Erik Hall - Solo Three - VINYL LP

In the fall of 2021, Simeon ten Holt's InchCanto OstinatoInch was reborn in a 'solo version for seven keyboards'. During the weeks leading up to the birth of his son Lark, Erik Hall moved methodically among the instruments in his recording studio, conducting a multi-track conversation with himself and the piece's score. Ten Holt composed InchCanto OstinatoInch between 1976 and 1979. The rhythmic motif (ostinato) repeated over it's entire length has a limited number of printed notes. It is up to the performers how to play them, for how long, where to place accents, etc. In the score, the composer calls on musicians to interact and evaluate, to fuse sounds and colors into one cohesive musical universe. Then a cosmos is created. You can get lost in that. You want to get lost in that, like in the original live recording with four pianos. InchThat performance is deeply compelling, almost otherworldly,Inch says Hall. He has always been drawn to music that is based on repetition, harmonically rich, and tonal. He previously added a groundbreaking dimension to Steve Reich's 1976 minimal masterpiece InchMusic for 18 MusiciansInch, and- as again now with 'Canto'- his motivation is the love of the music itself. InchWhen I first heard the piece, I was captivated.Inch Then the plan emerged to undergo the same focused practice as before. He stacked seven total layers of his 1962 Hammond M-101 organ, a 1910 Steinway grand piano, and a 1978 Rhodes electric piano, each performance informed by those that preceded it. Erik Hall's InchCanto OstinatoInch lasts for one hour, and from the sheer joy of playing this wondrous composition emerges an elegantly meandering journey. In it, music rises above itself, higher and higher, like a lark jubilating freedom in the sky. Album Tracks 1. Sections 1-16 2. Sections 17-30 3. Sections 31-40 4. Sections 41-55 5. Sections 56-73 6. Sect

A re-interpretation so often comes from an impulse, even if subliminal, of one-upmanship - let me do better, wait 'til you hear it my way. Sometimes though, and it happens too rarely, the cover is an act of devotion in which a musician's humility produces something more beautiful than bravura could. When Erik Hall undertook his painstaking reconstruction of Steve Reich's 1976 masterpiece of minimalism, Music for 18 Musicians, it was as much an exercise in modesty as ambition. With it's repetitions and complex constructions, the piece makes great demands on stamina and concentration, and Reich himself advised that these challenges meant it should probably be performed with more than eighteen musicians. Hall, however, recorded every part himself in his small home studio, playing instruments he had on hand, in live, single takes. Here, then is the ambition. But here too is the modesty by doing one section a day, one instrument at a time, he made his way through this monumental piece, building a faithful and loving re-creation, one sonic brick at a time. Xylophone becomes muted piano, violin becomes electric guitar and so it is that music for eighteen becomes music for one. InchI didn't want the differences to be distracting, or gimmicky,Inch says Hall, who's loved the piece for as long as he can remember. InchI wanted it to be true to the timbre and spirit of the original recording,Inch and he thought a great deal about, Inchhow I would shape the tone of each instrument, to come across with the same impact that we know the piece to have.Inch His methodology, as with Reich's piece itself, is workmanlike, and it's from this humble and steadfast undertaking that something honest and radiant emerges. Album Tracks 1. Pulses 2. Section I 3. Section II 4. Section Iiia 5. Section Iiib 6. Section IV 7. Section V 8. Section VI 9. Section VII 10. Section VI

Produced By Andy Hall. Recorded and mixed by Sean Sullivan at The Tractor Shed in Goodlettsville, TN. Mastered by David Glasser at Airshow Mastering in Boulder, CO. Andy Hall plays Beard Guitars and D'addario strings. Album Tracks 1. Up in Bigfoot Country 2. Skunk Weed 3. Muscle Car Feat. Billy Strings 4. Ancient Footsteps 5. Red Road Station 6. Event Horizon 7. Seriously, It's Gonna Be Fine 8. Amuse a Muse 9. Squareneck Soul 10. Crooked Mountain Top