Tonky

Description

World-renowned artist and musician Lonnie Holley returns with his sixth studio album, his second produced by Jacknife Lee (R.E.M., The Killers, U2, Taylor Swift, and many others). Lonnie Holley’s work is one of accumulation and careful attention. The pleasure of discovering one sound and pairing it with another found sound, then another, until the listener is immersed in a symphony of sounds that seems to weave itself as it washes over them. Lonnie Holley’s life of survival and endurance is one that demanded—and undoubtedly still demands—a form of invention. An invention that is also rich and present in Holley’s songs, full and immersive on Tonky, an album that begins with his longest song, a grueling nine-minute marathon titled “Seeds,” which starts with a sparse, simple sound before expanding. The song develops into a metaphor about place, about the failures of what any place meant to protect you purports to be without ever achieving what it promises, even if you work tirelessly at it. Lonnie Holley is an incredibly talented storyteller, deeply connected to the oral tradition. Tonky is an album as vast in its sounds as it is in its ability to accommodate a wide range of guest artists—Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Angel Bat Dawid, Jesca Hoop, Mary Lattimore, Alabaster de Plume, Saul Williams, Billy Woods—offering them a space where they can feel at home.