For his new album "Covalent Lodge", Seattle-based guitarist Bill Horist (who also plays with Musicians of Bukkake and Ghidra) recruited some of the most amazing performers the new music scene currently has to offer, including amazing violist Eyvind Kang (John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Marc Ribot), Grammy winning dummer Matt Chamberlain, vocalist B.R.A.D. (ASVA, The Accused, MMOB), Steve Moore, Shazad Ismaily, Seattle Harmonic Voices, Jessika Kenney (Gamelan Pacifica) and many many others. With this caliber of musicians I don't think I should even waste any more ink (or pixels) on quality and musicianship. It's all there and there's plenty of it.
To musically describe an album this eclectic is however no easy task. It is minimal at times and orchestral other times, flirting with jazz chord progressions, classical ensemble arrangements, experimental/avantgarde improvisations. Bill's signature electric and acoustic guitar arpeggios are the common denominator and glue of this record and sometimes reminded me of Bill Frisell, other times of Fred Frith. To throw you off and tip your comfort balance Horist's deliberate finger pickings are augmented by a layer of choir that sometimes remind of John Zorn's vocal-only albums like "FilmWorks XXI: The Last Supper" or his yet to be released vocal-only piece "Song of Songs" that he's been performing for a few lucky audiences. In addition to all that, the haunting overtones and subtle all-encompassing melody lines of Eyvind Kang's viola and the worldly drums and percussions patterns by Chamberlain just make this whole thing so special and unique that you'll be hard pressed finding a similarly sounding album. Speaking of sound, it was beautifully recorded by my esteemed west coast colleague (and other member of Master Musicians of Bukakke) Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Boris, Kinski, Earth) at Aleph Studios. You really can't go wrong with this much talent on one disc!