Slider: Ambient Pedal Steel Guitar

Description

The twangy sounds of the pedal steel guitar are regularly associated with country music, but like fellow musical adventurer Chas Smith, Bruce Kaphan takes the instrument into outer space with blissful ambient excursions periodically tempered by keyboards, bass or percussion. Kaphan is known for session work with the likes of R.E.M., Jewel, and Chris Isaak among many others, and he has toured with former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. The luxurious atmospheres of Slider are instantly intriguing, including the trancy, Indian-flavoured "Back to the Light", the ghostly "Outpost", and the uplifting "Arc of Flight". Kaphan displays a wider range of sonic approaches for pedal steel guitar than many listeners may have thought possible with the 11 tone poems on Slider. --Bryan Reesman