The glacial distillation of Mark Nelson aka Pan American's “romantic minimalism” achieves unique fruition on his latest Kranky collection, The Patience Fader. A suite of solo guitar instrumentals accented with lap steel, harmonica, and twilit atmospherics, the strings smear and sparkle in elegant, windswept swells, a guitar mode once described by Brian Eno as “Duane Eddy playing Erik Satie.” These are elegies as much as songs, lulling and lilting in private currents of beauty and bereavement. Nelson speaks of the notion of “lighthouse music,” radiance cast from a stable vantage point, sending “a signal to help others through rocks and dangerous currents.”
Composed during the highly isolated summer of 2020, the pieces took shape as meditations on “roots and mourning, trying to connect with those deep hidden rivers that lead to a greater communality.” There’s something ageless, scarred, and American about this music, both displaced and devotional, the ghost of rust belts and dust bowls looming in a horizon of deepening dusk.
“The former Labradford member captures the intimacy and cinematic sweep of American folk music with beautiful, reverb-soaked guitar sketches” – Resident Advisor
“Nelson is at the peak of his powers with this delicately windswept set of desert ambience and candlelight blues” – Boomkat
“some of the best current mood music” – Spill Magazine
“a gorgeous meditation that feels bright and clear yet also softly mournful” – Allmusic
“Mark Nelson’s music comes from an ancient yet infinitely close place: it has a soul” – Narc Magazine
“it’s akin to being at the top of a hill and staring down into the valley below” – Boolin Tunes
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Kinbrae is the sound project of twin brothers Andy & Mike Truscott based in Scotland. Their sound is a mixture of brass, synthesisers, percussion and field recordings, heavily influenced by their environment. The pair are interested in the intersections of sound, place and image, using a combination of these to explore and highlight the themes in their work. The performance will be accompanied by visuals from the band's frequent collaborator Steven Gribbin.