"wide open desert music" S/D

I nominate the severely underrated Steven R. Smith:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsFD4Drgs3s

Captain Obvious checking in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPVexT6itPA&list=PLs2o_po-FzbF0Z_P-l4bQUDAllxLlFdry

Tinariwen:
https://youtu.be/PItnw3Z7WgY

Harold Budd "The Photo of Santiago McKinn" or pretty much all of Dawn's Early Light

that Mori/Quine/Ribot record is excellent and I had forgotten about it, good call

HI DERE (cross-posted from main Eyvind Kang thread for interested parties

A gorgeous set of new tracks by the brilliant composer and multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang. It took him a decade and a half to revisit the vibe concocted on his masterpiece from 2001, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age, but the wait was worth it. It features an array of spiritually intoxicating instrumentation: tamboura, electric guitar, organ, trumpet, oboe, trombone, and Korean traditional instruments. Eyvind Kang on Plainlight: "In 2002 I wanted to make a kind of sequel to my first solo record on Abduction, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age. I found that the 'weight' of sounds seemed to evaporate the compositions. The last thing I wanted to make was a traditional shoegaze recording. 15 years later, I had a strange dream: a voice said 'Because a plainlight has fallen in Heaven, heartbreak would cease.' This statement then became a kind of guiding image and method. Thus, with Korean traditional instruments playing the ostinato and drone, things fell into place. I would like to thank all the musicians, Randall Dunn, Alan Bishop, and each and every listener." Limited edition, one-time pressing; Edition of 400.

That's me well and truly sold - Live Low is magnificent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP1G-cdRuCM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BZnSC2u7RU

or any Thin White Rope song really...

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0152862597_16.jpg

Admittedly, the resultant wares don’t stray too far from the crafted templates McPhee has used previously but his capable hands continue, with increasing authority, to render bleakly alluring atmospheres that both express the intimacy of a solitary artisan and the desolation of wide empty landscapes. Hence, the opening “The Blood of St John” unfurls as a slow-motion desert-blues with a shimmering inscrutable underlay; “The Devil’s Knell” drifts along in a buzzing shadowy blur; the more sonically linear “The Rule Of Threes” pirouettes as a madrigal-like meditation; “Dance Macabre” curls yearning slide-playing around a pattern of looped melodic low-end parts; and the closing epic 14-minute title-track sprawls e-bow and slide manipulated figures across a heartbeat-pulsing percussive underbelly.

https://deanmcphee.bandcamp.com/album/four-stones

McPhee is brilliant. Been meaning to check this.

https://barthel-boehm-bauer.bandcamp.com/

Last year's album Elite Feline by Lotto is a minimalist/mantric guitar trio take. bandcamp

― Sanpaku, Saturday, April 8, 2017 11:44 AM (ten months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i would just like to say i've really been liking this, thank you

Would like to nominate “Ain’t Talkin’” by Bob Dylan (Modern Times album) for this thread.

Also: Andean music is pretty much made for this - high desert in particular (e.g., Inti Illimani, Atahualpa Yupanqui)

Co-sign the Lotto album. The Instant Classic label is a goldmine right now.

Bull of Heaven have a (mostly deserved) reputation for being a meme/gimmick/rymbait act, but I must admit that Return of Ghost Sheriff is some of the better desert ambient I've heard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibu4bdRWCZQ

Thought this would be about Become Desert

My son out of the blue asked me if I'd 'ever been to a desert' before and I sort of have (drove from LA to Vegas, Dungeness is classified as a desert, a couple of the Cape Verde islands, particularly Boa Vista) but damn do I want to go to the desert right now. Doing the next best thing and listening to Paris, Texas.

this is more like a fata morgana in the desert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3YwOYjrqbQ

some incredible acoustic psych released a few months ago that i believe fits this mold:
https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/album/beacon

I love them!!!!

really happy we have this connection crut, I am in a FB record geek group with Matt and Jen and it has been great to hear their sound develop.

the solo Rolin and the Powers-Rolin duo recs are more post-Fahey but I agree that Cercyz' singing bowls etc. take this to a different wide-scope psychedelic place

nice! I'm friends w/the dude who runs the label :)

Beacon is a pretty cool record

been lucky to play a handful of times with matt and jen, they are some of nicest people i've ever met and the real deal. happy to see them getting more reknown. true underground stalwarts

they've also been putting on shows at a laundromat in cleveland, and i think it might be the coolest venue in the country. well, was, with covid. you get the idea. imagine seeing bitchin bajas at a laundromat!

SUSS posted the playlist for their recent Ambient Country mix and it's pretty great:

1. Swimming in a Western Hotel - PanAmerican
2. Body in a Room- Bing & Ruth
3. Thresholds ( through a hole in the fence) - Walt McClements
4. News About Heaven- Marisa Anderson, William Tyler
5. Ending- Bruce Langhorne
6. Love Scene - Jerry Garcia
7. When You Sleep - Japancakes
8. Welcome - Harmonia & Eno
9. Desert Rose - Daniel Lanois
10. Anteludium - Luke Schneider
11. Wichita - SUSS
12. Clouds - Bruce Kaphan

Thanks Elvis - this feels right up my alley. Going to check out everything here I've not heard before.

Thinking that Bruce Langhorne's Hired Hand soundtrack is to ambient country as Paul Giovanni's Wicker Man soundtrack is to acid folk

About half of that playlist is new to me and I’m thrilled to find them. Lots to dive into as this is my exact sweet spot these days.

By coincidence I’ve been fiddling around with a playlist to scratch this itch - not just the ambient but also some more traditional songs that rise and fall out of the moodier bits. There is no order to it, and I’m still adding and subtracting as I hone it. But in any case folks on this thread might enjoy this as a kind of radio station. Shuffle away: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1hfogoxEEmNfs3b8eG4u3X?si=rJI-IObaShi0kY4KxuXU9A

This playlist is great pgwp! Thanks for the share.

Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying it.

Cross post from the Fahey thread: the latest Imaginational Anthem compilation, featuring latest pedal steel excursions totally fits this thread's remit: https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/luke-schneider-presents-imaginational-anthem-vol-xi-chrome-universal-a-survey-of-modern-pedal-steel (on Spotify too, if that's your thing).

oo la la, thanks for the cross post

Speaking of SUSS, the new self-titled one, a compilation of four different EPs, is really incredible. I love the vibe.

seems relevant

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/ambient-country-list

so I guess this stuff is called "ambient country" now, ok

Uncut included this Ambient Americana compilation CD with the Velvet Underground issue they put out a couple of years ago, might be relevant:

https://www.discogs.com/release/17866393-Various-Ambient-Americana-A-Road-Trip-Across-Psychic-State-Lines

There was a nice NTS show back in February: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-ambient-americana-16th-february-2023

I've been slowly putting together a playlist of 'wide open desert' and adjacent stuff. It's called Vaulted Ceiling, Vaulted Sky as some of it is in cathedrals and resonating chambers but chambers/canyons who's counting? Fill yer boots if it's your thing.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/504idjJNXjNKl2xajh8Pbv?si=b5fed292a37f4e41

i know the stuff in this thread is more of an 'ambient' focus, but easter everywhere always sounds great in the desert ime

They were mentioned before upthread, but last week I took a road trip through the desert and can confirm that this album is a playlist must.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ZmZd6fRRQ

New Boxhead Ensemble!

https://boxheadensemble.bandcamp.com/album/ancient-music

This band from Tuscon is on tour and I'm feeling their wide open desert vibe:

https://compersionmusic.bandcamp.com/track/kitchen-mirror

Swell's 41

That's a favorite!

This JAB release is very wide, very open

https://johnalsobennett.bandcamp.com/album/out-there-in-the-middle-of-nowhere

that JAB record is incredible, love it.

w/o being too self-promo here, my band's stuff definitely fits into this zone

https://prairiewolfcf.bandcamp.com/album/prairiewolf

it does and it's good!