Wes Willenbring
Oh, Most
Hidden Shoal Recordings

"Oh, Most" is taken from Wes Willenbring's forthcoming album, Close, But Not Too Close. His debut album, Somewhere Someone Else (Hidden Shoal 2007), unfortunately passed me by, because, this is delicious music.

Californian Wes Willenbring was forced to take piano lessons from he was seven years old. After years of practice he picked up the guitar (to '...learn the chord progression to [Dylan's] "Lay Lady Lay"). The press sheet also says: '...an obsession with recording techniques and aesthetics then led to a disturbingly large collection of equipment and microphones'. After years of writing/recording, either solo or in collaboration, he's soon landed his second album. Luckily he hasn't forgotten about the piano, because he's a weaver mixing the output of his instruments to end up as a soft, whispering, spellbinding musical texture. "Oh, Most" (great title) is 4 minutes 40 seconds of quiet, instrumental dream pop. Highly tranquillising. Come dive into some melancholic ambience with a warm human touch.

Close, But Not Too Close, holding seven more songs, will be released on November 12th (but, digitally pre-released on October 20th).

Copyright © 2009 Håvard Oppøyen