Through A Room

Description

Through a Room represents a seismic progression compared to Both, his stunning debut solo album from 2020 for Drag City. Bill Nace's career has been defined by an unrelenting search for ways to frame the complex spectrum of human emotions, primarily using the guitar as his tool. On this new album, he also employs, among other things, tapes, a hurdy-gurdy, and his latest favorite instrument, the taishogoto. The tracks are carefully constructed from loops and sequences that converse, overwhelm, overlap, crash, dive, stretch, and emerge toward unimaginable horizons. The record was recorded and edited in Philadelphia during the uncertain summer of 2021 with engineer and co-producer Cooper C Crain. While Both was a refinement of spontaneous live performances, Through a Room, although clearly the work of the same artist, treats its sounds as building blocks, combining them with a hypnotic effect. What stands out is the balance, the degree of intensity of the author. Bill's interests range from post-punk to post-industrial, including hip-hop, free jazz, and avant-garde composition, as well as all the areas situated between these genres with their unhelpful labels. From the unfathomable titles of the tracks to the alluring and puzzling cover by his longtime compatriot Daniel Higgs, Nace is guided by an ineffable internal muse, a persistent and personal cloud of ideas that ultimately constitutes that thing we call art.