Robert Nance releases first single ridgeland from upcoming sophomore album do you believe in ghosts? - for crickets, trains, tea kettle, electric guitar and tape delay - February 16, 2023
In the summer of 2021, I spent time traveling and couch surfing throughout the central United States. I had no intentions beyond spending time with friends and family. Being in new sonic environments so different from home after a year and half, I couldn't help but feel as though a sort of veil had been lifted, and through music, I wanted to chronicle those sounds and the emotions they elicited. ridgeland is one of the songs that came from those travels. Crickets from a Nashville evening, being awakened by passing western Pennsylvania train, and my childhood tea kettle stirred up painfully sweet feelings of melancholy, peace, and nostalgia for home both past and present.
Sounds have the power to suddenly transport us into the past and the familiar. They can spark a feeling of belonging. One can be present anywhere and easily detect elements within that soundscape as variations on recognizable themes. The blasting car radio from an open window, the screams of children playing in a park, the clang of pans in a hot kitchen…
Coasting around the midwest with a small backpack and a handheld recorder, I had to capture the spontaneous sonic serendipity by whatever means necessary - propping the recorder on my friend’s front stoop, or hurrying straight out of bed and across a dew-drenched valley, in pajamas, to stand by an aging railroad track. With such meaningful field recordings, I don’t want my studio musicking featuring guitars, ambient delays and reverberance to act as an obstruction; opting instead to create a space allowing the recordings to be gently cradled.
ridgeland is a part of my second studio record do you believe in ghosts? releasing in spring of 2023. The album serves as an homage to the spirit inhabiting the memory of all things; events, beings, locations, stars, beginnings, and endings. I want to present as genuine a sonic scrapbook of my own memories and my responses to them while inviting the listener to meditate on their own memories and nostalgia evoked by these mementos.
Recording/Editing/Mixing/Mastering/Album Photo&Design: Robert Nance
Robert Nance is an American guitarist, composer, and producer creating immersive sonic cocoons through the use of guitars, synthesizers, electronics, and field recordings. His works seek to build lusciously abstract environments that invite listeners to engage as actively or passively as their own experience unfolds, and have graced the stages of Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and SFMOMA. Nance’s second full-length album do you believe in ghosts? premiers in Spring of 2023 as a follow up to his debut album A Musical Offering In Spite Of My Flaws. His first installation work The Spectrum of Dreams’ Resting Light was an acclaimed evening-length meditation opera, and during the lockdown Nance teamed up with long-time dance collaborator Kit McDaniel to present a recurring virtual movement and music event Allow To Realign for participants to enjoy guided movement and ambient music. As a founding member of Mobius Trio, he champions new forms of guitar music from disparate backgrounds. Robert's musical journey began with piano and trumpet lessons, but he never quite felt at home until discovering the guitar and catalogs of post-minimalism composers, pioneers of ambient music, electro-acoustic improvisers, and artful noise. When not making music he can be found loudly screaming at his beloved West Ham United, or brewing himself a cup of coffee.
