Natural Causes

Steve Tibbetts | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 15, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ecm Records
• ASIN: B0038QBP7A
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,617 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Long-awaited and arrestingly different new album from Steve Tibbetts, Zen-guitarist of Minnesota, accompanied by his musical partner of many years, percussionist Marc Anderson. It is a primarily acoustic album, but an unconventional one. Austerity was part of the original plan, "saying more with less", but, not for the first time, Tibbetts would find himself drawn to experiment in the studio. The principal instrument heard on the album is an old Martin 12 string guitar which, as Steve says, has a mellow, aged sound to it. One of the conceptual references for the sound direction was the playing of Indian sarangi (bowed lute) master Sultan Khan. Gamelan-inspired gong cycles, influenced by Tibbetts' travels through Indonesia, are also part of the music, with fine detail also supplied by kalimba and bouzouki.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Blend of Zen Guitar Wizardry, June 16, 2010

By 

Travis Wade Evans (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Natural Causes (Audio CD)

Steve has embarked on an imaginary journey of beautifully crafted and gorgeously quiet musical passages. The strength of this recording lies on the fact that the sounds he creates become his own through an extensive recording process involving a multi-layering of multiple short musical sketches. Marc Anderson's percussion gives the music some gentle treatment and an overall eclectic quality.

The choice of instruments were key in maintaining the musics' natural form. As Steve plays guitar you can here natural human sounds fused with the music thus making "Natural Causes" an appropriate title. Steve's choice of acoustic piano is something new in his array of recordings as it perfectly compliments the other instruments he plays on the recording: acoustic guitar, kalimba, and bouzouki. Marc plays the steel drums, gongs, and percussion.

The recording is also the first since "Northern Song" to be primarily acoustic and feature only Steve and Marc. Whatever direction they choose whether acoustic or electric, Steve and Marc maintain one of the strongest musical cadences known to mankind.

I'm really enjoying "Natural Causes".

An Easy Five Stars!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Acoustic Tapestry, September 5, 2010

By 

applewood (everywhere and nowhere) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Natural Causes (Audio CD)

This new acoustic recording from Steve Tibbetts and Marc Anderson is well worth the wait (It's been 8 years since his last solo recording, and I'd begun to worry if he'd grown tired of expressing himself with such instruments and sounds). My wife (who is usually not a huge Tibbetts fan) comments that it is "absolutely beautiful". I think it's great too, but not as immediately captivating (interesting or exciting) as his more electric stuff, but my wife is a lot mellower (subtle and wiser) than I... For me this is more background music, lush washes of guitar (acoustic, but still often delightfully tortured in Tibbetts' distinctive way), and layers of interesting often delicate percussions, but without the fertile and evocative sound-scape images of his previous compositions. The short acoustic motifs are familiar from his previous recordings, here layered into shifting and gently surging and ultimately blending patterns. It is different from anything he's done (at least since 1981, when they collaborated on NORTHERN SONG's sparse, quiet almost somber, acoustic recording), and it's a nice change to have these acoustic riffs just continue and build without the more space-tearing, mind-bending, electric energy his albums are often punctuated with. So, in the end I guess we get an older, wiser and gentler (and quietly joyful) Tibbetts (and Anderson), not concerned with making new music (or tearing the fabric of his older music) as much as seeing what lies hidden in the folds...naturally exploring what lies within.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ahhhhhhhhh!, May 30, 2011

By 

Sean E. Kutzko "Alpine7784" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Natural Causes (Audio CD)

I've noticed a curious trend with me whenever Steve Tibbetts releases a new CD: I immediately freak out at the news, order it as soon as possible, and then wait for it to arrive without trying to learn any more about the release. When it finally arrives, there is a very conscious period of time when I hold it in my hands and wonder just what I'm going to get. It's kind of like in baseball, when the runner rounds third and you realize there's going to be a play at the plate. There's a very fun couple of seconds where you know you're going to see something exciting but you don't know exactly how it's going to turn out. I love that about Steve's CDs.

The other thing I've learned since Big Map Idea was not to make any initial reviews on the CD. Whether acoustic or electric, Steve's music is exceptionally rich. It takes time to digest.

Natural Causes is a definite shift from his last non-collaborative release, The Fall Of Us All. Yet the album is pure Steve; No track drove this point home to me more than "Chandogra." At :18 into the piece, as the acoustic guitar sets the theme, there is a two-note wisp of haunting guitar that definitively sets the mood as Tibbettsian. The rest of the piece features the all-too-familiar mood of Marc Anderson's frame drums, cymbals and other incidentals coupled with Steve's thumb piano and stream-of-consciousness lines and hammer-ons. There is no other duet that has such a signature like Tibbetts and Anderson.

Like Northern Song, there's a lot of space between the notes here. It's beautiful; enjoy it several times, and you will come to see that nobody else ould have possibly made such a recording as this.

Another masterpiece, albeit a much softer one than previous efforts.