Nieuw album voor Bill Callahan

Vorige week bracht hij samen met Old Fire nog een single uit, maar de man heeft ook een eigen album in de pijplijn.

In 2019 keerde Bill Callahan terug na een lange onderbreking met het twintig nummers tellende ‘Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest’. In 2020 volgde het kortere maar niet minder geïnspireerde ‘Gold Record’. Vervolgens bracht hij in 2021 een hoop covers uit met Bonnie 'Prince' Billy en een roterende cast van vrienden. Nu is de artiest die voorheen bekend stond als Smog terug met nieuws over een nieuwe lp.

In oktober zal Callahan ‘YTI⅃AƎЯ’ digitaal uitbrengen, met een dubeelelpee-versie in februari. Zijn band bestaat dit keer uit Matt Kinsey op gitaar, Emmett Kelly op bas/backing vocals, Sarah Ann Phillips op piano/backing vocals en Jim White op drums. Hij heeft nog geen muziek gedeeld, maar in een persbericht deed hij deze nogal robuuste verklaring:

“I wanted to make a record that addressed or reflected the current climate. It felt like it was necessary to rouse people — rouse their love, their kindness, their anger, rouse anything in them. Get their senses working again. I guess there was already plenty of anger! But we needed a better anger. To get out of this hypnagogic state. Hypnagogic rage. Disassociated rage that destroys the community and leaves only the individual eating themselves alive instead of feeding others. We were born to feed others. We have milk, breasts. We have language, tongues. We have music, ears. All to feed.

At the time it felt like we were coming out of something, getting clear of it. So I was picturing songs that would make sense to take before an audience at this crucial juncture — venturing out — where things could go either way. A reintroduction to the basics of life. Of human interaction. Face to face. A new clear vision. A new way. Which is probably just an old way we’d abandoned somewhere back there as we retreated into our screened, blindered existence.

 Sometimes you forget the most basic things. The biggest things! And it just takes a little nudge to get your head back on track. I wanted sounds and words that made you feel and that lifted you up. But first there was a need to bond, to clear the air. Or to just acknowledge the air. So there is some of that on the record. I went for horns because horns are heralds, triumphs, second line funerals and just breath forced through a metal maze or amusement park slide. And I wanted voices, I wanted multiple voices, not just mine. There is too much of just mine right now. So there are 6 or 7 people singing on this record.

Listening to this record takes one hour. Ah hour sounds like a year to me these days. Taking an hour of someone’s life. I fault the internet. I fault ourselves for falling for the internet. An hour is actually lovely, nothing, a lifetime. You have to live that lifetime though in order to appreciate the hour. I’m not suggesting people must listen to this record all the way through in one sitting. It IS sequenced for that particular purpose, though, in case anyone wants to.”

Beluister hieronder Don’t You Go, de single van Old Fire met Callahan in afwachting van muziek van de eigen nieuwe plaat: