Hauslive 4 (2nd Edition)(Indie Exclusive)

Bill Orcutts Music for Four Guitars is a series of brief, multi-tracked guitar compositions that are far more structured and melodic than the freewheeling chaos of his improvisational work. After the album was released, Orcutt assembled a quartet rounded out by Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish, who performed the pieces together on tour. Four Guitars Live documented a 2023 performance at Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht (with an encore recorded in Copenhagen), while a second tour recording, HausLive 4, was taped by an audience member at Chicagos intimate Constellation venue in 2024. While the two live albums share nearly identical track listings, HausLive 4 sounds rougher and rawer, occasionally picking up incidental noises like the creak of a chair when someones sitting down. The musicians do an excellent job at staying harmonically and rhythmically balanced. The original album was only 30 minutes long, and most of these pieces are performed close to how they sound in their original form, but there are a few moments when the quartet stretches out and improvises, with untethered soloing during lengthy renditions of "Out of the Corner of the Eye" and "On the Horizon." Orcutt even performs a solo piece, which feels like the concerts most unguarded moment. Final track "Or Head On" is a grand, triumphant procession. ~ Paul Simpson