High Top Mountain
Sturgill Simpson
Keywords
Reviews (4)
The guardian
d. 1. June 2017
By
By
Jude Rogers
d. 1. June 2017
"Since his 2001 debut album of Irish instrumentals, Solo Fiddle, US folk artist Sam Amidon has been twisting and tenderising traditional music (...) The Following Mountain is his first album of largely original compositions, and it provides constant, jolting surprises ... The album ends with the free-jazz explosion of April and at times the playfulness feels exorbitant, but it mostly feels enlivening. Not an easy listen then, but a deeply rewarding one".
Pitchfork
d. 25. May 2017
By
By
Brian Howe
d. 25. May 2017
"The folk singer enlists an elite, dynamic group of players for an album deconstructed from a master jam session, naturally creating his most jazz-forward release to date ... A few odd decisions aside, there's enough between the unforgiving slopes to make this essential for Amidon's present devotees, if not the perfect mountain for prospective new ones to climb".
Information
d. 11. Aug. 2017
By
By
Ralf Christensen
d. 11. Aug. 2017
"[Amidons] nye, sjette album [er] et af hans bedste. Så rigt på americana, og så alligevel noget andet, i færd med at udforske, hvad der findes uden for hegnspælene, inde i skovbrynet, ude i skumringen ... [Amidon og hans hold] har jammet et sted i nærheden af jazzen, og ud af dette har Amidon sammen med en tekniker redigeret sig frem til ni sange, herunder den næsten 12 minutter lange freejazzede finale med Graves i fuld vigør i synkopernes maskinrum.De andre otte sange har også noget flydende og frit fabulerende over sig, men de er alligevel blevet fastholdt i mere genkendelige former et sted mellem irsk folk, americana, ny kammermusikalsk kompositionsmusik og fri jazz. Popsange fra en svunden tid, der lugter af petroleum, dufter af halm, smager af tjære. Og så samtidig føles som en gevaldig udluftning. Med mindelser om John Martyns flydende fraseringer, Bonnie 'Prince' Billys betahan-folk, Daniel Lanois' ekkoende guitarer, Mark Hollis' lyttende kunst, hvor instrumenter fårlovat trække vejret uden for vedtagen tidsregning".
fRoots
2017 July
By
By
Sarah Coxson
2017 July
""The Following Mountain" sees a further leap along Amidon's established continuum on which free jazz improvisations and traditional sensibilities cohabit, sometimes spare and simple, sometimes colliding with jarring urgency ... Wayward time signatures, loops, dissonance, insistence, innovation all abound, but "The Following Mountain" beckons listeners in rather than flauting its intellect. There is the familiarly sparse and cracked Amidon vocal, his trademark detached delivery, the grazed fiddle sounds, the plunky banjo. On opening track "Fortune", his voice is underscored with ambient tumbling piano motifs, plucked strings and jazz chord cascades ... Amidon shows that he isn't a restless or purposeless innovator. His music feels both conscious and free, as he painstakingly locates the essence of his music - fluttering vignettes of sound and imagery set free. It's a beauty".