The Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji seems to be making his own genre. The guitar tones and noises worked up by the Asheville-based musician are unreal at times. His new record, low clouds hang, this land is on fire is a bold exploration of sound, and how silence may punctuate noise.
The title track is faint clangs stretched into something with meaning, while the lovelier "murmur" recalls Fripp's work with David Sylvian on instrumentals. The modestly brash "burn the throne" finds melody lurking somewhere in Tashi's guitar tone. What's not played seems to be as important as what is being played in these pieces, and the resulting music is of a sort that seems a bit unearthly. The highlight here is, clearly, epic closer "a new morning break" where those guitar plucks and chords coalesce into a drone. Partly abrasive, it's also somewhat hypnotic.
Tashi Dorji is making something more challenging than ambient, and less strident than free jazz. Dorji's guitar etches notes and leaves them hanging in the air. The instrument also conjures a stark landscape, one in which a chord or pluck can break the silence and draw a listener in again. This record isn't exactly contemplative, but there are plenty of moments where a space opens up for an attentive listener, and then others where a noise, briefly startling, closes it up again.
low clouds hang, this land is on fire by Tashi Dorji is out now via Drag City.
[Photo: Matias Corral]