Customer Reviews

Escapesilence

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

MULTIPHASE RECORDS - A name highly regarded among guitar fans, Carl Weingarten's recent solo output includes his highly acclaimed 2000 album Blue Faith, and he adds to his legacy with his 2002 CD Escapesilence, released on Multiphase Records. In the spirit of Steve Tibbetts and Michael Hedges, Weingarten is a master at coaxing a variety of hues and textures from his acoustic and electric guitars. Some may call it New Age, world fusion, and ambient space music-yet the sound of Escapesilence literally escapes definition. A full line-up of players take part including Michael Manring (bass), acoustic guitarist Alex DeGrassi, pedal steel ace Robert Powell and drummer/engineer Brian Knave. A soundtrack for you own private movie, the entrancing, nocturnal Escapesilence beckons you to turn off the lights, slip on the headphones and drift off to a strange and wonderful place.

While dobro and slide guitar are usually associated with country and blues, Carl Weingarten breaks the mold to make them into impressionistic, melodic instruments. That he's a consummate player with a firm vision for his instruments is beyond question, and the subtle support he receives here from drummer Brian Knave and bassist Michael Manring serves him well. It's interesting that many of the tracks are short, making their point and leaving without belaboring ideas. And he doesn't even mind taking a back seat on his own album, as on After You've Gone, where the lead belongs to Barbara Else's luminous flute. If anything, Weingarten recalls the guitar releases that created the early Windham Hill style, although he relies more on impressions than those rippling melodies that the label trademarked. He's perhaps at his best on the aching Pedro's Lament, with its lovely ringing overtones and cello work, and the title cut, with its mellifluous sax. But whatever way you look at it, Weingarten is an excellent, daring talent. --Chris Nickson

Well, I'm going to be different and say that I loathe this record with a vengeance.

It's pretentious, the tunes go nowhere and the guy's technique is nothing to write home about. It's wimpy. It's opaque. It's just flat out boring. Ry Cooder did this stuff much, much better nearly twenty years before with his "Paris, Texas" soundtrack.

How else can I describe this record? Plodding? Aimless? Bah... it's not worth wasting adjectives on this.