I'm Not Here

Devendra Banhart～Vetiver周辺を彷彿とさせる極上のポップ・ミュージックを奏でるシンガーソングライターAlex Izenbergが〈Domino〉から新作リリース!

LAを拠点に極上のポップ・ミュージックを奏でるシンガーソングライター、Alex Izenbergの最新作!
未だ謎に包まれた存在である彼のサウンドは多数のミュージシャンを魅了し、Grizzly BearのChris Taylorも大絶賛する。
録音はTropico Studiosで行われ、Alex Izenberg自身とGreg Hartunianによる共同プロデュース。マスタリングは、LAのDave Cooleyによるもの。また、この作品には、Dirty ProjectorsのDave Longstrethがストリングスと木管のアレンジで参加している。
アルバムのジャケットには、マスクが描かれているが、これはAlex Izenbergがこのアルバムで表現しているアイデンティティの探求に由来している。「何よりも、このレコードを書きながら一番インスピレーションを受けたのは、ジョーカー、つまりどのカードにもなれる人というアイデアだった。」とIzenbergは説明する。
周囲の世界が崩壊し、忠実な仲間を失ったIzenbergは、自分自身と想像力の深部に身を置きながら逃避と救済を探した結果、3枚目となるフル・アルバム『I'm Not Here』を作り上げた。

On his first two albums, Harlequin (2016) and Caravan Chateau (2020), Los Angeles musician Alex Izenberg looked inward, expressly using music to work through the anxieties and self-consciousness that accompanied a paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis just a few years before his debut. Still basking in an eccentric, 70s-evoking chamber pop, his third album, Im Not Here, finds the musician looking to the writings of Alan Watts on the subject of personas for some of its inspiration, including the quote "Youre under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago." Featuring the image of a mask on its cover, Im Not Here is also distinctly personal in nature, with Izenberg grappling with heartache, absurdity, and grief, the latter resulting from the death of his cherished dog, Larks. Larks was named after Larks Tongues in Aspic, the 1973 album by one of the songwriters primary influences, King Crimson, whose influence can be heard here alongside songwriters like Harry Nilsson and John Lennon, among others. Having said that, Izenbergs idiosyncratically druggy, dreamy, mostly acoustic pop overshadows any specific inspirations, even on a track like "Broadway," which incorporates Bach-like keyboard runs. Theyre sometimes doubled by strings, creating a pulsating, wave-like motion beneath weary double-tracked vocals. The generally lush set of contemplations reunites Izenberg with Caravan Chateau co-producer Greg Hartunian and features string and woodwind arrangements by Dirty Projectors Dave Longstreth. Speaking of woodwinds, the brighter, tightly harmonized "Gemini Underwater" adds flute and lead electric guitar to the albums hazy, strummy landscapes and -- in this case, literally -- flowery reflections ("Like a wreath of roses wrapped upon the visions of my youth"). Elsewhere, he adopts a playful blues-rock on "Egyptian Cadillac" and theatrical piano balladry on "Juniper & Lamplight," among other slight diversions, without ever seeming to leave the confines of his own mind. ~ Marcy Donelson