“The grand mythology of the American West unfolded itself across towering peaks, ochre hillsides of stacked sediment, ancient forests, and sparse plains of sagebrush and dry lakes. Constantly finding myself in awe of the beauty while reckoning with the living wounds of murder, displacement, and industrialization that haunt these landscapes. I felt a desire to express some of these ideas through a new set of music.” — David Grunzweig
Berkeley electronic artist and creative technologist David Grunzweig (of Tape Ghost and Night Sea) took a year off to focus on art. It’s a privilege we wish more artists could enjoy because it benefits us all. One of the rewards of his time in exploration? Palm Reader 7.
The latest in a series by LA label and event promoter New Palm, Palm Reader 7 is an hourlong ambient piece by Grunzweig recorded live at Chillits, an ambient music festival in Mendocino County hosted by a collective of Bay Area artists. Applying modular synthesis, live guitar, and looping, Grunzweig spins a sonic web conveying those complex, spacious feelings of the American West.
Nature, humanity, desolation, and surprising stirrings of life arise. Twangy guitar evokes cowboy legends but only vaguely. At the same time, vast thrums in minor key memorialize great loss. But, while deeply aware of human histories and tragedies, the piece presents neither a fully positive nor negative sheen on the experience of traveling through the West. Rather, like a boulder precariously balanced in a canyon or a whipping wind through meadows of juniper and sage, the music is just there, offering an example of tranquility in its simple way. Just being.
