THE FAR SOUND – The Far Sound (2023, Cassette Centripetal Force)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Centripetal Force

Format: Album, Cassette, Limited Edition, Pro duped, Solid shell, 65 copies

Release Date: 2 June 2023

The Far Sound is the solo vehicle/project of a Portland/ Oregon (USA) based guy, Rick Perdosa. Rick is a multi-instrumentalist but focused on exploring the infinite potential of a pedal steel guitar. Rick is also a member of Portland bands Abronia, Federale, and Glass Knees. Centripetal Force is releasing The Far Sound’s debut self-titled album on a very limited run of Cassettes and I’m hoping for a vinyl LP later in the year… Label’s press release is rather informative, let’s have a look:

“The Far Sound is a solo project of Rick Pedrosa, a multi-instrumentalist from Portland, Oregon best known for his pedal steel guitar work in both Abronia and Federale. His playing is informed by the worlds of bluegrass, country-western, jazz, and the Grateful Dead. His list of influences and favorite players ranges wide, from traditionalists like Buddy Emmons and Pete Drake to modern innovators such as Daniel Lanois and Susan Alcorn. One listen to The Far Sound, and you’ll quickly realize that Pedrosa’s style has also been shaped by more global steel players, including India’s Debashish Bhattacharya and Nigeria’s Demola Adepoju. The Far Sound is also deeply steeped in the world of Italian composers like Ennio Morricone, Alessandro Alessandroni, and Piero Umiliani. The sum of all these influences, in combination with Pedrosa’s unique approach to songwriting, makes this debut from The Far Sound a captivating listening experience. Or, as Pedrosa says, his intention is “to create something as if John Cale and Sun Ra wrote a song like “Sleepwalk” for an Italian soundtrack, using American country instruments.”
All of The Far Sound’s instrumentation is performed by Pedrosa himself and includes pedal and lap steel, banjo, guitar, bass, percussion, and his beloved Lowrey L2 Wandering Genie organ. Surprisingly, most of Pedrosa’s compositions start off as banjo pieces, with pedal steel guitar usually being added as a final layer. As unorthodox of an approach as this seems, it’s a move that serves him well, as it is on the pedal steel that Pedrosa can really expand the sonic reaches of his songs. The solos are improvised, and his ability to use these moments for boundless exploration is definitely a strength of this album, carrying the listener through soundtrack-like worlds full of sepia-toned backgrounds and sparse landscapes.
The Far Sound is invested in creating dynamic narratives filled with drama, much like the Italian film scores Pedrosa greatly admires. Each song is a vignette, each one tapping into a different mood and emotion. Taken as a whole, the album comes together much like a film, each vignette contributing to the overarching plot line, complete with a rise and fall in action, a heady climax, and a satisfying denouement…”

“The Far Sound” contains 10 tracks, equally divided into the 2 sides of the cassette. The album starts with “Finding The Temple”, there’s a far-away mind-bending and deeply Middle Eastern influenced scenery with hallucinogenic and lysergically trippy keys that are mixed with some ‘far-out- banjo and pedal-steel guitar resulting a fantastic out-of-this-world Psychedelic atmos. Wow! “Meadow Transmission” is a slower but trippier tune, with an intriguing dialogue between banjo and steel guitar, emerging a deep Middle Eastern Psych feeling, flirting with Dark Country… “Moon Drifter” is a weird and psychedelically strange effected and kind of cinematic PSYCH interlude (or whatever), ideal for a future David Lynch movie (Lost Highway comes instantly to mind)… “Opaque Photosphere” is a slow piece of country-ish experimental music based on banjo’s eerie psychedelic sounds, filled with some steel guitar creating a unique dark soundscape that acts like a far-out morning Mantra thing… “From Evening To Dawn” is a cool guitar-based track, with a kind of weird and improvisational orchestration, deeply inspired by Italian – late 60s – film scores, Piero Umiliani comes to mind… Side “B” opens with “Last Chance”, a track that at least to my ears, unorthodoxically blends Country, Banjo sounds, Middle Eastern scales, weird Psych, and Italian cinematic music, while the final result is quite charming and intriguing! “Further Exploration” is a kind of primitive American music Mantra-like tune that slowly transforms into an electrically lysergic dark-country-psych thing, torturously slow, quite experimental, and with that cinematic Italian aura’s presence all over, sentimental and trippy… “Astrocytes” is a track that blends in a magical way American and Italian film score music emerging an intense nostalgic feel… “Midnight Prairie Rust” is slower, with a more dark and creepy environment, cinematically approached and quite different from all previous tracks… Eventually, the album comes to an end with “Petals For Your Path”, and this is, in my opinion, the perfect closing, banjo, and steel guitar are creating a peaceful dark country-ish experimental piece of Psych… So, this is one of those albums that unfortunately not many people would be aware of, an album destined to be cult, an album not-for-the-masses but for all open-minded listeners out there… You’ve been warned… Dig it! (PS Let’s hope/pray for a vinyl release) TimeLord Michalis  

Tracklist

Links

Listen / Buy it through THE FAR SOUND Bandcamp