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PRICE:
$24.00
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
April Is Passing
FORMAT
LP

LABEL
CATALOG #
VHF 165LP VHF 165LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
5/16/2025

"Second VHF solo LP from the Pelt/Black Twigs mainstay, following 2022's acclaimed Evening Measures. April is Passing builds on the striking solo Hardanger-style fiddle performances on the previous LP to take the music even further out, with deep drones and extended techniques defining a vocabulary that is Americana-adjacent, but a unique and special sound that Mike is pursuing almost alone. Joined on selected tracks by Cara Gangloff's Sruti and Kaily Shenker's sonorous Cello, the all-original, all-live performances are resonant with both overt melody and a cloud of thick string overtones, whether on the more upbeat tunes like 'Ironto Dancer' or the epic 11+ minute LP closer 'Helen's Song.' 'September Air' is a mournful slow build, the fiddle embroidering a minor-key melody over the drone of the Surti box and a low cello counter point. 'A Fallen Palace of Snowville' is a solo performance where the additional sympathetic strings of the hardanger fiddle are strongly heard as a ghostly accompaniment, as Mike's elegant melody switches back and forth from minor to major. 'Helen's Song' closes side 2 with a complex, ever-changing swirl of melodic and harmonic invention, with Mike's keening, languorous bowing leading the way through multiple moods and sounds."