce this expansive sounding mix of exotic fusion and sinuous melodic content, with a strong, driving bass and percussion combination propelling the whole thing along to perfection. 'Secret Prescriptions Of The Bedroom' continues this feel, with equal verve and passion, only this time adds a soaring female vocal to the rumbling bass, clattering percussion, deep clarinet, soaring flute and chiming guitars, another exotic but simply fantastic musical setting, once again the production bringing out every strong, glorious and melodic sounding facet of the richly arranged and horizon-stretching musical canvas. 'Black Diamond Express', as the name suggests, drives along on express train rhythms of drums, percussion and sonorous electric bass, again the Jade Warrior presence being thought of, if not a direct influence, and another expansive, stirring musical travelogue ensues, this time with leads from Fripp-like guitar, soaring saxes and lush flutes as the multi-conga rhythms prove addictive and engaging, the whole thing rising to a climax that is positively jaw-dropping, the sax work simply breathtaking. At assorted paces, in various settings but consistent with flow, feel, warmth, passion and strength, a further six tracks continue the flavour of the album so far, and if what I've described to now has whetted your musical appetite, you'll be in exotic fusion heaven when you hear the rest of it. There's simply not a bad or wasted second on this album, and it's one you just have to hear for instant and long-term musical pleasure - a gem!!
BARRY CLEVELAND: Memory And Imagination DBLCD
In many ways, Barry Cleveland was the forerunner of the "guitarist making waves in the synth music world" genre. The odd part about this, as opposed to the more recent guitarists such as Dwane, is that Cleveland made no attempt to let his work "sound" like a synth, and arranged any electronics to serve pretty much as textural filler, and yet he was a strong force in and loved by, the synth music fraternity. This CD is a tale of two halves. The first CD looks back on his work from the eighties, taking a gorgeous set of tracks from albums such as 'Voluntary Dreaming' and 'Mythos', and revealing that the real musical comparison, if you have to, is more someone like Steve Tibbetts than anything, only here, more celestial sounding in the main. The first couple of tracks are guitar chords, layers and textures set to rolling multi-instrument ethnic percussion that has resonance, feel and depth in the same way that someone like Steve Roach uses it. It's a full sound but one that has the effect of watching clouds pass by in a blue sky on a summer's day - magical. 'Visual Purple' is even slower but has flow as the drums and chords become a bit grander and stronger, while 'The Inward Spiral' is just Cleveland on piano, synth, guitar textures and samplers, all quite beautifully constructed and played to sound melodic, celestial and slightly eerie. 'Cleopatra's Needle' is similar, while the following track, 'Hawk Dreaming' sees the pace increased as an electric guitar soars away on top of the resonant bass synth-like and mulit-percussive rhythmic background, with a solo that is just superb and very much in classic Tibbetts mould, a fantastic track. Then come the three tracks from the 'Mythos' album, first a five minute slice of lazy elegance with drifting synths, lilting xylophones and gorgeous guitar clouds. Then comes a track, the seven minutes of 'Abrasax', that could almost be out of the Fripp way of doing things with 'Discipline' era styled searing guitar and lyricon lines that weave a thread across layers of the trademark cascading Fripp-esque guitar rhythms, but around all this a bass synth line resonate and that cyclical percussive backdrop adds extra depth, another fantastic piece of music. You get the whole 19 minutes of the 'Mythos' title track that starts very exotic with tinkling percussion, hushed flowing flute, almost violin-like sweeps and a high-register flute and distant textures in the background, as the piece evolves, flowing, drifting and flying with texture, atmosphere, melody and grace. With a constantly changing instrumental arrangement, it is this combination of guitars, lyricon, flutes and percussion that charts a full-sounding and largely essentially rhythm-free course through the track. Ending with a rather fine remix of the first track, this has to be seen as a wondrous CD.
CD2 is nearly all previously unreleased music, this time from the early nineties, three of them recorded with dobro/slide guitarist Carl Weingarten, who adds his extra soundscapes and melodies to the tracks, the album's title track being a mammoth 24 minute piece that features Weingarten on Dobro and Cleveland on guitar, bowed guitar, E-bow guitar and bowhammer guitar, one that starts in celestial mood then, over the course of its length, gradually intensifies, with ever more layers added, eventually a rhythm breaking out from the cyclical guitars towards the fifteen minute point as the track moves to Gunther Schickert territory for this finale of cyclical guitars and flowing warm backdrops. Elsewhere we hear the guitars, electronics and percussion at one end and the Fripp-meets-Tibbetts stuff at the other, the five minute guitar-only piece 'Echoes On Echoes' being the one in question to represent the latter style. But throughout the feel is one of warmth, space, multi-levelled soundscaping, melodic without being tune-laden and generally washing over you with a replenishing effect. Different, accessible and just under two hours of enjoyment.
CLOUD CHAMBER: Dark Matter CD
Now this really is contemporary music. From a group featuring Barry Cleveland (remember him?) on guitar, Michael Manring on bass, Joe Venegoni on percussion, Dan Reiter on cello and Michael Masley on bowhammer cymbalom/dulcimer, kalimba, gobeon, gobek, this is an instrumental album that starts off as almost contemporary classical with avant-garde overtones as sonic structures are built up from the instruments interacting and creating a stark yet expansive set of textures, with percussion rattling in the background, strings sweeping in the distance, and eventually it begins to form something with structure and identity as the gorgeous tones of Cleveland's electric guitar flow combine with the cello and bass in altogether warmer environments, with the range of sounds from the exotica and conventional instruments constantly complementing each other. The album becomes cozier and more structured/flowing as it goes, so stick with it and you'll discover a whole new world of music, quite unlike anything else around at the moment, music that should be on a major contemporary label such as ECM or similar.
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