Music For Writers

Before establishing himself as a singer/songwriter on 2013s Time Off, Steve Gunn was primarily known as a guitarist and collaborator. His early, more obscure releases cut a path through experimental drone music, American primitive, ragas, fingerstyle blues, and free improvisation. After 2021s sublime career highlight Other You, he returned to making instrumental music, teaming up with pianist David Moore (Bing & Ruth) to help launch RVNG Intl.s Reflections series. Their collaborative album, Let the Moon Be a Planet, was a series of patient, mood-setting improvisations that focused as much on the spaces in between notes as it did the actual playing. Posed as the follow-up to Other You, Music for Writers is Gunns first all-instrumental solo album and finds him in an entirely new sonic space. While it echoes the adventurous spirit of his early days, it plays like a matured distillation of the softer, more ambient textures hes visited in the latter part of his career. The album is self-recorded, captured in locales as far-flung as Berlin and Latvia, where he utilized a mix of guitars, synthesizers, and treated field recordings. The songs are built on free and structured improvisation, more environmental pastiches than the melodic songwriting hes recently come to be known for. This is intentional -- its music for long solitary walks, quiet rumination, and shadow-watching. Some pieces are more intricate than others, but none are in a hurry to get anywhere. The ethereal drone of "Safety" segues into the more meandering "Park Entrance," one of several tracks that seems to reflect its title. "Cat" and "Dog" also do this, playing like spontaneous reactions rather than songs. Together, the ten pieces combine to create a surprisingly cohesive whole, which Gunn in his notes describes as "a ground for thought, a companion for work, daydreaming, grief, happiness, sadness, or simply a place to rest." ~ Timothy Monger