I’ve been listening to Ben Chasny‘s music since around 1999 when I encountered his first solo record as Six Organs of Admittance. I have been a fan ever since, following all of his different musical projects both collaborative and solo, however obscure or hard to find the releases might be! And he doesn’t make it very easy with minimal social accounts beyond the official website and barely used pages. Yet his projects still find it’s targets, myself one of them. His last two as Six Organs have been PHENOMENAL. Same with the Rick Tomlinson collaboration. I love the way he easily glides between psychedelia, avant-garde, Americana, and acoustic ambience. So inspiring to me as a composer.

Thus, I admit to sleeping on “The Intimate Landscape” until last month, who knows why. Because it has fast become my favorite record of Ben’s and I am now sad that I missed it when it first appeared both as a broadcast in 2019 and then a proper record two years ago. Albums this thick, wide, spaced, and deep don’t come around that often, damnit! Music Recorded Library? Ok. The cover reminds me of a Gary Snyder poetry book. The music harkens back to Fahey, Kottke, maybe even Jim O’Rourke. It has obvious nods to some of the Folkways releases as well. But make no mistake, this is NOT retro music, moreover an epistle to the past while forward thinking in scope and sonics. Though they call this style American Primitive Guitar, nothing about it is about recreating a primitive time or place like art. It’s just perfect mood music. HIGHLY recommended. Link below…

https://benchasny.bandcamp.com/album/the-intimate-landscape