Music Arcades: Goldmund: Corduroy Road

Goldmund is one of my first and most significant discoveries via Last.fm to date.

Pretty much all I know about Goldmund is what's on his Last.fm profile page. (The CD booklet has just the tracklisting plus some elliptical excerpts from someone's army journal.)

Mostly I have Last.fm playing in the background while I'm working, and I only pay attention to what's playing when I'm in search of a distraction (i.e. very often) or when something sounds so remarkable as to make me sit up and take notice. The trouble with listening to music when you're working is that you get into the habit of blocking out the music to concentrate, and that's a bad habit to have acquired if and when you really want to listen. So it takes quite a bit to break through those defences and get my attention. I noticed that tracks from Corduroy Road were doing this repeatedly, and, when I listened more closely, I decided I really need to get the CD so I could appreciate it fully, away from my computer. I put it on my Amazon wishlist, but none of my family took that hint, so I had to buy it for myself last August.

It's three quarters of an hour of instrumental pieces, mostly on gently prepared piano, plus two or three with a little guitar added to the mix. Some of them, like Marching Through Georgia and Larrows of the Field are melodic and may be based on hymns or spirituals. Most of the others sound like more abstract improvisations. What's that right pedal on a piano, the one that adds reverb: is it called the sustain pedal? Whatever it's called, it's used very heavily. The overall effect is like the best of Harold Budd's work.

I've yet to get to know this album very well, but I'm putting it in my Top 50 because I have a hunch it will soon earn its place there.

Meanwhile I've gone on to download Goldmund's Two Point Discrimination and to check out some of his recordings as Helios but they have yet to make the same impression on me as this very beautiful recording.