the end springs

the end springs ~ synergy (tired trails, 2008)

This gorgeous minimal psych folk wonder began in the mighty fine hands of the brilliant improvisational guitar extraordinare The End Springs, who created skeletal tracks and then sent them to some of his best friends/favorite musicians for collaboration; Siddhi, Beggin' Your Pardon Miss Joan, The Child of a Creek & A Man and A Guitar. the result couldn't be more satisfying or soul seducing. There is an obvious unspoken connection between The End Springs and the other artists, as their musical union sounds like they've been playing together for years.

The album is lead with a solo End Springs track, bells ring in the beginning of repetitive slide guitar bits, shakers and a mist of desert drone, all dangling on the edge of familiarity and abandon. Each collaborating artist molds their given tracks in solemn but shining shapes like stars and smiles from the sun, light captured at its most delicate, delicious. Soft layers of voices, hi-hat tumblings and bass enrich the repetitive and ramblin' guitar plucked with that lazy winter impression. Sparse yet engaging, all signs point inward, towards the heart of everything. Another masterpiece from the mellow mind of the End Springs, this album is sure to captivate and entrance all three of your eyes. (don't act like you don't know)." tired trails

foto: martine eshuis & lera denisenko

sabía que iba a ser bonito (colaboran lex panayi, siddhi,...) pero no tanto. es como the hired hand de bruce langhorne, cold dirt diaries, avon y, en 'bleeding tail snake blues', hasta un poquito de inner islands.

'synergy' es un disco-clima atmosférico y rural en el que es difícil destacar 'canciones', pero...'march of the boatman' con the child of a creek tiene algo que no se puede describir, esa slide o dobro o pedal steel que me pone los pelos de punta. tanto como la versión de esa misma canción con siddhi. o los silbidos y la slide  de 'they drove the land home' con a man and a guitar que tanto me recuerdan a 'the straight story' o 'paris texas'. o esta misma canción con los cánticos a flor de piel de the child of a creek. y así todas y cada una, diferentes puntos de vista, todos igual de emocionantes.

doy las gracias de corazón a jess por este regalo literalmente caído del cielo y que llevaba tanto tiempo queriendo escuchar. como le pasó a carol con sibylle baier, ahora mismo soy incapaz de escuchar otra cosa que no sea the end springs :)

(dice el diccionario que una sinergia, del griego συνεργία, «cooperación», es el resultado de la acción conjunta de dos o más causas, pero caracterizado por tener un efecto superior al que resulta de la simple suma de dichas causas)

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