Daniel Lanois - Flesh and Machine (rel.2014)

Within the recorded music firmament, Daniel Lanois came to prominence initially as a producer in the early 80's and then, a little later, as a singer/songwriter/musician. His production credits feature a who's who of some highly successful contemporary singer/songwriters and popular music ensembles within the 1980 - early 2000's period  - Martha and the Muffins, U2, The Neville Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel. In addition, Daniel (solo & accompanied) created a swath of ambient music in this period, he also produced ambient orientated albums by Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and Harold Budd.

Daniel Lanois first came to my attention as part of the trio on the 1984 release, The Pearl. This trio featured Harold Budd and Brian Eno and it's no stretch to say that the Pearl is a landmark recording amongst all three members individual discographies and particularly, within ambient music. The Pearl was preceded by the 1983 album, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, again a trio release, featuring Brian and his brother Roger Eno, along with Daniel. Within Flesh and Machine, one can hear, sometimes brief, references to these delicate and atmospheric works.

Between this early 80's period and 2014, Daniel went on to release celebrated albums in a singer/songwriter vein, amongst others, he created Arcadie, For the Beauty of Winona, Shine, Rockets, Here is What Is - all sepia'd by folk and blues traditions. Within his ambient projects, these roots influences, particularly mariachi, embellishes the 2005 release, Belladonna. It is a languid, mirage hazed chiaroscuro and, I feel, an outlier classic in his ambient works. As is FLESH AND MACHINE. So, what did I hear?

FLESH AND MACHINE opens with billows of key swell and Harold Budd like piano minimalism, played by composer and pianist Hanan Townsend on Rocco. All is not quite pastoral though, disembodied voices spectre the soundfield of Rocco. On The End,  Daniel get's downright apocalyptic through squalling runs of guitar feedback and frenzied drumming from Brian Blade. It's a heavy grind and brings to mind the Neil Young & Crazy Horse feedback suite from the Arc disc in the Arc - Weld triple set, created seven years down the track - albeit shorter. Daniel says in the liners, "The End is my apocalyptic melange driven by the drumming of Brian Blade". So, we're primed for the darkness as Sioux Lookout plays with tribal rhythms sounding like, well - a post apocalyptic, jarring, techno jabbing pow-wow. But hey, there's a weird airy feel about it too - an almost liminal suspension. Beautiful juxtapositions. And then, on Tambourah Jah, we return to a womb-like cocoon of plaintive, tripping bluesy guitar licks shifting through moment's of opaque swell, shifting to clear and thereabouts psychedelic snatches. It aint' Nyabhingi, but a kicked back drum pulse, mimics a stoned beat's bongo lament throughout Tambourah Jah - gilding it thusly. 

Space Love is one of a trio of songs that revisits the pedal steel filigrees of the aforementioned Apollo: Soundtracks release of 1983 - it's has a lovely, underwater, viscous feel about it - pure luxe. The other song that switches back to this pedal steel swoon, is the slick, sweetly romantic and oddly louche waltz, My First Love. Aquatic features a whole nother pedal steel take - sweetly distorted glissandi, wheeling the space, weirding the pitches. Sighing, bokeh decay, push the melancholy to the hilt. Somewhat bird-song chirrup. There's more tracks - Two Bushas, Iceland, Opera and Forest City. Daniel states in the liner notes that songs on FLESH AND MACHINE were inspired by music he had created prior - Brian Eno in particular on Forest City.

Flesh and Machine is a richly varied timbral exploration. Again, Daniel says in the liners - "To take a listener on a sonic journey has always been my quest, for the listener to feel something they've never felt before would be the ultimate compliment". For sure. It's a thing I experience in much of Daniel's music, a bunch of feeling. A sense of being enveloped gently. And on FLESH AND MACHINE, a touch of foiling claustrophobia, a hemming in - momentarily. The sweetness ... and release, is never far away. 

FLESH AND MACHINE was released through Daniel Lanois' Red Floor Records label in 2014.