Marco Panella’s layered guitar landscapes mix American Primitive acoustica with Nashville telecasters, dissonant jazz and straight rock. On Eastern Landscapes, eight self-assured but tonally unpredictable songs serve as the base for studio overdubs and guitar textures. Written and recorded over two years (2008-2010), the songs on Eastern Landscapes draw from the wells of British and American folk forms, classic rock, and even modal jazz to create a sound that’s deeply rooted, satisfying, and somewhat elusive.
Auger Down and Tequila Sunrise released Eastern Landscapes on September 14th. Dusted magazine called the album “a worthy artifact of the creative mind untethered… Most listeners will come into this one cold, and be stunned by what he can accomplish in and around known s-sw forms with no more than a few layers of guitar, and the instructiveness and authenticity to pull it off. Really beautiful work, stern and strong and masterful. ” After a successful record release party at Vox Populi in Philadelphia, Panella will be announcing new tour dates on both coasts soon.
Media:
“Joey”
“Wildwood Flower”
Buy the LP here.
US orders: $20 postpaid.
International orders: $30 postpaid.
The LP is also available at Tequila Sunrise Records and Beautiful World Records in Philadelphia, with distribution through Forced Exposure.
Buy the digital download here for $10.
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Lower resolution album cover. Picture by Elisabeth Bernstein from her “Scapes” series:
Full press release for Eastern Landscapes:
Marco Panella’s layered guitar landscapes mix American Primitive acoustica with Nashville telecasters, dissonant jazz and straight rock. On Eastern Landscapes, eight self- assured but tonally unpredictable songs serve as the base for studio overdubs and guitar textures. Written and recorded over two years (2008-2010), the songs on Eastern Landscapes draw from the wells of British and American folk forms, classic rock, and even modal jazz to create a sound that’s deeply rooted, satisfying, and somewhat elusive.
Eastern Landscapes was recorded in a period of studio hibernation that followed months of touring and a return home to the east coast from California. Panella’s last release of note was 2006’s Dark Side of the Cop, which drew praise for its stacked melodies and avante-pop songwriting. “(Panella is) a pop craftsman with an incredible lightness (not to mention uncanny rightness) of compositional touch,” wrote The Cleveland Scene. He spent many months reformulating his sound, moving completely away from electronics to a world of guitars and other stringed instruments. “It was a natural move for me,” says Panella, who grew up playing guitar, “it just took some time to map out my arrangements on new instruments.” Tyler Gibbons, of the Vermont folk duo Red Heart the Ticker, plays acoustic and electric bass to the album. Cellist and vocalist Anna Bario, Panella’s wife, also contributes.
“Carry You Home,” the opener, welcomes the listener with the album’s folksiest passage, which is eventually overtaken by a persistently dissonant group of telecasters. “Joey” is an ode to both an artist friend and a life of mutual obscurity, as Panella sings: “Joey, let the up and comers chomp down on the bit / in the sea of kool aid drinkers, you sip the Glenlivet.” “Electric Interlude,” an instrumental duet between a highly composed telecaster and a less predictable steel-string, leads off side B. A beautifully tangled reinterpretation of the traditional “Wildwood Flower” is a highlight of the side. “M” adapts the poem M, written by Bario’s grandfather, the naturalist poet Montgomery Hare. Bario’s haunting voice sits over a Jansch-style fingerpicked melody, which breaks down midway and then reappears.
Tequila Sunrise Records will release Eastern Landscapes on September 14th in a limited edition of 400 records. Auger Down Records will release the album concurrently as a digital download. .