New Music from Brundlefly
Brundlefly and the Swede
Cabin Music
An instrumental record, pitching it’s sound between the idyllic acoustic leanings of Jim O’Rourke, and the adventurous tonality of vintage Yes… The record owes debt to mid 90’s era “post-rock” as well, in it’s fearless sense of movement and experimental leanings. the album plays as two complete sides of uninterrupted and constantly evolving music, finding focus in the intricate acoustic guitar center, fanning out broadly into full electric accompaniment, and accented beautiful with strings, flutes, and bass clarinets.
The Brundlefly & the Swede is the haphazardly chosen moniker of Jason Socci and Matthew Kohnle, both alumni of long defunct Connecticut instrumental band DAYBED. The two had not played together in any form, since initially disbanding DAYBED in early 2000.
DAYBED trafficked in the kind of “Post-Rock” that saw popularity in the 1990’s, akin to, but unique in its own right, to output of such labels as Thrill Jockey, Drag City and Kranky. While “Cabin Music” finds the duo plumbing similar territory (instrumental music, progressive arrangements, employing double drums kits, and an emphasis on “studio as instrument” style production), it’s not a record that concerns itself with nostalgia. In many ways, it’s an idealized summation of DAYBED’s work, and the current state of mind of it’s creators.
In the nineties, while Jason and Matthew were working with the quartet that was DAYBED, they would often perform together independent of the group in a duo format. Often infiltrating open mic nights, the band would cleverly separate into small units and “crash” an evening of singer-songwriters and blues-addled lawyers by providing often jarringly contrasting music to the otherwise standard fare most commonly seen in coffee houses on random Tuesday nights.
Brundlefly & the Swede would counter their bandmates often electronic, synthesized drone or experimental loop performances by performing their unique blend of acoustic guitar arrangements, more akin to the work of John Fahey or Gastr del Sol’s David Grubbs and Jim O’Rourke.
“…We were both getting into that pseudo-fingerpicking-bluegrassy-folk-country style we heard O’rourke and Grubbs doing. I don’t think that would have fit with Daybed’s aesthetic and would require quite an over haul of the group. BF&S was perfect for Matt and I to develop a new way of playing, unlike anything we’d done in the past.” -Jason Socci
“It’s impossible to overstate the influence a band like Gastr del Sol had on us at the time. While Daybed was a band that would focus it’s energies on the more electric and electronic, Brundlefly & the Swede would take things in an organic direction, but with the same angle of exploration and experimentation… The album “Camoufleur” (DRAG CITY, 1997) kind of sparked our imagination, helping us realize that you didn’t have to simply rely on strumming folk songs with the acoustic- you could challenge and experiment as well, and subvert expectations of your audience who might be comfortable at first seeing two dudes with acoustic guitars setting up, as opposed to watching a furrowed browed character plugging in ominous old synths and tape echos…
Obscure Me Records
10 Ridgeland Rd
Wallingford, CT 06492
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